Mal's Memories (From Penarth Times)

Mal's Memories

DO you remember the Rag and Bone man?

When I was a boy the Rag and Bone man would tour the area with his horse and cart every so often, and no matter what we were doing we would drop everything to run and see him as he passed by.

I can still hear his haunting cry "Rag and Bone, Rag and Bone" signalling his approach.

He was, I suppose, the forerunner of today's charity collectors who deliver their plastic sacks asking for donations of "good quality clothes."

The main difference is that the Rag and Bone man was not too fussy about the quality of clothes he collected, and he would pay for the privilege.

Depending on the amount of clothing he would hand over a few pennies, a plastic windmill, or sometimes a goldfish to the children, and maybe a few shillings if good business was being done with an adult.

I am not so sure how many people actually handed over bones, but there were some lurid, not to say macabre, stories doing the rounds among us children as to the origin of this part of his cargo.

Another regular was the scrap iron collector with his own trademark cry of "Any old iron", although more often than not the Rag and Bone man would happily take scrap iron as well.

As I grew up the horse and cart was eventually replaced by a battered old lorry, and something of the magic disappeared.

But, as you can see, recycling is not such a modern idea after all.

For it had its roots in those far off days when the Rag and Bone man had his own special role in the scheme of things.