How many of you wouldn’t be seen dead in a charity shop?

I have come across a few people who think it beneath themselves to visit one.

As readers of this column might recollect, I am most certainly not one of them.

On the contrary, I find that, wherever I might find myself, if I come across a charity shop it’s almost a dead cert that I’ll pop inside for a browse.

I’ve always done so, even as a teenager on Merseyside.

Down by the docks, on either side of the Mersey, one could find a number of what then were authentic “junk shops”.

You never knew what you would unearth amid the miscellaneous objects which were, often, seemingly dumped in various corners of these shops.

Someone once told me that much of what was on show had come to Merseyside as ballast, hence the wide variety of goods on offer.

It was a credible story at the time. It might even be true.

So what did I buy in any of these shops?

The answer to this is – absolutely nothing!

I was probably in my last years of primary school.

In the very early 1950s, pocket money most certainly didn’t run to buying anything, however cheap, from any of these establishments.

Such money as I possessed had to be saved for going to the cinema for the children’s morning matinee and buying a choc ice from the lady with the tray.

She usually appeared during the interval – after the cartoons and before Flash Gordon.

It was a pretty primitive cinema and it was always advisable to occupy the rear downstairs seats, well under the upstairs circle area – for obvious reasons.

I have just realised that I’ve indulged in a bout of nostalgia – and I suspect that the Saturday children’s matinee was something that a great many of you enjoyed.

It was so much better than sitting in front of a TV.

But back to charity shops.

I like pottering round charity shops because I’m nosey.

To be quite honest, being nosey is one of the reasons I am so interested in local history.

I’ve often mentioned my “to be researched” file.

You’ve probably picked up on my repeating the old adage “there are more questions than answers.”

And it’s that what makes local – and other – history so fascinating.

And when I ask myself the question “What then?”

I don’t always have an answer.

This is extremely frustrating – but it is also extremely fascinating.

The old papers carried reports of local people who have set out on various careers.

We learn what it is they intend to do, but what did they actually do with their lives?

In future columns, I will be trying to find answers to this question – with, of course, your assistance.

When I was visiting a couple of Workington charity shops I was looking through the books and the CDs.

It then dawned on me that I was, in some way, reviewing my own life.

Just looking at – and handling – some of these old objects sparked memories of times gone by.

Next time you scan the shelves in one of these shops, just see if you have a similar experience.

Who remembers Issy Bonn, the comedian and singer?

I can’t remember hearing him sing, but he featured in the comic Radio Fun.

I’d forgotten all about him – until I came across a CD on the bargain table of a charity shop.

It cost me all of 25p.

How could I leave it behind at that price?

I used to take Radio Fun, but then I was fortunate enough to have a comic a day – delivered.

There was the Beano, Dandy, Eagle and Hotspur, to name but a few.

In those days most comics carried full pages of text.

Educationists were not in favour of comics.

However, I am convinced that it was thanks to comics that I could read reasonably well.

Another CD I found featured Bill Haley and the Comets singing Rock around the Clock.

That took me back to going to the pictures in Birkenhead to see the film which first featured that song.

A few brave souls proceeded to jump into the aisles and jive.

Audience members had reportedly done the same in London.

It was probably the briefest public jive on record as the cinema’s heavies were having none of it.

This has only been a snippet of autobiographical nostalgia but I hope when you next look around a charity shop, it may cause you to think of your past.