I have been in a little of a retrospective mood as of late and maybe I am missing the country of my birth, so let me take you back to Lanarkshire in the 1980s and to what the movie Inside Out would call a “core memory”—West Central Scotland at its finest. Back then, life had a certain rhythm, punctuated not by smartphones or Amazon deliveries, but by the steady hum of vans rolling into the neighborhood.
The first was the legendary Mobile Shop. Imagine a paper shop on wheels, somehow stocked with everything you didn’t need but absolutely had to have. To this day, I still don’t understand the economics of it, but as a kid, I remember bolting out the door daily for a cheeky treat or two. Our version wasn’t just any van—it was a converted blue ambulance. The counter was perched at the top of the stairs, so only two kids or one adult could fit on them at a time. Looking back, it was less like shopping and more like queuing for triage—but with sweeties as the cure.
Then there was the fishmonger. Every Friday, without fail, he’d arrive from Pittenweem in Fife, peddling the catch of the day. Only later did I realize this was tied to the Catholic tradition of fish on Fridays (and, let’s be honest, the fact that most of the area bled green and white for Celtic). The smell of Mum frying up fresh cod or haddock is still etched into my memory—comfort food at its purest. A wee dry tear is forming and a longing to go to a place I can no longer visit hurts the heart.
And, of course, who could forget the “ginger man?” Wednesday nights, like clockwork, he’d appear with glass bottles of Bon Accord or Solripe soda, clinking together like treasure. For us kids, it was liquid gold.
All this before you even count the paperboy, the milk boys, or the farmers hawking tatties door-to-door like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Was this just a West of Scotland thing, or do others remember these rolling snapshots of community life? Because to me, they weren’t just delivery vans—they were chapters of childhood, fizzing with sugar, fish, and nostalgia.
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