VERY few Irwell Vale residents will be able to relate to the character I am referring to who lived in our village many years ago. This elderly scrooge-type gentleman had gas mantles high above the fireplace and kept numerous boxes of matches piled upon the mantelpiece.

As children, we often watched him from the street at night, counting matches on a table in the gas light, making sure the boxes contained the correct amount.

Another of his tricks was to run his boot laces through a piece of fatty bacon, presumably to make them last longer. He boasted to us about the amount of coal in his cellar. Yet, the fires he kept were those of a miser.

Finally, one thing that would hardly be accepted in these health-conscious times. In the morning he would open the front door, glance quickly in either direction and then throw the contents of his chamber pot across the full width of the street. Times have certainly changed in our village, but such characters can never be forgotten.

DAVID McDOWALL, Milne Street, Irwell Vale, Edenfield.

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