Chatting to Nottingham's most opinionated grocers about the Emett Clock, asylums, and folklore...
The Emett Clock
Now there’s no House of Fraser it’s about time they move it back. The chap that created it did all the inventions for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Apart from the car, which was made by Ford, and it was written by Ian Fleming, the James Bond man, for his daughter. It looks very complicated so we hope the man puts it back together properly.
Asylums
We saw a TV programme about asylums and they said they were barbaric, but that was the 1900s for you, everything was barbaric. But were they safer in there, or outside? It’s a very hard question. If you were out of line they’d send you to one of them, so it’s the people who weren’t supposed to be there. If a woman got pregnant, they could chuck her in. But that’s the man’s fault too – it takes two to tango. Some of them are being made into flats, but we wouldn’t live in one of them, it’d give us the willies.
Folklore
We’re not superstitious about things like magpies, but we don’t walk under ladders – not because we’re suspicious, but something up there might fall on your head. But in ancient Britain people weren’t stupid. It’s all based around the seasons. With the Harvest festival they had to store things because they knew the dark part of the year was coming. And people are obsessed with Halloween these days, but not so much Bonfire Night. Although they did try and burn down Parliament...
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