There were more Italians in our street than English, right from the top of
Great Ancoats Street coming down. I knew everybody and you knew everybody in
the houses, 'cause me dad used to serve the ice cream people. When they came
over they started selling ice cream. They were making it at home in the back,
somewhere, kitchen, or anywhere, and it was when you had to make ice cream with
milk, but gradually it got they were making it with milk powder and then they
didn't want the milk, and it was cheaper to make it by the powder. But they
had little pushcarts most of them until they'd got going and then they had horse
and carts. Then of course, they had vans, but I remember them coming home with
these pushcarts, and none of them had refrigerators, they used to go to the
ice works in Blossom Street and buy the ice in big square blocks. Me dad used
to have to do that for the fridges in the dairy. There was no electrical refrigeration,
and they used to come home at night with their carts, perhaps been stood in
a market somewhere, and if they had any left we could get a basin full of ice
cream for tuppence [laughs], because by the time they got home it would be melted
and it'd be no use for the next day. So--,
22.28
Q: So, was it just eaten every day then ice cream?
22.32
A: Oh, yes. And then there was- -, used to be a street called Lickers Alley
in Smithfield Market, and we used to walk along there, and we knew them all,
and we'd go and buy cornets, but they'd never take the money. They'd say, "Go
on little Ancoatsons", you know, things like that. They were so friendly
with us. And I was eating spaghetti before, you know, it's universal now, but
when I was a child and perhaps taking a--, delivering a bottle of milk to one
of them she'd say, "Come in, come in, Gladys", and give me a plate
of spaghetti, and they used to make their own spaghetti with flour and water.
And they used to have a clothesline across the room all drying with spaghetti.
23.15
Q: Over the clothesline?
23.17
A: Yeah, over a clothesline in the kit--, well, it wasn't used for a clothesline,
but it would be a clothesline, just for making their own macaroni and spaghetti,
and I've never tasted spaghetti like it since.