Our milkman is retiring in a few weeks. He has been bringing the milk every morning for the past 25 years. Tess hates him and barks furiously when he approaches our door; she'll miss him but he won't miss her I'm sure. I will certainly miss him. He's a nice, quiet man, goes about his business without any fuss. We've always had a milkman ever since I can remember, and I'm talking about when I was a child too. This is really the end of an era because our milk delivery to the door stops when Billy retires. I'll miss the whine of his little milk float coming up the street, but that's the way thing go. No more door-to-door deliveries. I think it's sad.

Ann & all (well most of you)

Remember the deliveries to the door every week, the breadman, the coalman, the electric man, the lemonade man, the vegetable man, the coalbrickman, & of course the milkman not to mention the "tickman or the packman", similar to the credit card of today.?

Friday night was pay day for them & dinner was an interrupted affair when the door knocked repeatedly & a chat & a gossip took up a good 5/6 minutes, while the bill was settled. No service charge then.

Nowadays we are the above men & women, doing all ourselves in Supermarkets, shops, banks & airports. How times change, invisible men or women rule our lives, cutting off social encounters for their benefit. Now the pub scene is on the way out too.

Glad to see the Forum members met last week in Lisburn & had an enjoyable hour or so, with Donald & friends We need more of that in our older years.

Pat

CILLA BLACK DIES

I just heard about Cilla Black's death. I haven't heard any details, except that she was in her Villa in Spain. End of an era right enough.