No names no pack drill

Gordon. wrote:

Hardly worth the bother as the mark was only the size of a shilling and you got 20 of them for a pound

True, but for every Pound you spent, you only 'used' 11 Shillings!

In the early 70s after the Army I worked at Ringway Airport all the tips I got in DM I kept for
just for nostalgia. Years later on going to the Rhine for a holiday I took them with me, only for the waitress to say "kein gute Alte Geld"
what a numpty

Gordon. wrote:

Yes Roy,That was certainly true.but they never worked for me,nor anyone else i knew at the time.

Myth or Fact?

Gordon, I know for a fact that they worked in chocolate, and most cigarette machines. Gosh, remember the days when most shops had a cigarette machine on the wall outside? Would'nt last 5 mins nowadays!

That's true Roy,

I noticed a new ciggie vending machine in my local over the weekend, £8 for 16 ciggies, what a rip off.

I think it was the other way around. Old shillings/bigger 5p pieces used to work in DM vending machines. Honestly never tried it myself but have been told it was thus.

Roy Phillips wrote:

Gordon. wrote:

Yes Roy,That was certainly true.but they never worked for me,nor anyone else i knew at the time.

Myth or Fact?

Gordon, I know for a fact that they worked in chocolate, and most cigarette machines. Gosh, remember the days when most shops had a cigarette machine on the wall outside? Would'nt last 5 mins nowadays!

I distinctly remember seeing cigarette vending machines while in Germany,certainly, but also recall prior to us leaving for Germany and while living in Ottawa (1969) of going up to the local grocery store (big chain) with 85 cents and buying mom her cigs out of it....first off, 85 cents for a package of cigs???? Damn things cost $10-13 now!! Secondly, I was 14 or 15, waaaaaay under age, but nobody said anything back then....kids often went in and bought cigs for their parents! (and themselves, but I never knew of it....we did what every generation of kids has done and swiped them out of our parents' packs!!!)

I also recall condom machines outside gasthofs (and, certainly in the men's room!) or just along the street somewhere. Inferior quality but would do in a pinch, as it were!

Re using foreign currency in coin-operated machinery back home....when I returned to Canada in 1974 after working over in Soest for the previous 14 months I was flat cold broke. I had 1DM on me, a French centime, and a few pfennings.

Luckily, I returned to Canada via Canadian Armed Forces flight out of Lahr and landed in Trenton. That part didn't cost me a cent (pfenning, whatever....) but getting from Trenton to Calgary would prove to be a whole other story!!! Like going from Hastings to Edinburgh! Further, actually.....

At that time, pay phones were 25 cents so I took a chance and plugged in my centime and dialed home, collect! It worked. Out of that, mom arranged for a friend living near Trenton to help get me on a flight home and she paid him back. I have no idea how I'd have gotten home otherwise! Yuck....maybe I'd still be living in Trenton, Ontario!!!!! AAaaaaaagghhhh........!!!!

Talking of machines in Gaestette, can anyone remember machines installed in the gents toilets that dispensed "Aftershave Lotion". You inserted 10Pfg, put your face up against the machine, pulled a handle and within seconds you smelt like a whores' handbag?

I'll never understand the American or Canadian system where you have to stick money in a phone to call collect (reverse charge). Here we just call the operator for free or at least we did do as I haven't tried it for years. Do they have to put a coin in to call 911 in the states from a pay phone or is that free and direct?

I remember the fact that the most popular cigarette amongst the German civilians that I knew, were Passing Cloud. Anyone who has smoked them will know they came in a flattened form (a sort of trade mark) and the Germans would invariably try to roll them between the palms of their hands to make them round. I do remember they were very cheap.
Also recall going to bed one Saturday night in 1960, and the exchange rate was 11.80. Sunday morning I woke up to hear the announcement that it was now 9.20. The banks had done it over the weekend in order to beat speculators.

Hi Shelldrake,

You know I,if knowone else, believe you.

Shelldrake wrote:

Talking of machines in Gaestette, can anyone remember machines installed in the gents toilets that dispensed "Aftershave Lotion". You inserted 10Pfg, put your face up against the machine, pulled a handle and within seconds you smelt like a whores' handbag?

I seem to have a faint recollection of that as well shelldrake.

Tony Miller wrote:

Hi Shelldrake,

You know I,if knowone else, believe you.

All true stuff!!

There was also a gaming maching installed in some Bars (not that I am an expert on Bars, you understand), this was a wall mounted bowling game that refunded twice your stake if you knocked down all the pins with, I think, 5 balls. There was also the girls who frequented said Bars but I think that would be a whole new Thread.

ah yes the krabbe keller. Happy days, happy days

Jim, was that the name of the place or was that what was on offer?

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Both mate Both.

Quite tasty tarts as well, don't know why, but all the German girls in those days looked way better than the English ones in Aldershot and Frimly Green. LOL

Take it from me Jim, they still do!

and there's me thinking Camberly would have a higher class of tart Shelldrake.

You know Jim I always wante to be a Baker....putting cream into tarts

jim wrote:

and there's me thinking Camberly would have a higher class of tart Shelldrake.

Camberley possibly, Jim. Not Aldershot & FG/Mytchett, when were you last here?

LOL Dusty

Oh years and years Shelldrake, probably not since the late '70's.

I think you would find one or two changes, Jim. You most probably know that Alma/Dettingen Barracks is now a housing estate and P Royal Bks (Blackdown) is scheduled to close within the nex 3 - 4 years. I hope to be excaping within the next month or so - rats & sinking ships spring to mind.

I didn't actually Shelldrake, are you still serving then?

No, left in 86 but I am the Barracky Bill here.