I don’t live in the area I was brought in now, when I married I moved out of Nottingham to one of the outlying towns, the houses were cheaper to buy. The area I grew up was a small community of around 5 or 6 streets off a main road. Our street had a small sweet shop run by an old lady who lived in the back, when you went in the shop a bell would ding on the door and she come through from whatever she was doing in the back. There were jars of sweets all round on shelves and she would weigh out 2 oz of your favourite sweets into a little triangular paper bag. On the main road was a chip shop which again was run by a man and wife who lived on the premises. Further along was a coop supermarket, my mum used to go and choose her shopping and a boy would deliver it on a bike with a basket on the front. There was a greengrocers which sold fresh fruit and veg including the most delicious peas in pods when they were in season, I used to love shelling the peas into a basin and pinching the odd one now and then, they were lovely and sweet. There was a shoe shop not far away where my mum bought our shoes and paid so much a week. @Chris off topic but when you mentioned micro machines it reminded me our late son used to collect them as a child, they are still in the loft, we were wanting to give them to his son (our grandson) but sadly we don’t see him now and have very little contact.