Penny Gas Meter

1d Gas Meter

We all had a Penny Gas Meter up the Gibby, even back then mother would complain she wasn't getting enough gas for her Penny, I remember the excitement from mother when the Gas Man came to empty the meter, he would tip the box from the meter on the kitchen table, the begin to count it into piles of 12=1/- ( 12 Pennies= 1 shilling ), after he counted he would give mother so much, cant remember if was for over-paid, or a rebate, or what ever, all I remember mother feeling a wee bit rich holding a pile of pennies, which was spent over a Smillie St. shops, for some much needed food for us

During the war, when building were hit, it was common to see folk, including me I might add, scrambling through the rubble looking for pennies, this wasn't called looting back in those day's, it was called survival, everyone done it, it was part of war, when I think back, we were given the all clear on the siren, that the raid was over, we all left the shelter, we would go looking for pennies first, the secondly my mates and I would go looking for shrapnel, looking back we must has been Mad or Desperate, the danger that must been lurking in those bombed buildings, and there we were picking through the rubble looking for pennies

Another down fall of Penny Meters in the house, was that everyone was broke, some desperate, so many a meter was broken into, survival again, people got into loads of trouble, couldn't pay it back, so got deeper & deeper in debt, we were one of the lucky ones, mother got a part time job in Kincaid's, up Bakers Brae, she worked so hard to keep us on food & clothes, but new clothes where few and very far between