"When we were very young"

Well, a mere lad of 53 at any rate.

After leaving the Fire Service, I pretended to be a Jeweller for 13yr or so.
I must have made an impression of some kind, because people now say "Where do I know you from? OH! I remember, you're the Jeweller.", as if the town was only blessed with the one. We had a census after Goldsmiths departed and we'd been closed for 4yr. We came up with a list of five of what we would call Jewellers, although if the booklet of "Penrith specialist shops" is to be believed it's somewhere like twice that number: as anybody with a few silver earrings will happily claim that status apparently.

When we kicked off all we had was a modicum of natural cunning and a smidgin of common sense. Enough cunning to know what was safe to tackle untrained and sense enough to do something about the missing knowledge. Enter a group I tend to refer to as "The British Horribly Logical Institute".

As followers of CC will know, her shop is now extinct, reducing the Jewellers tally to 4. During the inevitable clear-out things floated to the surface which hadn't seen the light of day since God's dog was a pup. Speaking of God, he may know where the original of this is, I haven't a clue : but we were both so chuffed that I photocopied mine and encapsulated it to show off in the early days.

I am, by nature, a hoarder with Packrat genes so I may yet run a series on "Bits of paper I have come by legally", starting with a certificate for wallowing across the local baths in Wigton, which being a whole eight miles from home I had never visited until secondary education started at the ripe old age of 12.