Puzzle Description

Long before families shopped online, Derek Mitchell's wonderfully evocative paintings were just the answer. Families in the decades from the 1920's to the 1960's were not as mobile as they are today and if you lived in a village, it wasn’t that easy to get into the nearest town to do your shopping. Mitchell’s Mobile Shop (G5040) provided groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables almost to your door! The puzzle box measures 41 x 29 x 5 cms and each of the four puzzles when complete measures 49 x 34 cms. This 4 puzzle box set is a fantastic value and worth the investment.

There were all sorts of vendors plying their wares from small, and not so small, vans. There would be fishmongers and tool sharpening services on four wheels. In the puzzle entitled Down the Aisle, you can see all the old brands some of which are still available today: Bovril, Lyons tea, PG Tips, Cadbury and Saxa salt; not to mention the huge glass jars full of teeth rotting sweets. Yum!

There were even mobile libraries that would visit on a weekly basis. We even had periodic visits from a foreign sounding man on a bicycle with reams of Spanish onions draped over the bike's handlebars. I was told he cycled up from Spain. That seems quite far to come to sell some onions. I heard he was actually an escaped convict from Barlinnie trying to make a few pounds.

We sometimes had snow in our Glasgow neighbourhood and one year the street was particularly treacherous. I called the local authority and sure enough about an hour later a large truck with pink salt appeared. It barrelled down our street and drove off without one single shovelful of salt being spread. Ah, the good old days.

Mobile shops, like the red telephone box which you would see everywhere, have all but disappeared. Of course we shouldn't forget the one mobile food shop that's still going strong. It's a shop you hear long before you see it. Guess what it is? It's the ice cream van. Those guys never quit. Why do we love ice cream? Perhaps it's those ingredients: sugar, cream (fat) and fruit. A no brainer, as they say. Ice cream (without the cream) has been around for over two thousand years and ice plus fruit flavouring was available as a treat back in Ancient Greece when ice was transported down from the mountains into Athens. Of course cheap electrical refrigeration solved the ice transport problem and we have been dying for an ice cream since.

This set of four 500 piece jigsaw puzzles allows you to recreate a range of unique scenes. As with all Gibsons jigsaws, the beautifully illustrated pieces are made from the highest quality 100% recycled board and are therefore a pleasure to work with again and again.

***All orders shipped from Canada Puzzles are packed in custom fitted, heavy duty cardboard boxes and are fully insured against loss or damage.***