Its this phrase a Hartlepool thing as my mam always says it and I for the life of me dont know why.

Surely butter is butter and she says it in a way as it is a luxury (does this stem from rations?) also she calls margarine wagon fat.

I do believe she means it literally. Real butter from cows as opposed to fake butter from fish.

Then why not just say butter?

Butter, natural product, margarine closer to a plastic compound.

Lurpak!!

Real butter would be made from naturally fermented, non-pasteurised milk.

Because back then margarine was what the proletarian masses mostly used and the difference was worth emphasising.

I've heard people from all over say it. If you want to be picky some people use it to refer to salted rather than unsalted.

Can anybody remember when they used to sell it out of a tub and pat in into shape with paddles before wrapping in in greaseproof paper or am I the only old fart on here these days??

Are you still talking about butter?

In Knights in Church Street?

They probably did that in proper grocers like Knights in Church St. I wish they still did it with cheese instead of pre-wrapping it and leaving it to get all sweaty and plasticky in polythene.

I worked for Knights, first at ROCOL and then at the shop in Church Street. I'm sure they would have been patting out butter for a good five decades after everybody else stopped.

Oh, I see querty is another old fart and what's more answered more quickly than I did.

What's ROCOL?

Isnt it this?

It was the Knights brothers' Park Road based foray into the world of the supermarket. They were called Roland and Colin. The letters were also mean to mean Reduces Our Cost Of Living but it didn't and they shut down as soon as Finefare opened.

The REAL Coop Stores dairy counter wallahs patted butter with flat sticks and cut chunks off huge cheeses. And you had to give your club number to get some kind of loyalty bonus. Ours was 11213, so quote it next time you're there if you don't mind.

I remember going to Knights as a kid for my dad, home is the sailor, and his tomato puree and 'long spaghetti' ...loved the smell of all the coffees and the sight of the hams hanging ...... oddly he nevrr used mince in his spag bol sauce, always bacon diced.
Scarily he brought various curry powders in plain tins he'd acquired and when you walked in the kitchen there was a pan of bubbling green swamp water with boiled aggs and bay leaves floating... your eyes literally stung and only him and the dog would tackle it.... I'll swear it barked with an Indian accent.

You mean the divi.... or to give it its official title, the dividend...... my nans was 930.

The divi, that's it! And margarine was always ready packed, so the pat-a-cake stuff is probably what Compo's mam meant by real butter and the name just stuck.

Rocol! There's another blast from the past. Wasn't that in Park Road where Mobeus jewellers is now. I remember me Mam being served by a man with a huge warty blister type thing on his face. Terrified the bejesus out of me. So did Tommy Leighton in Elwick Road.

I hope so, like. What else could it be??

I remember this before Rocol grocers nicked the name.

Sparks's in Elwick Road. First place I got done for shoplifting.

Nicking cakes? Jeez, you could have least have nicked a Ferrari.

Much more innocent than that Mr Monty. Whenever I went in with me Mam, Mrs Sparks used to get the Quality Street tin out and I could choose one. I went down with me sister and Mrs Sparks wasn't there so I just helped meself. The woman followed me home and told me Mam.

I was only four.......

What do you mean, your nan's

There's always someone on here pretending to be a spring chicken.

I never saw anyone stick their arm up when I asked if I was the only old fart on here, neither.....

That's because we didn't want to hurt your feelings.
But, as you insist.....YES.

I'm approaching ....40 .....just from a different direction.....

That's a new leaf for you Mrs G.

You've got quite a few years on me I happen to know.

People call ICBINB and Clover butter, where it has only a portion of cream in it, if any, I get asked all the time at the café if it is real butter and I only use the real stuff.

Made my own a few times when whipping double cream and forgot it was on, came back 5 mins later an there it was, stuck to the blade

This is where I remember "REAL" butter from ....

That was Aubrey the manager, he was a bit of a hands off boss to say the least. I used to go down there after school and start work stacking shelves at 4.30. At 5 he used to piss off to The Park for a pint and sit reading The Mail so we stopped work, ate some Cornettos and had Jif lemon fights. He got back just after six in time for one of the Knight brothers arriving to cash up for the day.

The highlight of my career there was when a woman came in to do her shopping with nothing on under her coat. We followed her round crawling under shelves and climbing up ladders to check and as far as we could tell there were no clothes under there.

That was Aubrey the manager, he was a bit of a hands off boss to say the least. I used to go down there after school and start work stacking shelves at 4.30. At 5 he used to piss off to The Park for a pint and sit reading The Mail so we stopped work, ate some Cornettos and had Jif lemon fights. He got back just after six in time for one of the Knight brothers arriving to cash up for the day.

The highlight of my career there was when a woman came in to do her shopping with nothing on under her coat. We followed her round crawling under shelves and climbing up ladders to check and as far as we could tell there were no clothes under there.

Have to say, the one thing they get right over here is Jersey Butter. Beats the hell out of 'spreads' and is surprisingly cheap...unlike everything else here

I just dont get this love of butter. Isnt it an older peoples thing?

We hardly ever have any in our house, and neither of my kids like the stuff.

Pointless shite.

Same as my gran called it. No idea if it was real butter mind, always thought it was a block of lurpak tbh.

Althought I brought this up I never eat butter or magarine at all. Worst thing in the world is having a sandwich where someone has put more butter than filling in it and it lines your mouth with fat.

To be honest I rarely eat bread anyway.