A while ago you were asking about memories of Mere Street shops. This is mine:

One day during the early part of the war, when I was about four, a neighbour in Eye, who owned a business in Diss, asked my mother if she would like to visit a shop in Diss which had suffered some bomb damage.

This shop was selling off some of the stock which they had stored in the attic 'for the duration'.

This was because most of the stuff was made in Germany or Japan and it would not be patriotic to offer it for sale in normal circumstances and was for that day only.

My mother got her purse and our neighbour took us to Diss in his car, a rare treat during the war.

We went upstairs in the shop, which had damage to the roof.

There were toys such as I had never seen.

I had asked Santa for a dolls' house, which had not been forthcoming. Probably because I had told Santa in Footman's, but had not told my parents!

So when I saw all sorts of things for dolls' houses I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

I was spoiled for choice but settled on a tiny glass tea set, two glass candelabras, a drinking glass, a minute, coloured cocktail glass with a twisted stem, some pictures in 'gold ' frames, a stick telephone and some pot plants.

Then I saw the dolls. They were about three inches tall made of a chalky china with little painted shoes and features, but they were 2/6d (12 1/2p).

My mother's army allowance wasn't much and she only had about ten bob (50p) in her purse so it had to be decision time, the bits and pieces, or the doll.

Going for quantity I chose the bits.

This was at Diss Publishing Company in Mere Street next to the Market Place (now Julian Graves).

I wonder if anyone else remembers it.

A few years ago I saw one of those little dolls in an antique fair and I had to have it, but it was more than half a crown, much more!

I still have the sugar bowl from the tiny tea set, and one of the pot plants. And I have 27 dolls' houses!

What are your memories of wartime life and long-gone shops of Diss? Write and tell us: Memory Lane, Diss Express, Mere Street, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4AE or email editorial@dissexpress.co.uk