Things you don't see any more

1) Binnos

By binnos I basically mean homeless people, but not the type of homeless people you see asleep in doorways, but the ones you see rummaging through bins for food. There used to be quite a few of these. I remember one who used to go round Crosby probably back in the 90s now and he went by the name of Henry. I don't know who found out that was his name, but if someone mentioned Henry the binno you'd know who they meant. He'd be found in Crosby Village looking through the bins and eating discarded pasties from Greggs. I don't know what happened to him like, but I imagine he's dead.

Another 'famous' binno was the no-smoking man who used to travel round on his bike covered in no-smoking signs. He was mostly associated with Southport but you'd see him knocking around other places as well sometimes. He came with a whole back-story to his life. He was Polish I think, well you couldn't understand what he was saying anyway so I'm not sure, and this was in a day before Polish immigrants were fashionable (or unfashionable depending on how you look at it). Anyway, the story was that he used to be doing all right for himself, had a decent job and a wife, but one day his wife died from a smoking related disease and because of this he quit his job and became this no-smoking homeless bike rider. I don't know who found this information out, because as I said you couldn't understand him.

I don't know what happened to binnos like, I know there's still lots of homeless people, but maybe they're just hidden away from society these days. Either that or the big issue has done a good job in sorting them out.

2) Hitch-hikers

By this, I don't mean those hitch-hikers from American films, or horror films even. But on British motorways and at service stations you used to see the odd one or two. You would see a lot of them in suits which looked odd, holding a cardboard sign with a destination on it. When I was young I saw one on the side of the motorway and my dad explained that they were businessmen who had been given travel expenses for a trip and they were hitch-hiking home so they could keep this money for themselves.

I don't know what happened to these people, maybe travel just got more affordable, or they just can't be arsed with the hassle any more.

3) White dog shit

One of life's great mysteries. You used to see white dog shit lying around the streets, but no one knows how or why it came to be that colour, or why you don't see it any more. Perhaps what dogs eat has changed, or maybe dog shit just gets cleaned up more these days.