Onion Johnies

[Cat]

They're still around, as seen on TF1 news lunchtime...

http://videos.tf1.fr/video/news/0,,4234569,00-les-johnnies-de-roscoff-.html

 

 

[Maricopa]

Yep, saw it too.  Loved it when he was having a cup of tea at one customers house.

[DerekJ]

Nice to see again... thought it had died out.

I remember my mum buying off them when they came round oh so many years ago.

[pachapapa]

I remember them on their bikes in Swanage in the late 40s in those days they came by fishing boat from Roscoff to Poole; then Sandbanks,Shell Bay, Studland to Swanage. Everybody adored them and their onions.[:)]

[LEO]

When I was a wee lad in Glasgow, I was amazed they had cycled all the way from France, to sell four bags of onions!

[dragonrouge]

They are still around and are a common site in Wales.  Now they seemingly are on the outskirts of markets resplendent in their striped jerseys and with the cycle and of course onions and l'echalote over the handlebars.  But what you do no know is that they rent huge warehouses on the outskirts say of Cardiff and large lorries from Brittany come over and stock it up.  The the various sellers have smaller vehicles which collect them with a cycle then go and park up in the larger or smaller towns.  When they run out back to the car park restock and it goes like this all day.  Did we call them Shonny Onion men or something like that.

[Russethouse]

 I wrote an article about Johnny Onions a while ago, it was interesting research. Some of the lads that came were only 12 years old. They would come over in 'companies'  rent warehouses to store the onions and sometimes sleep in the warehouse too.There was a master who was the 'money man' the investor, and a stringer, then the Johnnie's themselves

When food import laws were changed in the UK to forbid certain imports and protect our farmers who had supported us through the war, a representative went to Paris and then to London and lobbied to have the Johnnie's made an exception - he won.

Later when the French introduced a social security system many of the wives were unhappy that because their men were working away from home so much, they were excluded

There is an interesting book called 'Goodbye Johnny Onions' and a small museum dedicated to them, in Roscoff