I'll bet the plan by the Co-op to bring back the "divi" has prompted many a nostalgic conversation up and down the land.

It's a grand scheme that shifts the co-operative movement back towards its roots. You buy a £1 share and then every year you accumulate a cash bonus based on how much you spend and the profitability of the business.

That's how things used to be before the Co-op replaced "divi" (it stands for dividend) with the stamps you stuck in a book which when filled was worth ten bob or 50p.

Those books of stamps put food on the tables of many a family, midweek, when cash was scarce. And the divi that preceded them, which used to be paid out twice a year, could buy a child's school blazer or foot the bill for Christmas.

It was a pioneering form of loyalty card. All you needed to know was the number, which was impressed on you as a child for those occasions when you were sent on a errand to the local Co-op, a place that smelled of cheese and bacon and had staff who stood behind counters and got you what you wanted off the shelves or cut a portion of butter from a big block of it.

My late mother-in-law worked at our local Co-op around the time pre-packaging came in. The shrewd manager realised that many of his older customers didn't like their butter in a packed and wrapped form so to cater for them he created an old-fashioned big block by unwrapping the individual portions, stacking them together in the back room and battering them with a wooden paddle.

Your mum's Co-op number is one of those things you never forget (ours was 882). I, though, have another strong Co-op memory from childhood - of being sent back to the shop with a couple of eggs which, when the shells were cracked, were found to be rotten.

As I queued, the eggs' juices dampened the paper bag and before I was able to be served they fell through and splatted to the floor, creating a terrible pong!

Such embarrassing incidents happening to an eight-year-old can leave mental scars that last a lifetime!