Moscadinis

[paul mann]

Was it Moscadinis used to be the Italian milk shake bar at Bedlington Station? Ah can mind gannin' somewhere like that wi me mate, Neave Tweddle when wi had two lasses we wanted ti impress.

[Tonyp]

Yep used to last shop to bed train station

[Smudgeinthebudge]

Excellent jukebox in the sixties. I remember the whir of the milkshake machine.

[Symptoms]

And don't forget the pinball machines.

[Keith Scantlebury]

Tanner pinball machines .mario used to keep a camera behind the counter to take pics of those who were abusing them ha ha. The bloke was a nutter. He used stand outside at night and fire a flare gun off .

[Symptoms]

Part of the joy of playing the pinball machines was to 'nudge' them.  For our younger viewers 'nudging' meant vigorously pushing against the machine with your hips to gain extra ball bounce (no, no, no, that doesn't sound right!) off the flippers, posts and cushions.  This action left the machines with loose legs.  Apparently, there's only one manufacturer left making these things worldwide.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Part of the joy of playing the pinball machines was to 'nudge' them.  For our younger viewers 'nudging' meant vigorously pushing against the machine with your hips to gain extra ball bounce (no, no, no, that doesn't sound right!) off the flippers, posts and cushions.  This action left the machines with loose legs.  Apparently, there's only one manufacturer left making these things worldwide.

Just for the younger viewers Symptoms I think we should mention we were dicing with death whilst nudging those machines. If one nudged too vigorously then one reached a sticky end sooner than expected, one had tilted the machine and no more balls would be ejected into the firing zone until additional payment made.

Were the first machines 3d a go or were they always 6d from Moscadiins first introduced them?

Was it just the snooker hall that ran a weekly competition for the highest score or did the coffee shop also have one?

[Symptoms]

I can only remember them being a tanner in 67 to 69 (for our younger viewers ... a tanner = 6d or 6 old pence).  I only went in at lunchtime from the 6th Form and funded the sessions with my school dinner money.  I seem to recall there was a weekly 'championship' board on a wall.

 

There really was an art to the nudge; as you say too much welly and the game would end so the top players knew just how much force to apply.

[threegee]

https://www.google.it/maps/@55.1407265,-1.5684749,3a,75y,247.54h,68.97t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sCx_kW8LWAxMB5SeyDcC__w!2e0?hl=en

February 2009

[pennylane909]

That sounds brilliant. I was clearly born in the wrong decade

[paul mann]

Yep, that looks like the general layout from the outside.

[Tonyp]

Better places in bedlington jimmy milne would give you a better milk shake,peter bacci's place had a better machine latter on tommy miller tried to give you everything,even bingo for the auldings.served with a burger from a microwave which would be a relic now lol...

[paul mann]

I only went to Moscadini's a few times because it was at Bedlington Station. Jimmy Milne's coffee shop was always full of smoke and teds and they didn't want kids hanging around.

[Maggie/915]

You cannot beat the old memories.

'We were poor but we were happy'

[Symptoms]

Maggs wrote: 'We were poor but we were happy'         

 

That was true - spending money was really tight for us kids back then!  I wrote earlier about squirrelling the 'lunch' tanners to fund my Moscadini(s) exploits but this funding was supplemented by adding the daily school bus fare to the pot.  When I joined the 6th Form the normal way to get to the Grammar School was to board a Raisbeck's bus (known as 'chariots' 'cos they appeared to be so old) at the 'Top End' (Red Lion) and pay the thrupence (thrupenny bit or 3d or 3 old pence for our younger viewers) to get down to the Station;  no bus meant running from the Top End all the way to school.  I always got the bus back.  Out of this extra 9d daily funding we had to budget for our snouts as well.

Edited September 28, 2014 by Symptoms

[mickypotts]

I spent many an afternoon at Moscadinis and if yi had a lass wi yi the juke box was the best,  aal the latest songs, But Bacci aalwaas paid off the best wi th Pin baal machines, an Naain hoo ti nudge was the key ti winnin,.... It wes great ti be young back then

[Maggie/915]

I want to rewind and go more often.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/La-Vacanza-Bernard-Moscardini/dp/1907294279

 

 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/La-Vacanza-Bernard-Moscardini/dp/1907294279