By Montse Villarreal

It was one of the most typical intimate jobs in Spanish cities during a long time. In fact our elderly miss them so much today.These persons, who were always men, worked at nitght and they were in charge of lighting on all street lamps in the street, as well as having every keys of the bloks where they were working, in case somebody needed them. Also they helped anybody who was in trouble or got home in not very good conditions, but with the arrival of the modern entry-phone it started their disappearance.

This was one of the most popular jobs in Spanish villages. They were in charge of giving important news from their own town or from other cities. They used a bugle to meeting people, normally in the town´s squards.

Knifegrinders were, as usual, men and they wandered between cities, towns or villages on their bicycles to sharpen things like knives or scissors or fixing umbrellas. With the beginning of the culture of using and throwing away these men were losing their activity although ocasionally you can still find someone in towns or small villages today

They sold the newspapers on the corners of streets but they didn´t know how to read. They used to claimed the most important news that day had happend.

When families had a lot of money had their own messenger, that is, a man who carried things fron one part to another one. They used to move by bicycle or on workhorse. The smaller bussines shared the same messenger for everything. In the same way that previous jobs the new technologies like phones and post were finishing with this job little by little.

Blacsmith are, once again men, who know how to use the metals, specialy the iron to make things like weapons, tweezers, bars, and many more ones. They use tools like hammers, and an anvil in their forges where the metal is heat up to give it the shape they want. Although this job seems to be very ancient, there are still some blacksmiths in towns and villages; many of them making things as bars, souvenirs or special things to decorate gardens.

In days gone by mattress were made of wool but with the pass of the time this material was bundled. When that happened the mattress were taken to these men who beated the wool with a stick so that this material got good conditions to be use again. With the arrival of sintectic materials the mattress made of wool dissapeared and with they this old job.

These men were in charge of extracting the resin from the trees, normally pines, and they pick the resine up in containers. My father was one of them and although we never spoke about it, I feeling that when he left his village to come to Madrid he missed those pine wood in Arévalo, his village, very much.

Although this is an ancient job today it is continuing making in farmers. The unique diference from the pass is that when they cut the sheeps´wool now, they do it with electrical tools but they have to be very carefull because the quality of wool depends on the kind of cut the sheepshearer do. Sheeps are always sheared before summer.

Did you know that the barbers were first called sheepshear and they were taken from Sicily to Rome in 451? A man who lived then was shaved every day and this tendence was imitated for people. They started workng in the fresh air but later only slaves and common people did it outdoors. However welthy and gossip men started to meet intodoors to speak about news in the city as the same time they were shaved. The most popular owner was who was able to know how to answer all questions that these gossip men leaded to him…