SOME of us will remember the days when people would camp out to be first in the queue at Harrods’ sale, but back in 1950, Maidstone had its own equivalent it seems – the Dunnings sale.

Such was the excitement to be among the first through the doors at the department store’s sale in Week Street back, that some would get up at the crack of dawn to be there.

David Elphee, now living in Sutton Road, Maidstone, remembers vividly that his father, Douglas, was persuaded by his mother, Norah Elphee, to secure a place in the queue at the unseemly hour of 3.45am.

He said: “He arrived at Dunnings on that morning at 3.45am to secure a place in the queue, so that my mother and aunt could join the throng later and he could go off to work at the South Eastern Gas Works at 7.30am.

“On returning home in the evening, he asked my mother what she and my aunt had bought in the sale, bearing in mind he had got up at the unearthly hour to save them a place, to which my mother said “a tea towel” – I, at this time, was not old enough to remember his reply.”

Mr Elphee was prompted to write in after seeing a photograph in the Kent Messenger of the first day of the store’s sale in The Way We Were when hundreds flocked for some bargains.

Such was the excitement, that a person at the head of the queue was pushed through the plate glass window.

Mr Elphee was able to spot his mother and his aunt, Kay Clark, in the front of the KM picture.

Margaret Boakes also recalled Dunnings, which her father-in-law, Alfred Boakes, had worked for from the age of 15, when he was an apprentice upholster, until he was 70, apart from a break for the Second World War.

Mr Boakes received a certificate in 1977 with his colleague Les Slym for their 50 years service.

As part of the coverage to mark the Kent Messenger’s 150th anniversary through 2009, we are asking readers to let us know how the KM has played a part in their lives.

You can get in touch by emailing messengernews@thekmgroup.co.uk