"Oh aye!" his face lit up with a smile. "I mind that! Where was that?" "That was us when we all worked in the shop, afore the War." "Oh aye …?" he frowned. "Who …?" She took the photograph back from him and reached inside her apron pocket for her spectacles.
before Before; situated geographically or metaphorically in front of.
In advance of the time when; before.
1611 King James Bible (Authorised Version); Ezekiel 33:22
Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth ...
(circa) Laurence de Premierfait, Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, as quoted in Lydgates Fall of Princes'' (1923, The Carnegie Institution of Washington):
Affor tyme thei wer but bestiall,
Till thei to resoun be lawes wer constreyned,
Vndir discrecioun bi statutis naturall
before; English afore: situated geographically or metaphorically in front of