| I started my working life on Tuesday,
August 6. 1957. I was wearing a grey skirt and jacket, one of the only two
skirts I possessed. I worked in the certificate office sitting at an old, cut
down, Victorian desk with five others. One of these was Valerie Peggy Durham
Young. We became friends then and we are still in contact. Our grandchildren go
to the same school in Hullbridge, where Valerie , myself, our daughters and
their families all live. |
| I earned £4/16/1d per
week, paid monthly. (£4. 80) This increased by 10/- (50p) when my GCE
results arrived. I had to buy a weekly season ticket for the train, 11/-,(under
18 rate), and I spent 5/- a week on us bus fares. I gave my mum 25 shillings a
week (I used to borrow most of this back). My brother had 5 shillings pocket
money a month and I bought 4 pairs of stockings each pay day, another £1
gone. |
| The Provident was an old
firm in an old building. I worked in the fairly new extension that had been
built. (the Provident Life and its building are no more ). The boss of my
department was Mr Penfold and the supervisor, over the group I worked with, was
Miss Harman. She had worked for the same firm all of her life and was reaching
retirement age. |
| My working day started at
9am. I had to sign in before work, sign out for dinnertime, sign back in again,
out again at the end of the day. As I was allowed "ten minutes" washing time I
was able to get to Liverpool Street station in time to catch the 5. 03 train.
Each lunchtime was spent in the rest room playing endless games of cards.
Payday meant a visit to the Lane. Petticoat Lane market was (and still is) held
in Middlesex Street on Sundays , during the rest of the week the stalls were
out in a nearby street. |
| At almost 17 I started
smoking during the lunch break - it was the 'thing' to smoke then - government
health warnings were a thing of the future. The end of the month would find my
friend Marion and myself clubbing together to buy five Weights or Woodbines, a
cost of 81/2d. If you stick a straight pin in the cigarette end, (no filter)
you can smoke it right down to the very last puff - now, that is SAD.
Fortunately we were not allowed to smoke during working hours. |
| The nearest pub to the
office was Dirty Dicks. This is a very old pub on the corner of Middlesex
Street. We would go there for birthdays etc. I had never had a drink before but
I soon learnt. Brown ale can be drunk in a very short time and I would get some
of my drinks free, from other customers, because I could down half a pint
quicker than anyone. The thought of Dirty Dicks conjures up the image of Val,
(slightly inebriated?) standing in the middle of Bishopsgate, stopping the
traffic. |
| October 1957 saw
the dawning of the Space Age. Russia sent a dog, Laika, into space. Nothing
like it had ever happened - this really was the beginning of a new era.
Everyone followed the event. England still had smog. This was brown fog,
coloured by the smoke of countless fires. When the Clean Air Act was enforced
nobody was allowed to use fuel that emitted the smoke. Smog would bring a huge
area to a halt; buses would mostly stop and we had to get home as best we
could. Even though I had lost such a lot of weight and had more confidence, I
had never been to a dance or party. Going home with Marion and Nancy one Monday
we decided to go out that night. We went to dancing classes (ballroom dancing)
in Romford. It cost 2/6d (twelve and a half pence) to get in, It was the best
money I have ever spent. More later. |
| There was no such thing as
"teenage fashion". There were groups of teenagers wearing Teddyboy suits but
everyone I knew steered clear of them. (because they were different it was
assumed they were trouble). Teddyboys wore suits with a long jacket, edged with
black, and very narrow drainpipe trousers. With the "brothel creepers" (very
large, crepe soled shoes) that they wore I felt they loooked stupid. Their hair
was greased and brushed into a DA at the back and a big quiff on top. (A DA
resembled the rear end of a duck - hence "Duck's A * * *"). |
| It gradually became
fashionable to wear shorter dresses with a hooped petticoat and a net
petticoat. Now, this had to be seen to be believed! The hooped one had 2 or 3
whale-bone hoops, inserted into channels, around it; these would, sometimes,
slip out of their casing and gradually wind themselves around my legs. All of
this underwear meant that when I sat down everything stood up in front and when
I bent over my desk my skirt and petticoats would go over my head. (As every
girl was the same, it didn't matter). As skirts grew shorter, heels got higher.
I wore very pointed, stilleto heels, any height from one & a half to four
& a half inches. (As I write this, in 2001,I still have a pair in the loft.
I paid the princely sum of 84/11d for these in 1965) Our shoes caused a great
deal of trouble. The bottoms of the heels were tipped with metal and so small
that they ruined many a floor! Lots of places insisted on a small plastic cover
being put over the tip. I used to stick drawing pins into the pointed sole
tips, they were so long that the pins could not be felt; this prevented loads
of repairs. Shoes cost me from 29/11d (£1.50) to about £3. Waists
had to be as small as possible. 3 or 4 " belts would be pulled in until it
became hard to breathe. My waist was always 13 inches smaller than my
hips. |
| The music of the 50s was
aimed at teenagers; the fashion changes were due to the fact that teenage
culture was taking over. Rock and roll was here to stay. Don't believe anyone
who says "there wasn't any trouble in my day". When the film Rock around the
Clock came out (1955,I think) cinemas all over the country were being wrecked,
especially the scruffy ones (known as fleapits). I loved Rock and Roll and
skiffle. The first record I ever bought was "Honeycomb" by Jimmy Rodgers. In
1957 single records were 10 inches in diameter, 78rpm (revolutions per minute),
very fragile and cost 4/6d. (221/2p There was a song on both sides and record
shops had booths where you could listen to the record before you bought it. I
had a radiogram that George had given me; a large piece of furniture with a
record player built into it. This needed a change of needle with every
play. |
| 1957 (possibly early 58)
saw the introduction of the Salk polio vaccine. I had to go to the Guildhall, 3
times, for the injections. Polio was a dreaded illness that put many sufferers
into an Iron Lung. This was a machine that enclosed the patient who had to lie
flat all of the time - forever. A boy, named Tony Reavley, joined the
department shortly after me. He took each of the girls on the desk on a 'date'.
When it was my turn he took me to White Hart Lane to see Spurs play Hibernian.
That was to be the only football match I ever saw. (later in this book you will
read how strange it was that I went to Spurs). |
| Right! Back to
the night I went to my first dance! |
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