Chapter 2 – Saturday’s Girl

I decided to look for a Saturday job in that last year at school so I could earn some money to buy myself clothes. I was starting to become self-conscious of my looks and I wanted some independence.

My first effort in the workplace was applying for a job in Woolworth’s department store. My friend had applied and been successful so I thought it was a given I’d get a job. I had to sit a maths test before I was formally interviewed by the manager. I was startled like rabbits in the headlights and was so anxious and nervous I made a complete dog’s ear of the answers. Exit stage left from my first attempt at getting employment.

Not to be put off by this first encounter, one of my friends had a Saturday job in a local grocery shop where her Mum worked full-time. She put in a good word for me so I could work there and earn some pocket money. The shop at that time (September 1962), was a very busy independent, family grocers with customer’s flocking in from the local neighbourhood to pick up their provisions before the ‘big 4’ supermarkets of today. On Saturdays, there were always four assistants serving at any one time and, given they sold everything anyone would ever need to prepare a meal, clean the house or satisfy one’s nicotine craving, they had the lot. It was also at the time when grocery stores sold their wares in small amounts rather than today’s supermarkets when quite often one is forced to buy a pack of carrots or onions, when in fact, you only want an onion or a carrot to flavour the stew.

Although my maths was always good at school, I found the experience of working in the grocery store at such a speed necessary to cope with the continuous stream of customers, flummoxed me. I found it hard adding up several purchases in my head. The tills didn’t do the work for sales assistants at that time, at least not in that grocery store. I had to resort to jotting down the prices on a paper bag and totting them up. Given how  very shy I was as a teenager, I was  embarrassed as the customers watched and glared at me as I went over the same sum again and again and getting a different answer every time. I often wanted the floor to open up and swallow me as I died inside with embarrassment.

The pace of the customer footfall was fast and furious and given customers were buying in such small amounts in a wide variety of groceries meant we were back and forth and bumping into each other in the small space behind the counter. I had to constantly ask where various groceries were and I’m sure the Health & Safety Inspectorate today would have had a field day with the way the shop was run at that time. e the bacon slicer because I was under eighteen years of age and for which I was eternally grateful having kept my fingers intact. This meant having to constantly interrupt senior assistants to slice bacon or ham or whatever my customer’s demands were that day.

I would have been terrified to use the bacon slicer at that time, because one of the assistants in the grocery shop near our home had actually cut two of her fingers off. She  was always very chatty with her customers and held court to anyone who would listen to her. Unfortunately, one day, being so busy chatting while she was using the slicer, she caught her fingers in the blade and lopped two fingers straight off. I was there at the time and remember seeing the sheer panic in one of her workmates dragging a towel from the back store and throwing it over her fingers with blood spurting out everywhere. I made a quick exit home without getting whatever Mum had sent me for. I was truly shocked by this experience. Little did I know in my future life I would own a shop and merrily slice bacon and cooked meats to satisfy my own customers needs.

Ignorance is bliss...almost!

Whilst I was working in the grocery store another school friend was working part-time in a chemist shop near her home. She used to tell us tales of young men coming into the shop asking for a bottle of Lucozade after which she’d giggle. Some of our class mates giggled alongside her but I didn’t get the joke and I’d just smile without knowing why. Being naive I didn’t understand what was so funny about a bloke buying a bottle of Lucozade. It was advertised as the glucose drink of the day to aid recovery, so perhaps either he or a relative was unwell and needs building up!

I only learnt when it was spelt out to me by my close friend that these young men were shopping for Durex, the family planning choice of the day, but were too embarrassed to ask a fifteen-year-old assistant to serve them with such items. I learnt it was a standing joke at that time amongst young people.

Job of a Lifetime!

I enjoyed earning at the grocery shop but I didn’t like working in that chaotic environment. It was by now into New Year (1963). My eldest sister was a secretary in an  electrical store and she mentioned her  manager needed a someone to sell their records on Saturdays. She suggested perhaps I’d like to work there. I didn’t need asking twice. I was soon ensconced in a perfect environment for a teenager in the early 60’s. I was in my element in-between customers playing all the latest Beatles, Rolling Stones and many one-hit wonders of the day of the Mersey Sounds. It was then when the Liverpool sound was born. I was in heaven playing the records for customers to hear before they bought them and I sure was a good advocate for the latest chart toppers. 

My favourite singers then were Billy Fury whom I fell madly in love with, closely followed by the Searchers; Gerry and the Pacemakers and, of course, the Swinging Blue Jeans. I was always proud to tell anyone who would listen that one of the band members from the Swinging Blue Jeans lived in our street, What a claim to fame! My all-time favourite tunes at that time were the Beatles whose music I could never have enough of but surprisingly doesn’t grab me today.

The shop closed for lunch at 1pm which would be unusual for shops to do these days in the ‘open all hours’ culture. I used to enjoy sitting with my sister and her boss and the other employees eating ham baps and just listening to their banter. I was still painfully shy and preferred to listen rather than try to add to the topic of the moment.

The experience of working there did help me to pick up essential skills for work such as punctuality, treating the customer as someone special and watching how others applied themselves to their jobs. I remained at the shop until I left school to take up full time employment.

Babysitting

Mum will have talked to the couples she worked for about her family. The Professor asked Mum, given my age, if would like to babysit for their twin toddlers for some extra pocket money.

I didn’t need asking twice as it was good money and they always left a tray of goodies for me to feast on. The only fly in the ointment was the twins  (a boy and a girl) wouldn’t go to sleep. It was during a summer when the evenings were very hot and light streamed through their windows. I kept running up and down the stairs putting them back in their cots to settle them down for the night. The minute I reached the bottom stair there’d be the noise of them running around the room and shrieking at the top of their voices.

Each time I’d go back upstairs to settle them down once again. They’d lay still and look at me with eyes like saucers and all would be quiet until I’d left the room and returned downstairs before the performance would start all over again. This went on for what seemed like hours. I was worried their parents would return and warrant giving me the push because their children weren’t fast asleep in bed. After what seemed like eternity I suddenly realised there was no noise from above. I ran up the stairs two at a time thinking the worst, but there they were together, brother and sister in the one cot fast asleep with their thumbs in their mouths. Bless!

Mum worked for the Professor and his family until they emigrated back to Germany, but she remained working for the heart surgeon’s family well after the couple had retired whilst she remained stalwart in her job until she passed away at  eighty-seven-years-of-age. 

Curiosity and the Cat!

While I was babysitting, being a bit of a nosy person, I decided to look around the parent’s bedroom and bathroom out of curiosity. In the bathroom cabinet I was astounded to see what I’d had described by my friend who worked in the chemist as a  massive Durex in a tin. I remember my mind boggling and wondering just how endowed was this Professor. In later life I learned the contraceptive was a Dutch cap which would be worn by the female to protect against unwanted pregnancies. At that time, the thought of having children of my own to care for seemed like something I’d much rather leave to somebody else. The money was excellent and together with my work at the record shop I could put it to good use towards some clothes for myself which were much-needed at that time whilst still at school.