First Job Wakefield
Without Prejudice
I left Thornes house at 15 and a bit, not going back after the Summer Holidays. Dad was unemployed and George and I went to work then needing the money. I was angry with my parents who just could not seem to get their act together and I cried by myself, wishing to be back at school with my friends. But that was not to come until another 17 years, when I was 32 and gained my Year 12. But at Thornes I would have loved to stay on and do my O and A Levels, but no use in crying over spilt milk. Dad kept disappearing then too. Mum threw him out of the house and he was away for ages, coming back pretending to be sick and vomiting. She took him back.
And I started as a Junior Mail Clerk at Empire Stores on the Ossett Road, opening mail with a silver dagger and putting all the correspondence into pigeon holes. And there was mountains of it, every day. Just the rough sorting took a few hours, then there was filing all the correspondence into massive shelves, pulling out a numeric file and slapping the papers into each one and hands covered in paper cuts. The Office Seniors, answered all the letters and they were great to work with as they teased us Juniors mercilessly, but with good humour. Seniors were married ladies and they were quite crude and rude at times, one who had been to see Georgie Fame, and said he was a letch, and one was looking for a Manhole in the catalogue and said
"I don't seem to have a Man Hole
And Trudy piped up,
"I know of at least one you have"
And we all laughed at her crudity.
They were all real Yorkshire Lassies, down to earth, hearts of gold, and wickedly funny, teasing us juniors and laughing when our faces flamed.
They were our mentors, no Man, worked on the giant Office Floor, only our Big Boss and he was upstairs, beside the typing pool, so it was all women. There were men in the warehouse behind us, but they were not allowed to enter the hallowed halls of the Office. The career progression was, Junior Mail Clerk, Senior Clerk, Typing Pool. The girls all worked hard to get there, but I could not see the fascination. Whenever I had to deliver mail up there what I saw was twenty women in two rows, headphones on, heads down, typing, all day. They looked like battery hens and they did that all day, every day.
I decided to not do typing and one Senior took me under her wing and taught me everything about her job. Receipting cheques, balancing the ledgers, writing back to customer queries. Taking queries over the phone, I felt very privileged and started to step away from the mail sorting and began to receipt payments and do book work, sitting at a desk at last and the other Juniors thought I was a bit above myself, and I was, no typing pool was going to contain me. I had morning tea with the Seniors, in the canteen, eating Scotch Eggs with Heinz Salad Dressing and salads, forever salad, every day. But we were obsessed with our bodies and looked at the other girls eating chips and bacon and egg sandwiches and looked down on them.
I knew my sudden promotion was to do with me having gone to a Grammar School against a State School. and that is just the way it was then, the Class Distinction so very marked by where you had gone to school. I just decided to use whatever worked and once I had a toe hold I would work harder, quicker, more result driven, and climb my way up. The other Juniors just took in great stride, still being my friends, but I missed them.
And I was allowed to do more but by the November we were going back To Australia. I was so homesick for Australia and we all were. Ian my brother had stayed in Australia in the Army and had married and they had a baby. Mum was dying to go, the trip home to Family going well, but she longed for sun and sea and non grey skies. And Dad got off his butt and sold so many recap tyres we had all the fares and we took off for Australia on the Anniversary of JFK'S Assassination. Missing our family but just wanting, Home, our home xoxo
I left Thornes house at 15 and a bit, not going back after the Summer Holidays. Dad was unemployed and George and I went to work then needing the money. I was angry with my parents who just could not seem to get their act together and I cried by myself, wishing to be back at school with my friends. But that was not to come until another 17 years, when I was 32 and gained my Year 12. But at Thornes I would have loved to stay on and do my O and A Levels, but no use in crying over spilt milk. Dad kept disappearing then too. Mum threw him out of the house and he was away for ages, coming back pretending to be sick and vomiting. She took him back.
And I started as a Junior Mail Clerk at Empire Stores on the Ossett Road, opening mail with a silver dagger and putting all the correspondence into pigeon holes. And there was mountains of it, every day. Just the rough sorting took a few hours, then there was filing all the correspondence into massive shelves, pulling out a numeric file and slapping the papers into each one and hands covered in paper cuts. The Office Seniors, answered all the letters and they were great to work with as they teased us Juniors mercilessly, but with good humour. Seniors were married ladies and they were quite crude and rude at times, one who had been to see Georgie Fame, and said he was a letch, and one was looking for a Manhole in the catalogue and said
"I don't seem to have a Man Hole
And Trudy piped up,
"I know of at least one you have"
And we all laughed at her crudity.
They were all real Yorkshire Lassies, down to earth, hearts of gold, and wickedly funny, teasing us juniors and laughing when our faces flamed.
They were our mentors, no Man, worked on the giant Office Floor, only our Big Boss and he was upstairs, beside the typing pool, so it was all women. There were men in the warehouse behind us, but they were not allowed to enter the hallowed halls of the Office. The career progression was, Junior Mail Clerk, Senior Clerk, Typing Pool. The girls all worked hard to get there, but I could not see the fascination. Whenever I had to deliver mail up there what I saw was twenty women in two rows, headphones on, heads down, typing, all day. They looked like battery hens and they did that all day, every day.
I decided to not do typing and one Senior took me under her wing and taught me everything about her job. Receipting cheques, balancing the ledgers, writing back to customer queries. Taking queries over the phone, I felt very privileged and started to step away from the mail sorting and began to receipt payments and do book work, sitting at a desk at last and the other Juniors thought I was a bit above myself, and I was, no typing pool was going to contain me. I had morning tea with the Seniors, in the canteen, eating Scotch Eggs with Heinz Salad Dressing and salads, forever salad, every day. But we were obsessed with our bodies and looked at the other girls eating chips and bacon and egg sandwiches and looked down on them.
I knew my sudden promotion was to do with me having gone to a Grammar School against a State School. and that is just the way it was then, the Class Distinction so very marked by where you had gone to school. I just decided to use whatever worked and once I had a toe hold I would work harder, quicker, more result driven, and climb my way up. The other Juniors just took in great stride, still being my friends, but I missed them.
And I was allowed to do more but by the November we were going back To Australia. I was so homesick for Australia and we all were. Ian my brother had stayed in Australia in the Army and had married and they had a baby. Mum was dying to go, the trip home to Family going well, but she longed for sun and sea and non grey skies. And Dad got off his butt and sold so many recap tyres we had all the fares and we took off for Australia on the Anniversary of JFK'S Assassination. Missing our family but just wanting, Home, our home xoxo
