There's lots in the news at the moment about young people and their fitness for the workplace. Fitness as in understanding how it works as opposed to physical fitness.
Anyway the discussion has taken off about the benefits of a 'Saturday job' and this of course brought back memories of mine.
In Scotland when I was looking for one you had to be 14 and you couldn't just go and get one. although I'm sure there were many that did working for 'cash in hand. I had to get permission from school and take this letter to what is now the job centre. I was then issued with a card which allowed me to work on a Saturday. From my memory the reason for this was to make sure that working on a Saturday wouldn't interfere with schoolwork.
Once I had this I went off in search going from shop to shop in my local town centre and found a job with a shoe shop.
Of course my reasons for working were to earn some money for myself for clothes and going out with friends and I had the grand total of 17shillings and 6pence (old money) which equates to 75p (new money). This was a lot back then which was in 1968.
So what did this experience inspire - a love of shoes and bags which I still posses today.
Did you have a Saturday job and what legacy did it leave you with?
Ooh, you do know how to set me off! Although I worked at Morrison's on the checkout for a while, my best Saturday job was at a very trendy shop in Bradford called New Lane Gallery. I got paid peanuts but was the envy of all my friends and got to wear a leather hat! It inspired me with a love of patchouli oil and incense sticks too! Axx
ReplyDeleteThe memories of youth with lasting effects - great stuff
ReplyDeleteCelia x
I worked in shoe shop too Celia.... Stead and Simpsons in Hendon central, but it closed down 3 weeks after I started there, so I was redeployed to the Golders Green Branch and given an extra 2/6d a week, disturbance money. Little did I know how important understanding the ins and outs of redeployment legislation would be to me in later life. Jx
ReplyDeleteHi Janice - both of us working in shoe shops - I worked in DE shoes a local firm which was taken over by Clarks long after I left. Saturday jobs set you up for life! Celia x
ReplyDelete