Saturday Jobs in the 1950's

 

In those far off days, we were not allowed to work until we were 15 years of age. I became 15 in May, but would not leave school for gainful employment until September, so I started to look around for a Saturday job to boost my meagre pocket money (ha!).

Woolworths were always looking for Saturday workers - so this is where I got my first taste of paid employment. It was a 20 minute bus journey into the centre of Sheffield, then a ten minute walk up town (and I do mean ‘up’!). I had to wear the most diabolical green overall, but the person in charge of my counter was very kind, which helps enormously when everything is so alien. These were the days when counters ran all the way around the perimeter of the store, and the main part of the floor space divided into ‘island’ counters. I would much preferred to have started on a ‘wall’ counter, as one felt so exposed in the middle of the store, totally surrounded by customers, also, it was impossible to know which customer was next in line to be served, I just served who happened to be in front of me with their arm outstretched - consequently there would be a constant cry of "Hey, I’m next".

The tills were of the old fashioned variety as seen in ‘Open All Hours’ - we had to really bash the keys to make the price card jump up into the display window - and they did not calculate the total amount of purchases.

On Saturdays, ‘Woolies’ would be packed to the gunnels - it was very hard work indeed. I had to be there 20 minutes before the store opened (for which we did not get paid!) and I then worked from 9.0am til 6.0pm, with half an hour for lunch. There was a staff canteen which produced the kind of food I loved - steak and kidney pudding, creamy mashed potatoes and carrots in white sauce, there would be the usual puddings too - steamed treacle with thick custard, or Bakewell tart. I could not resist the aromas emanating from the staff canteen kitchen on my first Saturday, and gave into temptation. It was also the last time. The food was not expensive, but by the time I had paid out for my bus fare and lunch, I took home very little that day. The pay was 9/- (45p) for that 81/2 hour shift, and they deducted tax, which, I realised too late, I was not eligible to pay. After that, I took sandwiches, but eventually realised that I was wasting my time. Saturday night was for going out and having fun - I was far too tired to do that - and the few shillings I had left would barely have paid for a cinema ticket.

I saw quite a lot of shop lifting going on, but felt unable to ?shop? the people responsible as they were either very young or old, and none of them actually looked like criminals, just ordinary people, and I wrongly assumed that they could not afford to pay for the goods. There was one shoplifter I remember well, a large middle aged woman in a fur coat, it had large capacious sleeves, as was the style then. One end of the counter was just like a huge tray, random-filled with bottles of shampoo, she actually brought herself to my attention by make a bit of a racket moving the shampoo bottles around, which I thought was rather odd, then I saw one slip up the capacious sleeve, I turned round to tell my supervisor about it, but of course, in a trice she had slipped away into the crowds. It made me wonder though, what else has ?slipped? beneath that capacious coat!

I left Woollies and decided to try my luck at Davy?s tea shop. This turned out to be even worse! Again I worked long hours, and absolutely non- stop. The advert had declared ?good rates of pay? (Ha! again) I would get paid 6/- (30p) but was told that I would get plenty of tips to make up the wages. Toasted buttered tea cakes were the most popular item on the menu, and apart from serving, we had to toast the tea cakes, making sure they didn?t burn, whilst we rushed around making up the accompanying pots of tea. I went home that day with a burn on the tip of every finger - I didn?t go back the following week........ In fact I gave up on Saturday work altogether. I would just have to make do with my 10/- (50p) pocket money, I had always been encouraged to save, so most weeks, 5/- (25p) went into my post office saving account, and as a 12" record was about 5/- in those days, I had to really save hard to buy one, but this made it a great event, and trying to decide which one, out of the top twenty in the Hit Parade (Charts) was a nail biting decision. I have many happy memories of ?the good old days? -  because we had so little, we got a huge amount of enjoyment from small things.

Freda