THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

Mind you, I was also amazed at how people could get inured to doing some jobs that I wouldn't have touched with a barge pole. The father of one of my boyhood friends was a ledger clerk at the Calico Printer's Association in Manchester. He commuted by public transport to the same job entering transactions up by hand in a Dickensian leather bound ledger all his working life. Same ledger, same customers and same job. He did over 45 years at that and never gained any promotion. He was not a cheerful outgoing man but the fact is he stuck at it and supported a family. Was he a victim or a hero? I am certain of one thing, it would have driven me mad!

[Stanley]

One of the things I delight in is the fact that inside our heads we have the best and most powerful computer in the world. It can bring us reports from the very beginnings of our consciousness if we let it. (Remember Marvin? "Here's me, brain the size of a planet.....")
I talk to myself a lot..... This morning I walked across the kitchen to brew my coffee and forgot to get the milk out of the fridge next to me and had to retrace my steps. I remembered Lionel Gleed, my first employer when I went farming in Warwickshire. He was a good teacher of the things they don't tell you at school and I remember him telling me once that I should always be thinking about what I was doing and asking myself the question could I save any effort. For instance, if walking across the yard from the barn to the shippon was there anything that needed to go over there and should I take it with me to save a trip. Exactly what happened with the milk this morning so I had a word with Lionel and assured him that it was a momentary lapse and I still remembered his advice.
Such a small thing but so important. It has served me well over the years. That was 64 years ago but I still remember. Am I alone and a bit peculiar or do we all have lessons like this embedded in our brain?

[chinatyke]

One of the things I delight in is the fact that inside our heads we have the best and most powerful computer in the world. It can bring us reports from the very beginnings of our consciousness if we let it. (Remember Marvin? "Here's me, brain the size of a planet.....")
I talk to myself a lot..... This morning I walked across the kitchen to brew my coffee and forgot to get the milk out of the fridge next to me and had to retrace my steps. I remembered Lionel Gleed, my first employer when I went farming in Warwickshire. He was a good teacher of the things they don't tell you at school and I remember him telling me once that I should always be thinking about what I was doing and asking myself the question could I save any effort. For instance, if walking across the yard from the barn to the shippon was there anything that needed to go over there and should I take it with me to save a trip. Exactly what happened with the milk this morning so I had a word with Lionel and assured him that it was a momentary lapse and I still remembered his advice.
Such a small thing but so important. It has served me well over the years. That was 64 years ago but I still remember. Am I alone and a bit peculiar or do we all have lessons like this embedded in our brain?

Multi-tasking, now a term used to describe a computer doing more than one thing at once!

[Big Kev]

Mind you, I was also amazed at how people could get inured to doing some jobs that I wouldn't have touched with a barge pole. The father of one of my boyhood friends was a ledger clerk at the Calico Printer's Association in Manchester. He commuted by public transport to the same job entering transactions up by hand in a Dickensian leather bound ledger all his working life. Same ledger, same customers and same job. He did over 45 years at that and never gained any promotion. He was not a cheerful outgoing man but the fact is he stuck at it and supported a family. Was he a victim or a hero? I am certain of one thing, it would have driven me mad!

Me too, I have a few repetitive tasks at work but the majority is varied problem solving. Attention span of a gnat

[Stanley]

I always remember a woman telling me how much she enjoyed watching me work. She described it as 'graceful movements with purpose'. I have of course never forgotten this and was flattered but I know what she means. One of my favourite Youtube videos is the man making a wooden cart wheel and that describes him exactly. When John and I were shovelling coal into the bunker at Bancroft, the overspill from the tipping wagon delivery, I used to think how well we worked together with the minimum of effort. We both had our own shovels and used to sharpen and polish them. There was a fashion for aluminium shovels at one time but we didn't like them, not crisp enough for us!
I think a lot of the people who pontificate about manual labour would be completely mystified by this.

[Tizer]

He commuted by public transport to the same job entering transactions up by hand in a Dickensian leather bound ledger all his working life. Same ledger, same customers and same job.

My first job at 15 years old was as a progress clerk in a factory doing something similar to that except that the figures were entered on cards and I had to clock in and out. I lasted one year but escaped to become a trainee dispenser with Boot's Chemists. But it's all useful experience and at least it proved to Boot's that I could cope with the world of work.

[Stanley]

I can understand that Tiz but not a lifetime doing exactly the same simple task. I remember once seeing a photograph of a large number of men, well over 100, in a group. The pic was done in the Inter-War years and was of all the employees at the famous firm of Gillows who had served more than 25 years. Now I can understand doing that length of time on skilled work like these men would be doing.
The long service and good conduct award in the army comes to mind. You had to have at least 22 years unblemished record. The joke was that the stripes on the bottom of the uniform sleeve were for undetected crime.....

[Tripps]

Actually - only 15 years. 'I was that soldier'.

[Stanley]

Ah.... I always thought they got it for 22 years David. I only did two.......

[Stanley]

When I decided to leave school in 1953 (My dad gave me the choice of staying on in the sixth form which was what the school advised or leaving for a job. The reason he did this was because as a lad he hadn't had the choice) one thing was clear, there were plenty of jobs for school leavers. Many of them weren't very attractive but on the other hand many gave good prospects and once you got your feet under the table you could be reasonably assured of job security. All that has gone and this is one of the most damaging consequences of our modern economy in my view. Even though all my plans came to naught because of army service and other circumstances I always had a stable job and security which reflected of course on the family and their start in life. I never saw low wages as a problem, I was more interested in stability and job satisfaction.

[Stanley]

Quite rightly, drink driving is taboo these days but fifty years ago it was the norm and nobody thought anything about it. When I worked as a driver for Harrison's in the 1960s someone rang Billy Harrison up one night and asked him if he knew that three of his wagons were parked outside the Pickhill Pub. Billy asked if they had their sidelights on and the man said yes. "Good" said Billy. "That's all right then". In those days the law was that a vehicle parked on the street during the hours of darkness had to show warning lights. Does anyone remember the small bullet shaped lights that showed red one way and white the other? You clipped them on the top of the window at night and wound it up. The great advantage of them apart from the fact they were only one 6W bulb was that you could park on the wrong side of the road and be legal.

[Stanley]

I've commented elsewhere about the fact that young people don't seem to have any resistance to borrowing at high interest rates. My generation was reared in an ethos where there were still memories of the workhouse and the consequences of relatively low levels of debt. In our case we did take advantage of what we called 'The Drip System', Hire Purchase but only when we were secure enough to know that we could manage the payments. Further, the worse that could happen if you failed to maintain the payments was that the item you were paying for would be repossessed. Today the consequences are far more serious and some families have quite enormous debts.

[Stanley]

Another thing that strikes me is that when I was a lad the only easy way to gamble if you were poor was the football pools. If you wanted to use a 'Turf Accountant' (Yes, that's what bookies were called!) you had to have an account. This was why back street illegal bookies and bookie's runners were common . I was one for a while as a lad.....
Look at the TV adverts today, gambling sites and high interest loans wall to wall. Betting shops springing up like mushrooms on every High Street. That says something about our society.

[Stanley]

One good thing about the football pools was that they had to report in their advertisements what percentage of stake money was retained out of the stakes to run the business and provide profit. If I remember rightly it was about 27%. I wonder what some of the lotteries would report today?
Come to think it would be instructive if other financial institutions were forced to do the same! I suppose the get-out is the old canard about 'Commercial Confidentiality', high time that one was knocked on the head!

[Stanley]

I'm quite sure I see the past thorough rose-tinted glasses but I do try to be objective and accurate. I really do believe that our seasons were better defined, summer was warm and winter was cold! That might be because we appreciated warmth more because of the low level of heating at home. There appears to be a fashion now for males to wear shorts even in cold weather and I have to remind myself that in those days we went through winter in short trousers. I got my first 'long trousers' when I went to grammar school at 11 years old. They were grey flannel and I was a big man!
My sister Dorothy went to the Girl's High School and their uniform was a white blouse, black gym slips and long black stockings with sensible black knickers. I remember them all looking like sparrows with thin spindly legs. I look at the kids today, particularly the girls, if they were made to dress like that there would be a revolt!

[Stanley]

If any of you read Stanley's View, you'll see that I am back on one of my old hobby horses, the difference between action and activity and the modern complaint that people are 'time poor'. What would a woman weaver working 12 hours a day in the shed and doing all the housework and cooking think about this? I was lucky in that my mother didn't have to work for much of her married life but many of my mates had working mothers and I don't remember any of them being deprived. Remember also that in those days there was little chance of the husband helping out. If a bloke was seen pegging the washing out the word soon got round that he was a 'Mary Ann'. If you read the transcripts in the LTP you'll find that this was a widespread view and in a strange way it was women going into factories during WW2 because of labour shortages that first started to crack this prejudice. Even so, it took a long time for 'house husbands' to become common and even today there are dinosaurs who still hold out. Many of them don't even let their wives know what they are earning, they just hand over 'housekeeping money'. The male ego is a strange beast and is still alive and well.

[Bodger]

Early days of marriage i was paid the weekly brown pay packet, it was handed unopened to my wife , she deducted the expenses for the coming week what was left was mine, not much but enough for a pint or two, no wasted money on take away food.

[Stanley]

I always did exactly the same Bodge. Never occurred to me to do anything else. Vera used to give me five bob for the week and that was when I was on the tramp! The only extra was my subsistence money, I seem to remember that was Ten Bob a night for bed and breakfast. 50p in today's money. You can't credit it can you......

[Big Kev]

The only extra was my subsistence money, I seem to remember that was Ten Bob a night for bed and breakfast. 50p in today's money. You can't credit it can you......

Average rates these days, from personal experience, is around £6 for lunch, £27 for the evening meal and the company book the hotel directly.

[Stanley]

I was doing well Kev if my weekly wage came somewhere near the food allowance!

Here's a bit from me memoirs....
Jimmy was the best source I ever found for work but even he had his dry spells. Very occasionally there would be no work, this was often at a holiday time. I had the decision as to whether I waited for a back load or went home empty. If there was a good chance of a load the following day I would be first on so I usually stayed the night in Glasgow. I used to park the wagon in the Old Cattle Market in Gallowgate, there wasn’t any official charge but as soon as you drew in and parked up a group of urchins would come up to you and offer to ‘mind your wagon for twa bawbee’. You paid with a smile because if you didn’t you would find a couple of flat tyres or all your sheet ropes cut when you came in the following morning. It was a rough area and they were doing the best they could. It was all good natured and very well controlled, the price was always the same and the wagons were perfectly safe I never grudged them the 2/- but Billy grumbled like hell about it, he had no idea what went on out in the real world. As far as he was concerned he was Mr Harrison, Haulage Contractor of Thornton in Craven and little urchins in Glasgow with the power to cause you a lot of trouble didn’t even register on his radar.
Near the parking place was a working man’s hotel called the Belle Grove. It fronted on to Gallowgate and you could get a cubicle for ten shillings a night with clean sheets. Your companions were the dregs of society but you were one of the club and so as long as you kept yourself private you were reasonably safe. In the morning when you handed your key in you could either have two shillings back or a ticket entitling you to a hot breakfast. I used to take the breakfast which was always the same, a thick lump of sliced sausage, a fried egg, two big pieces of toast and a pot of strong tea. It was a cheap and nourishing start to the day.
Entertainment was no problem on Gallowgate, it was lined with bars, pawn shops and butcher’s supply merchants. If you wanted a drink, a woman or a good knife this was the place to go. I couldn’t afford the bars or the women and so led an exemplary life during my stays in the city but I used to hang about on the street round about chucking out time and watch the night life. The Scots as a race seemed to count an evening in a bar wasted unless they got completely legless! There were songs and arguments and occasional fights, it was an interesting way of spending some quality time studying homo sapiens at its most entertaining!

[Stanley]

[My clearing house in Glasgow was Jimmy McAll's on Clyde Street.]
Sometimes when loads got scarce Jimmy had to stitch a lot of small consignments together to make one viable load. We took turns in accepting these and it came my turn one Glasgow Fair when I finished up with a right old rag-bag. There was a pallet of soap for a colliery in Nottingham, some sacks for a place in North London, two bundles of steel for the Dartford Tunnel which was being built at that time and a spiral staircase for the Heinz factory in Hayes, Kent. It took me all day to pick the stuff up and then I set off for Nottingham via Hey Farm of course. From there I went to London, dropped the sacks and set off for the north side of the river at Dartford where the first bundle of steel had to be delivered. It turned out that these were two identical bundles, one was for the ventilating tower on the north side of the river and one for the tower on the south side. They were waiting for this material and were glad to see me but I wasn’t too pleased because I had to go all the way back into London to cross the Thames by the Blackwall Tunnel in order to get to the south side of the river. That was the nearest river crossing and the reason the Dartford tunnel was being built.
We got the first bundle off and the foreman asked me to wait while he made a phone call. He came back with a big grin on his face and asked me if I’d like to be the first wagon through the tunnel! Evidently they had just finished the temporary deck through the tunnel that morning and he wanted to go through to say he had done it. We set off under the river and apart from having to move some tackle here and there we had an uneventful journey to the other side. I delivered the second bundle of steel and set off to find the Heinz factory in Hayes, well pleased with the time I’d saved. I got to Hayes, trailed all round the town and couldn’t find the Heinz factory anywhere. I asked one old bloke and he beckoned me to follow him, we went into a grocer’s shop and he asked for a tin of beans and handed it to me, “How often have you read one of those labels?” I looked and he was right, I’d seen the words Heinz, Hayes, Middlesex hundreds of times. My notes were wrong! They had the wrong county on them! I had to go all the way back into London, through the Blackwall and off to the correct Hayes. It could have been worse because I got a ten ton load of canned food out of there for Glasgow at a good rate so it all turned out well in the end.
[This is why I loved tramping, every day was different, some better than others!]

[chinatyke]

Average rates these days, from personal experience, is around £6 for lunch, £27 for the evening meal and the company book the hotel directly.

Geez! I could live for a week on one night out at those rates!

[Stanley]

Quite.......

[Stanley]

A lady I speak to almost every morning asked me yesterday if I knew what time to postie delivered. I told her that as far as I can see, when they get round to it! In the days of multiple deliveries you could almost set your watch by the postman's visit, those days have gone. How long can daily home deliveries survive?

[Stanley]

Jessie Watkinson says this postman was called Hartley and he is buried at Gill Church, his headstone was paid for by public subscription. It gives a flavour of how important the role of postman was 100 years ago.