Wigan Album

Please forgive if I've posted this before, it's an article I wrote for the Wigan Observer about 7 years ago .

My First Day at Work.
By Tom Walsh .

I leave home in a very nervous state,I've been awake half the night,wondering what the day held in store,would the men be nice,would I be able to come home at dinner time(lunch for southern cousins). My Mother made the morning more anxious, "Have you got a clean handkerchief ", "Have you cleaned your shoes", Have you got your dinner money,(Interpretation time again,lunch)."Mam"I yell back, "Stop fussing I'll be alright if you'll just stop fussing,please",I'm not bothered at all,about going to work,it's just you keep going on"which of course is a complete lie, I don't think I have ever felt so scared in my lifeI start my journey into the new world. I had secured a job,at Lowes. a very posh department store,a week before,as an apprentice carpet fitter,considered a very good trade in those days,I felt very fortunate to have landed a position in such a prestigious establishment. I think this sentiment was shared by most of my family,and by all of my teachers, I hadn't performed well at school,spelling being my biggest drawback,(Thank God,for spell check,
In those unenlightened times ,poor spelling consigned you to the scrap heap. As I nearer the emporium,I start to think I wish I hadn't been so fortunate, I think a less posh place of work would have suited me better. I'm from a mining family,but from my earliest days it had been drilled into me," your not going down the pit ", my Dad had been hurt in a pit fall,and my maternal Grandfather had lost a leg in similar circumstances, but if not there,where? The world certainly wasn't my oyster. In the mile or so walk from home to shop,I convince myself once again,that I am indeed fortuitous.
On reaching the Market Square, I look up at the imposing edifice,that was Lowe's Victoria House, a Cathedral to poshness. Even though I caught the bus for school immediately outside there everyday for four years, I had never dared enter its portals,until I went for interview, Mr.Lowe said my well written letter had impressed him, and got me to the interview stage,I had enough nous not say my sister helped me,in truth she had written it,and I merely copied the missive . My Mother likewise had never entered the hallowed halls, nor I expect had the vast majority of my extended family, far to grand for the likes of us !

As I gaze up,awaiting the courage to enter,I start again to ponder again my suitability for the position,and wished I hadn't answered the advertisement a fortnight earlier. I would surely have found something less daunting and better suited to my background, but here goes I must face the consequences of that much pored over letter,that has landed me in this predicament .

On the day of my interview,I was told my start time would be eight o'clock,but on the first day I would be meet b Mr.Marshall,Furnishing Workroom Manager,at nine o'clock ,and he would introduce me to the staff and show me the ropes.I enter the building just as the Parish Church clock chimes nine.A tall distinguished looking man approaches me."Are you our new recruit" he asks in a decidedly officer type accent."Yes Sir" I mumble,trying to keep my voice as low as possible,it rises three octaves when I'm in a stressful situation. "No need for sir ,your not at school now ,Mr.Marshall will do nicely" he says in a firm abrupt way,I find out in the years ahead was his style of speaking. We take the lift to the top floor, I relived that we don't use the stairs,as I imagine everybody is looking at me,and wondering how I'II fit in,worse still if I'II fit in.

We reach the workroom,it's all very formal,as was everything at Lowes I shake hands with all the carpet fitters,seven in all.and the four lady seamstresses . The ladies are all lovely ,and do everything to make me feel at ease, one in particular seems to take a shine to me , Betty , who I discover lives near to me ,we walk home together everyday,and she becomes a confidant ,and trusted adviser on workroom politics. We are great friends to this day, a few years latter we are to share the same surname when she marries my cousin Jim,a small world !. All the men seem very friendly and welcoming,apart from one,who whilst he shook hands,seemed anything less than pleased to see me, I shan't name him in case he still roams the planet,although I doubt it,as these events are over fifty yeas ago,and he appeared to be in his forties then. I learn later that it was nothing personal,he drinks heavily ever weekend and is in a foul mood on Monday mornings.

The formality of the first day, and my time at The Cathedral has stayed with me for the rest of my life. I can but wonder why many younger people clap each others hand in the air to speak,I learned only recently,this called a high five,and is in the modern day equivalent of the handshake. I am relieved to say I have never been offered a high five,and hope the occurrence doesn't present itself in my lifetime, how's that for being "stuffy",sorry, don't blame me,blame Lowes.

The formality of the meetings continue as I'm coached in shop etiquette. In the unlikely event ,in the first few weeks at least,I should need to speak to a female customer she should be addressed as Madam,a gentlemen as Sir,the second would come easier as I'm used to that form of address at school, and whilst I had to use Madam,I didn't feel totally comfortable with its usage. After Lowes was taken-over. I addressed female customers by their surname or in absence of that knowledge, by the much less formal Miss.

I love reading that story, Tom, as I love reading all your stories. I remember when I was a little girl, customers at Woolworths used to shout "Miss!" to the female staff when they needed help, and even when I left my job at Boots' Chemists in 2007, we still had a customer who used to call us assistants "Miss"; I loved that old-fashioned form of address.
I used to love Lowe's and have fond memories of the carpeted floors and creaky stairs, and can never watch Grace Brothers' Store in the tv programme "Are You Being Served?" without thinking of Lowe's. Some ladies used to put a bit of a posh voice on when having a mooch round Lowe's or Pendlebury's! It was a "mooch" only for my Mam and many others as those two stores were considered very expensive and a bit "posh", and normal Lancashire accents were resumed once they were in Woolworths and Oxley's!

It was Irene and no matter where you walked there was always a loose and squeaky board, or maybe it was a big mouse squeaking under the board? A friend and I if seeing each other in town would call in and walk through the floors to the cafe, though looking on the poster it says, walk through for bargains! I can't recall seeing any and other folks too were just having a mooch, as you say, I remember too there always being a lot of older ladies milling around, very often they reminded me of Miss Bacon, (Margaret Rutherford) in Trouble in Store.
Though nowadays there's not a squeaky board to be heard in stores that all look and smell the same, and you now tend to go in and come out with just what you went in for, with no mooching around.