1949
I continued playing hockey after I left school, which is where I met Olive. Olive and I decided we would go to Norway to ski. We had to go up to Newcastle to get the boat over to Bergen. I must have been driving by this point. We met some very friendly young men.
I remember going over the North Sea, the area called the Bite, to Bergen. We didn’t have a cabin even though it was overnight, so we slept in our chairs. I had never been seasick before or since - it was the most terrible experience. I remember lying on the bathroom floor and reaching up to the sink every five minutes. Many people say the Bite is notorious for this.
We went by train to Geilo. We were put up in a youth hostel - it was pleasant enough. This was where I first met the hard Norweigan cheese. We had a very lovely holiday - I wasn’t too bad at skiing, I kept my balance most of the time.
1950
By this time, I was working as a share transfer clerk at a London property company. It was a fairly big office that dealt with the buying and selling of stocks and shares. The boss was a man called Mr Mcloed - a scotsman. An older lady worked there and she loved being teased by the boss in a Scottish accent.
1952
I was still studying for the final of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and I think this must have been an advantage. I became a “partner” at John Lewis. Shortly after this I sat the final of the CIS- successfully. I was just twenty one and thought I was the bees knees to have achieve this prodigious qualification at such a young age!!!! I worked in the Chief Accountant's department in the main shop in Oxford Street under the direction of Mrs Parsons (Pat Parsons to her intimates - which did not include me!!)
I worked with another trainee – a tall, blond, very handsome young man who appeared to know his way around the world. Mrs Parsons had worked her way up to become the Chief Accountant at Selfridges and was now enjoying a semi-retirement job of overseeing us trainees. She was very laid back. We spent our morning break in a small cafe where we had rolls and cheese and no one seemed to notice the time! Occasionally she would take me to a posh restaurant in Cavendish square and we would have spaghetti bolognaise for starters, a dover sole to follow, and a dessert. Coffee was a must of course!! Very occasionally we had a “white lady” - to me a totally strange cocktail but which I came to know and enjoy for years after. Mrs Parsons showed me the pleasures of eating which were hitherto unknown to me. At home it was meat and two veg. for a proper meal or beans on toast for a snack.
I then applied for a secretarial post with some architects. I got an interview and was told they liked my application. I had to do a typing test at the interview. They gave me a week’s trial. At the end of the week a man brought me into his office and told me my typing was not up to standard for the prestigious business.
After that, I got a bit fed up going all the way into London so I got a job at Sieman’s in Woolwich, a German electronics company. This one did not require a test. I shared an office with a very nice young man - I really liked him - and an older man. The younger man - whose name I don’t even remember - was the first man to spark something sexual in me. We played chess on our lunch breaks - he was much better than me.
We came back from our lunch break and the older man said “did you beat him?” and for some reason I replied, “no, he whipped the knickers off me!”. I don’t know where I got this phrase from but it just came out. It was very embarrassing and awkward! The older man had no idea what to say. I also made another faux pas at this job. I was typing a letting to one of the suppliers. I finished the letter and took it in to the big boss and I said “are you going to sign this French letter?” and he said “do you mean the letter to French and co?”. It was not until much later someone told me French letter meant condom.
I had gone to a girl’s school so how was I to know these things!
One day, my mother and the mother of Len Langdale decided to be matchmakers. He had been invalided by the Navy as he had pleurisy. We went to visit him in the hospital and he asked if I would like to go for a drink. He was just as confused as me - went on a date to a pub in Crayford and I asked him to get me a pint of Shandy. Mishearing me, he tried to order a pint of Sherry! Things did not go further because he was so dull! He walked me home and asked if he could kiss me to which I declined because it seemed so unromantic. He later married a very dull woman so I suppose they were meant to be.
1953
I then got another job that was more relevant to what I was studying. I was posted to a John Lewis shop in Reading. Here I met good friends including Gabriel (Gay) Duffy and Gladys Yallop. We all lived together in a very big house called Warren Towers near Reading. Gay Duffy had a flat at the top of the house because she was a senior at the company. Gladys worked in personnel. Gladys and I had a big room each that included a small cooking area, a bed and tables and chairs. We shared the bathroom.
I was assistant counting house manager. I worked alongside Herman Schweizer - I didn’t like him. Now that I look back I wonder if I was xenophobic because he was German and it was just a few years after the war. He was responsible for performance reviews and he was very hard on me when I made a mistake. One day, head office called and asked for him. He wasn’t there because he was having an affair, playing away with another woman when he should have been at work. He was very angry that I didn’t cover for him.
Then, I had a boyfriend. All I remember is he used to stand outside the house under the street lamp and the other girls would say “Jean, Jean, your boyfriend is outside.”