Your first job in Coventry

Thought you would have liked it, I am the same, enthralled, I liked looking closely at the 'goods' on sale. If you put a search in on the home page, you do get a search list of Coventry stuff to click on.

I did read your last Woolies post RKid,so I have not forsaken you. I think your years at Woolies will go down in history - never to be forgotten ! most certainly by the company. It's a good job there were no electric fans around during your latest escapade (if you don't mind me mentioning that !!!!!). Where did you move onto after that ?

I recall my interview with the manager of Tilcon Quarry for the job of plant fitter.. I arrived on time but Brian, the manager was out in the quarry. I was shown to his office and invited to take a seat and wait for his return. The walls of his office was covered with angling photographs and trophies and as I was looking at them Brian returned. He asked if I was an angler, when I said yes that was the end of the interview. We got in Brians car and he gave me a tour of the several pools at the quarry telling me the best way to fish them. That was really it, I was told to start the following Monday and bring my fishing tackle with me. As a parting shot Brian asked if I could weld, I said yes and that was the only question about my ability to do the job...Les

Dreamtime, when I left Woolies I went to work for Lister's Home Electrics, Hill fields just opporsite Phillips hardware store. I worked there for about two years as a Washing machine engineer. A funny thing happened to me while working with Eric Lister, he always tried to please his customers, well once money had Been paid over he did not want to give it back and fair play to him he did give a good return. I guess on one occasion he picked on the wrong man to sell a faulty washing machine to ( must just say he sold it with good intent) I was sent to the persons house with a new heating element to repair a second hand Empress Washing machine Lister had sold him (the element had become faulty) the Empress machine was very big with a door at the front to house the mangle when not in use, with the door open and the mangle removed I could get in and by lying on my back make repairs to the heater. On my arrival I was told by the man's wife that no way was I to repair the machine , " take it away and give me back my money" she told me "and donot let my husband come home and catch you here without the money" just then the Phone rang, it was Eric ringing to see if all was ok ? After a big row she gave me the phone so I could speak to Eric. "Carry on and do the repair " he said " I am on my way to see you. The lady gave me permission to continue and I crawled into the front opening laying on my back, to do the said repair. After a short while Eric turned up and started to chat to the Lady. They then went into another room whereupon the husband appeared entering from the front door, an almighty row ensued and then they all Reappeared in the kitchen where I was attempting the repair and getting very nervous , I could see through slots in the machine's body a little of what was going on and it did not look very good, she was crying and trying to pull the man of Eric , Eic was trying to look cool (it was not working ) at this point the man surged forward and with a mighty blow from his fists he hit the machine, pushing it across the kitchen floor with me in it, the machine along with me hit the wall on the other side of the room , causing quite a bit of damage to the sides not to mention me all scrunged up now inside the the machine. It must have shuck them all when they realised I was in the machine. All three came over to help me out and the man was very upset that I had Been involved and could not apologise enough. " I did not see you there son " he exclaimed "so sorry" just then Eric bent down to see if I was alright , and then he was slapped on his head by the man who had hands the size of shovels, he went down like a "ten pin" I was helped up and given a cup of tea, Eric was helped out the door "and don't come back" the man said. I was on my own now but they we're great asked me if I would carry on and do the repair. ( well I was not going to say no, that's for sure) now this is the strange thing, he was so delighted with my repair that he kept the Empress Washing Machine and gave me a tip. What can ya say? I returned to the shop, Eric was still reeling from his head bashing. He said "we will pick up the machine tomorrow, you and the other driver can do that one" " no need " I said I smoothed him over and he his well chuffed. Did not have the nerve to tell him I had a tip, "good days work Col" he said , best have a bonus in you pay this week, "well done" Colin.

As soon as I read 'A funny thing happened to me while working'............ I thought this guy is luckier than a cat, he has more lives than God gave him ! Well done there Colin (I don't think your wife will mind me calling you Colin by now) I get the impression Eric gave you the tough end of the stick. I like the way he said "WE will pick up the machine tomorrow" and then assigns you and the other driver to do it. So you deserved the bonus. Right - next episode..............

My first job after leaving school was in Farmers butchers which was in Smithford Way, after about a year there I went to work in the butchery dept in Woolies it was great fun working at Woolies, after Woolies I worked for Sheldons butchers working in lots of their shops around the City including Broadgate which was in the temporary buildings opposite the Elephant. After working in the butchery trade I train to be a chef and worked at the Leofric Hotel for a spell, I left the catering trade after working abroad for a few years, and ended up working at the Jag for over 20 years.

Great washing-machine story, Colin. With this and the other ones you given us, you could write a book!

Hello Meerkat I wonder if while you were working at Woolies in the Butchery dept was Telstar playing on the stores record counter? Do you remember the hanging Christmas trees? And who was the manager at the time? Was it Mr Drinkall? I wonder if we were there at the same time? I worked for Mr Gene Cook on Maintence . Colin

Thanks for the nice comments 66, it goes on and on I have never thought of me being any different from to anyone else with regard to some of the exploits I got up to I just thought that most of us must have Had similar experiences during their younger years, I look back and think I was very lucky in having such a great childhood . Thanks again. Colin.

Dreamtime, looks like I will have to re-vamp my intros, I am becoming predictable. Thanks for your nice comments, as always you brought a smile to my face . My wife reads your comments and she shares my sentiments and you can call me Colin anytime as long as you don't call me late for dinner.lol. Yes I guess I have been very lucky with my life, I seem to have a good recollection of various happening that made up my exciting childhood and my teen years. I love sharing with you and being encourage to depict them. Your distant friend. Colin.

Hi Radford Kid, I don't recall Telstar being played but when I was there it was a bit after it was popular, I do remember the hanging Christmas trees, not too sure who the manager was, I do remember the head of of the floor walkers was a bit brutal with any shoplifters he caught. I worked there for about a year in the mid 60's.

I left school , Caludon Castle , aged 15 at Easter 1963 .I joined the Royal Navy and was waiting to be called up to train at the dreaded Ganges . In the interim I got a job as a trainee at Lockhurst Lane Co-op grocery emporium on the corner of Foleshill Road and Holmesdale Road . The Co-op was a very hierarchical organisation , Managers and Assistant Managers were gods and everyone else was my superior .For about four months though I had great fun . The massive cellars were my domain , all the stores were down there and I had to keep the shop shelves constantly stocked up .There were rows of full cheeses , sides of bacon , hundreds of boxes of foodstuffs . I also had to keep an ancient coal fired boiler stoked up .The shop was full of characters , the assistant Manager was an ex navy man who delighted in telling me at every opportunity what I was in for at Ganges ( how right he was ! ).There was a lady of a certain age who had gentlemen friends and was always confiding in the other lady staff members .There was a youngish courting couple , the lad was a bit aggressive so I kept out of his way .One day his girlfriend came down to the cellars and promptly tried to have her way with innocent little me .Before I could escape her boyfriend appeared and made a lunge for me . She smacked him a beauty on the nose ! They both ignored me after that . There was a lad at the shop called Martin who had a lovely singing voice and was quite well known in the area , anyone remember him ? To a fifteen year old the shop seemed a massive place but now , on the odd occasion that I pass the building it is just a scruffy little corner shop .

Have to tell you this one as you asked about my previous jobs. For while I worked at a company called Trueloves, Railway terrace in Rugby, the Company were agricultural engineers, specialising in the repair of Farm machinery etc. I was employed as a Lawnmower engineer, my main job was to service the petrol engines and sharpen the cutters on Lawnmowers of all sizes from domestic to commercial. I loved that job , the people I worked with we're so nice and Trueloves were a great firm to work for, no longer trading now it's sad to say. On the day I joined Trueloves another youth (same age as myself) also applied for the same position, as it happened we were both taken on for a trial period. I guess I was at that time a little boring as to my attire, I was never a follower of Fashion now this other lad was well into the fashion trends , he loved himself it's fair to say, but that's not a bad thing in my book, nothing wrong in self esteem and he did love the ladies. Although we became good friends we were rivals in terms on the type of repairs we were allowed to take on taking the Micky when ever we could, I used to turn up for work in a boiler suit and wearing boots, he on the other hand came to work in his Sunday best, donning a cow gown on arrival, he wore Winkle picker shoes with the longest point I have ever seen (I think he liked to give he impression the he was a White collar worker) He was working on a big petrol mower this day when things did not quite workout for him. "Never start a mower in gear" that was the golden rule, drilled into us from the start. But you know how it is ,mind on other things it was bound to happen one day, we knew that but did he pick the wrong to mower to prove the prediction. He had just completed a major rebuild ,new cutters fitted and engine overall I have to just say at this point, this mower was fitted with a centrifugal clutch, meaning, the engine when ticking over would not engage the drive, the clutch would not work until enough speed had Been reached in order to throw out the Pawls inside the clutch and engage, with that in mind I will continue He started the mower with the clutch engaged but as pointed out the mower was still at rest with the engine running , "it sounded real good" after warm up he then walked round to the front of the machine ,engine still running at low revs , "go on then opener her up" I shouted , "ok ok ok keep ya hair on" was his reply. Wow what he did next had us laughing for weeks after that, he reached over to the throttle (a lever on the handle, not a twist grip as on a motor bike) and without thinking he pulled the lever forward. Immediately the cutters started to rotate at speed and the machine began to move forward and as he was in its path he started to retreat but not quick enough , we looked on in horror ,this could turn out real bad we thought! we were scared he would put his hands into the cutter. a couple of us ran over to try and stop the mower but it was too late , his right Winkle picker came to the rescue, with an almighty bang the mower came to an abrupt stop, all fell quite, well until he had noticed the tip of his shoe was no longer attached then he screamed and shouted , you can guess what we all thought, "he has lost his big toe?" it turned out it was just his picker part of his shoe he had chopped off leaving an hole in the end. His toe was well clear ( about nine inches further back we thought. Lol. Made us laugh but it could have been so much worse. I think he chopped the other shoe to match, had it stitched up and started a new trend called "the chisel look" well that was a close one.Colin.

Thanks RKid, Had a good chuckle over that one. When I saw how much you had written I thought well this one needs a cup of coffee and a sit down. It just goes to show what safety boots are for. I daresay we all remember what winkle picker shoes looked like, and my Tony had some but laughed when they started turning up at the toes. That situation could have been a lot worse so your mate was lucky. Thanks for that Colin - any more ??????

Not exactly in order but one of my less glamorous jobs was working at a scrap yard, my friend owned the yard and he gave me the job after me being out of work, I did not hack it for very long as the work was very hard and filthy, it was that bad that during the winter I used to shovel snow from around the car I was working on so I could lay under it to do repairs (dam cold) we had no toilet facilities ( I will not go into that part of my description as it may offend) . anyway I have to tell you this sad story about a poor old lady. Not only did we scrap cars but we also did a repair service, not very good but we muddled through. Having turned up for work one morning I could see that Len (Len Davies was the Boss) had towed in an old sit up and beg Hillman Minx, the roof construction was Made up of two components the shell was pressed steel leaving the centre made of canvas ( I think) to compare it looked like a sun roof aperture that you see on a modern car except the aperture was almost the size of the roof ,the steel forming the shape Now the sad bit, I was asked to replace the Near side rear shock absorber on this car, no problem I jacked up the car and then I noticed the shock absorber had broken free from its upper mounting? I reported this to Len and told him that the mounting needs to be welded back in place before I could undertake the full repair , I then noticed a pool of blood on the back seat? On further inspection I noticed the the upper part of the shock absorber was protruding through the seat ?. "What's that all about " I thought . I called Len to have a look. Once he had inspected the damage he rang the owner to get more info. While I waited for Len to track down the owner I had another look at the hole in the seat I then noticed the hole in the lining of the roof ? Len returned from his phone call and began a tail of woe, it would appear that he had brought the car as scrap but decided to repair it then sell it on, nothing new their then. But what he was not told at the time of purchase was that the owner's mother in law was sitting in the back seat and being driven by the owner himself when he hit a bump in the road and because the Absorber mounting was rusty it broke free, the top end of the absorber arm now was pushed up through the floor and through the rear seat the poor lady was sitting over the shock absorber, the force then pushed her upwards. Now if that was not bad enough having a shock absorber Pushed about your rump area, her head was pushed through the roof severing her left Ear. That accounted for the blood found on the seat, sent me cold I can tell you. After hearing about the incident I approached Len and asked if I could be moved to another job, but it fell on deaf ears , oops what a pun, sorry about that. We never got to know if the lady recovered and just in case you are wondering, I did not find the ear, not sure what happened to it? If anyone is interested in the location of Len"s Scrap yard , it was at the top end of Crowe Lane and Spon street. Colin.