Your first job in Coventry

Hello, I have & use a 24" steel rule now.

Helen, I have only been in my present home for 7 years and I couldn't live with my assortment of screwdrivers. That's what you desperately need in a 'new build.' I am not too handy with the old Black and Decker drill though. I need more practice with that old relic !!

PhiliPamInCoventry, 24" eh? It would appear that we finally have the measure of you. I have always liked to take comfort in the notion that, as a rule, size isn't necessarily everything. However, as a steel rule, I think we have to accept there being an exception. The long and short of it is that engineers would very likely have their own 6" rule and maybe even a personal 12". The employer would likely also provide 12" rules as the norm, and rules of greater length, 24" and 36" for example, should they be needed. In my line of work we needed to go the extra yard and ensure that a 48" steel rule was available in the workshop. I hope I haven't put a foot in it by posting at length on this?

Helen, I think we have a comic in our midst.

Hello 3Spires, When you were working at W.E. Jones, did you know of anything the company were doing for the Apollo space program? Cheers Siegfried

No - not as I recall (I started in '74 - see also my comment(s) in the W E Jones topic)

My first job was at a firm called Frederick Marsden on the Foleshill Road opposite to ? Eagle Street. I was a telephonist. The firm was a textile firm making ?synthetic lining fabrics for clothes. I remember the looms clattering making an awful din. Mr McKnight was the mill manager with Geoffrey Styche assistant manager. Mr Henshaw and Mr Ambler were in the accounts office. Their secretary was called Rosemary. Other office workers were transported in from further afield near Birmingham - Miss Haimes, (with a mass of red hair) and Mabel ? Another person working there who I was friendly with was Dot Swaffield - she lived on Mount Nod and her daughter was a bridesmaid at my wedding back in 1967. Unfortunately I have lost touch with her. One of the directors was Mr Ryder and his secretary was a beautiful ?Greek girl called Bula. She was a 'larger than life' character! I remember being summoned into Mr Leslie Marsden's office and thought I was about to be told off for something! Instead he wanted me to put through an important call to a fabric dyeing works in the north of England. There was no STD in those days and all the telephone routings went through different towns with their own telephone exchanges. It was very interesting! I particularly remember speaking to the telephonist at a firm called Jerimiah Unsworth and company! Happy days!!

My first job was as a "van boy" at "Bobby" Savages (Mothers Pride) in Argyle St Ball Hill. My first round was with Alec Guy (my uncle) whose round was the Radford area.