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kanishka

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babylm2-subset

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Ah, nineteen thirteen.

So when you started did you receive a wage, rather than piece rate?

I I I received, it was, it was, yes that's right, until you get into the job, yeah.

Five bob, and then you get on a piece rate.

I I must have told you before that what we got er we used to turn and bundle two thousand four hundred, I told you that didn't I?

Mm.

Did I tell you that story?

What did erm

For sixpence.

What did tu turning a sock actually involve?

Why why did the socks have to be turned?

Why, because they was dyed on the wrong side.

Erm, you see they were dyed on the wrong side you know they were of course it was easier to penetrate than it would be if they dyed them on the right side you see, it was technically i far far superior.

And so that's what they did.

So how many departments would there be at at the time?

Well there'd be dying and scouring and tacking sorting, trimming, packing, drying, all kind, you know that that's about total number of departments, brushing.

Would each department have it's own foreman then?

Oh yes, oh yes, even if it was a department of only ooh five or six people, there'd be somebody in charge.

Always be a charge-hand, foreman.

Yeah, was a, is a, was a charge-hand different to a foreman then?

We well a a foreman usually was over more workers than a charge- hand was.

You see you could have a charge-hand over er er two or three people really, he'd be working with them but he he'd be the charge-hand.

I mean the chap that the management would come to and say, Well has there's this particular lot of work gone through yet?

Or and he he'd know this, that'd be his job as well.

I see.

Th th er th did I tell you about er how I how I started at , how I left school?

Taking the Labour Examination ?

That's right, that's right .

Yeah.

Er go on, glad I've got that bit.

Yeah so how would the workers, presumably the er charge-hands and foremans were promoted from the the shop floor.

How did you feel ?

Usually pretty fairly.

How did you feel about pi your own people sort of being transferred into positions of authority, was there much resentment?

Er well n not really because they had to be in the union.

Mm.

You see if they wanted to be a foreman he'd still in the union.

So it didn't make a great deal of difference really, you know, you you'd still got er some jurisdiction over them even though they were the foreman like.

Yeah and what was your father's job at ?

Well he he was a a foreman of the sorting room.

You know and he was when I started there in nineteen thirteen.

And er th th that was it.

How much would he have received for that?

Well er I I his wage round about er First World War s commencement fourteen, thirty bob a week, which was a good wage.

Mm.

And you you were earning about ten bob a week then ?

Well at that time I was getting as much as ten bob a week.

S and was that the the whole wage for the whole family or were there other members of the family working?

Oh no, no other money coming in, oh no.

Did you have any brothers and sisters?

I've got one brother, but he was younger than me and at that time he were going to school anyway.

So was the s the family standard of of living reasonably high in those days ?

It were reasonable, quite re , er as a matter of fact we could afford to go on ho my father could afford to take us on a holiday every year.

Where about

To the seaside.

Whereabouts?

Well we the the main place was Cleethorpes, although we was at Blackpool when, in fourteen, when the War started.

Went to Blackpool one or or on one or two occasions but me mother suffered with er with her heart and the doctor said, Well don't go to Blackpool again, the air's too strong.

So we didn't you see after that.

Yeah.

Did your mother work at all?

Not until er when was it, ooh, I think not until er me brother and I were married and her and me father were together and she used to do a bit of homework er making these er kind of leather bags,

Mm.

you know, sewing the leather bags.

So as as a youth and a child she didn't take,

No.

do any work to make end ends meet ?

Never done any work at all after being married no, never, no.

She was a lace mender.

She'd been a lace mender before she married your father?

She was a lace mender, yes, that's right.

That's right.

Yeah, you just mentioned the Wars, you remember much about the War in in ?

Well,th I I must have told you because it's one of the things that er stand out that on on the day when they dropped the first bomb in I and I I and it was er it'd be the thirty first of January, but I don't know whether it was er fifteen or sixteen, nineteen fifteen or nineteen sixteen.

On that particular day I I was coming home from work and it were quarter to nine, I'd just finished work.

And I'd started at six in the morning.

And I'd been there from six in the morning till quarter to nine.

And there were two of us worked together a lad my age and myself.

And we was walking down Street when a soldier was coming and he said er, You want to er you want to make haste home me lads the Zeppelins are about, you see.

Well you know what kids, we kind of laughed at this you know, we didn't take it as serious.

So we sauntered home and by the time just when we got home perhaps by you know we'd get home at nine, by quarter past nine er we saw the Zeppelin come over.

You could see this Zeppelin.

I remember this.

Was this the one that hit Woolworth's, was that cos Woolworth's was bombed wasn't it ?

Aye, that's right.

Woolworth's and er and the water fountain in Street.

Mm.

That's right, that's the one.

Did it drop any other bombs or?

Er there was er I think there were thr I think there were three killed in Street, three people in a, killed in a house in Street.

Er but everybody in went down to see what had happened like, you know to see Woolworth's.

They'd never you know imagined that anything like that could quite happen so we ,

Mhm.

well I went down and had a look at it as a kid you know.

I remember seeing Woolworth's.

With

Did

er a tear in it's side.

Mm.

Did it upset people or?