Starting Work

A Memory of Wood Green.

I began my working life as a junior clerk at the Wood Green Branch of the National Provincial Bank in September 1949. my starting pay was £2.13.6d a week. In those days we used dip in pens and bank statements were typed on a typewriter,
Our ledger keeper was a disabled chap named Joe Young and one of my jobs was to go to a cafe across the road to collect his three course lunch - sounds simple enough but, running the gauntlet of fast moving (and very silent) trolley buses carrying a fully laden tray was sometimes a bit dodgy.On one very windy day I was half way across the road when a gust of wind caught the light metal cover over Joe's meat and three veg, it went bowling down the middle of the road eventually being flattened by a passing trolley bus. A three course lunch cost two shillings (10p)!
On one occasion a customer wanted special clearance of a cheque drawn on a bank in the West End, generously offering to drive someone there to achieve this. Riding in a big posh car was quite a novel experience but I was a little less enchanted when he abandoned me to make my own way back!