I didn't do much when I was a kid. I mean I didn't do much for my Mum and Dad at home. At least I don't remember helping much. My memory is terrible but I really hope that I did a few jobs now and then. I just don't know to be honest and it's something I regret if I didn't as my parents went too soon.
I think my lack of industry at home if that was the case would have been because I had older siblings at home who did stuff. There were always at least two older sibs throughout my life at home.
I do remember my Mum asking me to scratch her back with a backscratcher, which sounds a bit weird now I've written it. She had a bamboo one and a plastic horse headed one I think!
I remember washing up too and my older brothers whipping my bare legs with tea towels. They actually chased me to the top of the road where I hid in a phone box. I actually think I phoned my Dad to come and get me!
I also regret not having a paid job of any kind until I was 17, although I did work full time from that age and apart from studying have worked ever since.
I didn't have a paper round or anything like that. I remember doing a day's sweeping and stacking at my Dad's cash and carry warehouse, for which I was paid £100 and taxed by my Dad £99. I was so chuffed with the pound I ended up with!
Did you do jobs paid or unpaid when you were a kid?
I had an uncle who owned a delicatessen/grocery on St. John's Wood High Street in London just a stone's throw from Lord's Cricket Ground.
ReplyDeleteThere were times during school holidays when my mother would help serve customers in the store and I would help pack orders into cardboard boxes. From age 10 I would help as a van boy, assisting making the deliveries with the van driver. Different drivers every year as they were usually a filler job for men just finished Nation Service.
I think I earned about ten shillings a week plus shared tips! Plus Ice Lollies when on tea breaks!
One year after college I at short notice was the delivery driver when someone was out sick. I had forgotten all about that until a few years ago when visiting London. My wife arranged to meet friends at a restaurant in St. John's Wood. We were driving around for ages in a rental car until she finally told me the name of the apartment building the restaurant was in. It had no visible signs from the street, the entrance being from the lobby. I remembered where the building was from making deliveries there years before.
Great memories Terran and what a coincidence with your meal! Those boyhood memories are like a cover for a Corgi or Dinky catalogue, a van boy on deliveries. I wonder if that's even possible nowadays, to get work experience like that?
Delete