Just a few more memories of LEWIS'S LTD.
It All Happened By Chance!
Originally on leaving school I'd had no thoughts about working at Lewis's, in fact I had secured a job at MORGAN & BALLS High Class Tailors in New Street for the princely sum of £3 per week, but on my way back to catch my bus home I just thought on impulse that I would pop in to Lewis's as I was passing the door and see what the job prospects were. I found my way to the personnel office and enquired, only to be told that they were not recruiting at the moment but I could take the entrance examination whilst I was there if I wanted to, so I thought why not. I waited whilst my paper was being checked and If memory serves me correctly I think I attained about 98% The lady came and said to me that the Personnel Manager would like to see me, and ushered me into his office, he said that he was impressed with my result and asked me to look at the 2 questions I had got wrong and to which I then gave the correct answers. He asked me how old I was and said the wage would £3-7-6 per week (£3.371/2 current money) and when could I start, I said but I didn't think that you were employing people at the moment, to which he replied because of your excellent test result we will make an exception, report Monday sharp at 9.00 clock to the staff training department, so on my way home I phoned the man at Morgan & Ball to tell him I would not be taking the job as I had got another one paying 7/6 a week more.
A Random Ramble.
The 3 General Managers that were there during my time were :-
Mr Mountford, a shortish man who always wore a bowler hat when did a tour of the store with his entourage.
Mr Stapleton, a tall man slightly balding with a military bearing and a moustache.
Mr Coughlan, another tall man with a military bearing, wavy hair and a moustache.
The 2 AGMs were a Mr Andrews and Mr Mackenzie.
Mrs Fox ran the service bureau.
Mr Robinson SM of the Radio & T.V Dep’t (Nickname Radio Robinson)
The company house for the General Managers was in Four Oaks / Sutton Coldfield.
Because Lewis's had no staff car park the GMs used to use Bell & Nicholsons car park accessed through a roller meshwork shutter in Steelhouse Lane.
I asked for rise on one occasion so Mr Smith recommended me for one, I was sent for by Mr Harris personnel manager who was a bit of an intimidating sort of person, ( reminded you of Valentine Dyall the man in black, actor and radio personality) During the interrogation oops I mean interview he asked me why I thought I was entitled to a rise, to which I replied that I had carried out this duty that duty etc etc, he opened a drawer in his desk and consulted a book within and made the pronouncement that he would increase my wages by 2/6d per week, but to remember (and I have never forgotten these words) "You can never do more than 8 hours work in an 8 hour day no matter what you do" "IT'S GOOD TO BE THE KING"
(Film quote History of the World pt1)
Are You Being Served.
I think every department had their version of “Mrs Slocombe” in those days, in the Gardening dep’t we certainly did even down to her having a pussy (cat for those with a lively mind). Proprieties and the fact I don't fancy being sued means that I won't be identifying the person. The Lady in fact was a hard worker so much so she nearly knocked you down to get to a potential customer, that 6d in the £ commission drove her on relentlessly, she was forever complaining about the Saturday fellow we had as he was a good looking guy of I think Cypriot extraction and he had a way with the lady customers and sold quite a lot of merchandise much to the lady's chagrin, as she would say "He won't be here Monday to takes the goods he's sold round to the Parcels Office for delivery !!!" One or two of us were gathered at the staff lift waiting to go for a coffee in the canteen, the lady was "holding court" with some other female staff members regarding the short comings of husbands and the conversation was on these lines, the lady in question had already seen off 2 husbands and she must have been asked if she would get married again, at this point the staff lift was docking and as the gates opened she made the following pronouncement " I wouldn't have another man if his backside was studded in diamonds, I am quite happy with my cat for company". Everybody boarded the lift and as we docked on the 6th floor for the canteen the lift driver who was nice guy and a bit of a comedian announced "see this one here she would rather have an old tom cat than a bloke, much to every one’s amusement. Another incident that the lady was involved in was at Greys Department Store (opposite Lewis's), on this occasion she opened the door to leave the store and a man tried to barge through, the response was that she thrust out her hand to stop him and announced "I have opened this door to let myself out, not to let you in, stand aside" and with that she left. One of life’s characters to say the least.
Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention.
Lewis's Gardening Dep’t comprised of 3 sections and the way we remembered them were as follows, Button 1 on the till M16 Anything that grows, Button 2 on the till M17 Anything that doesn't grow, Button 3 on the till M18 Garden Furniture. At the time, I worked there out of town garden centres if any were few and far between, so we did a lot of business. Mr Reardon the buyer at Duke Street procured bulk purchases of capital goods, lawn mowers, sheds, garden furniture etc, local suppliers like Thomas Plant, F.W. Pimm, Joseph Walters and one or two others supplied us with small top ups weekly. If we were overbought Mr Smith would send me up to plead for a hundred pounds or whatever the figure was so that we could top up the shelves and I would have to take the orders to be counter signed by the stores Merchandise Officer, I think his name was Mr Jones, he had an office next to the Assistant General Managers office Mr Freddie Andrews, who I must say was an absolute Gentleman. Obviously, Spring, Summer and Autumn were the busiest seasons, the Summer brought the display of bowls of cut roses from Abraham and Walker in Ireland all varieties were available for the customers to order for delivery to their homes for Autumn planting, as Autumn approached crate loads of Daffodil, tulip, and Hyacinth bulbs and prepacked shrubs started arriving, (I have still got 6 or 7 Copper Beech trees all growing as a hedge). Now some of the bulbs brought with them some problems of their own, Tulips would give you tulip finger, that is to say your finger nail mainly on your first two fingers and thumb started parting company with your actual finger which was very sore, the only answer was to ram barrier cream down your nails and try to remember to wear a glove, Hyacinths were dressed with something that if you touched your body after serving them it made you itch, no answer to that one only wash your hands or don't touch yourself. The best bulbs were the Daffodils, no problems with those, and we used to sell thousands of those King Alfred’s at 2/11d a dozen, in fact it was a full-time job fetching the crates up from the sub-basement, the 3 tier metal trollies were useless you could only get 3 crates on, a sack truck was fair but you could only get 5 crates on, and you spent half your time looking round to borrow one from the receiving room so out of necessity I made a crude but effective trolley. I got hold of a bakers sturdy wooden tray, took the wheels off a wrecked 3 tier trolley, attached them to the base of the tray, locked the rear set so that you had front steering, got hold of a piece of very very thick rope and knotted it through the front handle of the tray and we were off. Frank Dwyer the porter and I could carry the trolley one handed down the stairs if there wasn't a lift coming, we could load up 10 crates or even 12 at a push onto the trolley, with Frank on the back and me on the front with the pulling / steering rope we were in the lift up to the basement and over to the counter shouting "gang way ladies mind your nylons" where Bill Carrington the part time fireman would be using his charm on the lady customers and bagging up the bulbs like fury, you couldn't take the money quick enough, Health & Safety eat your heart out, it was a grand life if you didn't weaken !!!!
