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City of Birmingham Housing maintenence Dept

K

Kandor

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Or the C.B.H.M.D known to all who worked there as 'Come back home, Mary darling'
I started work on a rainy Monday in July 1967 at Foxton Rd, Ward End.,
I handed my Insurance cards to my new Boss (a Mr Simmons)..I remember him looking down at a soggy mess of cardboard in his hands.
I was taken up to 3 Tyne Grove, Hay Mills and introduced to Joe Aston, the Plumber I was going to be working with.
Joe turned out to be a great guy, I remember on the first day, I made endless cups of tea..just after lunch, Joe let me do my first real work, it was to knock a hole through a 9ins wall...
I remember them all laughing as they found me asleep under the kitchen worktop..
My first day at work had left me shattered.
By tradition, we always kept our first weeks wages, mine was the grand total of £2.18/-...for me, a fortune, I remember being incredibly disapointed in getting it as I had expected £3.10/-...I had forgotten the working week started on a friday, so I was a day short.
My wages were really poor all through my apprenticeship, the first year was £3 10/-, then the 2nd was £5, my 3rd £7.10 and my 4th just over £10...even in my final year I still only earned £14 a week.
Its funny now to look back that the week Robert Maxwell died, I earned more that week than I did in my first 5 years at work...mind you, I had my own Plumbing and Heating business then...and a leechy wife and two equally wanting Daughters (I needed it)
 
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