More about Lewis's
Hi All,
just remembered I was supposed to post some more thoughts about Lewis's. During the time I was working on the Gardening dept we used have "Mobile Sales Staff" available to cover holidays illness etc' and you used to phone the staff office to ask for one or two mobiles for the day, my future wife June started as a mobile and on this day she was sent to the gardening dept,' when she arrived she was only 5 foot nothing and she had difficulty reaching the big brown 4 drawer tills, plus the fact they allocated her a drawer in the top rank, and although she wore stiletto heels to come to work she changed into flat shoes whilst on the job, double jeopardy, so I found an empty daffodil bulb crate and put it upside down by the till for her to stand on to operate the thing. She had also worked on the ice cream not the machines but one of the freezers by the door in the Minories / Bull st entrance, being of diminutive stature on one occassion to serve an ice cream she had to lean that far into the fridge her feet were off the ground and she nearly fell in and lost her hat in the freezer. I used to get in early some mornings so that I could drive the lift and take the girls from the audit office to the departments to read the tills and change the till rolls. ( There were quite a few dolly birds in that office) For some fun sometimes I would peg the lift operating handle over with my pen, put the lights out and tip toe around the lift car and make them jump, oh the screams that filled the air, but it was all good clean fun, it wouldn't be politically correct today (how boring). My girlfriend June eventually had a regular position on the electrical section in the basement, and when the staff sold a mains tester screwdriver they usually opened the side of the till and stuck it on the positive connection to show the customer the neon glowed o.k, so June thought that was a good idea, when she sold one she opened the door and stuck the metal end in and the promptly slipped, and in so doing the metal end of the screwdriver shorted across the 2 terminals and there was a blue flash and the entire sales island was in darkness, "OOpps". The Merchandise Manager Mr Cashin had this little saying if some member of staff was not to clever, he would say "they lack the divine spark" he was very good to me and put me forward for promotion, when I had to go for the interview I wasn't wearing a white shirt, the one I had on had a small check design, "You can't go in that" he said, "Go to the mens wear dept and get a white one and have it charged to my account". After we left we kept in touch with him as he had now retired, by sending christmas cards and the occassional visit, he had moved up to the Manchester area and set up shop in partnership with a friend of his, one of the last cards we had off him before he died said "nearly the last to remember me" which we found a bit sad, after that we didn't get another one so we assumed as you do that he had died.
Regards Chris B