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Jobs you did after school and Saturdays.

great memories from you john...although i dont think i could have done your second job....

lyn
 
Like a few other people here, I too had a job as a paper-boy. I worked in the morning, before going to school, then at night. In fact I have just dug out my old Employment Card, and on it it says, I worked for Mr. E. Taylor at 75 Duddeston Mill Road, between 7.15- 8.00 & 5-5.45 on school days, and, 7-9 am & 5-6.30 on Sats, and, 8-10 0n Sundays. And I loved every minute of it.
 
Hi
I worked as a paper boy for Albert Snape in his newsagents at the bottom of Ombersley Road for 10 shillings a week & that included 6 mornings & evenings & Sunday morning.
After I became too old for a paper round I went to work at 'The Home & Colonial' in Ladypool Road on Friday nights & Saturday mornings but I got £1.50 for that, my jobs were to strip the muslem from 2 72lb cheeses & 1 48lb one, the cloth was then washed & boiled & used for cleaning cloths so woe betide me if I ripped it or cut it wrong.
My next job was in my Moms cafe at the bottom of Tillingham St & although I got paid the perks were good in all the food I could eat.
I also worked for a day at a steel stockholders but dropped an ingot on my finger so was sent home, another holiday job while at school was at the little coal merchants in Highgate Rd selling coal to people who came with prams, barrows & any other thing with wheels on, the worst part of the job was going up to Camp Hill goods yard to unload a 10ton coal wagon into 1hundredweight bags, that was hard work.
I was also very lucky because at Moms cafe Jones Transport Ltd of Ladypool Road drivers used to come over to the cafe & I used to travel all over with them on day trips, that was really good fun as they treated me as an adult & weren't afraid to swear & moan about there job & waiting around to be unloaded.
Happy days
Cheers
Dave Rock
 
Hi dave i also worked in a coal yard just off Mosley rd but i was on the bag stitch er i used to sow the bags of coal and then stack them bloody hard work it was good though untill i got my foot cought in a convayor belt lol lol
daverock said:
Hi
I worked as a paper boy for Albert Snape in his newsagents at the bottom of Ombersley Road for 10 shillings a week & that included 6 mornings & evenings & Sunday morning.
After I became too old for a paper round I went to work at 'The Home & Colonial' in Ladypool Road on Friday nights & Saturday mornings but I got £1.50 for that, my jobs were to strip the muslem from 2 72lb cheeses & 1 48lb one, the cloth was then washed & boiled & used for cleaning cloths so woe betide me if I ripped it or cut it wrong.
My next job was in my Moms cafe at the bottom of Tillingham St & although I got paid the perks were good in all the food I could eat.
I also worked for a day at a steel stockholders but dropped an ingot on my finger so was sent home, another holiday job while at school was at the little coal merchants in Highgate Rd selling coal to people who came with prams, barrows & any other thing with wheels on, the worst part of the job was going up to Camp Hill goods yard to unload a 10ton coal wagon into 1hundredweight bags, that was hard work.
I was also very lucky because at Moms cafe Jones Transport Ltd of Ladypool Road drivers used to come over to the cafe & I used to travel all over with them on day trips, that was really good fun as they treated me as an adult & weren't afraid to swear & moan about there job & waiting around to be unloaded.
Happy days
Cheers
Dave Rock
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1964 I worked at a chip shop peeling spuds, digging the eyes out, and chucking em into a barrel of dry white so they wouldnt go brown. orrible cold and wet job in winter. Dry White used to leave my hands red and chapped.
3 X 56lb bags every school dinner time, more on fridays and saturdays. For that I got £3/10 a week and whatever I wanted for me dinner. More than I got when I left school and started work as an aprentice in 1968.
 
Started at 13 working Thursday and Friday from school till 8 Thurs and 10 Fri at Mavis's hairdressers, then 7 till 6 Saturdays, loved it though and was eager to learn all. I did people hair at 15 which I wasn't supposed to do but I used to practice on nearly everyone in our street and even at lunch time at school I would be doing the girls hairs I loved it, ask Jean. I carried on till I was about 50 but sadly had to give it up because of wear and tear on my shoulder, all those years of back combing and then holding a heavy dryer when the blow drying came into fashion, had to have an operation and also on my hand, carpel tunnel so that was the end of that. I really miss it though, the chatting to people and making some really good friends. I did Sylvia's hair for quite a time when I worked at New town.
 
Hi
I worked in Moores Sweet Shop on the Circle Kingstanding from 1956 - 1958. I worked Friday after school until 9 pm, Saturday from 8 until 8 pm (break for lunch & tea), and Sunday morning until 1 pm, for 15 shillings a week (75p for any young ones reading !) A perk was that you could have the odd boiled sweet but definately no chocolates! We used to weigh them out in the paper bags, and we also sold snuff which was weighed out or in small tins. I loved it although Mrs Moore was disabled and used to spy on us through a one way mirror!! (at least thats what the older staff told me!)
 
1963 till 19966 Worked as a errand boy in the jewellery quater .From 4.30 till 6 .For a pound a week. Several pupils from harry lucas did this.Has one pupil left to start full time work the job went to other lads at school
 
I worked at Beauty Box hairdresser's alum rock road,friday after school and all day saturday 1965/66 and then went to work in a cigarette and sweet kiosk in Corporation street all day saturday it was close to harry Parkes sport shop and the law courts.
 
During the early-to-mid-60's I had a Saturday job in a camera/photographics shop in Wednesbury. Then I worked for a fruit & veg wholesaler in Tipton, which was damned hard work, but paid alot more. I had muscles like knotted-rope after a working there for a winter. Mind you, getting there for 5.30 AM was a nightmare! Then I settled for a less arduous job with Fine Fare Supermarket at Carter's Green, West Bromwich....alas, they paid rather less
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and I eventually returned to the photography trade, with the same firm, but based in Bradford Street Walsall. If nowt else, I half-circumnavigated the Black Country! I often did farm work too, at Arley, on the River Severn, although that was largely unpaid, as was helping-out on the Ferry....but, it was all good fun and useful experience. I only ever had one day as a 'paper-boy' and managed to create chaos; I got everything wrong! But the best 'easy money' job i ever had as a kid, was opening the rail-way gates for campers/caravaners at Talybont, in North Wales.....almost everyone coughed-up a sixpence or a shilling, to avoid having to get out of their cars to open and close the gates. No one asked me to do it, it was all accidental, I just opened the gate for someone one day, and got a 'tip' for doing so.....I couldn't believe my good fortune!
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It's a great pity that children are no longer allowed to indulge in a bit of 'legal' money-making enterprise these days...
 
I wasa lazy beggar and never had a job before starting proper work.

However my reason for posting was that a lad at school said that he as a Genuvver or Ganuvver (phoetic spelling here) in theBull Ring market. When asked to explain he said it was his job ot keep an eye on the punters and tip off the stall holder if he saw anyone stealing - usually by sweeping stuff from the edge of the stall into an open bag held just out of sight of the stall holder.

Has anyone heard of such a job?
 
Hi all , I did a paper round for Duttons ( formerly Hopcrafts )the Newsagents by the hare & hounds Kingstanding for 3 yrs . My round was Tresham rd , Birdbrook rd and Corbridge Ave all in Great Barr twice a day Monday to Friday and Sunday mornings . When i reached the age of 15 , i then got a Saturday morning job as well at my brothers place of work in Birmingham's jewellery quarter at a company called Turner & Sommers operating hand and power presses ( not entirely legal ). Whilst my brother Alan was still at school , on Saturdays he used to clean the old peoples windows at Rushden Croft Kingstanding.

Ian
 
Ian my grandaughter did that round till up to a year ago when she took on a Saturday job at a local pet shop. The difference these days the papers are delivered to your house by someone employed by the Evening Mail. Jean.
 
G G Jean said:
Ian my grandaughter did that round till up to a year ago when she took on a Saturday job at a local pet shop. The difference these days the papers are delivered to your house by someone employed by the Evening Mail. Jean.
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Hi Jean, Wow! , still the same round :) i did it from 1974 to 76 , i used to finish at the top end of Corbridge ave and walk through the gully back to the top of Tresham , cross Atlantic rd and then over the Kingstanding rd and back to the shop. I used to get £3.50 a week i think , and pretty good tips at Christmas . :))

( Its a small World ) Ian
 
Ian the grandson had a round too a while back but that one was across Birdbrook and around Great Barr School. They live opposite Atlantic road at the top end of Dyas. Jean.
 
My school mate was killed in a road accident. His mom and dad owned a greengroceries almost next door to Jolly's on the Walsall Rd, opposite the co-op at tower hill. I helped out and worked evenings and saturday morning. Phil and Fred were the owners, lovely people.
 
In the mid sixties, when I was 14, I went to work at Hedges Chemists at Lea Village for 15 shillings a day. As well as serving behind the counter, I had to weigh the epsom salts and bicarb on a big set of old brass scales and put it in bags, polish the brass name plate and wrap the 'unmentionables' in brown paper and put them in a drawer with a star on it. I restocked the shelves and for some reason the big boxes of Gerber baby food were stored on the top shelf and I had to climb a stepladder, balancing the box and stretch up as far as I could. Scary. In the school holidays I worked all week except Wednesday afternoon and often went to Digbeth on the bus to the main branch to collect anything we had run out of. The smell of L260 snuff was so strong in there that my head was reeling all the way back to the shop.
 
How about minding cars when there was a Villa match on.
Not terribly lucrative in my case.....I was too scared to ask. I think I earned all of a shilling!
 
I did OK Linda as I lived in Holte road and I think the away supporters were afraid they would come back to a damaged car if they did not cough up. Jean.
 
When i was about 12/13 my friend and i used to jobs at St Marys Convent Hunters Rd Saturday mornings our jobs included Sweeping the Boiler House under the convent, polishing and dusting, being given a pair of Wellies to put on and sent outside to unblock Drains we were paid 1/6d.That was early 60s.Then when i was 14 did an enamelling job during the summer holidays of 1966 at a grotty factory in Villa St. Earned about 30s / depending on how many hours i did.
 
I was errand boy for the Coop greengrocers in Balsall Heath Road when I was 14 -16, right at the end of 1950's. It was the best paid job in around. I worked after school and all day Saturdays - and also, eventually before school one day a week at the Coop's warehouse in the market. I learned stacks about greengrocery from buying, displaying and then delivering.
There was a young manager at the shop who was totally useless; he soon was sacked. He used to borrow his dad's Jaguar and take me round the deliveries - showing off I suppose. I recall us doing well over 60 down Cox Street West! He was embarrasingly lazy and I took over doing the bookwork for the shop when I was still a schoolboy! This continued and developed when we were managerless for some months. The eventual replacement manager lived miles away and many of her official duties were passed to me, with the magement's full knowledge. Frankly, the adult staff of two were simply not interested or up to taking on any responsibility, wheras I was keen.
Anyway, trade increased significantly and when I came to leave school I had been offered three jobs. The Coop were dead keen on keeping me and me a brilliant career with my own shop inside 12 months and an Area Manager role by the age of 19. I however took my mother's advice and opted for a government job with a pension!
Great days!
Ted
 
For the princley sum of 2/6 on a Saturday ,I had the job of putting padded seat covers on the seats in the directors box at Birmingham city Football Club so that their delicate little botties diddn't go numb.Then after the match,go back and remove and stack all those still warm cushions,lovely.
 
Help the Co op Milkman Horse & Cart for about 6 months.
Then the Baker Rowland's Bakery New John Street on his horse and float 2/6p all day Saturday and when I worked in the school Holidays it was 6 days for 4/- a week. Hours were Saturdays 6.00am till anytime around 8.00pm. That lasted nearly 3 years.
I then gave all my money to Mom who would give it me back as I needed it for Speedway, Cinema or Football
 
A little job i did after school was working for a a little clothes alteration company in Corporation st, it was in one of the office buildings the entrance was just underneath the clock. it was only two rooms the boss in one room and about six women working away on sewing machines in the other. My job was to take the finished clothes to various locations around the city in a big suitcase,i used to deliver to Burtons and John Colliers, then bring back more clothes to be altered. I also had to deliver clothes to out workers around the city, the furthest away was by the fox and goose in washwood heath. the boss paid all the bus fares. i think his name was maurice levine, but its been a long time so i could be wrong. All this free travel and ten shillings a week. All the best formula t.
 
With my three brothers it didnt last to long it was soon spent, but i enjoyed every minute of it. All the best formula t.
 
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