What did your parents do?

[Gemini]

I was telling someone about my dads work life recently, and I thought it may make a good topic for the forum.
(See, I think about you all even when I'm not online )

My mum left school at 14, and was desperate not to follow her sisters into the local chocolate factory. She really wanted to work backstage at the theatre. A visit there and talk to the stage manager soon told her that she would have to work unpaid initially. She gave up her dream there and then, as she knew without a regular pay packet her family would not permit this.
She found herself an office job, where she was happy, and even happier when she met my dad there
She spent her spare money each week on a theatre ticket.

My dads family were different. Education was important and all the 8 children went to grammar school, and some on to university. The youngest child failed his 11+ exam. His mother paid for him to go to grammar school, and he grew up to become a headmaster!

My dad worked in an office in the same building that my mum worked in, on a different floor. Mum was most taken with him from first seeing him, and set her stall out to marry him. I don't think poor Dad stood a chance
My dad left there a few years later, when I was a baby, for slightly more pay. For the rest of his working life he was an office manager in charge of accounts for a family company (not his family!) He loved the job and stayed, part time in the end, to well into his 70's.

In common with the majority of women in the 50's, mum left work when they married, hoping to start a family. It was 3 years until I came along, and she was a stay-at -home mum until I was in my early teens..
She then did various part time jobs over the years. Mostly shop work, where she made a lot of friends, and a temporary post working in the theatre box office, which she loved too.

What did your parents do? Was it their choice of career? Did they enjoy their work?

[Daisy]

Gem, what an interesting topic. I think expectations were so different in those days, and it was very sad that your Mum couldn't follow her dream.

My parents were both born before 1910. My dad left school at 14 and I'm not sure what he did to start with - I think he worked at a brush factory, but it closed, and he got a job working for an electrical company which eventually was nationalised. Fearing he would lose his job, he bought a grocer's shop and we moved to live on the premises. He stayed there until his untimely death at 53.

My mum also left school at 14. Her family background wasn't very stable and I don't think she had any ambitions other than to earn some money to help keep a roof over their heads. Like many girls in our area (Stoke-on-Trent) she served an apprenticeship in the pottery industry. She was a china burnisher (gold decoration comes out of the kiln black and needs to be 'polished' back to gold). To earn extra money she used to clean the offices after work. I don't think she went back to work after my sister was born, and she stayed at home until we moved to the shop when I was 6. She helped my dad with the shop as and when needed, and only went back to the pottery industry when I was about 16 or 17.

I don't think either of them ever thought of work in terms of enjoyment, or expected to get any great satisfaction from their jobs. I think that was the case for most folk in our area.

The grammar school was only available to children whose parents could afford the uniform. My mum's brother passed the 'scholarship' as it was then called, but his mum couldn't afford to buy what he needed to take up his place. I don't think either of my parents even took the exam.

[grannyjules]

My Dad was a Fisherman. He left school very early and started out on a coal lorry then at the local brewery, but soon left for the sea.
He loved his job, got to be a Third Hand and was only stopped getting promotion because his written work wasn't up to scratch, lack of education.. He knew the jobs but couldn't face the exams. Shame, but he was well respected and often head hunted by the Skippers. He later left the sea and went to work at the local factory, Findus. He was head chef on the pizza line, making the sauces.
My Mam won a scholarship to go to the Commercial School and became a book keeper at a town butchers. She only kept that job as it helped with the Rations during the war. She learned how to skin rabbits, while she was there. She left work once married as Dad wanted her at home for the three days he was ashore , and she was on her own for the other three weeks he was away. That's the way it was until Dad came ashore and the wages went down, so Mam went part time at the same factory. I was very surprised but all the neighbours worked there too and the afternoon ladies were of a gentler nature than the evening staff. I think she rather liked it . Having workmates for the first time in years.

[Enfys]

My father was at art school before the war then He went into the RAF and trained as a wireless operator and was a "Sparks" and flew on the Lancaster bombers. After the war he worked as an electrician and had his own business for a while before going to Bovington where he worked on the wireless/electrics on the tanks.

My mother came from a much poorer family and she was orphaned at age 10. She and her twin brother lived with various family members until they were 14 when she went to work in the local sweet factory. She met my father when she was 16 and they married 7 years later. When the war was over she always had some little job or other, either cleaning or in a shop and then she went to work in the local Max Factor factory, her favourite job. She loved it there on the production line and made many good friends. Both my parents worked hard all their lives, they would have done any job to put food on the table, I can remember Dad working really long hours. I have much to thank them for.

[Gemini]

These are fascinating to read.

Enfys, my dad was in the RAF too, and was a navigator.

Daisy, talking about no having money for uniforms, my mum always says she has no idea how her mother in law managed to put 8 children through grammar school on a brewery clerks wages! They were not a rich family, but my auntie tells me how their mum made all their clothes, including coats, and cooked amazing food. Somewhat she must have made money stretch

[Oma]

My Mother was from a hard working background , left school at 14 and went into service as a kitchen maid then when war broke out she worked in the shipyards where she met my Dad ,
Dad was from a better class of people he left school and worked in a Saw mill but as he was very sickly all his life he had to leave the saw mill because of his weak heart and lungs , He spent a lot of time in Hospital then went into the shipyards as a Riveter during the war , not the best job for his health but he loved it ,
My parents met and married in 6 weeks my mother gave up work when my Eldest sibling was on her way two years later After the war Dad worked as a labourer but his health took a downward turn and he died when he was 50 from lung cancer . Mam always said when he married he married below himself but his mother adored my mother , in a way it was true . My mother's family were the oil cloth and jam jar type of people , my Dad's ,White linen table cloth and best China , Salvation Army captains Professor, s of music etc . They adored each other and although we were dirt poor they were happy , Mam never got over his death she cried over him till the day she died bless her

[Daisy]

Oma - there's a lot of sadness there, but so much love, too. xx

grannyjules - I bet your Dad had lots of sea-faring tales to tell, but it must have been a hard life, especially in bad weather.

Enfys - life must have been hard for your mother and her twin. A lot of our parents' generation lived with relatives other than their parents, and must have had tough childhoods. My mother's father died when he was 29 and she was sent up to Yorkshire to relatives at one point. But before that she had been living with her dad and her brother lived with her mother. I've no idea why - I've only found this out through doing family history. Her mum eventually remarried. My father's father served his butchery apprentice because his father (my great grandfather) thought he wasn't bright enough to become an engineer like he was! But he was a very good business man and even in the 1940s he had a walk-in cold store and abattoir facilities. He'd go to market and buy his meat 'on the hoof' to make sure he got good quality.

My father must have inherited some of his 'nouse' to make me do a secretarial course when I wanted to leave school at 16, because he said O Levels didn't prepare you for real work!

[Libra Gran]

My Father was originally from Shaftesbury and as beautiful a place as it is, there wasn't much work. He moved to Poole I believe with his first wife who sadly died at 36 leaving Dad with 3 children. He became a plasterer and did the job all his working life. Mum went into service as a young girl to help support her family, during the war she became a clippy on the buses. She met Dad I know not how and went on to have us 3, she worked in retail for the remainder of her working life.

[Plantaholic]

My father's family were publicans, he joined the medical corps in the first world war when he was 15, his mother had died young and his father didn't have a lot of time for him. He served in the medical corps and was a stretcher bearer until the war finished. My mother left school at 15 and went into service and she met dad through a cousin. After the war dad worked at Roehampton Hospital and although not had training other than the war, he was a male nurse. When the second world war broke out he was sent to Llandridod Wells where a lot of the wounded were sent especially the ones who had lost limbs. My mother like most ladies during WW2 had war jobs, I think my mother worked on the salvage. When all the family were re-united again, dad was sent to work at Roehampton Hospital and was there until he retired. There were 6 of us and although money was short, no chance of us going to grammar school, we never felt poor

[Glammanana]

Even though my dads family owned a couple of shops and a large house my nana still lived hand to mouth with 8 children to care for 6 boys and 2 girls,dad was the 3rd boy and he left school at 14 to work on the Ferry across to Liverpool helping to dock the vessel when it came into the landing stage.When he was 17 he went to sea as a Merchant Seaman and continued during the war when the war was over (he was torpedoed 3 times and left adrift once for 15days with his pals) he applied to work on the Docks as a labourer after he meet my mum and they needed a regular wage to buy a house he was very forward thinking as most people rented their homes at that time,he paid I think £490.00 for a 3 bed terraced house so mum who he met at the local dance hall continued to work in the laundry she had worked at from school,as stated most women stayed home once they married but my mum was having none of that and her younger sister looked after me and my twin brother when we where born until my sister arrived 3 yrs later,my mum had always been ahead of her time and insisted on working all her life,she retired as chef for the main canteen at Cadburys on the Wirral after 20yrs she loved every minute with her pals and made loads of friends throughout her working life

[Qwerty]

My mum worked in service as a nanny to the children until she met my dad at the wedding of her brother who was marrying my dads sister ! She then came from Wales to Leeds to live as my dad had a little son from his first wife who died giving birth to the baby, she worked in a button factory until I was born and became a stay at home mum until I was about 14 and she did shop work until she became a doctors receptionist the job she loved and did till they both retired, incidentally Plant my mum came from a place called Builth Wells the next village to Llandridod Wells , my dad was in the WW2 and after became a gas fitter for NEGAS as it was called then but they had a sideline too he bought a small holding and set up boarding kennels for cats and dogs so even though mum was at home she dealt with all that that entails

[Avo]

My father worked in Fleet Street like his father before him. He worked on various newspapers the last one The Times. He was a 'Reader' basically finding mistakes, grammatical, factual and typographical. It was a 6 year apprenticeship to qualify. My mother worked part time as a Supervisor in a factory for a while, but mainly was a housewife.