New Job

STORE KEEPERS AT CROWN CORK LTD.
I remembered the storekeeper at Lyons. At one stage I went with the casuals FOC to see the financial secretary. Who told me in no uncertain terms that my chances of employment in or out of the printing industry were very poor. (There was Government retraining schemes at that time). Crown Cork was out at Southall and had advertised a Ink mixing and store keepers job I applied for it and phoned up for an appointment. At three o’clock I was weighting in Crown Cork Office Scots, Road to meet the machine room overseer. Allex *****. He gave me a tour of the works, which was mainly empty of personnel, but full of clanking machinery and tin plate I was eventually shown to his office. We talked about the job ,I gave him my CV.I had had my sister Mary type out for me on two sheets of foolscap. He asked about my recent work I told him about Colibra, He knew one of the overseers there and immediately phoned them up, to ask about me. That was it I had the job!. We did have a talk about money and hours It was 37 ½ hours but If I wanted I could work 39 ½ hrs and have the option of accumulating the difference to add up to days off, I also said the money was not what I had been used. Allex said the money was not his domain but he would arrange some overtime if I wanted. I also talked about the times of trains etc. and he said I could have flexible time. I think that was just a sweetener. I don’t think he had the authority to offer such things. I started the following week I got congratulated by the union financial secretary ( a very strange happening.)

INK MIXING & LOVELETTERS.
The first morning I was shown by the apprentice where all the ink formulas were and how to use them, they could be mixed in a large industrial dough mixer. The inks were either ultra violet, or conventional heat setting. The inks were cooked onto the tin plate. Each printed sheet was then cut up and welded together to make aerosol spray cans. Eddy Stobbarts lorries eventually transported these about the country. After about a week in the ink store I was on top of the job enough to be left to get on with it. Allex sometimes came in, in the morning telling me to concentrate on certain jobs, apart from that I was left to do jobs roughly in the order of the dockets, but in a convenient order. All new jobs were checked for colour, and some customer vetting or signed copies were approved before a print run was started. In the first week several notes appeared on me worktable complaining about mixes I had not done. The note was signed Tony. ( he was a machine minder only working at night) so if an urgent job came up he would have to mix his own colours. On showing a note to one of the machine men he said,” Oh! A love letter from Tony he writes lots of those”. So I screwed it up and into the wastebasket it went.

EASTERN DRIVING RULES.AND LAST DAYS OF BRITISH RAIL.
The factory at Southall was employing many different nationalities Indians, Sikhs, West Indians, and Chinese. Joe was an Italian and got at me one day by using the main office phone pretending I had ordered a pizza from the local pizza parlour and asking about what topping I needed. The station at Southall declared the land of exotic spices, but their driving rules!. Scott’s road was quite long without many side turnings. The drivers drive down the center of the road expecting the other driver to give way. One day on the way to work I watched to Turbaned Gentlemen smash into one another head on
The train journeys were another problem at the time British Rail timetables from Paddington seamed to be a bit varied. If I was told that a train would be late it was possible to go and get a bus and still get to work on time. So if there was no announcement I would go and inquire in the platform office .One day when this happened I inquired about an announcement on the tannoy. The stationmaster in charge said had I heard of noise pollution. I said you cheeky bugger. Anyway he was so upset that after making an announcement he forgot to turn the annoy off.. And all his passenger produces were given out in a loud voice including where he would like to send some of his XYZ F*****Passengers. The apprentice I was with burst out laughing. . He must have told some of our work mates, as I had several inquires about train times. There was also a happening about a month later on reading a poster about the Hapden Court flower show. The same Stationmaster inquired If I would like to visit there as there was a nice maze I could get lost in. I replied that he would not need to go as he was already lost in a maze that was called British Rail.

MISTERYS OF THE CENTRAL LINE
One evening after work I had got to Ealing Broadway and on a Central Line train; the journey was taking a long time and at Ealing West there was a commotion in the carriage in front. I was sitting in the only available group of four seats, the rest were occupied. Some of the passengers deportd from the noisy carriage into ours. A little gentleman dressed in a grey overcoat collar and tie with a coloured carrier bag in witch was a record box. He sat opposite me while the rest of the passengers watched interestedly. I thought no chance of him being the weird one. When the train started he very carefully opened the bag and took out the box and placed it on the seat opened that and thumbed through the records, and selected one. I thought he was going to read the cover but no. He withdrew the record from the cover walked to the now closed door of the train and posted the record through the gap onto the track, returning to his seat he carefully closed up the box and returned it to the carrier bag. He then took out a paper handkerchief and carefully wiped the immaculate bag each side bottom and each edge with the paper handkerchief, then blew his nose in it and through that out of the window. The train stopped at North Acton. He got out and returned to the carriage he came from. The other passengers were all smiling, perhaps over my look of puzzlement, perhaps because he had not sat opposite them? The following day I told George at work, and he said it must have been a Des O’Conner record.

DRINKING AND OTHER MATTERS
About the second week working on my own Bill Mallaly said he would pick me up on the West way if I wanted to work Saturday morning, as Allex had asked. I put my alarm clock, on and was on the West way by half past Five, but Bill never turned up, so I legged it to the station. I did arrive a little late, but Saturdays were rated at time plus a half until twelve o clock then it was double time. On Monday Morning I did not mention it but found out Bill had been out on the beer on Friday Night and had not felt well enough to come in. Dav Otley was quite a drinker I asked him one morning how he could bare coming to work where there was all this crashing and banging of tin plate after a night on the beer and still with a bit of a hangover. He said you get used to it. Tony the one who had distributed love letters, moved to days. Because he had been breathalised and had lost his driving license, although it had been six to eight hours after he had been drinking. I asked Dav why Tony,s eye lid drooped , his comment was too much tity. Tony,s hobby was minature train sets, Dav,s was historical minature figures and war games. I made tea one morning and went and asked who else would like one and one of the new machine men said no thanks I have already had one then he showed my an opened pack of four beer cans. I cannot remember his name but he was very interested in jazz, he also told me he had a friend called Hane. Hane had been Oswold Mosley,s body guard and a very hard man. I asked what he was like now, and was told he was a very nice man, who new his past was bad. Anyway this machine minder did not last very long. He left after a short time.

SPORTS CLUB OUTINGS.
I joined the firms sports club, not for the sport but so that I could go on the outings one was a weekend at Warners Holiday camp on the Isle of Wight. It was a” We will meet again weekend.” They had all wartime songs, and some war time food such as bread and dripping, and cups of cocoa. The weather was not very warm but I did manage quite a few sketched which I afterwards worked up into finished paintings, of boats near Yarmouth. When I got back I felt pretty cold and treated myself to an Irish coffee in the bar. The second outing we had was to Bath I arranged to go straight from work. The weather was not very good (it rained). The Hotel was good it was Pratts. The food was excellent and they had Yellow plastic Ducks to play with in the bath. As I said it was raining so I went around the town in the morning and did the town bus tour which was free in the afternoon, I drew the cathedral, and Poultney Bridge, and the river. We got home late Sunday.

Alex always said Crown Cork Ltd were like the American mafia. and he was right one Friday night I said have a nice weekend and on the Monday morning I heard he had been sacked. And a new manager straight from college would be installed the next week. By this time I only had less than a year to retirement, the new management was like most young men. Do it this way I know that I am right. But I new he was wrong, but had to bend my methods a bit so that it looked as if I was following his instructions, but really continued as Allex allowed me as much as possible. The work just took longer. A few weeks before I retired there were rumors that the firm might close and move to the Welsh branch at Tredeger. I was to finish work on my birthday the23 Dec 1994. The office told me a car would come for me at 11 o clock on the 22nd Dec and a party would be arranged at 12 in the canteen. Retiring was very strange, and I had not realized the number of friends I had made. The firm did move after I retired some of the machine minders had been in tin printing all of their lives and might have had a job getting work unless moving to a new area.