Reminiscing is a sign of age right? ....so I'm getting long in the tooth..... a day ill, off work and with nothing to do found me lost, reminiscing about years past, normally long forgotten but today sharp in my mind, sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings all remembered with unusual clarity......it must be the meds!
Twenty seven years ago today I began what was to be the job I stuck with longest thus far in my life, it was a 'sensible' but very mind numbing job in a government department. I had, since leaving school, been working in the West End of London in retail but the small fact that my underground fare into town, outstripped my meagre wage by approx 20% meant that inevitably I had to leave. My father had continued supporting me, preferring that I worked at something than did nothing but it was not a situation that could continue forever. I was in many ways sad to leave, I had seen something of a different life, not all of it good but all of it an experience. For me London rocks, it does now and it did then. Yes, I had one or two 'run in's' with wierdo's and unsavoury characters, I got knocked down an escalator on the underground by a delightful individual, armed and fleeing the cops having just held up a famous jewellers and I was caught up in an IRA bombing but mostly I met wonderful, cosmopolitan individuals and savored every moment of my time there.
And thus it was that I attended, all 16 or so years of me, for interview 'somewhere in the city' and sat terrified in a large oak panelled office, being grilled by three late middle aged men in dark, pin striped suits. These guys could have been straight out of a 40's movie, they where only missing bowler hats and no doubt, upon stepping outside into the street all donned such an item religiously.
Suffice to say, I got the job. Myself and my family had been duly 'checked out' for unacceptable history or political affiliations, I signed the Official Secrets Act and this day in 1977, nervous as a kitten, I reported to my new boss.
Day one was a hoot, civil servants where not at all what I expected, it was Christmas time and surprisingly they knew how to party! By lunch time we were ensconced in the local pub where another surprise met me. This establishment was by coincidence the local watering hole for one
'Reg Dwight', I tried not to stare or to be starstruck, my new colleagues where all used to this company but I was not and it only added to my feeling of 'newness'. We remained in the pub for most of the afternoon and staggered back to work at some time nearing the end of the working day! Things seemed to carry on in that vein right up until Christmas with parties, lunch in the pub and most amazingly to me, who had only experienced retail previously, a whole two weeks paid holiday over the festive season. This was not an option, it was obligatory.........I decided I had been landed somewhere close to heaven!
Of course things where to change, I soon discovered that my position as almost lowest of the low, was not what one might call 'intellectually challenging' and the civil service as a whole had a tendency to be pedantic and to operate, even in the 70's, like a dinosaur. Unbelievable routines still existed with the female staff making tea and coffee for the male staff at break times and those in positions of authority being treated like demi-gods. Despite all that I made many good and long standing friends and Christmas time always remained wild, somehow all the usual stuffiness of the place disintegrated under the weight of tinsel and alcohol!
That job and those in it saw me through my late adolescence, teenage up's and down's and a considerable amount of fun, stuff that by the standards of current teenage shenanigans seems very un-sophisticated but at the time of course we thought differently....... Oh the naivete of youth!
One such teenage Christmas, a year or two later still stands out, it saw me newley liberated from an 'ill advised' and long standing union with a guy who was not my best choice and one that had given my parents nightmares for a year or three. I had a new man in my life, I will call him 'Simon' here, one that was not controlling and destructive but was open, educated and fun, he was perhaps still a little too 'lively' for my parents liking but that of course only made him all the more attractive to me....... we had an absolute ball! In the funny way that teenagers have a 'hierachy', he was a 'face', he knew exciting people, his family did exciting things, his father was 'one of the lads', we partied unendingly, we spent money like water, we dressed the part or at least we thought we did, we were loud and probably too brash, we did absolutely mad things, we went on a wholly unorganised holiday that would have been a disaster had it not been so funny, he forgave me an incident that taught me an important lesson for the rest of my life...... and he was romantic. Something that had been lacking in the tough guy demeanor (the less said a bout that the better) of my previous 'beau'.
Strangely, of all the things we did together one tiny incident on Christmas Eve of that year stands out in my memory, probably because in retrospect it was so embarrassing..... a teenage silliness that had I more sense I would probably not recount here for I am unlikely to live it down!
Lunch time, Christmas eve, it was freezing cold, I was inappropriately clad for the conditions, as ever female teenage fashion seems to dictate, and myself and 'Simon' had been in a pub with friends, enjoying the spirit of Christmas for way too long. I have no idea why, other than to escape the cold but as we wove and unsteady path through the town centre headed for home we took temporary refuge in an electrical store. It was at this point my young inebriated mind made a very odd decision, one that at the time I assume it felt was amusing. I am small I accept and having been a gymnast for years I was bendy but come on....... I was never going to fit inside a washing machine successfully. None the less, common sense having run off in the opposite direction, I climbed in and promptly got stuck! It was not a disaster, it could have been worse. The obvious chagrin of the staff only heightened my amusement at my situation and thankfully said boyfriend and another of our party extricated me without too much ado!
Christmas that year carried on in much the same way, stupidity and teenage fun for days on end, the uninhibited madness of youth given it's all.......oh to be 19 again just for a day! :o)
I will of course not identify the guy in question, we parted company perhaps a year later, the result of some misunderstanding. He went on to be a highly respected and successful business man and managing director, though he still retains some of his 'unorthodox' slant on life. We are still in occasional contact....... if you read this 'Simon' you know who you are, I wonder if you remember that Christmas?
