Honour Thy Father

by Honour Thy Father (retail) (epub)

  ‘But, Dad, this is nineteen seventy,’ Sarah protested. ‘And anyway, the point here is that this is what Anne wants to do and John thinks he has the right to veto it.’

  ‘Remind John that I went to work when the children were young, Anne,’ Cathy said, smiling. ‘I went as a waitress for functions and I enjoyed every minute of it. The characters I met! And his father didn’t object, in fact I got the VIP treatment when I came home. The cup of tea and the footstool for my feet, didn’t I, Greg?’

  ‘I remember,’ Sarah said. ‘And you used to bring home cake and sweets and little pots of jam. I remember some of the tales you used to tell too.’

  ‘Mum told us some tales even from just the interview,’ Laura said. ‘I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, Mum.’

  Anne smiled but said nothing and Greg tactfully changed the subject and talked about Gerry’s prospects. He had been told at the hospital that he would be able to discard the stick within a few weeks as the foot was almost completely healed and he had applied for an office job.

  ‘I’ll still do the odd gig, filling in for someone,’ he said. ‘But I’ve had enough of the travelling around, roughing it. This will suit me better.’ He said nothing about the physiotherapist with whom he had been out several times but Anne knew about her and smiled at him. She had not met the girl but liked what Gerry had told her about Margaret and hoped that they would settle down together.

  Anne went to Long Lane to the office of the pools company at five thirty to be in good time and was nearly swept off her feet by hundreds of girls pouring from the building.

  Laura had arrived home early to accompany her, saying that she was well in hand with her flexitime and it would be an ordeal for her mother to travel alone. Without her there, Anne might have lost her courage and decided to go home but Laura held her arm firmly and battled through the crowds to the gate.

  ‘I didn’t realise the day workers would still be here,’ she said breathlessly. ‘But never mind, Mum, you’ll be all right now.’

  Anne wondered briefly whether Laura had come less for her sake than to be sure that her father was not triumphant, but she thrust the thought away as Laura stopped another woman who hovered nearby and asked if she was starting on the evening shift.

  ‘Yes, but I’m dead nervous,’ the woman said. ‘I haven’t been out to work for eighteen years.’

  ‘It’s longer than that for me,’ Anne said eagerly. ‘Should we go in together?’

  The woman agreed and Laura said bracingly, ‘You’ll be all right, Mum. There’ll probably be others like you too. I’ll go. Good luck. See you later.’

  She kissed Anne and left and the woman said, ‘Your daughter? It was good of her to come with you wasn’t it?’ Anne agreed, feeling ashamed of her earlier doubts about Laura’s motives.

  The woman said her name was Daisy and Anne introduced herself, then they went timidly into the big office. They were placed near each other at long desks at which the women sat facing each other. The system seemed to be that experienced clerks were alternated with the inexperienced women.

  The woman next to Anne ignored her but said to a woman on the other side of the desk, ‘I think they’ve got a cheek putting women who haven’t a clue with us. Why should we train them when we’re only getting the same money?’

  The other woman smiled apologetically at Anne. ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘My name’s Bernie. What’s yours?’

  ‘Anne. Anne Redmond.’

  Bernie said cheerfully, ‘Don’t take any notice of Janet. Someone had to train her but she likes a moan. Don’t you?’ she said to Janet.

  Janet smiled at Anne. ‘Nothing personal like,’ she said. ‘I just don’t like to be put on.’

  The supervisor walked up behind them. ‘What’s up?’ she asked. ‘Who’s putting on you?’

  ‘I’m just saying we shouldn’t have to train the new ones. Nothing personal,’ Janet said.

  ‘It’s manners to wait to be asked,’ the supervisor said sharply. ‘How long since you worked here anyway?’

  ‘Seven years,’ Janet told her, ‘but before that I worked here since I left school.’

  ‘You’ll probably be a bit rusty then,’ the supervisor said. ‘You won’t have time to train anyone. You’ll be too busy keeping up.’

  There were piles of coupons and envelopes stacked on each desk and the supervisor, who said her name was Audrey, bent over Anne. ‘I’ll show you what to do, love,’ she said. ‘Put these rubber thumbs on.’ She showed Anne how to pick up the coupons and the envelope and place the coupon inside the envelope with smooth, quick movements.

  Anne was naturally dextrous and soon managed the process. Audrey moved away to help others.

  Anne was concentrating hard and her pile was going down but she was alarmed to see how swiftly the woman on her left worked. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said, seeing Anne glance at her pile. ‘I only left two years ago to have a baby. I’m hoping to come back full-time but this will keep my hand in.’

  Audrey walked along checking the envelopes while another girl replenished the stacks of coupons and envelopes. The experienced women seemed able to talk without slowing down in their work but Janet had her head down working without speaking. ‘Here,’ she called breathlessly for more coupons but she had to go to the end of the desk for string.

  Bernie leaned forward and winked at Anne. ‘I bet she’s never worked so hard in her life,’ she chuckled. ‘She’s afraid you’ll beat her.’

  Daisy was almost opposite Anne and she seemed to be having a lot of trouble. She gave little screams at intervals as her coupons and envelopes flew into the air from her hands or her piles toppled over but Audrey was kind and reassuring. ‘Take your time until you get into it, love,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry what anyone else is doing. It’s like riding a bike. Once you’ve done it you can always get back into it.’

  Anne was torn. She knew that Daisy was looking at her piles diminishing, knowing that Anne was new too, and she wanted to slow down to encourage her but on the other hand she wanted to alarm Janet.

  Before she had decided what to do, a voice over the tannoy told them that a break for fifteen minutes was starting. Everyone produced flasks of tea or bottles of orange juice and sandwiches. Anne was thankful that she had been advised to bring something by Sarah and she took out her flask and sandwiches.

  Bernie stood up and stretched and Anne was surprised to see that she was plump although her face was thin.

  ‘I’m on a diet,’ she announced, taking a packet from her bag. It contained two Ryvita biscuits which parted with a loud sucking sound.

  ‘In the name of God, what have you got in them?’ someone asked.

  ‘Nothing. I only buttered them,’ Bernie said. ‘I told you, I’m on a diet.’ The women fell about laughing.

  ‘Only buttered them – with half a pound of butter,’ someone laughed but Bernie took their teasing in good part.

  Bernie and Janet had known each other slightly years ago but all the other women were strangers to each other yet Anne felt that by the end of the fifteen minutes they were all friends. Towards ten o’clock Audrey walked around with a small box handing each woman a wage packet containing twelve shillings.

  ‘Why are we being paid nightly?’ Janet asked.

  ‘I don’t know. They were just sent down,’ Audrey replied.

  ‘I don’t like the sound of this,’ Janet said as soon as she had moved away. ‘I know this is only temporary but paid by the night! Doesn’t look as if it’ll last long.’

  ‘Well, I’m not grumbling. I’m glad of it,’ the woman on Anne’s left said. ‘My little girl lost one of her sandals in school and I had to use my family allowance for another pair for her. This’ll get me through tomorrow. I’m made up.’

  ‘I still think it’s a bad sign,’ Janet said.

  ‘We’ll just have to make the most of it while we’ve got it,’ Bernie said. ‘They wouldn’t go through all this taking people on and making arrangements just for a couple of nights.�
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  Anne walked out with Daisy at ten o’clock feeling that if she enjoyed the other nights as much as this one, she would be happy. Daisy was not as cheerful. ‘I couldn’t get into that filling and one of them said we might be sorting and filling tomorrow. God, I’ll be hopeless at that.’

  ‘You don’t know till you try,’ Anne said. ‘That one next to me, Janet, seems to think it’ll finish any minute anyway.’

  ‘I don’t care if it does,’ Daisy groaned but Anne thought privately that she would be very disappointed.

  When she reached home John and Gerry were both out but she was warmly welcomed by the two girls. Julie made tea while Laura put a footstool for her mother’s feet. ‘You must have the VIP treatment like Nana,’ she joked. ‘How did it go?’

  Anne displayed her wage packet and told the girls of some of the incidents. Then John arrived home. He and Anne were still stiff and monosyllabic with each other but he said quietly, ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Yes, thanks,’ Anne said briefly but she smiled at him.

  Laura said quickly and defiantly, ‘Mum enjoyed it, didn’t you, Mum? You liked the women and the work was easy, wasn’t it? Although that woman Janet sounds a bit of a moaner but I suppose she’s harmless.’

  She intended to make her father feel excluded and she was unintentionally abetted by Julie who brought John a cup of tea and said cheerfully, ‘We kept up the family tradition, Dad. The footstool for Mum like Nana used to have after work.’

  John had been about to respond to Anne’s smile by asking about her evening but he turned away and picked up the Echo.

  Anne, always sensitive to his moods, talked of other matters but when they were in their bedroom preparing for bed she told him about Daisy’s difficulty with the work. ‘If it had been like that for me, I’d have given up, John, but I could keep up with the other women and I felt really proud of that. I know it must sound daft to you when I was only filling envelopes but when you’re at home for a long time you lose your confidence and I just want to know that I can do it.’

  John put his arms round her and kissed her. ‘I still think it’s wrong as a matter of principle,’ he said. ‘And I can’t really understand what you mean but I can see it’s important to you, love. I don’t want us to fall out about it.’

  Anne laughed. ‘You know what you are? You’re a dinosaur,’ she teased him.

  Anne again met Daisy at the gates on the next work night and as they went in Daisy said that she dreaded the evening. ‘Sorting and filing,’ she groaned but Anne assured her that it would be easy, as much to convince herself as Daisy.

  ‘Bernie said if you can use the phone book you can do it,’ she said.

  ‘We haven’t got a phone,’ Daisy said.

  Anne was relieved to find that she found the work easy after it had been explained to her by Audrey and even Janet said grudgingly, ‘You done them all right.’ Daisy was immediately in difficulties and Audrey returned to her time and again until even her patience grew thin. ‘Don’t you know your alphabet?’ she exclaimed.

  ‘It’s a long time since I was at school,’ Daisy said defensively.

  The women on either side helped her too but when she went off to the toilet at the break, one of them said, ‘God help the day girl on that desk. She’s not even trying, just shoving them in anywhere.’

  ‘Our friend here’s doing well,’ Bernie said, nodding at Anne.

  Becca who sat on her left said encouragingly, ‘Yes, and you’re quick too. Have you done filling before?’

  ‘No, never,’ Anne said feeling a rush of confidence and pleasure. The fears that the job would soon end proved unfounded and, as the weeks went on, Anne found that the work came easily to her and she enjoyed it more and more. She also enjoyed the company of the other women and found their conversation endlessly interesting and sometimes very illuminating.

  Daisy had not returned after the second evening and she had been replaced by a talkative young woman named Lorraine. ‘Do youse have any trouble with your fellers about coming here?’ she asked one night.

  Anne thought with amazement that other men must agree with John until Becca on her left said, ‘No, mine’s very good. As long as the baby’s fed and down and the other kids are in bed, he doesn’t mind. And I make sure our dishes are washed up but he’ll take his dinner out of the oven and even put his dishes in the sink.’

  Anne listened astounded, wondering whether Becca was being sarcastic, but she realised that she was sincere when her story was capped by other women boasting of how good their men were to serve their own meal left prepared for them and even make their own tea.

  God, what a selfish shower, Anne thought, realising how different were John’s objections and counting her blessings when she thought of the treatment she received after work.

  ‘I done a twilight shift at the factory near us before I come here,’ Lorraine said. ‘My feller had to stay in with the kids but I got home at ten past ten and he was right down to the club. I give him the money for a pint but a couple of nights me mam came to sit in and he still wanted his beer money off me. He’s not getting none of this though. I told him. I spend it on food for his belly so he’s not getting beer money as well.’

  ‘So we might see you with a black eye one of these nights,’ Bernie joked.

  Lorraine said seriously, ‘It wouldn’t be the first one he’s given me.’

  John was the only one at home when Anne returned that evening and when he brought her a cup of tea, she told him about the conversation about husbands. ‘So you see, this job has had one good effect, John,’ she said laughing. ‘It’s made me count my blessings.’

  He smiled. ‘I always said you didn’t appreciate me,’ he joked but then more seriously he said, ‘I think I was wrong about this, Anne. I can see you enjoy it and people seem to think it’s all right for women to work. I don’t. I think a stable society needs the woman as the homemaker and the man as the provider and it’s greed to want more than the man can provide. I don’t mean you,’ he added hastily. ‘Our family are grown up now but in general.’

  ‘I see what you mean,’ Anne said. ‘But practically all of the women there are working because they need the money. I told you about the woman whose child had lost her sandal. Some of them are using it to ease them back to full-time work.’

  ‘But why?’ John said. ‘Our Sarah worked but only for a few hours while her children were at school, but some women with very young families are working full-time. At one time people expected less. Everyone lived on what their husbands earned so no one had much more than anyone else and they were content.’

  ‘I think some families couldn’t have survived without the mothers working,’ Anne said. ‘But where a man had a decent job, his wife didn’t work because she was looking after the family, but I think you hit the nail on the head about expectations.’

  ‘It’s a fact, Anne,’ said John. ‘Look at Moira. I was horrified when Tony told me the size of the mortgage they’re taking on. I know they’ve both got good jobs but it means they’ll both have to work to pay for that house and furnish it. And what if she has a baby? Will she let someone else bring it up?’

  ‘All the young ones have the same idea, though,’ Anne said. ‘That’s what I mean. Women below a certain poverty level have always worked just to keep their children fed, but now even if the man earns plenty they still want more and you can understand it. The jobs are there and all their friends have the same high standard of living.’

  ‘Yes, but we’re sowing the wind and we’ll reap the whirlwind, Anne,’ John said. ‘How are children to grow up with no stable background, pushed from pillar to post, brought up by anybody but their mothers? A proper home is more important to kids than expensive toys and foreign holidays and it will be too late when people realise that.’

  Anne looked thoughtful. ‘We’ve had our cake and eaten it, I think, love,’ she said. ‘I was at home when the children were young because we could afford to live like that and now I’v
e got a job I enjoy. I had the choice but there’ll always be women who need to work, John.’

  ‘I know,’ he agreed. ‘At the council meeting last night I was talking to an old fellow who’s been on the council for years and we talked about women working. He said it’s a political thing really. Well, not even that. Government policy under any party.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Anne, looking puzzled.

  ‘He said many women worked for the first time during the First World War and some of them would have liked to carry on working but it didn’t suit the government. There were so few jobs for men they couldn’t afford to let women work. They made it a rule that women left work on marriage and where they couldn’t enforce that they made it seem socially unacceptable to work. Manipulated people.’

  ‘Including you,’ Anne said dryly, but John chose to ignore her comment.

  ‘Now there’s full employment and women are needed, they’re encouraged to work,’ he said.

  ‘Dear God and we think we make our own choices,’ Anne exclaimed. ‘We’re just pawns in the game.’

  Laura came through the room on her way to the scullery and John picked up some papers and went out into the hall.

  ‘Did I interrupt something?’ Laura said aggressively as she returned carrying hot milk, but Anne laughed.

  ‘No, we were only talking politics,’ she said. ‘About the council and people who are on it with your dad.’

  ‘I suppose he’ll want to stand as an MP next,’ Laura said.

  ‘No, you have to compromise to become an MP and that Dad will never do.’ She smiled and touched Laura’s cheek. ‘Any more than you will,’ she said teasingly.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Moira’s wedding was planned for early May and there was great excitement when the uncles in Canada decided that they would return home for the wedding and a visit to the family.