Bill: London Observations--Part-time Jobs, 1970s


Figure 1.--.

To finance my interest in trendy clothes I got a job--a paper round (illegally as it turned out as by law you were meant to be 13 years old and have a "work permit" from the local council). By the time I'd caught up with this fashion - both in and out of school - when I was about 13 years old - I'd been doing THREE paper rounds and so could keep up. My mum would never have bought even the cheapest imatations as she went for the cheapest stuff of necessity. However as long as it was my money she didn't say much - giving me up as a lost cause I suppose. My brothers were notas envolved with clothes as I was. By the time I was 14 I was also working weekends in the newsagents. It wasn't that I was money-mad. I liked to work there, especially as my fellow workers were girls and we always had a laugh. However I spent nearly all of my money on clothes.

Trendy Clothes

I like many boys at my school became very interested in the trendy clothes popular at the time. There were quite a number of fads and different attitudes toward fashion. I find it quite surprising that even today I can remember a lot about about the clothes and the hair styles that were popular at the time. I guess that goes to show how important fashion was to us.To finance my interest in trendy clothes I got a job--a paper round (illegally as it turned out as by law you were meant to be 13 years old and have a "work permit" from the local council).

Paper Rounds

I started doing a paper round when I was 12 years old, but legally you were meant to be 13. You had to wear your oldest clothes for this as the newsprint used to come off and make your clothes filthy. I kept an old pair of jeans to do mine in as the newsprint would never properly wash out. You also were supposed to have a work permit from the local council and they raided our shop one morning and told the owner we had to have work permits. We were mad as the owner was scared off and suspended us until we got permits. This involved waiting for a medical at the Town Hall and it took a couple of weeks. The owner was mad as he had to get his wife up to help deliver the papers until we were "legal". I also had a mate who worked on a milk float and he got up even earlier than me. There were also two evening papers in London then that were delivered, but I didn't bother as it was less money and I wanted to play football in the evenings. Some boys weren't allowed by their parents to do morning paper rounds on weekdays but did do evening rounds. Some were still in their school clothes for these (you had to wait until the final edition to arrive at the shop) so they hadn't gone home and I suppose they weren't so bothered about the newsprint. On Sunday some of these boys would join us as the rounds were split as the papers were so heavy. I also started working in the shop at weekends when I was 14 so that must have been allowed as the girls there were the same age. There was a boy who delivered for the off-license next door - he had a bike like the one shown on the HBC delivery boy page. I'm sure was still at school - although about 15 years old. He only worked a couple of evenings and all day Saturday. My mate on the milk float used to wear a white dairyman's coat that came down to his ankles and I used to laugh at him if I saw him when I was on my paper round. Later on some newspapers provided windcheaters with their name on the back for paperboys but they were useless against the rain and no-one wanted to wear them. Sometimes someone would 'phone up the papershop and ask if we'd deliver a packet of cigareettes with the paper. We did as it normally meant they'd leave you a tip when they paid their bill - in addition to the lucrative Christmas Box that was always worth having. I think deliveries by bike died out as the sort of people who had meat, groceries,wine etc. delivered started getting cars and going to supermarkets. The increased traffic also made the roads more dangerous for bikes.

Interest in Clothes

By the time I'd caught up with this fashion - both in and out of school - when I was about 13 years old - I'd been doing THREE paper rounds and so could keep up. My mum would never have bought even the cheapest imatations as she went for the cheapest stuff of necessity. However as long as it was my money she didn't say much - giving me up as a lost cause I suppose.

My Brothers

My elder brother didn't bother too much with these fashions - he was more into his schoolwork as he'd set his heart on being an engineer and didn't hang about on the streets round our way. And my younger brother also had no choice (when he did go to secondary school - he went to the local comprehensive by the way - his primary school not even bothering putting their boys in for grammar schools. These initial desires to wear exactly the right stuff had died down and I don't think he ever had any hassle).

News Agent

By the time I was 14 I was also working weekends in the newsagents. It wasn't that I was money-mad. I liked to work there, especially as my fellow workers were girls and we always had a laugh. However I spent nearly all of my money on clothes. Around this time (1973) skinheads started to grow their hair and wear the generally wild clothes that were coming out - massively flared "loon" trousers, variously patterned round-collar shirts, "tank-top" pullovers and "stack-heeled" shoes. The difference seemed to be that ex-skins still had certain codes, depending on which area of London you came from. I still followed all this but I was really wearing them only in the shop and what I could get away with at school. I didn't even go to football matches as I worked Saturday. I even wanted to work there in the evenings after school, but my mum put a stop to that idea by telling the shop manager that she would report him for employing me for too money hours - there was a legal limit - so I just used to hang around there anyway in a back room and knock off the minimum ammount of homework that I could get away with, in between chatting to the staff.





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Created: December 8, 2003
Last updated: 6:25 AM 12/26/2004