114) Meanwhile at Ballards
I really enjoyed my job at Ballards; I was meeting people and felt that I was becoming a part of the Hillcrest community. When I had been working for a couple of months Daphne Mayhew decided to give up work and her place on the afternoon shift was taken by a young girl called Jancie. She was newly wed and one afternoon brought her wedding photos in for us to see. She and her young husband were a very handsome couple and the wedding was very pretty but Jancie looked very glum in all the photos. I asked her why she had not smiled for the camera and she said the strangest thing I have ever heard any one say. She said, “I don’t like to smile”. And she was right; she never had a smile for the customers, or even for her husband when he came into the shop. She was the glummest person I had every met and many of the customers commented on it. It did not seem to bother her she just went on not smiling. She did not stay at Ballards very long though, but left to go to a job where she did not have as much contact with the public.
After that Pat Briggs came to work with us. I knew Pat many years before when we were both members of the Salisbury Doberman Club. She was the secretary before me and had “hoodwinked” me into taking over her position. Pat was very good at the job and I enjoyed working with her but her heart was not in the stationery world and so she left to concentrate on her first love, dog breeding. She had changed from Dobermans to Schnauzers and had a house full of them. Her dogs were doing well at shows and she was selling the puppies and her job at Ballards was taking up too much of her time.
Our next “afternoon lady” was a lady called Yvonne Wooley she was better with the customers but as a single woman she could not really manage on the salary that a part time job gave her so when she found a full time position she left us too.
Then came Lois Hayes. She was great. I first met Lois through our church. She had spoken to me about my job at Ballards and said that she was looking for part time work so if there was ever a position at Ballards she was interested. When Yvonne decided to leave I contacted Lois and as she was still looking for a job Mrs Ballard employed her. She enjoyed the work, had a good relationship with customers and a good sense of humour so she fitted in well. Yes a good sense of humour was essential to work at Ballards. Some of the customers were very odd and we laughed with them and at them. Once when we were trying to identify who had served a customer who was on the phone to inquire about his order, we asked ‘who served you?’ and were told, “I don’t know her name, but she is elderly with grey hair and glasses”. As that described Di, Lois and me, it was not really much help but we did make a good trio.
Mother’s Day in South Africa was held on the same day as Mother’s Day in America and so it did not coincide with Mother’s Day in England. As we had many customers with family in England I always made a point of checking the date of the English celebration and would put a sign in the window about a month before saying “Mother’s Day in England – on so-and-so date”. One morning a customer came in and asked “On what day is Easter on in England?” Di and I by not looking at each other managed to keep straight faces but as soon as the customer left we just doubled up with laughter.
One day a regular customer came in for supplies for her husbands business. She was a very fussy person and none of us really liked serving her but she was a customer so we just had to put up with her. She ordered a number of items one of which was a box of paper clips. She said “I hope there are 100 in there; the last box only had 99”. I looked to see if she was joking and was stunned to see that she was not, she was dead serious. She tipped out the box of paper clips and proceeded to count them while I looked on in dumb amazement. She counted them out into piles of 10 and believe it or not there were actually 100 clips in the box. As she was replacing them into the box I got another paper clip from the holder on the desk and said “Here is another one for you, but if you look at the box it does actually say “Approx. 100”. She was rather embarrassed and not so ready to find fault after that. Can you imagine counting the paper clips in a box?
Another customer who gave us a good giggle was a woman who had had been involved in car-hijack. She and her husband had been outside the Hillcrest Post Office in their very posh new Mercedes car and had been held up at gunpoint. Their assailants had demanded the keys of their car and had tried to steal it. The expensive, state of the art motorcar was fitted with a modern theft proof system so although the young thieves had tried to start the car they couldn’t. In their frustration they did some damage to the car before running off. The couple were understandably very shocked at their experience but were able to call the police from inside the post office and to arrange for the car to be towed in to be repaired. A few days later she was in the shop and I told her that I was sorry to hear about her frightening experience. She explained it all to me and told me how cross she was about the damage to their lovely car. She said that both she and her husband were nervous about driving the car now as they felt that the car made them targets for thieves. “I’m too scared to drive the Merc now so I have just come to the shops in the old Ford” She pointed out of the window and I turned to look at the car she was indicating. I had been about to say, “I bet your old Ford is not as old as my old Ford” but what I saw just took the words out of my mouth. Yes her OLD FORD was older than mine. Hers was a glorious bright yellow vintage model, I would say about a 1930 model or even earlier. It was in immaculate condition and I suppose was as least as valuable as the Merc but she was correct, not a car that a bunch of hijackers would target as it would be far too conspicuous.
I happen to remember when they had first bought that new Merc about three months prior to her hijack. She had come into the shop and asked Di to come outside to see her lovely new car. She was very proud of it and as Di and Geoff were both Mercedes enthusiasts I suppose it was natural that she wanted to show it to someone who would appreciate it. Geoff had the newest car, his was about five years old at that time and Di was driving a Merc that was about fifteen years old that she loved dearly. One evening after work as it was raining very hard she offered Dora our stock room assistant a lift home. When Di stopped the car to let Dora out a man with a gun came to the door that Dora had just got out of and told her to get out of the car. She saw that there was another armed man at her side of the car and another man standing beside Dora so there was no way she could just drive off. She got out of the car and let them take it. She and Dora stood in the pouring rain and watched the car being driven very erratically around the next bend in the road. Together the two frightened women started walking towards the police station. They had not gone very far when they saw the car, nose down in a ditch. The three men were nowhere in sight but at least Di was able to retrieve her handbag from the car and then another car full of homeward bound workers stopped and gave them a lift to the local police station. Di’s car was damaged so badly by the thieves that it was a right-off and could not be repaired. She was very upset at loosing it and now this rather insensitive woman was bragging about her new purchase without a sympathetic word to Di about her terrible experience. At least within three months she would know how Di felt.
One funny thing about the hijack was that when Di and Dora had finished giving their statements at the police station a constable was told to take both ladies home. He only had a very small van but told both of them to get in the front beside him. Dora offered to get into the back so that there would be more room but he would not hear of it and made the two of them squeeze into the limited space. As Dora’s house was closest she was dropped off first and when there was more room the constable told Di that he could not let Dora get into the back of the van as he was actually on the way to the morgue with a body in the back of the van. After her harrowing time Di thought this was hilarious and the constable must have thought she was a little deranged, she laughed so much.
After that Pat Briggs came to work with us. I knew Pat many years before when we were both members of the Salisbury Doberman Club. She was the secretary before me and had “hoodwinked” me into taking over her position. Pat was very good at the job and I enjoyed working with her but her heart was not in the stationery world and so she left to concentrate on her first love, dog breeding. She had changed from Dobermans to Schnauzers and had a house full of them. Her dogs were doing well at shows and she was selling the puppies and her job at Ballards was taking up too much of her time.
Our next “afternoon lady” was a lady called Yvonne Wooley she was better with the customers but as a single woman she could not really manage on the salary that a part time job gave her so when she found a full time position she left us too.
Then came Lois Hayes. She was great. I first met Lois through our church. She had spoken to me about my job at Ballards and said that she was looking for part time work so if there was ever a position at Ballards she was interested. When Yvonne decided to leave I contacted Lois and as she was still looking for a job Mrs Ballard employed her. She enjoyed the work, had a good relationship with customers and a good sense of humour so she fitted in well. Yes a good sense of humour was essential to work at Ballards. Some of the customers were very odd and we laughed with them and at them. Once when we were trying to identify who had served a customer who was on the phone to inquire about his order, we asked ‘who served you?’ and were told, “I don’t know her name, but she is elderly with grey hair and glasses”. As that described Di, Lois and me, it was not really much help but we did make a good trio.
Mother’s Day in South Africa was held on the same day as Mother’s Day in America and so it did not coincide with Mother’s Day in England. As we had many customers with family in England I always made a point of checking the date of the English celebration and would put a sign in the window about a month before saying “Mother’s Day in England – on so-and-so date”. One morning a customer came in and asked “On what day is Easter on in England?” Di and I by not looking at each other managed to keep straight faces but as soon as the customer left we just doubled up with laughter.
One day a regular customer came in for supplies for her husbands business. She was a very fussy person and none of us really liked serving her but she was a customer so we just had to put up with her. She ordered a number of items one of which was a box of paper clips. She said “I hope there are 100 in there; the last box only had 99”. I looked to see if she was joking and was stunned to see that she was not, she was dead serious. She tipped out the box of paper clips and proceeded to count them while I looked on in dumb amazement. She counted them out into piles of 10 and believe it or not there were actually 100 clips in the box. As she was replacing them into the box I got another paper clip from the holder on the desk and said “Here is another one for you, but if you look at the box it does actually say “Approx. 100”. She was rather embarrassed and not so ready to find fault after that. Can you imagine counting the paper clips in a box?
Another customer who gave us a good giggle was a woman who had had been involved in car-hijack. She and her husband had been outside the Hillcrest Post Office in their very posh new Mercedes car and had been held up at gunpoint. Their assailants had demanded the keys of their car and had tried to steal it. The expensive, state of the art motorcar was fitted with a modern theft proof system so although the young thieves had tried to start the car they couldn’t. In their frustration they did some damage to the car before running off. The couple were understandably very shocked at their experience but were able to call the police from inside the post office and to arrange for the car to be towed in to be repaired. A few days later she was in the shop and I told her that I was sorry to hear about her frightening experience. She explained it all to me and told me how cross she was about the damage to their lovely car. She said that both she and her husband were nervous about driving the car now as they felt that the car made them targets for thieves. “I’m too scared to drive the Merc now so I have just come to the shops in the old Ford” She pointed out of the window and I turned to look at the car she was indicating. I had been about to say, “I bet your old Ford is not as old as my old Ford” but what I saw just took the words out of my mouth. Yes her OLD FORD was older than mine. Hers was a glorious bright yellow vintage model, I would say about a 1930 model or even earlier. It was in immaculate condition and I suppose was as least as valuable as the Merc but she was correct, not a car that a bunch of hijackers would target as it would be far too conspicuous.
I happen to remember when they had first bought that new Merc about three months prior to her hijack. She had come into the shop and asked Di to come outside to see her lovely new car. She was very proud of it and as Di and Geoff were both Mercedes enthusiasts I suppose it was natural that she wanted to show it to someone who would appreciate it. Geoff had the newest car, his was about five years old at that time and Di was driving a Merc that was about fifteen years old that she loved dearly. One evening after work as it was raining very hard she offered Dora our stock room assistant a lift home. When Di stopped the car to let Dora out a man with a gun came to the door that Dora had just got out of and told her to get out of the car. She saw that there was another armed man at her side of the car and another man standing beside Dora so there was no way she could just drive off. She got out of the car and let them take it. She and Dora stood in the pouring rain and watched the car being driven very erratically around the next bend in the road. Together the two frightened women started walking towards the police station. They had not gone very far when they saw the car, nose down in a ditch. The three men were nowhere in sight but at least Di was able to retrieve her handbag from the car and then another car full of homeward bound workers stopped and gave them a lift to the local police station. Di’s car was damaged so badly by the thieves that it was a right-off and could not be repaired. She was very upset at loosing it and now this rather insensitive woman was bragging about her new purchase without a sympathetic word to Di about her terrible experience. At least within three months she would know how Di felt.
One funny thing about the hijack was that when Di and Dora had finished giving their statements at the police station a constable was told to take both ladies home. He only had a very small van but told both of them to get in the front beside him. Dora offered to get into the back so that there would be more room but he would not hear of it and made the two of them squeeze into the limited space. As Dora’s house was closest she was dropped off first and when there was more room the constable told Di that he could not let Dora get into the back of the van as he was actually on the way to the morgue with a body in the back of the van. After her harrowing time Di thought this was hilarious and the constable must have thought she was a little deranged, she laughed so much.
posted by MC at
8:49 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home