Saturday Jobs

I used to sing in the local church choir,we earned two shillings for each wedding we sang in,some Saturdays could be four.

I did potato picking quite a lot at a local farm but my proper Saturday job was at a hairdressers. It was a couple of miles from the city centre seven miles from where we lived.
What I earned was more or less the bus fare there and back. I hated the owner she was a nasty person a two faced single woman who slagged all her customers off. She treated the staff like rubbish but the job taught me a little independence.

I was also a church bell ringer. In those days the vast majority of people married in church as the only alternative was the register office. Many Saturdays there were three weddings and we got 7/6d per wedding. So for about three hours work on a Saturday afternoon we each earned 22/6d. Such riches for a fourteen year old back in the 60s.

Yes, in Fortnum & Mason. Lots of posh people, even some Royalty. Although I was never allowed to serve them.

Gorringes was in Buckingham Palace Road, not that far from the Army & Navy Stores

Yes there was such a store. I never saw it in person but I have old ads for their hat department dating from the 1920s. There were many such stores - D. H. Evans, Marshall & Snelgrove, Bourne & Hollingsworth etc. I had many old catalogs in my reference collection. I sold them some time ago but still have digital copies.

I think it may have been Gamages yes!

My first Saturday job was in a hairdressers, I hated it. I got sacked for burning a ladies head when washing her hair, in my defence the water heater was very difficult to control.
I then worked on Saturdays in a city centre cake shop, I loved that job. In the school holidays I worked in the bakery, I spent one summer holiday putting jam in doughnuts- to this day I cannot eat doughnuts.
The following year I worked in a factory canteen during the school holidays, at 16 I got so much abuse from the men taking the breakfast trolley and afternoon tea trolley around the factory floor,
One day I was making strawberry Angel Delight in an industrial mixer I should have put powder in first then milk but did it the other way round, the whole kitchen was showered with pink powder. I had to stay behind to clean the kitchen.

Yes, it was Gamages in Holborn. I used to shop there when I worked nearby at Smithfield and then Blackfriars.

Gorringes was in Buckingham Palace Road, not that far from the Army & Navy Stores

Gamages ?

Susie…Was it something like Gorringes?

I started my first Saturday job in a strange store in Chancery Lane in London. I can’t remember the name but a friend and I went together every Saturday, we packed up boxes to send out to customers. I remember there weee some very funny characters working there. Very “are you being served!”’By the time we had paid our fares and bought some lunch there was very little left for wages, but it was a life experience.
Then I got a Saturday job in our local library. I loved it and nearly changed my thoughts about my career. I stayed all through 6th form and left when I started nursing.
My DD had many Saturday jobs from hair dressers floor sweeper, to delicatessen’s to pubs . When she was at Art school she used to work in an international college talking English conversation with foreign students! DS worked from 15 through to finish university at our sports centre doing many different things including refereeing matches and holiday activities. GD is following the trend and at 14 is umpiring young netball matches. Her twin brother also is keen to do his refereeing training.

I worked at Timothy Whites (taken over by Boots Homewares after I left) - Pyrex dishes, dinner sets, canteens of cutlery, Pyrex dishes, Ravenswood glassware, hand blown Whitefriars glassware, Pyrex dishes, etc. So many Pyrex dishes! I started when I was 14 somewhat by accident - my younger sister wanted a Saturday job and I went with her. I was chronically shy, but when the Manager said "you have to be over 14" to my younger sister I blurted out "I'm 14" - my sister stood open mouthed. The absolute anguish of my first day, having to talk to people. But, as previous poster, it did so much for my self confidence. £5.00 for the Saturday (1973), went up to £5.25. I'd do part time cover in school holidays too, and loved it.

Never did, but I used to babysit for a well off couple who went out a lot. The bloke used to drive me home in his E-Type!

Dds both had Saturday jobs, but dd1 who spent all day life guarding at the local pool, was very put out that dd2, who did just mornings at a very upmarket estate agent, earned exactly the same!

LOUISA1523

Mine was as a Saturday girl at Chelsea girl....started at 16 ....in my last year at high school

Louisa1523, our waitress uniforms were dresses from Chelsea Girl …we looked on trend 😀 other friends in cafe jobs had to wear overalls …

I had a Saturday job in Boots the Chemist (not pharmacy in those days).
Loved every minute of it.

Babysitting at 12, fruit and veg shop at 13 , moved to a cafe, didn’t like it there so back to the vegetable shop and lastly when a wimpy bar opened, selling burgers and milk shakes, all very new to us, I got a job and saved enough to eventually buy my own second hand dansette record player. Can’t remember the pay but think it was 10/-, aka 50p per day.

Left school a week after my 15 th birthday and began full time work in London. Left home at 17 and moved to London. Carried on working. Retired at 60.

Sazone shoe shop, where we were encouraged to sell special tubes of shoe protecting substances!

Then I was a postie during Uni breaks. Quite enjoyed that, although the bag was heavy.

Many different Saturday and school holiday jobs - washing hair and sweeping up in the hairdressers, waitressing, ice cream seller, hot dogs and burgers on the seafront, babysitting.

I had a Saturday job in a small department store.
I was given £1 2s 6d in a brown envelope at the end of the day.
When I went away to university I worked there every summer.

I was late looking for part time work, by which time all the "saturday" jobs in local shops had gone. I had concentrated on my school work, So I began in a local chip shop age 14. It was 1958. I was quite shy at that age but working with customers taught me confidence.

At first I did 3 evenings a week and then expanded to saturday evening as well. It was only 5 minutes walk from my parents house and we got a fish and chip (or whatever I wanted to take) supper every evening. The biggest perk was that I was paid in cash (no deductions) and almost twice what my friends earned in Debenhams or Woolworths. It taught me the basics of handling cash and serving customers. I also learned how to "upsell" which has served me well ever since.

Later when I left school and moved into full time work I kept my little side hustle for several years on and off. The cash in hand money came in very useful when I was a student qualifying for a profession role.

I worked in Woolworths on the section serving cigarettes, shampoos and the embarrassing STs. Sanitary towels. Women were terribly embarrassed to buy them, even from a young woman. The worst memory is of the uniform, never washed and smelling of BO. The happiest memory is of being trusted to go upstairs to the stock room and bring down more shampoos etc. Could be wrong but think I was paid the grand sum of 75 pence for the day.
I also worked for the Scotch Wool Shop and had to re fold the knitwear explored by prospective buyers.

I had a variety of jobs. B At 14 I started collecting the money for the papers that were delivered. A hard task as some were reluctant to pay up. I also did the accounts for a small business, adding everything up in my head!
When I was 15 I worked in C&A in Oxford Street London. I got 15 shillings for half a day as the West End was closed on Sat afternoons.
WHEN I was doing A levels I went to Bourne and Hollingsworth down the road on the leather glove counter because I had nice hands, ( you should see them now, all knobbly with arthritis). I also did holidays and late night shopping on Thursdays. I lived at the end of the Northern Line so had a longish journey too and fro.

I grew up in Blackpool and had a Saturday job in Woolies- not the flagship one, right on the prom, but a smaller one nestled amongst the b+b’s just off the seafront.
I always wanted to work on the record counter, but was usually on electricals- the number of men who used to come in and buy a single electric plug (39p) which of course back then (late 70’s) didn’t come attached to appliances, always surprised me. How many plugs did people need? Many it would seem!
Always worked over the Bank Holidays as the money was much improved- think it was double time on the Monday!

I don't think Saturday jobs are gone.
My hairdresser has a young person on Saturdays and my grandson has one at a gymnastics club.

From the age of 13 I worked Saturdays in my grandfather's butcher's shop and also during the Christmas school holidays to cope with the pre-Christmas rush.
As well as serving customers, taking payment and giving change, I kept the shelves stacked with 'accompaniments': mint sauce, stock cubes, horseradish, etc, etc; took down orders over the phone; did occasional home deliveries on a big old bicycle with a basket on the front and the shop name on a plate attached to the frame; learned to make sausages and just generally acted as gofer. I had to help scrub out at the end of the day with lots of boiling water and carbolic soap - I can smell the soap now, just thinking about it!
The shop was always perishing cold except for about a month in the height of summer and I must have looked like Nanook of the North with all my layers of clothing under my overall, plus 2 pairs of socks, tights and fur-lined boots.
I loved that job, despite the cold and the carbolic - chatting to customers when it was quiet, the cameraderie with the Saturday boys and working for grandad - a firm but fair boss who expected a day's work for a day's pay and certainly didn't cut me any slack just because I was a relative.
The job ended when my grandad retired a couple of months before I left school and the butcher who bought the business had his own family on hand to assist him.
Oddly enough, I was only talking to someone recently about that job and about how much I'd learned without being aware of it until years later about how to buy and cook meat; what cuts are best used for which dishes and so on.
I still enjoy a visit to a good old-fashioned butcher's shop.