Jobs that no longer exist

Stumbling about in an almost dark cinema recently trying to find our seats, it did make me wonder when ushers and usherettes were phased out. Somehow it was also much more of an occasion when there was an interval and the lady with the ice creams appeared, far better in my opinion to eat something at that point than the perpetual grazing out of trough like containers of popcorn or those massive hot dogs that people come in with now.

There was always a queue for the Banda first thing in the morning in the FE colleges where I worked part-time. I never quite got high on the fumes, but suspect it was a near thing.

Who were the girls in brown uniforms who used to go round all the office blocks cleaning the telephones? Remember them?
Most people then smoked in the office so the handset mouthpieces would be stained with nicotine. They made regular appearances where I worked.

Oh yes they were a complete and utter pain tiggy - messy and smelly (solvents!) and no reprographics assistants to do them for you. Roneo duplicating was the other one - but you had to type out your "master" on an old fashioned typewriter, hitting the keys quite hard and not making any mistakes.
"Typewriter repair man" - another obsolete job?
I wonder is police officers get taught to do that traffic directing trick these days.

Oh the banda machine Granny23 ! Reminds me of my first teaching job in 1970. The Banda machine was in a cupboard under the stair and must have improved the muscles in our arms turning the handle. I can't remember the smell but no doubt the fumes were pretty bad especially with the door closed on the cupboard.

Granny23 that has taken me back, especially the weekly pay breakdowns. Happy daze

Some jobs have not gone exactly, just changed beyond recognition. When I started work in 1962 as a probationary bank clerkess, I spent the first few months learning to sort and count coins and roll them up in pages from the telephone directory, count notes at speed, write and sum huge columns in ledgers and pass books using specially elongated numerals, make copies of documents on a banda machine, re-ink stamp pads and loads of other skills We were also expected to memorise the account numbers and names of our main customers and all the codes for other banks and branches. Having never used a telephone, let alone one with a small switchboard, I dreaded hearing it ring, especially on Thursdays when major employer's wages departments phoned in to give a breakdown of the cash they would need to make up wage packets for Friday. I had to write down an order for so many £5, £1, 10/- notes and all the different coins and tell them what the total came to as a check that we had the figures right. 135 threepenny bits = £1.13/9 quick as a flash. All these hard learnt skills are now totally redundant and the same applies to nearly every other trade where computers, copiers, power tools and new materials have taken the labour out of laborious tasks.

What about the AA man on his motorbike with its sidecar?
If you were a member he saluted you!
White gloved policemen directing traffic at the crossroads.

grannyknot I came across this darning gourd for sale a few days ago.

www.etsy.com/uk/listing/162020901/antique-darning-gourd-darner-mushroom

My Mum was a conductor on the trams, then she worked in the rope works.

knocker upper - they used to wake people up for their early shifts in the days before they had alarm clocks (?) I think this came from Call the Midwife books.
Rag and Bone man in some parts of the country.
Milkman, it would seem, around here.
Working in a typing pool? - most managers do their own emails these days and shorthand secretaries are endangered species too.
Telephone switchboard operators.

Linesman - they had their own length of road to look after. Me thinks we need them now !

flintnapper

King's A....wiper (the most valued and coveted job in the Royal Palace.

I think they tapped the bottom of saggers - numberplease

wet nurse

shorthand typist?

switchboard operator?

ploughman (as in heavy horses)

Telegram boys on bicycles and later on little motorbikes, used to dread the sight of one in the street, usually meant bad news.

Sadly even shorthand typists seem to have disappeared with the advent of the computer.

ninathenana I too did auxiliary nursing before deciding if this was the career I wanted. I then went on to do my RGN training. My final post was Casualty Sister. I loved my work and I still miss it.

The messenger boy who would take messages from one office to another.

Agus in some hospitals it is also difficult to tell the difference between trained and untrained nurses because they frequently wear the same uniform, except the ward or OPD sister. They also wear badges but I have impaired sight so that means zilch to me.

Agus my friend initially trained as an auxiliary nurse. She has been a qualified midwife for several years now.

Tatting? I don't think those burly black country types would do tatting? Tapping!

I remember the chap with a hammer tatting the wheels of the lovely steam trains at new st and snow hill stations.

Ah, I'm very rarely in a ward these days Charleygirland what with all the uniform changes, it's becoming more difficult to tell the difference between theatre porters and house doctors!

Another one I've remembered. SEN's (State Enrolled Nurses)

I remember the gas lamp lighter when I was a girl in the fifties.
We also had fettlers!

Faye and Opsimath I know hosiery repairers were around in the 1950s, we used to take our precious nylons to a local shop and the girls who worked at Morleys and Aristoc, both local factories repaired them for extra cash. I think they charged about 6d a ladder.

Ana* thanks, you've made my day. I didn't know what to google for ...