Memories of my first job.

The Lord is my light and my salvation…the Lord is the strength of my life…(Sandy’s chosen bits because sometimes I am afraid)

Psalms27:1

Roy took the job offer in Windsor and I found a housekeeper’s job with free accommodation for both of us. I needed money to fly to my sister’s wedding in March so Roy paid me rent.

I remember so clearly putting my hair up, tying my belt on my new full length, warm , blue coat with its matching fur collar and saying to myself:” Sandy you can do this.”

I was going for an interview.

The lady who owned Remenham had turned it into bedsits. Winnie Wimpole, the elderly house keeper told me that it had all happened after her divorce and when the children had become adults. My job was to collect the rent. Then there were five donkeys to care for and a beagle dog, Bonzo to walk. This was what I was asked to do and when I showed enthusiasm for it all, I got the job.

But…

when I asked the man I was told to ask about the donkey’s food. He said: ” There is no need for you to do it. I do it when I get up in the morning and on my return from work.” I think he secretly loved those donkeys and wasn’t about to share them with me.

Then…

when it came to collecting the rent my employer had second thoughts. She thought some of her tenants would need her persuasion to hand in their rent so she did it.

Well…

…that left me and the Beagle. Free time to travel to Windsor on the train from Wraysbury and oh yes, I remember the first time I did that. I was on the way back from Windsor and got into the last carriage. I then flung the door open at Wraysbury, found the platform was too short jumped out anyway, lifted Bonzo out, carried him to the platform put him on it and then pulled myself up like I was getting out of a swimming pool. We had arrived .

I told my new husband about it and he said: “I guess you were careful not to stand on the electrified rail.” I hadn’t because something inside me told me to step over it. A close encounter.

It was then that I decided to ask Winnie for a ladder and a bucket of soapy water. She was most amused at how I washed all the mouldings consisting of large bunches of grapes in the vast entrance hall. I also polished the post table and put a big old vase on it with flowers and leaves.

Then there was the broad mahogany banister on the stairs…it was easy to imagine young children sliding down it…I would have …I made it especially shiny.

Thank you for reading this memory . I couldn’t be further away from that time in my life, as we are in the rainy Black Forest of Germany, parked up with four or five other travellers.