Marlene Tolley – The different departments

Simon: Doors opened at 9 I guess?

Marlene: 9, you had to be there by a quarter to, really.

Simon: Ok, that’s not too bad.

Marlene: No. Of course, each Department, I think there was four in the Children’s Department, four of us, but each Department had their own Staff. Like the Children’s Department, Haberdashery, Hosiery, you know and then you went upstairs to Hats and Dresses and then Coats. Different Departments, and they were all separate … you had your own Buyer, or Boss for that Department, which really was quite good because if you got told off by your Boss, you could moan about it to the other people.

But I do remember I had a ladder in my stockings in those days and I can hear her saying it to this day, “Miss Bailey, here, you have a ladder. Go round to Haberdashery, get yourself a new pair and it will be deducted from your wages on Friday.” And you had to do it.

You couldn’t go with a repaired … if you had a ladder in your foot you repaired it obviously but if you had one in … you weren’t allowed to wear stockings with ladders.