When you reach a certain age, you tend to look back over your life and some events
stand out in your memories more than others. I would like to relate one such memory
to you. It was in 1975 when at the tender age of twenty I was promoted to being Relief
|Manager for a nationwide retail company called House of Holland, I later went on
to become their youngest Store Manager when I took over the York store at the age
of 21. However this story relates to my taking over the Lewisham store whilst Mr
Broadbent the manager was ill. I had set off from York on the Milk Train to London
at about 4.30am, and had arranged to collect the store keys from the Southern Area
Manager at Kings Cross. We met and he gave me the keys and he told me which tube
trains I needed to take to get to Lewisham, he also told me bluntly that he was personally
not happy that someone of my age had been given the responsibility of running a store
in his area and that if I let him down he would see to it that I would be put back
on the shop floor as a salesman. He also said he would ring me at nine o'clock to
make sure I had opened the store and that all the staff had turned up. So I set off
not feeling that happy but determined to prove him wrong and to show I was capable
of not only running the store but hopefully maintaining the high turnover for which
it was well known throughout the company. I arrived in Lewisham at about 8.30 and
having not had any breakfast was feeling hungry, so I decided to go into Woolworths
which had just opened. I picked up a family-size bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk. When
I got to the till the young girl assistant was having trouble fitting the till roll,
I looked around to see if there were any other tills open but there weren't. It was
now about 8.35 and I was thinking I should be on my way to open the Lewisham House
of Holland, I asked the girl if I could leave her the money so she could ring it
into the till when she got it sorted, she said it would be ok and that she would
give me a bag to show I had paid for the chocolate. Upon looking under the counter
she then told me there were no bags there, at this point I was getting a little agitated,
I think she could see this so she said if I left the correct change I could take
the chocolate without a bag and if there were any problems she would tell her supervisor
that I had paid. So I left Woolworths with my Cadburys and headed towards the House
of Holland, however before I taken half a dozen steps I felt a hand on my shoulder
and heard a voice say "Excuse me Sir I have reason to believe that you have a bar
of chocolate which you haven't paid for, and I must ask you to return to the managers
office with me". Although I proclaimed my innocence I was frog marched to the office
where I tried to explain what had happened, the time was now 8.50ish and the walk
to the House of Holland was some three minutes away, time was ticking. The manager
left the office to talk to the girl assistant to corroborate my story, but soon returned
to say that the girl had denied all knowledge and that anyway such actions were against
company policy. I said the girl must be lying to protect her job but despite this
the manager told me that he no other choice than to inform the police. Then finally
something went my way the office phone was out of order and the manager had to use
a phone on the shop floor, I thought to myself that I hadn't even been asked my name
so if I could slip out of the office I might just get away, my hopes were dashed
as I heard the key turn in the office door, so there I was locked in a Woolworths
Managers Office when in about 5 minutes I should be opening the Lewisham House of
Holland and getting a phone call from that awful Area Manager. I had become desperate
and it was at this point I noticed a skylight above the manager's desk, without a
second thought I put his chair on the desk, climbed up and opened the skylight. As
I began to haul myself up (I used to be quite slim and fit honest) I heard the office
door open, the manager and security guard rushed in, grabbed me and started pulling
my leg, just like I'm pulling yours now!..
