Olivetti A5 (early computer using magnetic cards) from c1978 costing c £7000 then which would be approximately £40500 today.
I met my wife to be, Pat when I was 20 at Flannigan’s night club in Edinburgh, I can still remember the date, 17th February 1973. The great co-incidence was that Pat’s brother Davy met his future wife in the same place the night before. Up until I met Pat the longest, I had ever dated anyone was 5 weeks. I still remember the first night I was introduced to Pat’s family, my heart was in my mouth, we went into the living room, and it seemed to be filled with people. Her older sister Janette and her husband Kenny had called in, there was her wee sister Eleanor (still at school), her Mum, Alice, who got up to meet me and her Dad, Neil, sitting in his seat. I was concentrating so much trying to make sure I didn’t make an absolute fool of myself with verbal diarrhoea; however, everyone was really nice and welcoming. Neil had had his Friday night drink and was talking to me across the living room, and I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying, so I hoped I was nodding and shaking my head in the right places. I cannot remember if Pat’s brother Davy and girlfriend were there because it was all a bit of a blur with nerves. Alice and Neil always seemed so different, Neil was gregarious, knew his own mind and Alice was always the quiet strength behind. They were great people.
I was never exactly a handy man as I mentioned earlier, and this became even more apparent two days after Pat and I got married in Leith. We had bought with a very large mortgage our first home, a small flat in Linlithgow which my Uncle Kenny, a joiner, and my Dad, the Painter and Decorator, had knocked into shape for us after many hours and days of hard work. All that was left to be done was to put the curtain rods and curtains up when Pat and I arrived in our new home. We had the night of our wedding in Edinburgh then after doing the rounds of seeing everyone we went out to Linlithgow by which time we were quite tired. The flat had large windows, it was winter and dark (my excuse), so I set about putting up the rails and the curtains. For some strange reason, the curtains wouldn’t stay on the rails and kept falling off, I eventually had to admit defeat and tuck them into the rail to keep them up. A day or two later our best man Peter, also a joiner, came to visit us and kindly had a look at the problem with the curtains. It took him two seconds to sort out and many hours of laughter later for it turned out I had put the rail on upside down!
We lived in Linlithgow for 2 years then I moved down to work in Coventry while a pregnant Pat temporarily stayed with her parents. I lived in a hotel for three months before Pat moved down to our new house in Warwick. Life was certainly very different working and living in England. The most difficult part for me was in the spoken word. Being Scots with different mannerisms and expressions that were unique to the area I was born and brought up in made for an interesting time. I had never been out of Scotland except in my single days and then it was to the north of England which isn’t too far off of what I was used to. My first job in England lasted for about 9 months in Coventry where I was a manager for reconditioned automotive parts.
It took 3 months to find a house and for Pat to move down, during that time I drove up most Friday nights and back down again very early Monday morning, it was roughly a 6 – 7 hour drive. As Pat was staying with her parents, I drove up the East Coast route not realising that it was the slowest, that is except for once when I had a loan of another Manager’s car which I had to return to the area office in Wolverhampton on my return. As normal I left Edinburgh about 4.30 in the morning and headed across towards the M74, the rain became torrential and the driving was difficult. What I used to do was drive down in casual clothes and change when I got to the office, this meant having my change of clothes and my office shoes in the back of the car. This day, being in a different car, steamy windows, bends, water on the road had already started out as quite an arduous journey. I eventually joined the A74 which then led on to the M74, this road was treacherous at the best of times and was worse this morning. Before me was a virtual torrent of water flowing across the road, the police were in attendance and the traffic was at a virtual standstill. It was obvious as the level of water rose that the traffic would be stopped, people were already trying to change direction. I nosed forward thinking that it would be very close making it across to the other side, the car in front of me edged into the water and I followed praying, please don’t stop. He edged across towards the middle section of the dual carriageway which seemed to offer the most chance of getting across and of course I was right behind him. Needless to say, there were several cars which hadn’t made it and they were situated in various locations with the drivers waiting for assistance. Then the worst possible thing happened, the car in front of me stopped and couldn’t get started again and I could see that if I pulled out the water was going to get even deeper still. Nothing else for it, I gently swung out behind him concentrating fully on the water and the road, I could see the water was halfway up my door, however I managed to get to the other side and finish my journey, I am sure that I was the last car allowed the risk of crossing. The next part you may find hard to believe, as I set out on the rest of my journey, I could feel my feet and my bottom was wet from the water that had came into the car and as I looked over my shoulder I looked on in disbelieve to see my shoes floating in the back! To make matters worse the water was a dirty brown and left an unpleasant odour in the car and on my clothes. Fortunately, my colleague was very understanding when I returned the car.
Whilst I was working in Coventry and before Pat moved down, a fellow Scot was in decorating the offices, he asked why I didn’t come along to the local Scots Club, The Tam O’Shanter Club. I thought why not, I was to go along and ask for him at the door. I found my way to the club not sure what to expect, not even knowing until then that such clubs existed. I went through the door to be greeted by the Doorman “Can I help you” he asked, I explained the reason for the visit, then I was told that he would have to go and get the member to sign me in, “What is his name?” he asked. I replied “Jock.” he asked, “Jock who?” and of course I didn’t know. The man shook his head and remarked with a smile that really said, “Are you an idiot?!” However, the words that came out were “This is a Scots Club, we have lots of Jocks here, I really need his last name”! He did let me in out of pity and then I found the correct Jock.
I changed my job and the type of work I did when I joined British Olivetti in Birmingham and started my computer career. One of my areas was in Birmingham City Centre, the Jewellery Quarter. Birmingham people are wonderful down to earth people, but they have an accent all of their own, just like the Scots. Add to that the large Jewish element in the Jewellery Quarter then the accent became even more difficult for me to understand. Scots when they get excited tend to talk quicker too which meant there were lots of conversations in which neither of the participants had a clue what the other was talking about, it was great fun.
One night Pat and I had been invited over to friends in Coventry. I reversed the car out of the driveway and started to make my way out of the estate. When this bird flew into my windscreen, I was hardly moving but it did manage to trap one of its legs under my windscreen wipers. Panic! How was I going to remove it without scaring it or hurting it any more than it was already plus I don’t know who was more frightened. I got out the car ran back to the house leaving Pat to watch this poor trapped bird. I collected a towel and ran back to the car and then managed to extricate the bird in the towel. It was promptly wrapped up and placed in Pat’s lap as we took it to the vet to get it checked. We found the Vets in Warwick and fortunately he was very kind and helpful for I think the practice was closed for the night. He lifted the bird out of the towel and was checking it over, nodding his head satisfied that it was okay when the bird decided to make sure the Vets generosity did not go unrewarded by leaving a small deposit on his trousers.
After working for British Olivetti in Birmingham I went to work for Philips Data Systems in Halesowen. A great company to work for and filled with some real characters. They used to send us out on exhibitions, put us up in nice accommodation and generally look after us very well. One day we were involved in an exhibition in Wolverhampton, a place I didn’t know my way around and I was therefore following one of my colleagues. The traffic was quite heavy and of course there were queues at traffic lights and crossings. I am driving along and next thing I see is a nutcase behind me flashing his lights and tooting his horn, I ignored him and drove on until he overtook me. It was my colleague that I had been following, I must have been driving on automatic pilot and when there was a lull in traffic, I overtook him even although I had no idea where I was going!
Philips eventually moved me back to Scotland where I worked firstly in their Glasgow branch before moving to Edinburgh.
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