With her summer job at British Telecom coming to an end, Mum started to look for other jobs to bring some money in. One of the adverts she saw was on the local paper, asking for people to teach part-time at the further education college in her home town. There was a list of subjects they were looking for, plus a note to say that they were open to further suggestions.
Now Mum had never done any teaching in her life. In fact, the very thought of standing up at the front of a classroom of schoolchildren filled her with absolute terror. But this was different. Everyone at the college would be over school-leaving age and most would be there because they wanted to be. And, as she looked down the list, she saw that genealogy/family history was on it and so was creative writing.
As you’ll know from some of my earlier posts, genealogy was something Mum knew quite a lot about, as by that time she’d managed to trace some of her Yorkshire roots back into the 15th century. And, though she didn’t think she could teach creative writing, she thought she could run a short course on writing for money, including such things as writing reader’s letters, handy hints and short articles for magazines.
She decided to apply and, as she’d no teaching experience, she mentioned in her letter that she’d given talks about writing – and added that she was a chartered librarian.
A few days later she was called in for an interview and, to her amazement, was offered two genealogy classes, plus the writing for money class that she’d suggested.
That added up to six hours a week at a very good rate of pay – and she’d another surprise in store as the college principal asked her if she’d also like to consider applying for the post of college librarian as the one they had was about to leave.
This was for three hours a morning, five days a week. And, although the rate of pay wasn’t much better for this than she was getting at British Telecom, there were some advantages, in that it wasn’t as far to travel, there was a huge free car park when she got there and she could go home for lunch, instead of paying to eat in a canteen.
Mum said yes, but the surprise she’d got on being asked was nothing compared to the surprise she got a couple of weeks later when she arrived at college to start her new library job.
Although she knew the college did full-time courses in office skills and computer studies, plus a few O-level and A-level courses and night-school classes, she didn’t know that it also ran life-skills classes for people who had special physical or mental needs.
As a result she nearly died of shock as she walked into the hall in the middle of the main building just as a young woman was hurtling through wearing nothing but a bra and an unbuttoned blouse and waving her knickers above her head like a flag.
Luckily a teacher and a carer were right behind the young woman. The incident was soon dealt with and Mum was able to go through to the office and meet the librarian whose job she was taking over.
After that, everything went smoothly. The library was run on a shoestring with just about enough money to pay the magazine subscriptions and very little left over to buy new books. As a result, it was hardly used and there wasn’t much work for Mum to do, other than keeping the place neat and tidy and answering occasional queries as best she could.
This gave her time to think about writing, make notes for new stories and do some work towards her OU degree.
Because the job was part-time, it also meant she could continue doing her paper-round and knit up occasional orders for people. And, as her Pay As You Earn income tax was finally sorted out and she got a rebate, it meant she could put a little bit of “rainy day” money in the bank and start repaying the money she’d borrowed from Granny Betty and Grandpa Graham to buy a replacement car.
She could only be sure of paying back £10 a week, however, plus a bit more if she sold a short story or article and, as she owed £3000, she knew she’d eventually have to look round for something else. Otherwise it would take nearly…
But unemployment in the UK was still over 3,000,000 until the middle of 1987 and jobs were hard to find. Mum began to think she’d have to be college librarian until the day she retired, which at that time was a long way into the future.
Then quite unexpectedly her luck changed again. Instead of Mum going to look for jobs, two jobs came looking for her...
But that’s another long story, which I’ll have to tell you about in my next post. Meanwhile, take care and stay safe and I’ll talk to you again soon.
Follow my next blog: 138. MY MUM THE STORY-TELLER – PART THIRTY-TWO
31/03/2021
Wilf the bear-faced blogger 