Cold Worktime Memories Late Sixties!!

[old tup]

All my working life apart from the last 12years I was a wholesale driver salesman for various bakeries in Sheffield and Rotherham!.One I enjoyed working for was Vere and Sons Rotherham in the 60s,now long gone sunk by the inflation catastrophy and bad planning advice late in that era!.Its fleet of 7 ton wagons were all second hand at first ex army and some from other sources.One abiding memory of them was that none of them were fitted with heaters making the approaching winters times of dread,not only for personal discomfort but for safety reasons also,steamed and iced up windscreens inside!.We had various tricks to give a little help one being candles cut small placed on the dash and lit when it was a freezing morning,this helped a bit until one bitterly cold day when the windscreen cracked right across!.Another thing we did was punch holes in an Oxo tin lid and lit small candles inside it to thaw out our fingers!.Later on the firm purchased a new wagon,sent it straight to the garage and told the mechanics to remove the heater,when asked why the reply was "If this wagons driver had a heater the others will want one too!".I can,t imagine any business getting away with things like that nowadays,I,m shivering now thinking about those long gone workdays,brrr!.

[harvey19]

Never mind working in the cold you should have lived in some of the old army barracks in the '60s during the winter.

[topten]

Or working in a quarry in the Peak District in times of snow it was very rare if we got working till midday thawing frozen water pipes and machines. That was bloody cold:mad::mad:

[PeterR]

Hi old tup and everyone,

 

I worked for Bells Bread based just off Abbeydale Road over the winter of 1963/4. Can't remember the cold affecting me too much, maybe it was a mild winter. Started driving a pre war van much like the one in Dad's Army and later a post war Commer which was much easier all round to live with.

From 1966/73 I was a van salesman for Ever Ready, batteries etc. and had a Morris diesel (threepenny bit cab) with heater! This van was only a year old when I started there and therefore more modern than the previous two, but still ancient by today's standards. (Just looking at my photo on the study wall).

These were the only two jobs I had which concerned commercial vehicles and when the Castle Market closed earlier this year I had a look at the old ramp up to the loading bays which I used for both jobs.... Memories

 

Regards, Peter.