Home Workers in the 1960s

[BLAKEY]

A treasured family friend of mine - she'd once been nicely placed and comfortably off - fell on the hardest and cruellist of times. A proud lady, she did one full time job in a shop in Town, other bits and pieces too, and took in blank canvas flour bags at home - all she had to do (her daughter too after homework was complete) was to stamp a large serial number on the bags with an inked rubber stamp and a black stamp pad. They were delivered to the house in Chapeltown by the Flour Company (a leading one but I can't recall the name) and collected when done, only to be replaced by hundreds more. It must have been the most soul destroying process ever and of course paid next to nothing per thousand or whatever.

[Moodycow]

Thank you all for the information - it's a pity the youth of today can't be transported back to see how poor people were and how they worked for next to nothing, just to put food on the table. My mam had a darning mushroom for darning socks and sheets were always patched - even tin foil was washed and used again! We were happy kids, though, but I wonder about the women - it was a hard life, and I'm not denying the men, but looking after young children, washing, ironing, cooking, shopping and piece work ...