From as far back as Papa can remember, all he ever wanted to do was to become a carpenter.
He began his five year apprenticeship when he was fourteen, finishing up around the time Papa and I were married in 1969.
When Papa was fourteen and school was just about finishing for the year in June, he decided to start looking for an apprenticeship. He decided to look before the end of the school year as he knew that if he waited for the end of the school year, there would be a lot more boys looking for apprenticeships.
Back in the 1960s when Papa was looking for an apprenticeship, only boys were accepted.
It took Papa only a couple of days to gain an apprenticeship position with the firm James Gardner & Sons.
On the first day, he left home early and walked around the various carpentry businesses in the village where he lived asking if they would consider taking him on as an apprentice. On that first day he was not successful.
That evening when he was talking to his family about his day, his sister Margaret who at that time was a hairdresser mentioned that there was a building business in Stewart Street which was behind the hairdressing company where she worked.
The next day Papa walked down to Stewart Street and knocked on the door of the building company. No-one answered, so he walked up the hill a bit to where he thought the owner of the business might live and knocked on the front door. An elderly man came to the door and he was the original builder of the company and had retired. Papa spoke to the elderly man, telling him about his quest and the elderly man took him down to the builder's business again. This time the elderly man's son, Joe Gardner was there.
After introductions were made, Joe interviewed Papa and said after the interview that he could start work on Monday. You can imagine how thrilled Papa must have felt when he made his way home.
This building was part of James Gardner & Sons business. Papa said it used to house all the glass for the various glazing jobs. As you can see it is now a solicitor's office.
In the mid 1980's when we lived in Scotland again for a few years, I worked here with Ewan Macgregor the solicitor. It was way before computers had come on to the scene so all the work I did was done on a typewriter. Some of the work I did was the preparation of wills which was typed on to a very thick parchment type of paper. Once finished, it was folded in half lengthwise and tied with a red ribbon. When typing a will, no mistakes were allowed, so I had to type very carefully.
When Papa started work at the Joiner & Glazier business (that's what it was called back then), his main jobs to begin with were sweeping the floors, cleaning the toilet, washing the vehicles, making the teas and lighting the sawdust burner which was the main form of heating in the joinery shop in winter.
When one of the joiners needed someone to help them on a job, they would take an apprentice with them. The apprentice became the 'hoddor-on'. This means they would hold the timber steady while the joiner cut it. Jobs similar to this would be the apprentice's work for the early months.
As time passed, the apprentice would be given tasks such as cutting and laying skirtings and architraves and while they were carrying out and at the same time learning how to do these tasks, Papa said there was a lot of shouting to be heard when the apprentice did something wrong.
Papa's salary for the week was twenty seven shillings. Three shillings were deducted from his wages and put into a tool fund which was handled and spent by Joe when he felt Papa was ready for a new tool.
After Papa became more proficient, he was often given a list of jobs to be carried out on the Council Housing Estate. These were homes like Auntie Margaret and Uncle Louis'. Papa's main job in the early years was to replace broken windows. Here's a photograph of a multi pane window which is similar to the types of windows Papa had to repair.
Papa usually walked with his list of properties together with his glass and tools. The walk he took with all his gear would have been around a couple of miles. On his shoulder, wrapped in canvas and tied with rope were all the tools he would need for the jobs: saw, chisels, putty, hammer, plane.
Papa was taught how to pack this tool bag so that it balanced carefully on his shoulder. In his hands he carried the glass and other tools. The glass was cut on site for the panes he carried.
On larger jobs, especially jobs where a ladder was required, Papa, his tools and ladder were dropped off at the job in Joe's Blue Bedford Van. All the workers piled into the back of the van along with ladders and tools. There were no seatbelts or seats in the back of the van. Also, there were no seatbelts in the front either as it was some years before this became a legal requirement in vehicles.
Other jobs included lots of renovations to old homes and work on residential homes in nearby towns.
A popular renovation job was the installation of dormer windows and floor in attics. This type of renovation created more bedrooms for the home owner.
Papa and the company he worked for also worked in Duntreth Castle not far from Milngavie. A lot of the work there was repair and renovation-type work.
I'm sure Papa didn't walk to this job!
Another type of job Papa and the company he worked for did was repairs and renovations to farms and farm homes on estates such as Duntreth Estate. The homes on these estates belonged to the estate but were rented out to estate workers such as farm hands, farm manager and gamekeepers.
Papa has a momory from a time he and a group of other tradesmen were working on a farm at the foot of the Campsie Fells near Milngavie. The workmen had stopped for lunch and someone in the group of apprentices suggested they all run up the Campsie Fells and back again which they all did. They were a bit late back but not too late and began work again. What energy they must have had. Apparently the older tradesmen just sat back and watched.
Papa finished his apprenticeship just before he and I married and when he arrived in Australia shortly after, he worked mainly on commercial type projects. He began each job as a carpenter, was promoted to a leading hand, then promoted again to a foreman. When a project was finished it was time for Papa to look for the next job.
After a period of years, Papa decided to start up his own business in Adelaide and began his business by working in the area of repairs and renovations to properties. He gradually extended his business to include architecturally design homes and small commercial projects.
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