Working as a gardener while I was at school – by KM

While I was at school, following in my Dad’s footsteps of hard work, I did various jobs. My Dad got me some gardening jobs and I used to do the gardening for some of what we call the big houses, the posh houses. I did a couple of houses down in Bute Avenue which is off Sudbrook Lane. The people must have been quite pleased with me there because, when they moved – actually to Sheen – they asked me to carry on doing the garden even in Sheen and they used to pay my bus fare to go there so they were pleased. So I used to do gardening.  That was a job sometimes after school in the summer months but I used to do it on Saturdays if I wasn’t playing for the rugby team. That was in the summer. Then I also used to go out in the evening and I used to work in a supermarket, stacking shelves in the evening. In those days there was in a supermarket called Macfisheries which was in the middle of Richmond, in George Street, so I got a job there as a shelf-stacker. So, when I left school at 16 – all rather quickly – I didn’t really know what I wanted to do so I carried on working there full time.