The Divorce Years
In the last chapter of story, I was returning from South Africa and starting to settle back into the UK. If you missed "Return From The Wilderness", you can see it here, other parts of the tale are "The Early Years" and "The South Africa Years".
We moved to New Farm Loch, coincidentally, about 3 streets away from the very first house I can remember in Brodie Place before we went to South Africa. That was when life really started to get interesting. I was still hanging out with Billy and Craig mostly, although Dave was still in the picture too. Every week, at least twice or 3 times we would go skating to the ice disco, down at the Magnum ice rink. Craig initially and Billy later were driving at this point, I was another year or so behind them. There are all sorts of stories I could tell you from this time, but they are better left unsaid. We got into CB radios too, Craig and Billy were the Roadrunner and Gearslammer, I don't remember which way round, and I was Bettlemania (I was trying to restore a VW Beetle at the time)
I was working part time at my local supermarket, Wm Low, commonly know as Willie Lows. Dave and I were part of the evening shift there, initially as shelf stackers, but progressing together to work weekends, days in the summer, and both eventually becoming full time when we left school. He managed, that's right I said managed (age 17 or 18) the Dairy aisle, and I the Frozen Foods, both us responsible for all ordering, waste and scheduling for the fill staff. We both joined the trainee manager program together, and he ended up leaving to go to one of our competitors, Gateway if I remember correctly.
I ended up managing both the Dairy and Frozen Foods sections, which was great fun. I was responsible for opening the store every morning, as I had to be in around 7am to prepare the day's dairy orders. I was at that store in all for 4 years, before I made the move to Head Office. As part of the trainee manager program, I was seconded to a store opening/refit program to assist with the implementation of a new store in Greenock. The lady running the team responsible for the implementation of the POS equipment, Hilary Doxford, was in the process of setting up a new team to rollout this very same technology to all new stores and refits. I must have impressed her because she offered me a job! I felt so grown up, at only 21 years of age from my small provincial background, moving to a new city, new job, etc..it was almost unheard of in my circles.
The rest as they say is history, and this story is starting to sound like my resume. So before boring you all to death, although I may have already done so in some cases..I will stop my life story there!
We moved to New Farm Loch, coincidentally, about 3 streets away from the very first house I can remember in Brodie Place before we went to South Africa. That was when life really started to get interesting. I was still hanging out with Billy and Craig mostly, although Dave was still in the picture too. Every week, at least twice or 3 times we would go skating to the ice disco, down at the Magnum ice rink. Craig initially and Billy later were driving at this point, I was another year or so behind them. There are all sorts of stories I could tell you from this time, but they are better left unsaid. We got into CB radios too, Craig and Billy were the Roadrunner and Gearslammer, I don't remember which way round, and I was Bettlemania (I was trying to restore a VW Beetle at the time)
I was working part time at my local supermarket, Wm Low, commonly know as Willie Lows. Dave and I were part of the evening shift there, initially as shelf stackers, but progressing together to work weekends, days in the summer, and both eventually becoming full time when we left school. He managed, that's right I said managed (age 17 or 18) the Dairy aisle, and I the Frozen Foods, both us responsible for all ordering, waste and scheduling for the fill staff. We both joined the trainee manager program together, and he ended up leaving to go to one of our competitors, Gateway if I remember correctly.
I ended up managing both the Dairy and Frozen Foods sections, which was great fun. I was responsible for opening the store every morning, as I had to be in around 7am to prepare the day's dairy orders. I was at that store in all for 4 years, before I made the move to Head Office. As part of the trainee manager program, I was seconded to a store opening/refit program to assist with the implementation of a new store in Greenock. The lady running the team responsible for the implementation of the POS equipment, Hilary Doxford, was in the process of setting up a new team to rollout this very same technology to all new stores and refits. I must have impressed her because she offered me a job! I felt so grown up, at only 21 years of age from my small provincial background, moving to a new city, new job, etc..it was almost unheard of in my circles.
The rest as they say is history, and this story is starting to sound like my resume. So before boring you all to death, although I may have already done so in some cases..I will stop my life story there!
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