Back In The Day Did You .........................?

[Evans Electric]

................ever work on a large site & cop teaboy duties ?  

Firm I was apprentice with were doing a huge site at B,ham University , Halls of Residence  ,  a 24 storey tower block  & a long 3 storey block  , all done in MI   with Home Office permission to wire it in a TNC system . 

   So single core pyro & earth tail pots  , neutral looped from earth term to neut term to the box.    Neutral bars fixed direct to the metal boards .  Wierd.

Anyway , loads of sparks on the job and about 6 apprentices ........ each taking a turn for a week on tea duties .

Tea was made in 2 huge enamel jugs , sugar / milk  included.    Two shopping trips out per day for bacon sarnis , newspapers, giggies etc .  

Washing up , keep the mess shed clean .  

On the high block you could ride up the outside of the scaffold in the cage , worked from the ground by Paddy . If you were a plasterer or floorlayer on pricework,  they bunged Paddy to give  preference with the cage ,  so us mugs were up & down the stairs all day  rather than wait forever . 

Never figured out how ...but made a fortune during teaboy week.   :C

Found a photo on Gloogle .

 

[OnOff]

I was a "pizza" boy.

I worked up at Britoil in Glasgow as a 16 year old apprentice in the early 80's. "We" were there to replace some large control cabinets chock full of control gear. Simply transfer everything from one broken enclosure to an identical new one. They had control pendants on with a fly lead and over enthusiastic operators had pulled on the glands into the enclosures and ripped them away with a chunk of the fibreglass/ABS or whatever it was.

We travelled up from London in the Transit. Me as the boy confined to the back of the van and the obligatory stack of grot mags and stained Parkas. 

Even as a kid I looked at the job and suggested we NOT strip all the gear out but simply make reinforcing "over plates" from steel as the operators would only do the same again. I was told to shut up and do as I was told. Me being naive didn't realise the older guys wanted the OT and to get way from home again in the near future on the repeat job. The job for some reason had to be done at night.

So I was sent to get pizza in the evening. Strange city etc. Armed with a few quid I had to walk through what I can only now imagine was one of Glasgow's red light districts. I wondered why all these women kept calling out to me offering their "services". The condom covered car park under the flyover where we parked should have given it away.  :lol:

 

[kerching]

We travelled up from London in the Transit. Me as the boy confined to the back of the van and the obligatory stack of grot mags and stained Parkas.

I trust there was no DNA link between these two,items

Definitely something NOT to be sniffed at!

 

[OnOff]

We travelled up from London in the Transit. Me as the boy confined to the back of the van and the obligatory stack of grot mags and stained Parkas.

I trust there was no DNA link between these two,items

Definitely something NOT to be sniffed at!

There was no shortage of Parkas on the firm either - if you were a T&C guy, you wanted one you got one, The centre of the back of the van was just one thick mat of them. I couldn't for the life of me figure why two guys in a van needed so many. As the apprentice from the DO I wasn't due a Parka as I was only with them for the experience working my way round the different departments then back to the DO. A little later when as a 16 year old they felt I had mastered the whole chips for breakfast and pints of Hurlimanns I was let in on the secret. The first guy to pull got the room at the digs. The second guy got the back of the van with whatever he had managed to get hold of!

About the same time we were on the QE2 Conference Centre in London and it was pi$$ing down. I was duly sent to the van to "get the Parkas". One size fitted all and I was told to "pick the best ones" aka the least crusty!

I refused to wear them and went sick shortly thereafter!

Happy Days!

 

[ProDave]

I must have lived in a different world.  We didn't have Parka's we had Donkey Jackets.

 

[OnOff]

A tea boy story................My old governor started life as an apprentice at Redpath Brown in Greenwich. As well as doing the tea he came in for all the usual ribbing. He told of being sent for "a bucket of steam" along with all the old favourites. One day he's told to go get a "bucket of holes" and he duly tells the guy asking where to go. He gets a right rollicking and is docked an hours pay. Turns out that they would punch damn great holes in steel plate. Now and then they'd get it wrong and the punched hole would need filling in. They would keep a few of the punchings, aka "holes" to be re-welded into the misplaced ones.

Jim said that on his last day as an apprentice he NAILED all the tin tea mugs to the bench as payback.

 

[Richard-the-Ninth]

I must have lived in a different world.  We didn't have Parka's we had Donkey Jackets.

.........and if you were really good you got one that had "day glow orange" shoulders.

 

[ProDave]

.........and if you were really good you got one that had "day glow orange" shoulders.

No just black shoulders, and the company name on the back.

 

[kerching]

No just black shoulders, and the company name on the back.

Mine had yellow shoulders

Wore it at Uni for first year!...thought i looked so cool!

Mind you there were stunningly attractive young ladies walking around using a kettle as a handbag!......and an egg fried for 30 mins as a necklace, so i was probably not all that bad really

 

[OnOff]

I had a donkey jacket too plain black with the black shoulders. Used to be my "work" coat when in the DO.

My older brother ran his own industrial clothing supply business in the early 80's and used to bring samples home. For some reason Dickies overalls were very popular with the local MILFs. Worn with a perm, gold sparkly belt to match the zips, pixie boots and the zip half down etc. All very Cannonball Run in a chavvy sort of way! 

 

[Dairyspark]

Parkas.....donkey jackets........whit?! Lol

 

[Rob_the_rich]

Parkas.....donkey jackets........whit?! Lol

parka=mods

Donkey Jackets=Rockers?

Can't see any result in a van full of old donkey jackets.

 

[steptoe]

Donkey Jacket = think Trigger from only fools and horses,

Best coat I ever owned,

Actually asked the wife a couple of years ago to get me one for Christmas,  found her looking at new ones,

Told her NO WAY, either go to charity shop and get me a real one or don't bother, new ones are crap, !!!!  

I'm still cold......... 

 

[Evans Electric]

Is it just me on tea duties then ? ut the kettle on :C

 

[OnOff]

I still have an old friend working with me occasionally when I need a hand. He retired but couldn't sit still so set up a company. He's 71 now, as fit as a fiddle still. Back in the day he was big on bringing his flask in to make tea. he still runs on the stuff.

Lost count of the times he used to scream at me. It was always for the same thing. He's a Scot and would take his tea bag and place it somewhere "safe" to dry out ready for the next cup. I had an uncanny knack of squashing it with a toolbox or running it over with something.