Tailor of Inverness, The (9 page)

I don’t know, when we get contact with Adam, I tink after I was demobbed. Again through America. Adam explained everything in the letters you see.

We know that all the Poles from the Eastern side of the new border was movin’ west. So I was sure mother and father would be movin’ west! And when I contacted Adam, where is father and mother?

‘Oh, they still in Gnilowody.’

I say, ‘Everybody come out, why didn’t they come out?’

‘They waited there because they thought you and Kazik will be coming home.’

You know the carry on, the old people. They should realise that we not be coming home. By then it was, ’47 or ’48, it was too late, they couldn’t get out! It was too late! The Russian wouldn’t let them go! Well, father died shortly afterwards. Father died, beginning ’48… So mother stopped with her daughter there, she was married to one of the Ukrainian chap there, Pawel. I told you about the wedding. So there you are.

I never knew there was such a thing as Scotland. It was all England! As far as we were taught in school, was England, British Isles! There was nothing to tell us there is Scotland, there is Wales. Kazik wrote that address was Scotland. Where’s that!? And when I seen it on the map I thought for goodness’ sake, that is London here and a Scotland? Up there. Ha-ha. So… just shortly after New Year in ’47 we arrived in Dover actually and we went through London, then we went to Manchester. It was shrouded in mist. Foggy England. We liked the freedom of movement. Nobody bothered where you went.

I been in uniform for about a year before I got demobbed. I been attached to the British military police to help the Poles in the patrol. ‘Cos there were a lot of Poles there, regiments of them. We did a few raids. Usually hunted deserters. Amnesty didn’t come for them till about 1950.

The first time I went to Glasgow to see Kazik, we went to the Locarno dance hall and I met Anna there. I danced with her and she was very nice and yap, yap, yap, I don’t know what she been talking about, but nonetheless – I begin to pick up English because we went to school, we have the classes there in
Manchester.

I seen her about three times in the Locarno dance hall. Cup of coffee there, cup of tea here an’ the band. That time, that’s all it was at the dances, no drinks or anything. The old jazz, the old time waltzes, tangos, very nice. Very orderly, there was no rowdiness or anything. I don’t know where I learned to dance, it just come. I didn’t learn specially. Danced quite a lot in Italy. And then we made the arrangement for Sunday, to go to the carnival in Kelvin Hall. First we arranged to meet at the Kelvin Hall. And then she changed it to the Locarno, but I didn’t understand that. So I’m waiting and waiting for her outside the Kelvin Hall. And she waited and waited for me outside the Locarno. And next day I went away.

About 2 or 3 months later I started workin’ in Glasgow. Kazik, he know a few tailors. I was demobbed but we still had the army pay till we get the job. And we have to report to the police, as an alien, you’ve got alien book, you have to report change of address, change of job. Anyway…tailors, tailors, tailors, tailors…walking on Buchanan Street and we see a sign. ‘Tailor Wanted’. And as it aspired, the manager was a Major Forbes and he was Liaison Officer with Polish troops in North Africa. He took me up to the workshop and
introduced
me to a Polish cutter called Bark who was working there. Zajac means hare in English. So Forbes say ‘Mr. Bark! This is Mr. Hare!’ So it was Bark and Hare! And everyone laughed! I had never heard of Burke and Hare!

And that was the first job I got. They take you on for a trial period first but to tell you the truth, I forgot all about how to do it. I just sat beside a good old tailor, Mr. Penman he was, come from Ballachulish, very nice man, he says ‘I’ll show you how to go about it.’ I picked up from him, mass of, mass of things. It was five pound a week and Forbes say ‘You be getting six, but don’t tell anybody.’ Maybe’cos of being a soldier or something you know? I was quite grateful for it till about a year after it was found out and what a
ballahoo 
it was about it, so everybody got a rise after that!

I was working in Buchanan Street for about two or three months and I went to the Locarno. I’m sittin’ there lookin’ at the girls and then she’s standing there. ‘Here! Where you been?!’ So after that I meet her father and went to the house and all that carry on and, there you are, mm-hm.

She was cashier in fruitmarket. You know that big
fruitmarket
, it was the wholesalers. In Candleriggs. That’s where the fruitmarkets were one time.

Well going together and going to get married and father found out that I’m much older. He didn’t like it. Her mother talked ten to the dozen or twenty. I think she liked me. Anna’s father was a chef in the Athenaeum. Davey Graham. Anna and I went one time for lunch. It was quite dear. Half a crown! And after, we went for a drink with father and I discovered that father like a good snoot! So I met him quite often in the bar after that, in Horseshoe, in West Nile Street. He used to go to Horseshoe.

Her uncles on her mother’s side, the Steins, were in Hamilton and in Blantyre an’ granny an’ grampa, they still were alive. An’ a Grampa Graham, I met him about about two or three times. But I didn’t go to his house. The Steins, I been a number of times in their house up in Blantyre. The Grahams were a bit better off. They were more of a gentlemen lookin’ people, all bowler-hatted, but the Steins were entirely different, workmen. Miners. And the Grahams they were gentlemen farmers. Big farms they had. One family was Episcopalian and the other Church of Scotland, I don’t know which was which. But as far as I concerned, there is no difference, a Protestant’s a Protestant! But there is some difference. Aye.

I was living with Kazik’s father-in-law on Berkeley Street just off Argyll Street, near Kelvingrove Park. Kelvin Hall. Then I decided to go on my own. Och, I stayed in so many places, always movin, always movin’. I stayed in Watt Street, in
Ibrox, in Townhead for a while. And then I stayed in Royston Road, then Alexandra, Alexandra Parade for a pound! Very cheap. And then I stayed in Maryhill on Homburg Street. After that, we got married, so we stayed on Bollan Street. And then we stayed with granny. For about six months, Angela was just little. And then I spoke to the boss, man’s name Shearer, where I work, about the house. How to get the house? To get some permanent address. And he knew some factors for town houses to rent and next day or day after, there is a house on a Dumbarton Road, small house, a room and a kitchen. So hotfoot it to Dumbarton Road, see the place, no bad. Nice house, nice district, the trams going that way for a penny or two. So we got that house. And a rent was very very cheap. It was pound a month.

So we stayed there for a few years. And then I seen the advert for the tailor and cutter to take charge of the shop in Inverness. And the interview is in one of the hotels on Queen Street you know? So I went for the interview and got the job! So I went to Forbes, I say well, sorry to say but I have to say cheerio to you. He say how? Why? Where you going? Going to Inverness you know and that time the wages went up and up, I had 8 pound, or 9 pound that time, was quite good wages that time.

And Forbes say, ‘We give you a rise, we give you 12 pound.’

‘I’m sorry, I offered 16 in Inverness.’

‘Oh, we couldn’t compete with that, the 16 pound, it’s too much.’

They went to 14, you see? Buggers. I worked for 9 pound and now was quite all right to jump to 14! Anyway, Forbes say, ‘If you not get on there, come back. Job’s here for you, just come back.’ So I went and took charge of the work there in Inverness and what a mess that shop was! You wouldn’t believe it! They had a cutter there who was not much of a cutter at all. He made a messes no end. So I straightened that 
out quite well and somehow it become a lull in the trade, and the bosses begin to cringe, this a big wages, and mother was still in Glasgow now with Catherine as well.

And in between the time I met a tailor that I used to work with. And he work in C & A. He was in charge of the coats section, makin’ coats in the factory, you see? Met him in the Bay Horse, that’s in Renfield Street. Still there to this day. James Easdale his name.

And he says ‘How you doin’?’

I say, ‘I’m in Inverness but thinkin’ of comin’ back.’

‘Come to C&A! I’m sure you’ll get the job! I’ll see the manager for you!’

So Monday, I went there and manager start explainin’ to me how tings workin’ there and it’s a very progressive firm.

‘I used to be a machine mechanic and now I’m general manager. See it’s progressive as that, if you have head screwed on your shoulder.’

I say, ‘Here, I never worked in the factory, I don’t know the way of factory workin’.’

He say, ‘It’s easy picked up, it’s just like a riding the bicycle.’

I still remember him say that! You never forget that!

‘We just been in the process to start a costume section. Would you take charge of the costume section and you do what you like with it, but production must be 200 costumes a day.’ 200 costumes! ‘First week, you come here, you doin’ nothing, just to walk about the factory and pick up the
machinists
. You would need about 60 of a staff. Machinists, pressers, finishers, passers. You need 10 to 15 pressers and a rest
machinists
of various types, ‘cos is various types of machines there. And you need about 10 to 15 finishers, to do the handwork.’

My pay was, by Jove, £25, was a lot of money that time, you know. After two weeks whole factory was shifted for me, bit by bit, to make a room for my band. It was circular affair. The whole costume came cut, ready, cut in London. Various
people were placed to distribute, the sleeves, the back, the fronts, the linings and all went to different machines. Every machinist done so much and a put it down and a chute went to another machine, to done the other thing and on and on and so far and went to the row of pressers, opening seams, stretching where is necessary, pressin’ the canvas, and goes back to the machines again. The sleeves together, the fronts together, the collars there, back to the pressers and go back to the finishers. Buttons and a maybe the lining’s to be filled. And a pressers again and on the hanger! Oh what a kalabazoo it was first week, my head was twirlin’ like mad!

Now, production was 200 a day. I not come near the mark, first day. I tink I was short about 50 or so. But before the week was finished, I reached the 200. I was amazed. How on earth we could produce a costume in 8 minutes! ‘Cos that’s what’s amount to! Between 8 and 10 minutes, costume been hanging up, you see? It went so fast.

After near a year, I was called to the office and he says you know, your section is runnin’ very well, I tink we’ll put somebody else to it. And you take the despatch. You see? That was, tremendous promotion. I have 8 models, and a secretary. And you know I was on that section two weeks and the blasted ting went on fire! Two weeks! Was such a job, you know! Pay was, och, double practically!

Went on fire on a Sunday. In the despatch department. Some basket left the fire on! And the dress silk caught, went up like a, bloomin’ torch! So, Monday going to work, there’s no work. And they offer me job in factory in Birmingham but mother didn’t want to go.

So I say, ‘What ta hell to do next? Hm, I tink I’ll go back to Inverness.’

Just like that! I’ll see my old place. So I went, to R.S. MacDonald there.

‘You back?! You want a job?’

I say, ‘Well, is job going?’

‘Yes.’

I say, ‘Right, I’ll take a job.’

So I took back job in the R.S. MacDonald, which didn’t last long. I have a bit of a fight with Colonel Campbell, he was the owner.

I just been back about three months and girl went to the bank for the wages and there was no money for the wages. So I went to the manager of the bank myself. He says Colonel Campbell took all the money out.

‘How do you mean took all the money out? We have business to run.’

Campbell also have the frozen food place in Bunchrew and apparently that wasn’t doin’ well and he took all the money and put into that bloomin’ frozen food. I went hotfoot to Bunchrew.

I say ‘Here! What happened to the money? We doin’ very well, we busy! And no money for the wages!’

‘You not going to tell me how to run my business, I know how to run my business!’ I say, ‘Well, I’m not runnin’ your business, I just want the money to pay the wages! And you run your business how you want and if you want to run it that way, just bloody well run it!’

And I just slammed the door and I went out. And that was that, I never went back.

And mother say, ‘Now what we going to do, we going back to Glasgow?’ She was in Inverness then, ‘cos I got a house, that electric flats up there in Dalneigh. Oh mother start greetin’. ‘We just got here and then you no job!’

I say, ‘Well, we’ll go back to Glasgow again. On the other hand, I might start on my own.’

So I went to look for a place. I was unemployed for, 2, 3 weeks. Found a place up in the gods, above Halifax Building Society. And I started.

From the day I started I never look back. I had the sewing
machine, that’s all I needed for a start. One of the furniture store give me a wooden bench for nothing. I bought another machine and started myself, for 2 or 3 weeks myself and then I got Jean Gordon. I bung a big advert, cost me a pound that time. Mathew Zajac, late of R.S. Macdonald, openin’ his own business, you know? 25 Inglis Street, Ladies and Gents Tailor, your own cloth made up and all that, you know? From the very first week, I had such a pile of order, how ta hell I’m going to catch up with it?

So I took Jean and I took another girl and I took another girl so, work about 5 of us for a while, and then 3 and then 4 and then 2 and then 3. But Jean lasted with me all the time since I started. Aye, till she died, practically. Practically till she died, aye…We done reasonably well, you know, but I could have done better. I should have broke out, from bespoke tailoring and went to the ready-mades. ‘Cos there was money in it. A lot of salesmen been advisin’ me, take ready-made. Take a sale, because that time, it was possible to take sale or return, 3 months, they supply you for so many dozen of suits, and trousers so many this, so many that. If you not sell, 3 months they take it back. Sale or return, you know. Good mark and do the alteration myself, I would have made it definitely better, I know that now but, ach, too late now. Was somehow scared of the ready-mades. I don’t know, you see, once you used to the top-notch work, good class o’ work and then go to that, as I call it, rubbish, you somehow…and try to sell suit to a man…I would have lost good client that I had, you know. And they wouldn’t come, you see.