I received my first pay packet on Friday, 31 August 1979, after four weeks at Wessex Marine Supplies.
The firm paid weekly in cash. A woman from accounts handed out brown envelopes late on Friday afternoon. Each envelope had a payslip folded around the notes and coins. We signed a sheet to say we had received it.
I had already checked my name twice. I still checked it again before opening the envelope.
I remember the amount as twenty-seven pounds and some pence after deductions. The payslip has not survived, so I cannot be more exact without pretending. It was less than I had calculated from my weekly rate because National Insurance and another deduction had appeared between the job offer and the money reaching me.
The accounts woman said, ‘That’s working for you.’
I did not know whether she meant the deductions or employment in general.
My work involved opening post, copying invoice numbers into a ledger, typing short letters and taking papers to people who usually wanted a different set of papers. I had learnt where most things went. I had not yet learnt why they sometimes came back.
I put the envelope inside my handbag and kept the bag on my lap during the bus ride home. Nobody on the bus knew I had been paid, but I regarded the information as visible.
Mum was in the kitchen when I arrived. She asked whether I had it before she asked how the day had been.
I gave her the envelope.
‘You count it,’ she said.
I had expected her to count it. This was my first indication that being paid also produced duties.
The amount was right. Mum had already decided what I would give her each week for board. She had told me before I started work, then reminded me on Thursday in case employment had affected my memory.
Dad came in while the money was still on the table. He asked whether I had checked it before leaving the office.
I said I had checked the name.
‘Count the money before you leave next time.’
This was exactly what Gran Collins would have said, though Dad would not have thanked me for pointing it out.
After the board money, bus fares and a small amount for savings, I had enough left to buy a blouse and a record. I did not buy either that evening. I kept the notes in my purse and checked them twice before bed.
The brown envelope went into my bedroom drawer. I kept several of them before Mum asked why. I said they were my first wages.
I kept the first envelope. The others went in the bin.