I prevaricated until the new school term started, and, in the absence of anything else, I thought I would go back to school for 6th year. What I didn't realise was that 6th year students were very much left to their own devices - much as University students were - and I felt at a bit of a loose end. I suppose I could have stuck it out and picked up another couple of Highers and then gone on to University in 1966. After all, I was still very young - just 16 - and would still have been only 17 at the start of the University year in September, 1966.
I finally made my mind up after going to see the school's Careers Officer. We discussed my perceived numeric strengths and two options came up - Actuary and Chartered Accountant. At the time, I would have needed one more Higher to undertake the Actuary route and the thought of waiting another year for this didn't appeal to me. I was aware that one of my old school pals - ace footballer Donnie Gemmell - had started training to be a Chartered Accountant, and I already had the qualifications to start training under Indenture, so this seemed a better bet.
Then and there, the Careers Officer made a phone call and secured me an interview at Robert Fraser & Co., 141 West George Street. I headed off there immediately and got the "job" and went home to tell my folks. Mum was pleased but I wasn't sure what Dad thought about it - I guess he had always half expected I would some day undergo some sort of trade apprenticeship. Well, in a way, I did - the C.A. training involved me signing a 5 year Indenture contract and the training was still described in Victorian terms as an "apprenticeship".
In return for signing the Indenture, I would be paid a stipend/salary of £150 p.a. - after my National Insurance contribution of 9/- per week was deducted, this left me the grand sum of £2.11/- per week in my hand - still, it was better than nowt. It wasn't that long ago that the "apprentices" had to pay the "masters" for the privilege of the training being given to them.
Robert Fraser & Co. were a small, two partner firm, located on the top floor of the building. The lift was one of those old wrought iron concertina gate affairs that had to be shut fully and firmly before it would operate. I went back there a couple of years ago and was sad to see that 141 West George St was derelict - presumably awaiting development:
The little round window at the top, on the 5th floor, was the "apprentices'" office, where I was to work - and learn. I shared that room with 3/4 other trainees, all in different years - the firm took in just one apprentice every year - and I was that one for 1965. There was a distinct pecking order of seniority - Alex Gourley was in his 4th year, Iain Thom in his 3rd and John Victor Collins in his second. The firm had one secretary - Hazel Hyde - and just the two partners - elderly Mr. Hewitt (never got to know his first name), and Junior Partner Duncan Crawford.
I don't need to tell anyone that this was the pre-computer era, but, in our firm, we weren't even allowed to use the ancient hand-cranked calculators until we were in 2nd year! Most of the firm's clients were small - sole traders and partnerships, and much of our time was spent sorting through what records they gave us - usually all bunged together in a cardboard box. Most of them didn't keep any records of their own and we had to make up their books from raw data like cheque and pay-in stubs. It was certainly an education from the ground floor up.
On day one (I think) I was given this tall slim book which only contained rows of numbers - and I was told to add them up and carry the totals of each page forward to get a cumulative total for the whole book - or at least as far as I could get. It was a test that I failed - after a while, number blindness kicked in. The following day, I was taken in to Mr. Hewitt's office and told to start again - only this time out loud. He identified the problem immediately - I was jumping ahead of myself all the time, thinking it was easy, and adding up numbers two or three ahead of where I should be. He made me do it slowly and properly until he was satisfied I could go back to my desk and start the book again with some chance of better results this time. It was a lesson learned - the hard way.
I was definitely the Junior in the office at this time, and, naturally, I got all the basic, tedious jobs to do. The sole extent of what I called real education came on Friday nights and Saturday mornings - that was when we had to go to the Institute of Chartered Accountants HQ at the top of the hill in St. Vincent St. We had three hours of lectures on Friday night and another three on Saturday morning - not ideal timing for a young boy who really just wanted to go out with his mates and have a few beers.
Still, I skated through my first year - and my second - and our third year was full time at University - and we could apply for a grant then - and we still got paid by the firm! Good times.
Anyway, before I get to University tales, it's still 1965 - and I do have a life outside work and study. One weekend I remember with affection was when a group of us went to Millport - the only town on the small island of Great Cumbrae, the larger of the two Cumbraes, off the coast of Ayr:
I remember aforesaid Donnie Gemmell was there, as was Hugh "Shuggy" Fulton, a streetwise pal of his. I can't remember who else was on that trip. What I do remember was getting pretty drunk for most of the weekend, and also going to a dance, where, typically for those days, there was trouble - caused no doubt by the Glasgow neds who used to frequent the island on high days and holidays. I also remember every juke box playing Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone, which was soaring up the charts to a great storm from the traditionalists of the folk movement, who saw Dylan then as purely a "folkie" - "you can't use electric instruments!".
Meanwhile, back at Robert Fraser & Co, I was allowed to be part of the team working on the audit of the firm's biggest client by far - Legal & Trade Debt Collection Agency. It was, stereotypically, owned by a Jewish family, and their clients included both the Electricity Board and the Gas Board. Once a customer went in to default, the Boards passed their debts over to L & T for collection - and there were thousands and thousands of them. Pre computers, their ledgers were all manual - and they were massive. It was an incredible job keeping control of it all. The main thing about the audit though, was that it was off site at the clients' premises. They were only about half a mile away in Candleriggs, but it was a chance to get away from the grim surroundings of West George St. for a while. This was also the first time I saw comptometer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptometer) operators in action - it was amazing watching their dexterity as they moved up and down the keys, adding up the ledgers.
It was getting near Christmas, 1965 now, and Mum and Dad had yet to fulfill their promise to buy me a record player as a reward for passing my Highers. They duly did it - and added in four current chart singles. I remember three of them:
- Fontella Bass - Rescue Me
- Walker Brothers - My Ship is Coming in
- Johnathan King - Everyone's Gone to the Moon
I think the fourth may have been some kind of orchestral instrumental - something like Horst Jankowski's A Walk in the Black Forest perhaps?
Anyway, that's about as far as I think I should go for now - more to follow eventually.
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