Friday Nights - A Grand Mix of Rugby, Coffee, Cheese & Bacon

HUTCHINSON DAYS

The end of the current Super 15 Rugby season has brought back fond memories of my time as a shop assistant in a grocery/delicatessen store in the heart of Queen Street Auckland. I started as a very junior "counter jumper" as we were called and left the company some 27 years later having worked in every division of the company including the Retail and Wholesale Grocery branches and the Wines and Spirits division. I even got to open and manage a new branch of Hutchinson Brothers in the suburb of Blockhouse Bay in Auckland.

Hutchinsons still sell cheese!

 I had started work on the day of my 15th birthday at a Woolworths store some 12 months before, but had become a bit disillusioned when I wound up in the electrical department in the basement of the shop. This store was also in Lower Queen street and was named the "Roxy" branch after a movie theater situated close by. Woolworths had a number of daily chores which had to be maintained "or else!" and one of them was to remove the small glass inserts on each counter that divided it up into individual squares which contained the products for sale. I got heartily sick of polishing light bulbs, batteries and jug cords every day and cleaning and wiping the glass strips that separated each display container. The only entertainment was from a couple of hard case characters who operated the key cutting concession at the bottom of the stairs and their interaction with the young teenage girls who worked on the neighbouring biscuit counter. Every day brought some light relief as they conjured up hilarious schemes to keep the girls on their toes! One day I had a very lengthy discussion with a floor manager about my future prospects and when I started getting a bit grumpy, I was sacked for "insubordination!"

Similar to Hutchinsons

It was 1958 and I had already been turned down by the NZ Railway as being too young to join up (this had been my lifelong ambition to follow in my Fathers footsteps) so I went looking for another job. I walked up Queen Street and saw and advert in a shop window and after a 10 minute interview was hired on the spot and started work the next day. I could fill a book with my escapades over the next 8 years in this main branch of Hutchinson Bros Ltd and I enjoyed every moment of my employment with this company. Hutchinsons were recognized as being the leading importers of fine foods in New Zealand, particularly imported cheese and as import restrictions were in force in the early years their import licenses were extremely valuable. As a new boy I was given many of the more menial tasks, such as sweeping the floor, cleaning cabinets and suchlike, but in-between I was asked to help out on the counter. The store was ringed by counters (no self service in those days) and we had a Biscuit/Bread counter, Groceries, Coffee counter, Cheese counter, Bacon & ham counter and a Delicatessen counter with cold meats, salamis etc. Most counters had two permanent staff but there were other staff moving around as required.

A typical  cheese display

Oh what a lot of fun! I learned how to cut 80lb cheeses, prepare hams and bacon for smoking, weigh and wrap a myriad of products (no sellotape, just brown paper bags or two size brown paper roll) the coffee counter had two huge glass grinders and one electric grinder for very fine coffee and we weighed everything from under-counter bins. The hours were from 8.30am to 5.15 Mon-Thurs and 8.30am to 8.30pm on Friday and we closed for the weekend and my initial pay was 4 pounds per week (prior to decimal coinage 10th July 1967)

Friday was Late shopping night in New Zealand and had a character all of it's own. This was the time when lot's of families came to Queen Street to shop at the large department stores and then maybe go to the movies. We were always very busy on Friday's and once we had finished our tea hour (dinner time) we usually started the major effort to clean up after a weeks work, while still serving customers. Trevor Miller was the Manager (one of the best bosses I ever had) and his Assistant was Dave Menzies who had been an excellent Rugby footballer and had been selected for the Maori All Black team who had played against a visiting Springbok team from South Africa in 1956. Dave had played in the back line (no 14) and was a fit and lean chap with a very competitive nature and of course his world revolved around Rugby or anything to do with our National sport (read religion) 

Springbok Rugby Tour

This was before the era of blatant racism, but we were aware of misgivings by the South Africans at playing "coloured folk" On Friday night he would hold court with a number of famous Local and National heroes who would come into the shop and converse with Dave. Maunga Emery, Snow White and Eric Boggs are names that come to mind and we looked on in awe of these blokes who had featured in the newspapers. Dave had played a test at Eden Park against a tough Springbok team with over 51686 people attending and was quite a hero amongst the staff. I was able to show him my missing front tooth from my own Junior rugby career, but it didn't seem to interest him very much. (I wonder if my tooth is still lodged in that large Polynesian thigh of classmate Joe Cowan, after I tried to tackle him when he was going flat out?") I have tried to find out where Dave went to after he left Hutchinsons, but to no avail so far.

A Classic 56 Rugby Cartoon

I really enjoyed Friday Nights and the atmosphere, especially at Christmas time and I certainly wouldn't like to  be in a retail environment under today's regime, where shops are hardly ever closed! I do feel personally that we have lost something and it can't be very helpful to family home life if Mum or Dad has to work on weekends and have time of in lieu during the week. Oh well, I guess that's life in this day and age. 

I often think that my generation has had the best of days!