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And there I was 17 years old
bright-blue-eyed,
just spent a year in the Air Force Gymnasium,
and what was one to do ?
JOIN THE BANK LAD.
Remember the depression years when there were no jobs !
And I'm GLAD I did. It gave me a solid grounding for
being able to realise
what I didn't want to do for the rest of my life.
But fun it certainly was. I love arithmetic and balancing cashbooks
and the like
was a breeze. Manager was Ian
Lapsley - a fine gentleman, a good man, a fair man,
a man who spent many hours publicising the bank around town.
"Accountant" was Alan Lilford who had been in the game for hundreds
of years.
Then Johanna van Rensburg (married to Piet), nickname "Bags" also
had been around for
quite a while. I once sold them a Vanguard that I bought from Bruce
Truter in the Langdon
pub for R 26,00 because he was moving to South West. It didn't work
well as a beach buggy
and old Uncle Fred Jackson had to tow Tony Gush and I back from
about Rufanes in his Jeep.
Then Walter Matthews, a fine gentleman, with an Oxford-ish accent
also worked there a long time.
When Titch Mayhew-Ridges used to come down from
Botswana on relief staff, there was much
merriment. I had read a joke once, and played it on him one day when
he was teller.
He must have recovered by now I guess.
He sent me with a "bank note" and a bank bag to collect R 10
thousand from Barclays.
(Obviously I counted the money that Barclays gave me to check it.)
So when I got back to Standard Bank, Titch asked me "Did you check
it?".
I said "Ja, I counted up to three thousand and all of that was
right, so I assumed the rest was right".
He was not amused and counted the money three times, smiled and said
"you did check it, didn't you".
My laughter gave me away...
I think Malcolm Tennant worked there for a while too.
Working hours about 8:30 to about 4 pm. Lots of time
for rugby practise in winter
and cricket practise in summer. And fishing. And snorkelling in the
Lagoon.
WONDERFUL customers. RICH customers. POOR customers.
People's people. SAFARI SUITS
were standard uniform those days.
Cream or light blue. Long socks.
If I today see somebody dressed like that I say "Ag,
shame",
which of course is quite wrong of me. Sorry.
SIGH. We never had a robbery EVER.
Life was so peaceful, no violence, no aggro.
Those days hang on in one's memory as your formative
years where,
without noticing much,
you learn manners, respect for others and that all people in life,
whatever their standing...have ups and downs.
Subsequently I was transferred to Grahamstown then to
Johannesburg to the new
Standard Bank computer division where I became one of the first
people in the
country to become a computer programmer.
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martin@martins.co.za
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