A brief glimse of both working and social life at Torridge Vale Dairy from the late 1960's thru to the mid 1980's with some humourous anecdotes thrown in for good measure.
not many of you know that Bob and I have been friends since app 19552/3, amazing how we kept popping up in each others lives, I remember starting at the dairy in, again app. 1960/1, my father had started there just after the war, and he was responsible for the payment of wages, I remember him sitting at the kitchen table marking time cards, The first department I worked in was powder bagging, above the roller room, there was a Polish gent who we used to torment, we would throw the powder sample cans at him, and he would chase us shouting "you leetle f*$#*rs, we would scramble up the pallets of powder to escape, all in fun, punishment being to go to the canteen with the tea can to get it filled. next was butter blending, Jimmy Thacker was lead hand, we put various butter cubes even some in barrels on the ramp, all carefully chosen and checked, they were then put through a chiver to slice them up, they dropped in to a bin that was fitted with blender blades, good job, till on cleaning the bin I left the hose in and the blades immediately caught the metal pipe on the hose and proceeded to knock dents in the blender walls, we were immediately sent upstairs to make boxes to pack the blended butter in. other departments we worked were Double Devon, loading the prairie wagon, or keeping the capper from blocking, Paul Baker was another guy I worked with in those days, we were allowed only day shifts, and we were pretty well supervised, the most amazing memory was riding up after work on the back of a churn lorry, can't even imagine the safety buffs allowing people to have so much fun now. I worked every summer up till 1962 when I left Torrington to pursue a career in Catering. I shall finish this again later, as the dairy was to be revisited in a later time.
not many of you know that Bob and I have been friends since app 19552/3, amazing how we kept popping up in each others lives,
ReplyDeleteI remember starting at the dairy in, again app. 1960/1, my father had started there just after the war, and he was responsible for the payment of wages, I remember him sitting at the kitchen table marking time cards,
The first department I worked in was powder bagging, above the roller room, there was a Polish gent who we used to torment, we would throw the powder sample cans at him, and he would chase us shouting "you leetle f*$#*rs, we would scramble up the pallets of powder to escape, all in fun, punishment being to go to the canteen with the tea can to get it filled.
next was butter blending, Jimmy Thacker was lead hand, we put various butter cubes even some in barrels on the ramp, all carefully chosen and checked, they were then put through a chiver to slice them up, they dropped in to a bin that was fitted with blender blades, good job, till on cleaning the bin I left the hose in and the blades immediately caught the metal pipe on the hose and proceeded to knock dents in the blender walls, we were immediately sent upstairs to make boxes to pack the blended butter in.
other departments we worked were Double Devon, loading the prairie wagon, or keeping the capper from blocking,
Paul Baker was another guy I worked with in those days, we were allowed only day shifts, and we were pretty well supervised, the most amazing memory was riding up after work on the back of a churn lorry, can't even imagine the safety buffs allowing people to have so much fun now.
I worked every summer up till 1962 when I left Torrington to pursue a career in Catering.
I shall finish this again later, as the dairy was to be revisited in a later time.
Nice one, Jules, keep 'em cumin!
Delete