Harrods sometime in the seventies
@Jackalyn (7558)
Oxford, England
October 28, 2019 11:12pm CST
I travel on the tube to Harrods, the large and famous department store and make my way through the various departments full of interesting and expensive things to the hardware department. This is, by comparison, boring.
I work selling rotary dryers and ironing boards for a particular company. They are my employers rather than Harrods and my stand is in the center of the department.
My friend on the carpet sweeper slall claims to now all sorts of pop stars. (Mick Jagger came to her carpet sweeper stand on my day off -funny that, that it was on my day off.
Older ladies selling other things (cannot remember what,) take me aside and complain about the length of my very, very short skirt (bliue check. and I wear platform shoes I have sprayed bright yellow with paint. These match my yellow dress -also very short. In those days I had good legs and could pull off the look. My long hair flows around my face and it is clear I am a hippy kind of chick.
The carpet sweeper girl comes fron Edgware and we spend our coffee breaks in the "Way In" store which is so dark you can hardly see the clothes and never use the staff canteen--instead, we go to where the rich people and the tourists eat and pretend to be shopping and not working.
One day a woman comes in to buy an ironing board. She seems to have a kind of minder or maybe a boyfriend with her and I make one of the few sales I ever made while I worked in Harrods. I pity the lady for her bad skin. Afterwards they tell me I just served an actress who was known for a soap advert advertising good skin! I have sold an ironing board to someone famous but will not name her here in case she sues me.
Going home at night, aged 16 and living in a bedsit alone is not as much fun as I hoped it may be.
(I eventually returned home and went back to school.)
9 people like this
9 responses
@JohnRoberts (109846)
• Los Angeles, California
29 Oct 19
I have been to Harrods a number of times.
1 person likes this
@Jackalyn (7558)
• Oxford, England
31 Oct 19
Ah, but did you ever buy an ironing board there? Actually, to get the Harrods bag we used to go to the toy department and buy a £1 chess set. I would take my son at Christmas and it was always fun. We would go elsewhere to buy watched the demos.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109846)
• Los Angeles, California
31 Oct 19
@Jackalyn No, no ironing board!
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23404)
• United Kingdom
24 Sep 20
Anonymity is a good thing l really do not know many so called stars l guess they might feel insulted if l asked them who they were. 16 is a horrible age to live alone in a bedsit! l bet you were happy to be home with all the comforts!
1 person likes this
@Jackalyn (7558)
• Oxford, England
25 Sep 20
No I was not happy to be home. That is another story. I just had a bad time round about then due to my Dad being ill and other things. It was not a good age to be alone though. As for the stars. I found it fun to ignore anyone's status and be totally unimpressed.
@allknowing (135967)
• India
29 Oct 19
Tour of Harrods was one of my dreams when I took that Europe package. But to my bad luck it was a Sunday and the Mall was closed. We were in London only for the week end. I was told by my friends not to miss their rest room
1 person likes this
@Jackalyn (7558)
• Oxford, England
29 Oct 19
I better not as she is still alive and I thought as sa person she was very nice. I visit Harrods and walk through memory lane sometimes. My last visit was with my Grandson several years ago to see Father Christmas.