So Many Memories in Such a Small Box!

Last week, in an attempt to de-clutter the office, I checked the contents of a box file that had been hanging around for ages. I was staggered to find that it contained the records for my very first year of trading, including stock records, petty cash receipts, bank statements and, most importantly, the Simplex D book in which I recorded my takings, payments and cash and bank records.

Yes, the memories did come flooding back!

On 1^st May 1972 Williams & Co opened for business from a corner shop in Ernest Road, Portsmouth. I took no cash at all in the first week, but I took the grand sum of £5.70 on the Monday and £6.16 on the Friday of the second week – total takings for the first month? £46.32!!!!

It makes fascinating reading in places. First class stamps were 3p and petrol was 35p a GALLON! My first ever delivery vehicle was a Vauxhall 101 estate car with a roof rack which cost me £250.

A white basin and pedestal cost less than £5, a pan and cistern was just over £6 and a toilet seat was under a £1. Interestingly, some things like end feed copper fittings and radiator valves were pretty much the same price then as they are now.

Seeing it in black and white, reminded me of things that I had completely forgotten. For example, there was no such thing as VAT when I started - we had purchase tax!! VAT didn't come in until April 1973 and I remember having to cope with some quite complex calculations on changeover day!

I used to close for an hour at lunchtime, which is when I would do any deliveries or rush off to buy something that I needed. That reminds me, I used to be able to get three complete bathroom suites into that old estate car along with pipes or copper tube on the roof rack!

Oh, and we didn't have calculators either – I had to add up or work out discounts in my head until I bit the bullet and bought a second hand mechanical adding machine for £25.

Of the twenty or so account customers that I had in that first year, six are still customers, the sons of another are customers now and the grandson of yet another is also a current customer.

There's a lot of memories in that one little box of papers!!