Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Memories, Music and Movies – 1983 – The Lake District, Cut glass crystal, On the Road, Lionel Ritchie, Flashdance by Sally Cronin

I cannot remember a time when music and movies where not a part of my life.

Last time I shared our move to our first house in Southport and the music of the Steve Miller Band and the iconic film.. An Officer and a Gentleman

1983 – The Lake District, Cut glass crystal, On the Road, Lionel Ritchie, Flashdance

During 1982 I had continued to commute to my job in Liverpool for the first six months. I was finding the commute to Liverpool on a daily basis was eating in to the time we spent together. I applied for a job managing a small cut glass crystal and giftware shop on the main street of Southport and as it was a start up business it gave me plenty to get my teeth into and we opened in June of 1982.

By the Christmas and the start of 1983 the business continued to do well and we also enjoyed living by the sea in Southport including its huge sea bathing lake.

The company I worked for was based in the Ulverston in the Lake District and they had an established reputation as a top quality cut class crystal manufacturer with their glasses and decanters in the top outlets in London. As with any handmade industry, but particularly in the intricate process of blowing glass, there are some peices that had minor defects that made them unsuitable to be sold as first quality. My shop and the one at the factory sold these seconds at a 40% discount… A great buy as the faults were often barely visible and in fact 36 years later.. I still have a full set of wine glasses, champagne flutes, tumblers, balasters and decanters which I bought at not just the discount price but with my managers discount.

We also sold a range of high end ornaments and I got to accompany the buyer to gift fairs around the country to select lines to sell in the shop. Being particularly busy during the summer months, it was also in a prime position in the main street with plenty of passing traffic. I employed a great team of staff and the added bonus was the shop was just a few minutes walk from our house.

Early in 1983 I was offered an expanded role as retail marketing manager with responsibility for the two current shops and the set up of two others in Nottingham and York. Despite the fact I would be on the road travelling between Southport, the Lake District and these two cities, we decided it was too good and opportunity to pass up.

I was also given a company car, a ford escort estate and I would often be carrying thousands of pounds of fragile crystal glass in the back. Carefully wrapped of course. However, my first trip, which David joined me for as moral support, nearly ended very badly, for us and the crystal.

Whilst overtaking a lorry on the motorway having signalled from a fair distance back, the driver decided to move from the inside lane to the middle name without indicating. I was trapped between his massive lorry and speeding traffic in the outside lane. I did the only thing I could which was accelerate and try to get passed him with my hand on the horn to try and warn him off. He hit the car on the passenger side and I had to struggle to keep the car level so I was not pushed into the traffic overtaking me.

Thankfully within seconds he took notice of the horn and moved back into the inside lane and the hard shoulder… I pulled in front of him and made sure David was okay before checking the damage to the car. It was badly dented and as we pulled in there was an ominous clinking from the boxes of glass! Thankfully the damage was superficial and the car was driveable, but David recalls me heading off to the lorry where the driver was getting out of his cab and spending some considerable time giving him a piece of my mind. We exchanged details and the motorway police arrived to take statements and having determined he was at fault we went on our way. As you can imagine I was always wary of trucks after that.

Apart from that unsettling start to my new role, I soon became used to the commute to the Lake district and David would often come with me so we could take advantage of the hills and the wonderful scenery. A few months into 1983 I was also given responsibility for the marketing of the Factory Experience. This meant I would stay up in Ulverstone two nights a week and tour the Lake District tourist offices and attractions to leave posters and leaflets to promote the business.. Combined with weekly visits to all the shops, I was kept very busy but loved the job.

One of my last actions as the retail marketing manager was to sell several ranges of our glass seconds to a film property company. I am sure that many are broken by now but the practice of supplying the film industry continued and today when you watch Downton Abbey you will see the Grasmere Range decorating the dining room table and when drinks are served. As you can in many of the Bond Films.

If you are visiting The Lake District then I can highly recommend that you take the tour at Cumbria Crystal – Cumbria Factory Experience and Shop

As 1983 came to an end David was offered a job in Tring in the new cable television industry and we decided to sell our house and move South. I was sad to leave my job but look back on it and the people with great fondness.

As you can imagine I was in the car covering thousands of miles over the year and the radio provided the company along with my collection of tapes. Some of my favourites included Police Every Breath You Take, David Bowie Let’s Dance, UB 40 99 Red Balloons, Mike Oldfield Moonlight Shadow and Billy Joel Tell Her About it, Elton John I’m Still Standing, and anything by Lionel Richie including this song  All Night Long. lionelrichie

 

There were some great movies in 1983 and we would head out most Friday nights to watch the latest blockbuster a few months after release in the USA.. Star Wars six Return of the Jedi, Tootsie, Flashdance, Staying Alive, Never Say Never Again, Ghandi, ET and Sophie’s Choice.. in  fact a brilliant year. The soundtracks of Flashdance and Staying Alive were in the car as soon as available and I have chosen this song from Flashdance which still is played in the car when on a road trip. What a Feeling by Irene Cara…HD Film Tributes

 

Thanks for joining me on this journey down memory lane.. next time 1984 and a rather interesting new job with livestock….Sally

Smorgasbord Posts from My Archives – 20th Anniversary #Free Book and Some of my Very Odd Jobs – Cut Glass Crystal and a Smashing start by Sally Cronin

It is 20 years since I put pen to paper.. of fingers to the keyboard and wrote my novel Just an Odd Job Girl. I am delighted that it still gets the odd recent review, but I thought to celebrate the anniversary I would offer it FREE for the next few weeks.

As an indie author on Amazon I don’t get to do free giveaways, so I would ask you to email me on sally.cronin@moyhill.com and let me know if you would like a Mobi for Kindle or an Epub version of the book for other devices. I promise I won’t share your email with anyone else. You can find out more about the book and its most recent review at the end of the post.

Car Crash and Crystal and meeting Sherlock Holmes

After I left the department store in the middle of Liverpool, I was appointed manager of a crystal and gift shop in Lord Street, Southport, which is where we had bought our first home.

It was at the north end of this mile long main street, and we sold high end gift items such as Moorcroft pottery, and our own cut glass crystal glassware from the factory in the Lake District. All the glass was classified as ‘seconds’, even though there would only perhaps be a small bubble in the glass, or the cut might not be completely standard. However, the prices were terrific, with at least 40% of the normal retail price. I still have some of the glasses that I bought 38 years ago, and I was lucky enough to get another 10% discount making them very affordable.

Going to work was very easy. I walked out of our gate, then a brisk five minutes down the road, and unlocked the shop door. I really enjoyed the next 18 months, but was then offered the opportunity to manage the three shops that had now been opened, with the other two being in York and Norwich. I would also spend time in the Lake District as marketing manager to oversee the running of the factory shop, and to develop a tour around the glass works for visitors. This meant that I was away most of the week in one capacity or another, and I was given a large estate car to carry stock between the various shops.

On one occasion I had brought down a consignment of crystal to the Southport shop, picking up David from home, with the intention of delivering stock to the York shop; then spending the weekend exploring that very old and lovely city. We had set off down the motorway, which was busy with a Friday getaway. Because there was a great deal of commercial traffic, I was in the centre lane doing a steady 60 miles an hour and overtaking the trucks. I was just in the process of passing a large articulated lorry, when it suddenly veered out into the middle lane without signalling, and hit my car.

I was being pushed out into the fast lane, where traffic was moving considerably faster and there was nowhere for me to go but forward. I hit the accelerator and managed to disconnect from cab of the truck and pull in front of it; then on to the hard shoulder, where I came to rest in a state of shock. It was only then that the driver realised what he had done, and he too pulled onto the shoulder behind me. Thankfully David was not hurt despite the passenger side door being badly damaged. Once I had established that, I was out of the car and heading back to the lorry where the driver was hanging onto his wheel, waiting equally white-faced for one very angry woman charging up the hard shoulder towards him.

It was probably just as well, the police arrived shortly afterwards to make sure none of us needed treatment, or that other road users were impacted. David by this time had managed to open his passenger door and join the discussion.

The car was still legally road worthy, although only having had it a couple of weeks; I was not looking forward to having the upcoming telephone conversation with my boss. After we had exchanged insurance details, and given our statement, which to be fair the lorry driver corroborated, we continued on our journey. However, we could hear the tinkle of broken glass from the back of the car.  I knew it was going to be interesting unpacking several boxes of expensive glassware and removing it from its tissue paper wrapping. Thankfully it was insured, and we were unhurt, but it made me paranoid about overtaking trucks for a very long time.

I loved the job, especially in the summer months in the Lake District when I would tour most of the other tourist sites to deliver leaflets and take theirs to display in our own factory. The tour was now set up, and we were about to begin accepting visitors, when I got a phone call from a gentleman who requested a private tour of the factory. It was unusual, but since we were not officially open for a few days, I agreed, and he made an appointment the next day.

It was 1984 and a new series of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes had been recently released on Granada Television, but I had not seen any of the episodes. However, I immediately recognised the man who arrived for the guided tour as the actor Jeremy Brett, because he had played Freddie in one of my favourite musicals… My Fair Lady.

We spent an hour watching glassware being blown, cut and put through the acid baths, before ending up in the crystal shop attached to the factory where he purchased one or two items. I could understand now why he wanted a private tour, as he was very well known and unlike today, stars tended to be a lot less keen to be photographed and approached by fans.

It was one of those encounters that you always remember, and I went on to watch several episodes of the series before we left to spend two years in Houston, Texas…Where I am ashamed to say I name-dropped shamelessly.

I have not as yet used Jeremy Brett as a character in one of my stories, but he is tucked away for a rainy day. As for the car crash… some events are better forgotten.

©Sally Cronin

On Friday David is transferred to the south of England and I get a job working to a cattle breeders handbook… with interesting excursions and sales opportunities..

About the book

At 50 Imogen had been married for over 20 years, and was living in a big house, with money to spare. Suddenly she is traded-in for a younger model, a Fast-Tracker.
Devastated, she hides away and indulges in binge eating. But then, when hope is almost gone, she meets a new friend and makes a journey to her past that helps her move on to her future.

One of the recent reviews for the book on Goodreads

Oct 12, 2020 Gwendolyn Plano rated it it was amazing

Just An Odd Job Girl is an entrancing read. The spirited writing of Sally Cronin quickly captures readers and draws them to the utterly delightful character of Imogen. One challenge after another emerges, only to be surmounted by Imogen’s ingenuity and good luck.

I laughed through much of the book, shed a few tears, and otherwise enjoyed the literary ride. This is an inspirational novel, one that will warm your heart, resonate with past experiences, and bring you to the realization that all is possible, and all is purposeful.

At a time when chaos appears to rule our lives, this book shows us otherwise. I strongly recommend it

To get your FREE copy of Just An Odd Job Girl for Kindle or in Epub please email me on sally.cronin@moyhill.com – your email will not be shared and whilst a review would be most welcome it is not expected.

Sally Cronin, Buy: :Amazon US – and:Amazon UK  –  Follow:Goodreads – Twitter: @sgc58

Thanks for dropping in and .. and I hope you will join me on Friday for the next episode.. thanks Sally.