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#189 Alma Working At Burtons

Photo of Alma
You got to know lots of people working there, even if you didn’t know their name you knew them by sight.

Alma

When I left school at 15 I went straight to work at Burtons doing piece work. My job was sewing trouser pockets – you didn’t get to see the finished suit. You got to know lots of people working there, even if you didn’t know their name you knew them by sight. Burtons were really good to us – we had free dinners, they organised dances and beauty competitions and in the summer, sports days on the paying field along side the factory. Both me and my sister worked at Burtons. One day, we were lined up to be inoculated – it might have been for Polio – we had the injection at about the same time and we both passed out! I loved it at Burtons, it was great working there.

Precis

The beauty of being in a company of older performers is the kaleidoscopic range of real-life experiences that they bring to the table. These experiences cover everything from the vivid and strange world of childhood, to the unexpected late awakenings of old age. Take our newest batch of anecdotes, for example. These new stories are delightfully diverse: from the earthly, sensual joy of baking bread, to the cosmic dreams of outer space; from an unnerving encounter with a poltergeist, to the risqué glories of adult pleasure products and burlesque. Running as a rich theme throughout, is the possibility of love, and the simple wonder of human connection. As one writer tells us, in her story of funeral rites and flirting, “Amidst death, life goes on”, and indeed it does, delightfully so.

Edited by Barney Bardsley