Dazmond's thread about Older Window Cleaners got me thinking. I didn't start as long ago as Dai, my first try was in the mid 60's when I was about 22 or 23. I'd had a succession of jobs, first as a bus conductor then labourer in a printing factory; a short (and quite unpleasant) stint as a police constable; various office jobs; aluminium die caster making car wheels..........the list goes on
Got sacked from most of them, never could take orders. A bloke I knew was a window cleaner in London, doing all the old Inner London Education Authority schools. He worked very casually, just turned up at the company office and they would give him a few 'tickets' - job sheets for various schools. All he had to do was get the schoolkeeper to sign his ticket and the firm would pay for the job being done. Most times he had to actually do the work, but there were the few schoolkeepers who would sign the ticket for a few bob.
Anyway, that was my introduction to window cleaning - I was out of a job (no easy dole in those days), he offered to take me with him.
First day: what a shock
. I'd assumed any oik could clean windows - we arrived on this huge filthy Victorian '3-decker' (3 stories high with an artroom perched on top). The only ladders we had were standard wooden window cleaners double ladders with the pointed tops and splayed feet just long enough to reach the top of the ground floor windows (those old schools had
high ceilings!). We carried our ladders (called 'coms' - short for combination ladders, they could be used lots of different ways) up the stairs to the artroom 4 floors up. Picture the windows: big sash windows with a big fanlight above - about 10 feet from bottom to top. We used our 'coms' to clean the insides and then my mate pulled the top sash down so it was level with the bottom one. He stepped on to the tiny platform made by the frames of the two sashes, took hold of the bottom of the fanlight window and ducked outside. Holding on with one hand he cleaned the outside of the fanlight,
then dropped down onto the outside sill. Holding on to the sash, he cleaned the outside of the upper sash then pulled the upper sash back up to its closed position. Now he was standing on the outside sill with just his fingers in the wooden channel that the sash slides in to stop him falling off. He bent down and cleaned the bottom sash then opened it and climbed back in.
He looked at me and said "There you go, that's how you do it - now you do the next one......"
(to be continued )