What a life
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 2:30 pm
I have been reading a book by Nick Laister called Pennies by the Sea. It is about the early amusement arcades, mainly in Bridlington. A very interesting background to how they operated. Here is a quote from the book:
Joyland staff, hours were long and the rewards were low. Former mechanic, Ron Stockwell, who worked at the arcade in the late 1940s, remembers:
"We used to start at ten in the morning, sometimes nine, and then finish at about ten or eleven at night. Seven days a week. It could be three o'clock in the morning when we finished on the day we emptied the machines. The men were given only two ten-minute breaks - one at lunchtime, and another in the evening - to allow them to go out and get their tea."
Many of us remember those grumpy old men in brown overalls who ran the arcades but, if this was a typical working enviroment, no wonder they were grumpy.
Joyland staff, hours were long and the rewards were low. Former mechanic, Ron Stockwell, who worked at the arcade in the late 1940s, remembers:
"We used to start at ten in the morning, sometimes nine, and then finish at about ten or eleven at night. Seven days a week. It could be three o'clock in the morning when we finished on the day we emptied the machines. The men were given only two ten-minute breaks - one at lunchtime, and another in the evening - to allow them to go out and get their tea."
Many of us remember those grumpy old men in brown overalls who ran the arcades but, if this was a typical working enviroment, no wonder they were grumpy.
