REMEMBER WHEN (only a very few will)

Memories of a 16-year-old Mail boy

From John A Crennan (Sales and Marketing)

As I reflected on my various stages at GMH / HOLDEN, one of my highlights

was the fantastic memories I had of my start-up year at Fishermens Bend
Head Office which at that time was one of the largest and most important
corporations in Australia.

In particular I recall what were the essential services within the Organisation.
Naturally all these gradually disappeared 5, 10 and 20 years after I started
with the evolution of technology and social change.

- The TEA LADY who at mid-morning and afternoon would appear with her
tea trolley and we would all get in line for our free cup of tea. It was tea only
(no coffee) and I recall our English lady Chloe like yesterday. There were at
least 20 tea ladies in the catering section of the Fishermens Bend precinct
doing the morning and afternoon rounds in all the office areas.

- The huge MEDICAL CENTRE where any employee could sit in the waiting
room to be called by the Sister or Doctor Bill Cooper and be treated for
anything from a cut hand, a sore throat or a hang over. The main Medical
Centre was mainly for Factory staff and between 10- 3 pm office staff could
see a delightful Irish lady named Sister Doherty in her mini medical centre in
the main administration building.

- The MAILING ROOM where 3 supervisors, 10 mail boys and Mac the mail
van driver handled all inward and external mail with 3 pick ups and deliveries
each day to every boss in GMH.

- The FILING ROOM where a supervisor and 3 staff would file or find all vital
finance records for the company.

- The CASHIER, a slightly grumpy but efficient Scot named Ron Parish where
you would line up and be forced to wait without any acknowledgement for at
least 15 minutes before getting served for the various payment services he
provided.

- The State / Commonwealth GMH BANK located alongside the Personnel

department where all employees could do their banking during business

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hours and even talk to the Manager about a home loan. The Bank also
operated in the Plant 6 cafeteria for factory payroll staff during the lunch
break.

- Every Friday the GMAC reps would man their office in the main admin
building and assist employees with subsidised rates should anyone wish to
purchase a new car , an ex-company car or white goods from the Frigidaire
range.

- THE CITY LUNCH BUS. There would be two daily trips for the 12pm and
the 1pm female staff lunch breaks. A station wagon would cram 6 ladies in
(there were no seat belts then) and take the ladies to Myers in Bourke St for
a half hour shop and each Friday it went to the South Melbourne market.
Bookings for the wagon were essential.

-THE CABLE ROOM. If you needed a telegram or cable sent you would have
one of the secretaries type it up and you would take it to the cable room wait
for it to be transmitted and come back with the receipt .The volume of cables
that all the Departments had to send daily to head office in Detroit and in
those days New York was staggering.

-THE SWITCHBOARD Nearby the cable room was the telephone

switchboard room housing 4 lady operators including one of the loveliest
ladies in GHM ...the supervisor Jean Boland. They were needed to receive
and connect all phone calls outside the Bend.

-Then there was the PRINT ROOM. Well before the photocopy machine was
introduced, whenever you had to have multiple copies of anything like a
Dealer Bulletin done, you had to subject yourself to the many moods of the
Supervisor Jim Kennedy who on a good day would tell you to pick up the job
in 24hours or if you got him on bad day the job would be 3-4 days. There
were 3 operators running the presses in the Print room.

- Alongside the Print Room in Plant 8 was the STATIONERY STORE which
opened for a hour both in the morning and in the afternoon where you would
wait at the counter for a considerable time and hand over the Stationary
requisition which had to be first signed by your boss and countersigned by
his boss for your paper clips or writing pads or pencils.

-TRAVEL AUTHORISATIONS. If you had to take a flight interstate the

protocol was horrendous. The travel requisition had to be signed by your boss
then counter signed by the Director of the Department ...this alone could take
3 days of following up the secretaries. You then took one copy of the

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requisition to traffic department and waited a few days until advised that your
ticket had arrived then with the other copy you took that to the cashier to get
the cash advance to cover costs of hotels taxis etc.

-The SOCIAL CENTRE or Canteen, which was mainly for the use of the
white-collar employees, was best known as the GMH Social Centre. Monday
lunch also had massive queues as few people took their lunch to work on
Mondays, as you could not buy bread on a Saturday or Sunday in those days.
For 2 Shillings and three pence you got a superb Scotch Fillet Steak, Gravy,
Chips and Vegetables. The catering manager was a very eccentric guy
named Russ Carson who in the 50s came to Australia from Canada to coach
the Victorian Ice Hockey team at Saint Moritz in St. Kilda. The same meals
were also available in the Plant 6 Cafeteria, which was only for factory payroll
who had to clock on and off each day.

- PLANT TOURS Around 3 days a week a large group of people, often school
children, would assemble outside the THREATRETTE to undertake a tour
of the Fishermens Bend plants. The tours were per booked through the PR
department and the lead tour host, Lance Mc Keon was a fine gentleman and
ex Supply department retiree named Chris Stafford. He had a team of 6 GMH
retirees conducted this fantastic program.

-The STAFF MAGAZINE, named "PEOPLE". This would be produced every

month by the PR department and would cover stories and photographs from
every GMH location around Australia. It was the 60s version of today’s social
media communications. It was distributed to every employee and was read
cover to cover by staff and their families. It covered promotions, weddings,
births, gold watch presentations, retirements, details of suggestion box
winners including their rewards and details of the suggestion and feature
stories on employees.

-What about the SUGGESTION BOX. These were located everywhere

throughout the factories and the Administration offices. In my first few months
I made a recommendation that the door of the mailing room should be sign
written the same way as all the other doors and offices in the admin building
in a classy gold leaf finish. It was like winning tatts when the suggestion box
committee awarded me 3 pounds for my idea

On the subject of publications there was another magazine produced at

Fishermens Bend. It was called" POINTERS" and the editor was Alex
Hillhouse, a fantastic person who I got very friendly with given his interest in
fitness. Alex represented Australia in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics in the 100

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and 220 metre hurdles. This magazine was the voice of the Dealer
organisation covering all the news from the Dealers.

-There were two sets of rules when it came to SECURITY. Factory workers
were required to have their hand baggage opened and inspected by the
security guards as they departed their shift at the exit gate while white collar
staff walked out the facilities with bags etc without any security inspection
except occasionally company car operators other than Directors had their
boot checked at the Guard House

-STAFF DISCRIMINATION between factory and white collar EMPLOYEES

was not restricted just to security checks and canteen facilities, but also staff
discounts on products and Staff Parking. Senior executives were allowed to
park inside the plant and in many cases pull up only 20 steps from their office
while the further down the ladder of importance you were the further you got
to walk to your work station in the four tier parking protocol for employees

-Twenty pence was deducted from our weekly salary for membership in the
GMH SOCIAL CLUB and not for one moment would anyone begrudge that
contribution, as the social activities were many and varied. The big one was
the annual black tie Ball at St Kilda town hall. The social club were also very
active with sporting events such as golf days, social football matches and
cricket games and the very popular squash team as well as a debating team
of which my father was a keen member.

-The other 60s version of Social media was the STAFF NOTICE BOARD
where amongst many other information pieces was the most popular posting
of all.... the Staff Vacancies in various departments of the Organisation.

-After enduring the torture of sweating the summer of 62-63 and 63-64 we
finally started to see the installation of window mounted AIR CONDITIONING
units. Fans gradually commenced their long awaited exit as the revelation of
air conditioning units hit our hot offices in the mid 60s.

-SMOKING. As a non-smoker when starting (and for life) I was in the minority
of what I would estimate the 10% of the workforce who did not smoke. You
were seen to be a little ' unusual' if you didn't smoke 40 cigarettes a day in
the office, in the canteen, in the toilet, filling up your fuel tank in your car at
the company bowsers and of course during every meeting.

-The SLIDE RULE .My final memory dates me more than anything else
above. It was the training I received when I joined the Sales Analysis after 3
months in the mailroom. There were 7 of us working in the Analysis

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Department compiling all dealer sales from every location in Australia and
preparing charts of GMH verses Ford, BMC, Rootes, Chrysler with only 3
huge big electric button calculators. The training I received was to operate a
Slide Rule where you nearly required a pilot’s licence to work these beasts,
but they were a big part of my working life for at least the first 3 years

As a mail boy you were an essential link in all the above communication
processes.

Things have changed a lot in the past 56 years at GMH / Holden

headquarters in Fishermens Bend!!

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