We were trying to think what we were doing at the time. Glynis recalls working in Willenhall, which involved catching a bus to Wolverhampton town centre from Warstones Estate, then a trolley bus to Willenhall and then a 15 minute walk to the company she was working at. At that time, travelling to and from work on public transport could add two hours to her working day.
As an apprentice with BT, I was helping to dig a trench and lay a cable under a footpath in Wombourne, a job made more difficult by the snow we had to move before starting to dig our cables in. The temperature was about minus 3 degrees C and I was on the verge of hypothermia when a lady came out of her house and asked us (the thee engineers laying the cable) if we wanted a hot drink. The boss said yes, so we abandoned digging and went for our hot drinks. She had made coffee only (no Tea!) so I had to try it for the first time, I’d only ever drank tea before then. I was so cold I was prepared to drink anything that would stave off freezing to death so I tried her coffee and discovered that it was drinkable if you put enough sugar in it (about three teaspoons). I have continued to drink coffee (as well as tea) since that day, but I still can’t drink it without sugar.
