When in 1959 Marie Kelly agreed to a request from Harry Kershaw to come and work in his store’s drapery department she would not in her wildest of dreams thought that she may eventually serve there for over fifty years under three generations of Kershaws; Harry, David and then Conor.
Fifteen year old Marie was planning on hair dressing as a career and was making arrangements to work at a Wellington hairdressers when Mr Kershaw called to offer a job.
After talking it over with the mother Marie decided to take the position of junior girl in the Drapery Department. Pain and Kershaws then had separate women’s and men’s departments and also a boot and shoe room. The women’s department staff, Marie, two other girls and a manager, wore black as part of the position.
Marie was ‘initiated’ by being dumped into the farm produce department’s wheat bin, as were all new junior staff. As junior her work included making morning and afternoon tea and taking Mr Kershaw’s to his office. On one occasion he had two auditors with him, Marie took the three men their morning tea, unfortunately she had topped up the salt bowl instead of the sugar one. Some rather startled looks resulted.
In those days the drapery department carried an extensive stock: along with a full range of clothing there were manchester, lots of fabrics, patterns, haberdashery, and wools imported from England. The manager was very fussy about care of the stock, the wools were kept in a large glass cabinet and all the stock was covered with dust sheets every night.
Baby sitting was an extra which came through the job. Looking after young David, Jock and Christine – and Marie tells no tales.
She enjoyed the drapery work however she was getting itchy feet setting her sights on an overseas trip. She left to earn some bigger money, working for a year at Kimberly in Levin and then a year at General Motors. The overseas experience included a sea voyage to the Tokyo Olympics.
Then it was back to P&Ks. Marie worked through except for taking time off when her children Tim, Mandy and Felicity, arrived.
Marie was eventually promoted to drapery manager. Over the years she has had to adjust to many changes, the first when Gordon Johnston of the men’s department retired. The two departments were merged with Marie then having to do the men’s wear buying as well as the lady’s. Then came the change from pounds shillings and pence to decimal and coming to grips with the new currency. Later computers were introduced another steep learning curve. The Lotto outlet was originally sited in the drapery, yet another system to be learned.
Looking back Marie says that the staff have always got on really well together, “like a big family” and there has always been fun. Such as June Trotter cutting Gordon’s tie in half or hiding when the union rep called and saving money for Gordon by giving him a haircut.
For the town’s centennial parade staff rode on the back of the P&K truck dressed in period costumes and pretending to be taking tea. David said that they needed something in the teapot and poured in a liquid a bit stronger than tea. By the time the parade had progressed from the school and through town they were a very merry group indeed.
Marie looks back with great pleasure on her fifty fun filled years
