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<\/a>Not only was it our first ‘hybrid’ meeting, but it was Gay’s very first public-speaking engagement. The title of the Anstey grandmother’s talk was Fangs For The Memory \u2014 39 Jobs in 55 Years. That’s the title of her first book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One Novus member joked: “You’ll have to re-write it now you have added author and public speaker to your jobs” By that time, she had worked as an office clerk for footwear makers Stead and Simpson, The Managing Director at the time was Harry Gee who always tipped his hat to ladies in the street… even to the 15-year-old office junior! Her second job was in the ladies’ outerwear department at a department store on the corner of Charles Street and Humberstone Gate. It did not take her long to realise she wanted her old job back. That had gone, but her old boss, Mr Jackman, gave her another job at a higher wage. In those years, Gay worked as an Avon lady, a Party Plan arranger for a jewellery firm and for Tupperware, The need to supplement their income became even more acute after, in 1968, Gay and her husband Ken adopted Matthew. As an adopted child herself, she says, she wanted to give something back. Gay worked as an auxiliary nurse and took on cleaning jobs \u2014 not always for the nicest clients!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was not until 1969 that Gay got the first job she was properly trained for \u2014 as a Directory Enquiries operator for the GPO in Wharf Street, Leicester. Gay and her colleagues realised how few calls they would get when the most popular TV serials like The Forsythe Saga were broadcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rotary-leicesternovus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fangs-For-the-Memory-685x1024.jpg\")
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Best to ring Gay… you’re guaranteed a lovely chat!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In a revealing and frank talk, Gay told us that she had been born in Sleaford and was adopted before she moved to Leicester. In fact, it was at Thurmaston that she attended Roundhill Secondary Modern School, leaving in 1954 at the age of 15 with no qualifications. It was not until many years later that she was diagnosed as dyslexic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gay’s book and her talk was more about people than the many jobs she had had. And so, its countless anecdotes were as different as the people whose lives touched Gay’s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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