I remember typing pools...

I remember kids at school going on about Spectrum ZX80 and ZX81 computers, all seemed very technical and didn't have any interest for me too much at the time. I left School in 1983 and ended up in Construction for a few years. In 1988 I joined the local police as a Special Constable, they still smoked in the police station in them days and I remember on one occasion someone set fire to a watepaper bin by being careless (wasn't me - never smoked!). It was the first time I used a computer as well (UNI2000) black screen with green type.

In the enquiry office was this strange grey box with a glass front with a needle behind that moved every second and made a distinct clicking noise, this was the UK Early Warning Monitor which was connected to RAF Fylingdales, in the event of a three minute warning this would have triggered the air raid sirens across the town that were on the top of telephone poles (every town and city across the UK had these) from what I remember it was still in use in 1991 when I left. I remember they introduced new computerised systems such as E-FIT (1991) which had its own dedicated computer terminal. As for reports they were done on a typewriter with a carbon sheet.

As far as full time work went I started working for Royal Mail in 1989, the sorting office was opened up at just after Midnight (Monday morning and stayed manned till Saturday lunch time) in those days I was up at 4.30am in the morning to start at 5.00am six days a week, we weren't allowed to start deliveries till 6.45am and did two a day, due to work flows Tuesday was a very light and easy day, Thursday was heavy.

The office I worked in serviced two mail trains a night, so when I worked nights I would go down to the railway station to load and unload mail for our area (this no longer happens).

We heard about the first Gulf War as it happened on the radio in the small hours. The night shifts disappeared a good few years after I left in 1994 and the office has recently been sold, totally different job now so they tell me one delivery a day and mail volumes are way down compared to early 90's. They stiopped smoking in the office about 1990 and a designated area became available.

In 1995 I inquired about a course at Stoke on Trent College, when I was being shown around we went passed a classroom which had banks of typewriters as they still taught typing the old fashioned way.

My first office job was in 1997 working at the head office of a big retail company (merger between two had recently occurred before I started). They were busing employees up from London everyday, 1500 people worked there, a lot were temps, there were a mixture of PC's running Windows 3.1x and dumb terminals linked to a mainframe. I did come across a company still using Windows 3.1 in 2003!

I remember kids at school going on about Spectrum ZX80 and ZX81 computers, all seemed very technical and didn't have any interest for me too much at the time. I left School in 1983 and ended up in Construction for a few years. In 1988 I joined the local police as a Special Constable, they still smoked in the police station in them days and I remember on one occasion someone set fire to a watepaper bin by being careless (wasn't me - never smoked!). It was the first time I used a computer as well (UNI2000) black screen with green type.

In the enquiry office was this strange grey box with a glass front with a needle behind that moved every second and made a distinct clicking noise, this was the UK Early Warning Monitor which was connected to RAF Fylingdales, in the event of a three minute warning this would have triggered the air raid sirens across the town that were on the top of telephone poles (every town and city across the UK had these) from what I remember it was still in use in 1991 when I left. I remember they introduced new computerised systems such as E-FIT (1991) which had its own dedicated computer terminal. As for reports they were done on a typewriter with a carbon sheet.

As far as full time work went I started working for Royal Mail in 1989, the sorting office was opened up at just after Midnight (Monday morning and stayed manned till Saturday lunch time) in those days I was up at 4.30am in the morning to start at 5.00am six days a week, we weren't allowed to start deliveries till 6.45am and did two a day, due to work flows Tuesday was a very light and easy day, Thursday was heavy.

The office I worked in serviced two mail trains a night, so when I worked nights I would go down to the railway station to load and unload mail for our area (this no longer happens).

We heard about the first Gulf War as it happened on the radio in the small hours. The night shifts disappeared a good few years after I left in 1994 and the office has recently been sold, totally different job now so they tell me one delivery a day and mail volumes are way down compared to early 90's. They stiopped smoking in the office about 1990 and a designated area became available.

In 1995 I inquired about a course at Stoke on Trent College, when I was being shown around we went passed a classroom which had banks of typewriters as they still taught typing the old fashioned way.

My first office job was in 1997 working at the head office of a big retail company (merger between two had recently occurred before I started). They were busing employees up from London everyday, 1500 people worked there, a lot were temps, there were a mixture of PC's running Windows 3.1x and dumb terminals linked to a mainframe. I did come across a company still using Windows 3.1 in 2003!