Chapter 8

The only break, the following Wednesday, was when we had the Mayor come along to cut a ribbon to declare Harrison Industrial Steelworks open for business. I took Carol and the girls in that day all of us dressed to the nines, and we met up with Janet, Gerald, and the rest of the Board, with their families. Geraldine turned up, with Bobby driving her and Astrid. Cyril and the rest of the office were there, along with some of the other union representatives.

The visitors were given a tour while the workers had a long lunch. It was the first time Cyril had seen the place since the first visit and was impressed with what we had achieved. Geraldine asked Janet if we could find time to have a photo shoot, on site, in conjunction with a friend of hers who had a fashion house. That was organised for Saturday week as we were still only working five days, with that being upped to six when we started getting smoother with production and receiving bigger steel deliveries.

Before she left, Geraldine took me aside.

“Can you organise some of those working girls to come in on the shooting day. We will be happy to pay them what they would earn with overtime. I can see my photographers wanting shots with gorgeous gowns in front, then sparks and flame in the background. If you’ll show them around, can I send the photographers up on Monday? They will want to get the ambience of the site and I think that the result will be something to cause a buzz in the industry.”

She then gave me a large envelope.

“This has your cheque as the holding deposit that we talked about. There is another envelope, inside. That has holding deposits for your girls and Carol, all three wanted by the clothing manufacturer. It’s the same company that they had the previous adverts for, and my friend was dithering about taking them on as exclusive models. We had a long talk, and she was among the visitors today, and blown away by you and your family in the flesh. That’s when she gave me the envelope to add to mine. She’s a bit shy, and usually lets her manager do the business side. When you meet her at the shoot, she’ll be right as rain, but crowds upset her.”

“Has Tracy been spoken to?”

“Not yet, so stay clear of her until she contacts you. I would hope that she will be in touch for the four of you being part of the shoot, but it’s not her event, not this time, so if she says nothing, just come along. You’ll find our crews to be very professional. Pierre is chomping at the bit to get pictures of you, and Bobby has been very interested in some of the backdrops here. I think that this shoot will be his first as his own man. Annette will be here to make sure you all look good.”

She gave Carol and the girls hugs and told them that she would see them later. Carol looked at me and asked about the later bit.

“That clothing company that you did the bikini advert for wants us here for a big fashion shoot, Saturday week. I have to set up some of our working girls as extras. Can you hold on for a few minutes, while I talk to Suzi, and then we can head for home. Except for the winding up of my involvement, I think that I’m nearing the end of my time here. I’ll give it another week, with the shoot as the last time. Then I’ll go and see Cyril to say I’m taking some unused leave until my last day, to give them back the car and clear my desk. You’ll have to drive in with me to take me home.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Sweetheart, this envelope contains a holding deposit to keep me from signing with anyone else until my contract with Tracy is finished. It also contains holding deposits for you and the girls from the clothing company, to stop you signing with anyone else at the same time. I think that you are going be asked to be exclusive models for that company. The owner is a friend of Geraldine and has been here today, checking us out. We’ll meet her at the shoot. I think we will be able to afford a real holiday before we’re all modelling, full-time.”

When I had seen Suzi, and organised some of the workers for the shoot, I checked with Janet about being here to show the photographers around on Monday. She thanked me for being one of the driving forces behind the success of the site, and Gerald gave me a hug. I couldn’t help myself and gave him a cheek kiss. Saying cheerio, I rounded up my family and we drove home. On the way, Carol opened the envelopes and squealed.

“This cheque for you is twenty thousand Pounds, just for not doing anything! We need to go to the bank, on the way home, and get it deposited.”

“What about the other envelope?”

She opened the envelope and read out the short letter that it contained. The gist of it was that the company hoped that she, and our girls, would be happy to sign on as exclusive models at the beginning of September. The three cheques were for five thousand Pounds, each. The letter said that banking the cheques would be considered acceptance.

“So, my darling, are you and the girls accepting?”

“What do you think! If this is what we get for waiting, I think that five years will see us wealthy enough to take it easy for life. You and I only have another thirty years to work, and the girls will have enough to fully fund their university. It’s not something we can say no to.”

We stopped at our bank, and she deposited the cheques, so getting attention from the manager, who wanted to know what was going on. Carol told him that the whole family will be employed as models, after September, so there should be more income. He promised to assign an account helper when that started.

I didn’t go anywhere as far as work was concerned for the rest of the week. I just needed to wind down. We booked a hotel room in Blackpool, going there on Thursday and coming back Sunday. We just had fun, ate stuff that everyone agrees isn’t good for you, lazed on the beach, and simply forgot about work of any kind.

Monday, I went to the site and met the minibus of photographers when they arrived. With it a working day, I issued hard hats and gave them a quick induction talk. Then we went out onto the site. They all had cameras and started taking pictures as I showed them around. The welding shop full of good-looking girls was especially attractive and I had to assure them that all the girls would be here on Saturday. One asked how we could make sparks, so Suzi showed them the difference with using an angle grinder on bright steel, against steel that was rusty. The rust burns brighter as it comes off, leaving a trail if you’re using a longer open shutter.

Bobby kept close to me, and I could see him taking quiet pictures that included me. I didn’t say anything. I was asked if we could have models up on different levels in the steel store and said I would see if we could re-arrange it to be safe. In the machine shop, the size of the machinery made them stop and stare. I went to the guy running the big lathe and asked him to squirt a bit of lubricating oil on the cut, which created a big plume of smoke. A couple of the photographers were snapping away and asked me if we could organise that for Saturday. The operator was happy to come in and earn some overtime money, so I told him to talk to Suzi and put himself on the list.

I wasn’t much of a photographer, myself, but I could picture some of the shots in my mind, with smoke and sparks offset with beauty and colourful dresses. I still hadn’t figured out where I would fit in all of this. There was so much that the guys wanted to see, and go back to recheck, that we were nearly two hours on site. I took them into the canteen for a drink and biscuit, and Janet joined us to ask how we got on. Pierre spoke for the group with a heartfelt wonder at the visuals that they could create. It was the most I’d heard from him in the time I’d known him.

As they were getting on the bus, he showed me a few pictures that he had taken. He was using a digital Nikon with a zoom lens, and he had pictures of me, in my hard hat and Hi-Viz, with the lathe smoke behind me, and next to Suzi when she made sparks. Even as quick, unposed pictures, I had to admit that they were very different from your usual fashion picture of beautiful people in magnificent places. He gave me a double cheek kiss and thanked me for being me.

It was time for me to start winding up things. I went back to Suzi to see if she could rearrange some of the old U-Beam in the steel store to make safe levels. She suggested that we find the rustiest length we could and have it on a couple of trestles to make sparks with. I told her about the machinist that would join us on Saturday. She told me that she was looking forward to the day, to be part of a fashion shoot and to see the fantastic gowns before they were advertised. I went and told Janet what we had organised, and she said that she would be talking to Geraldine during the week.

When I left, I went to the office, and had a meeting with the executive, handing them my official resignation letter, and telling them that I would come in on Friday to clear out my things and return the car. They weren’t happy, but I had followed the guidelines, had already recruited my replacement as well as a replacement for Bernice.

Before I left, I spoke to Bernice to tell her of my decision. She gave me a hug and told me that she had loved working with me. We both had tears in our eyes when I closed the door on my career as the B.U.M. to start my career as a face. On the way down in the lift, that thought made me laugh quietly. Both careers could be pictured as smooth cheeks with a gap which made noises. At home, I ran a bath with a smelly bath bomb and laid in it for a while. When I got out, I had washed away the past. Carol stayed quiet, as she guessed what I was doing.

We had a quiet week, taking stock on what we had put in train. The girls were excited at being signed on as professional models before they even went to High School. We had a ‘summer-clean’, tossing a load of stuff that we had kept out of laziness. The girls cleared their wardrobes of things they had grown out of, or didn’t like, so that went into bags for the op-shop.

Friday, Carol followed me into town in our own car. I parked the company car in its assigned spot, and we went up to the Union Office. I had a big bag for any oddments that I wanted to keep. In the office, it was a sad but happy, occasion. I got hugs from everyone, with Bernice getting an extra hug when she told me that she thought she’d missed a period and had her fingers crossed. That’s when Carol told us that she was in the same situation.

Cyril handed me an envelope with my earned salary since last payday, my accrued leave pay and a bonus for the success of the site, especially the way we had integrated other unions. In the end, the only things in my big bag was the envelope and my mug from the kitchen, with a picture of a rig on it. The things on the desk were being used, and I really didn’t want anything that reminded me of that place. It had been my life for some years, but was now consigned to the memory.

In the car, on the way to the bank, Carol told me that she had invited Bernice to the shoot tomorrow, to see what we had got ourselves into, and to give her something different to remember me by. At the bank, she deposited the cheque into our account. When I had looked at it, it was pretty meagre in the light of the last time we were here.

At home, we sat in the kitchen with my old mug in front of me, filled with tea, and talked about the implications of another baby. We had stopped at a chemist to buy pregnancy test kits, and she went off to test, although it was almost too early in the cycle. When she came back, she showed it to me, and we hugged and kissed. The test showed positive.

“It must have been that time when you had just got into dresses, Jen. We went at it like rabbits for a while. You realise that our baby will be ten years younger than her sisters. I might be able to get them to look after her and just laze around sipping drinks. Or, maybe, you can do the woman’s work. I can’t remember you washing bottoms and changing nappies with the other two.”

“That’s because I was working, my love, to keep a roof over our heads. This time, it will be different, that’s certain.”

That night, we made slow, beautiful, love. As I lay next to her, afterwards, I decided that I would keep my original bits, and stay natural until such a time that Jenny could become Jen, once more. That would give me five years of productive modelling, and I would be forty when I retired, perhaps to do something behind the scenes until I hit sixty-five. In the meantime, though, I was determined to give Geraldine value for money.

On Saturday morning, we were all clean, hair washed, and dressed casually when we went to Hull in the Interceptor. There were a lot of cars, and a few minibuses in the carpark, along with a couple of vans and a van with a trailer carrying three golf buggies. I found that things had been planned without any input from me, and that me and my family were to be special models today.

The canteen had been taken over by a catering company. The creche and nurses room had become the changing room, with the corridors lined with racks of clothing. Today, there were only female models, and the women’s toilets, outside, were to be for us to use, the men’s toilets were for the crews. I say crews, because there were four, distinct crews. One in the machine shop, one in the welding shop, one at the steel store and one roving the site to pick random places to set up. Pierre and Bobby were going to wander between sites, and there was another team here today. It was a reporter and photographer from Vogue who were going to write an article for the magazine.

That’s when things fell into place. Geraldine, Janet, Gerald, and Horace were there, with Horace’s wife, Susan. I had met her at the opening, and we had a chat at the time. She was an elegant lady, but stricken with spinal problems, needing a stick to get around. I now found out that she was another Harrison cousin and was the owner of the clothing brand. She and Geraldine had made their separate ways in the business, but this shoot was to be a merging that they hoped would continue. They would advertise separately in future but align their campaigns around similar themes. With, I was told quite firmly, the Goodfellow family as the basis of the future.

We had to tell them our happy news, and Susan was pleased, as she intended to launch an upmarket line for pregnant women, and Carol would be the figurehead of that for some time to come. She could, she said, picture some of the adverts already, with Carol being rubbed by her daughters. It looked like our baby would be born as an instant celebrity!

The other models were from London agencies and were excited at the prospect of being in a special edition of Vogue, timed, I was told, for the September edition to launch the new look and my new career. Geraldine told me that we would be paid for the shoot after the edition went to press and we had signed our contracts.

During the course of the morning, we modelled Autumn wear. Moving around the four crews with each change. It was a huge range of clothes, and it looked as if Susan was throwing everything on the table for this. Annette and Astrid were in charge of teams of girls, set up in one corner of the canteen, making sure we looked our best. Even Suzi and the other workers got a make-over before shooting started. We were shuttled, from crew to crew, in the golf buggies, as heels and an industrial site don’t mix.

Our company nurses, and our safety officer, were on site to make sure we would be as healthy when we finished as we were when we started. Suzi and the girls had new outfits, now with the company logo clearly seen, and the machinist surprised me with his forward thinking. He had set up a piece of thick plate, cut for him by Suzi. It was from old scrap and very rusty. He would be facing it with a carbide tip, running a little quicker than usual to increase the cutting temperature. He had rigged a nozzle which delivered the oil directly on the face next to the swarf, which was coming off blue. He had also made a mix of oil, water and kerosine, which was spectacular as it was burnt in the heat of the cut.

I had close-ups in all the different places, as well as being part of the general ensemble. Pierre and Bobby followed me, discussing what they wanted me to do. The rest of the models took it all in their stride, and quickly made Carol and our girls comfortable in their roles. Two of them had been the ones at the beach, so it made it a lot easier for my family to fit in. At one point, I saw Bernice and her husband among the watchers, so went over to give her a hug, and told her to come to the canteen later as I was sure she could be fitted in for a quick make-over and hair style.

At times, I was standing on the platform of U-beams that had been set up in the steel store, stood in front of the welders with showers of sparks and the screaming of the angle grinders, and by the lathe, with multi-coloured smoke coming off the cut. Then I spent some time out on site, with shots where there was scrap, or machinery, and a green screen behind me. This happened to all of us during the morning. We stopped for lunch, and Bernice came to sit with us, introducing her husband to Carol.

The Harrison clan joined us, and we had a general discussion on how things were going. Susan was happy at what she had seen so far, and assured Carol that she and the girls would be instant hits. She then asked us if we had thought about what staff we would need, when we’re all busy models. I had to say that I hadn’t even thought that far ahead. Geraldine told us that Miss Gimmee had fifteen – secretaries, maids, drivers, security, cooks, and two hairdressers with three cosmeticians.

I laughed at that.

“I’m sure I could get by with a lot less. I’ll have Annette with me, and I’m sure that with her around, Bobby will want to drive, as well as taking his own portfolio of pictures if you can spare him. If needs be, I may want a PA. Bernice was going to be my PA at the Union. What do you say at joining this roller coaster, Bernice?”

She looked shocked, and looked at her husband, who smiled and nodded.

“Yes, please, Jen. We can slot Raylene into my seat next week and I can work out my notice getting her up to speed. Today has been a real eye-opener. The logistics and the planning is fabulous and will be a real challenge. I have to ask, though, will you be off doing different things from Carol and your girls?”

Geraldine looked at Susan and they both smiled. Susan reached over to take Bernice’s hand.

“Bernice, you have homed into the centre of our cunning plan in seconds. We will be signing the Goodfellows as a family unit, as joint models for the two companies. That will actually save us both a bit of money. Jenny and her daughters will be in the cosmetic adverts, as Geraldine has plans for a teenage range, a bit cheaper, and these angels will be front and centre in that campaign. I plan to utilise both Jenny and Carol in my own adverts, with Carol leading the maternity range campaign, and the girls leading the children’s wear range. If you’ve seen the bikini advert, you know what stars they all are. I’m told that Jenny was to be a head model only, but what I’ve seen today has shown me that she can strut her stuff as good as the other models, so have no qualms in using her for my evening range, which you’ll see this afternoon.”

As we finished our lunch, and the crews went back out to set up for the glamour shots, Gerald and Janet came over to me. Gerald gave me a hug.

“Thank you, Jenny. In one fell swoop, you put this business on the right track and we’re happy that you gave us the benefit of your experience, as well as providing us with so many good people. Suzi has a long career with us if she wants. I say ‘us’ because my wife wants this site to be part of our companies, and I’m happy to bring them in. Not only that, but I also have to thank you for being the catalyst that has brought three sides of our family back together. We had all gone our separate ways, but the last few weeks has shown us that we’ve all strived for success, if by different routes. I have a fabric manufacturing business which will be working with Susan in the future, and I’m sure that there will be other opportunities. I did say that you would make a good HR manager, but that also makes you a good board member, down the track, when modelling gets too hard.”

“Thank you for that, Gerald. Maybe, one day, I’ll be able to see your car collection, but the etchings are out of bounds.”

We had a chuckle at that and then I had to get back to work.

Marianne Gregory © 2024