Although just we oldsters know this and young people tend to pooh pooh it, history keeps repeating itself. So, if you live long enough, you will see lots of stuff you have seen before!
In 1960, I was at my first job as a sales secretary for a heavy equipment jobber in Toronto. The company had sold their land to what was then the O'Keefe Center (now Hummingbird) on Front Street in Toronto. They had built a large new building where they had all kinds of heavy equipment on display and beautiful, large open office with nice break room upstairs.
The location was not great and I took a bus, the subway and then a streetcar to get there. But it was my first job. Yup - I had forty interviews coming out of Weller College and this was the one place who would take a chance on me.
Coming up to Christmas, the women who had worked there for several years were all anxious to tell me about the holiday time the year before.
The head office was in Montreal and the staff had been receiving beautiful Christmas bonuses. One gal mentioned she had purchased a fur coat one year and several talked about being able to cover their holiday presents with the generous gifts.
Well, the year before, the employees were anticipating the same treatment they had become used to and many had purchased expensive Christmas gifts for their families.
Imagine their surprise when one of the Montreal executives came through the office with -- no, no, you are not ready for this -- a bushel basket of apples from the Quebec Eastern Townships -- as THE Christmas treat for the employees!
Because it was my first job, I really just filed the story as I was not expecting anything from my employer. I was not disappointed although one salesman did give me a bottle of wine with a poem attached. (I have to mention here I was underage in Ontario.)
The manager of my department - The Furnace Department - took the three salesmen, the order desk person and myself for Christmas Eve lunch to a less than best restaurant. The big present for me, personally, was that I had to go back to work to finish more letters for this manager, while most of the rest of the staff went home.
So, that is 48 years ago and it is long overdue for some of the muckety-mucks who are receiving these pornographic salaries to have a big bite of that apple this year!
For you younger folks, my salary was $195 which nets out to about $45 a week. I made up for it in class by having my bank account at the King Edward Hotel Branch which was spelled out on any checks I wrote.
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