The Western Gate

Daily writing prompt

Tell us about your first day at something — school, work, as a parent, etc.

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It was the 15th August 1983 when I had my first day at work. I was to be a trainee medical equipment attendant for Harold Wood Hospital in Essex. The incumbent attendant, who was due to retire had actually booked the week off on holiday, so I sat with the electricians, which was fortunate as eventually I would be offered an electrical apprenticeship.
In the meantime duties were given by the Electrical Foreman, a weedy type with a protruding nose much in the manner of Gerald Scarfe art.
He handed me a set of brass stencils and told me I was to paint numbers on all the lampposts around the hospital grounds and mark them on a map. This would help in the future when a lamp went out to identify which one needed fixing.
First things first, these brass stencils were great, they were very punk and I could use them to graffiti huge swathes of Dagenham. They went straight into my bag to be taken home, and I’d keep them in brand new condition by not using them for the lamppost marking.
I then slowly ambled around the hospital grounds painting numbers on every post I came to, of course being 16, I got bored very quickly and whereas the first few were quite neat by the time I’d reached 30+ the numbers were obviously skewing, wonky, messy and, worst of worst, dripping. I did try to smear off drips but this just made each one a bit more messy.
By the end of the morning, the foreman, with his long protruding nose and wagging pointy finger gave me my first telling off for the mess I had created, they all had to be redone by the oldest electrician there, Jack, he resented me evermore afterwards.
So my first day, I got a verbal warning and had stolen from the workplace.
I left/lost the stencils on the bus home, so never did get to write my revolutionary slogans across Dagenham.

Picture: Harold Wood Hospital, now gone forever, here shown in derelict state, two lampposts, they were in the 20’s, I believe that first one bottom right was 21, I remember because it was the same as the house number I lived in at the time. the next one along being 22. Photo by “Lowri Gen”