Looking back to the 1960s

June 1964, this lean, young, decidedly nervous young man walks into the dimly lit Old Town office of FA Larard & Sons, for an interview with Mr Jack Larard. I was confronted by a grey haired old bloke with a phone at each ear, a Capstan Full Strength dangling from his bottom lip. He wore a light-coloured suit of obvious quality with a big white handkerchief stuffed expertly into his top pocket. He was probably talking to a builder on one phone and the manager of the Midland Bank on the other, sorting out a land deal. My interview took five minutes and I was delighted to be offered the job on the spot with a starting salary of £8 per week. I wasn’t about to quibble – a job’s a job and I “wanted to be in property.” What swayed it for me was knowing the answer to, “how much is five per cent of a pound?” Easy, it’s a shilling. I was to be involved in sales, trained to value, survey and sell houses, which is what appealed to me. However, in the short-term, “because we are short-staffed”, he said, I’d be going out with a book and…

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