This little piggy ate a pay packet

WHEN my late brother, Keith, was a schoolboy, he was very excited at the prospect of his first pay packet from his holiday job at a local pig farm. The farmworkers, including Keith, were assembled in the pig barn when the farmer entered, with his bag of brown I LEFT school at 14 and wanted to take up an apprenticeship in the printing industry, but I had to work as a messenger for at least a year before I could start. We were called messengers, but actually we were dogsbodies. We had to sweep up, make tea, clean the toilets and get snacks for the men — not necessarily in that order. My fares and dinner money came to more than I earned, so my parents had to buy my travel tickets, but luckily they didn’t have to pay a premium for the apprenticeship. For sealed envelopes. On receipt of his pay packet, in simulated ecstasy, Keith danced through the barn waving his packet in the air. He was so energetic that the brown envelope flew out of his hand and straight into a pen of ten prime porkers. Pigs are always hungry and they demolished Keith’s first pay packet in milliseconds. Leslie R. Wardlow,

Ashford, Kent. spending money, I relied on tips from the printers I did errands for and I kept the fare money down by running when possible and not using buses. Once I had eventually completed my apprenticeship, I earned good money — my bank manager said I was paid more than he was — but I didn’t get a company car until I went into management. I was never out of work, have never got into debt and have now ended up with a comfortable pension.

Derek Trayler, Hornchurch, Essex.