Christine bows out with 50 years of stored memories
AWOMAN is celebrating her retirement this week – after doing the same job in Southport for the past 50 years.
Christine Button, 65, has been a hosiery consultant in Beales, formerly known as Broadbents & Boothroyds, since her 15th birthday.
Yesterday, she officially retired from her first and last job, after half a century of asking customers: “Are you being served?”
Christine used to work full-time at the store, but changed to part-time working on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, after she had given birth to her daughter, Anna.
Christine, from Burscough, said: “I am slowly getting used to the idea of retiring now, I absolutely loved working there.
“It is going to feel so strange to leave the company, and all my friends.”
When Christine started her job, there were seven people on her hosiery department, but this week started with only two – and today there will be just one.
She was first given the job when she was 15, and she said: “When I started working at the department store, jobs in retail were really hard to get.
“They needed to see you were hard-working, but now it seems that staff turnover is quite high in all retail outlets.”
As a result of impressing her colleagues at a teenager, she was soon joined by her sister, Sandra Button, now 62.
The sisters worked in the hosiery department together for more than 40 years – and Sandra is still working there now.
Christine’s daughter, Anna Mangham-Jones, 38, said: “She is sad to be retiring, she is very modest about her achievement to keep a job for 50 years.
“Not many people do that.
“She will be kept very busy, though, and she loves looking after my children. We’d be lost without her. “We are so proud.” Christine agreed that she would be spending a lot of her time in retirement looking after her grandchildren, Harriet, eight, and Hugo, five – and she can’t wait.
She said: “My grandchildren will keep me busy. I love spending time with them.
“I will also enjoy meeting up with friends and having a natter.”
Although it wasn’t always Christine’s plan to spend her life working in retail, she is really happy with what she has achieved.
She said: “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I didn’t want to work in a shop.
“But it has been great, I have made great friends and the company has been very nice to me.
“They threw me a party with Champagne, cake and flowers for my 65th birthday.”