A lot of our girls went away so sometimes the Manageress would
go with her girls on board to do the laundry while the ship was at
sea and I approached my mother and I never heard the end of it. I
wasn't allowed to do it, no way. Girls that went on board ships
weren't any good,...
Question: Why did they get that reputation?
Well it was a seaport, let's go no further than that. And
usually the girls were spreading around the lower part of
Southampton and my mother didn't think it was good enough for her
one and only daughter ... (laughing) ... I could have brained her
now. I would have seen a bit of the world.
Question: Were there lots of prostitutes about in the city?
Oh we worked with them. Some of the nicest girls you, you can
imagine. But you want to see them when the ship came in ... the
eyelashes were done, the nails were done, and their hair was done,
and they'd dress up and off they'd go for the evening and come in
next day bleary eyed ... you know ...
Question: So they worked with you in the laundry?
Yes. We didn't take any notice of them. We weren't like it but
they were sisters under the skin and as long as they did work with
us we couldn't have cared less, nothing to do with us. But they
weren't all that type. There were some very very nice girls there,
educated girls and that, but they had travelled on board ship but
they'd been with the manageress, so they were her blue eyes and
that.
