DSW in the 1970s
See, I can even add things to the site, but I'm not sure I could repeat it if I had to.
Something else about Ennis as a name is that I once worked at the Department of Social Welfare in Hamilton, New Zealand with two other people who shared my name. But they had Ennis as a surname. One was a social worker called, I think, Harold. He used to be a teacher at Ngaruawahia, and moved into social work. I always wondered, in that part of my brain that I don't visit very often, whether or not he was happy with the change from teaching to social working. At that stage (I was in my early 20s) I thought it would have been worse being a social worker. But now that I have been a teacher in the state systems of both New Zealand and Australia, I am not so sure. Secondary school we are talking about. At least in social work you are often dealing with adults who can have input into solving their problems.
The other was a girl. There is a fine difference here between a woman in her early 20s and a girl who had just left school. Looking back from my late 40s, now that I have found myself in situations where I have been 'of the same age' as women not 3 years younger, but 10 to 15 years younger, the difference was negligible. I don't remember much about Barbara. She was in one of the other buildings.
There were three buildings at the time I was working at DSW. I started out in Family Benefits in the old Post Office building. Do you know, I think the manual exchange for the telephone service was still operating in a building behind ours. The Social Work Division, as well as Weekly Benefits and Records were in our building. Whenever I see the letters PSW, I still think automatically Pregnant Single Woman, from the cards in Weekly Benefits. They were paid a Sickness Benefit from the time they were 6 months pregnant, depending on income testing of course. Then over the road, Victoria St, in the Odd Fellows Building, was Admin and Maintenance. The third building didn't come into operation until I went to Christchurch in 1978ish. The rest of the Benefits and Pensions Sections of DSW were on other floors in the Oddfellows Building. It wasn't called the Odd Fellows Building, but that was the name of the building as it was recorded on the lift: The International Order of Odd Fellows. Funny the things you remember.
So now, there is no more Family Benefit, phased out in 1991. The phone business has been privatised and is no longer part of the postal service. And I am sitting on a laptop in Australia writing about my memories of working in the 1970s.
Seems like history.
Something else about Ennis as a name is that I once worked at the Department of Social Welfare in Hamilton, New Zealand with two other people who shared my name. But they had Ennis as a surname. One was a social worker called, I think, Harold. He used to be a teacher at Ngaruawahia, and moved into social work. I always wondered, in that part of my brain that I don't visit very often, whether or not he was happy with the change from teaching to social working. At that stage (I was in my early 20s) I thought it would have been worse being a social worker. But now that I have been a teacher in the state systems of both New Zealand and Australia, I am not so sure. Secondary school we are talking about. At least in social work you are often dealing with adults who can have input into solving their problems.
The other was a girl. There is a fine difference here between a woman in her early 20s and a girl who had just left school. Looking back from my late 40s, now that I have found myself in situations where I have been 'of the same age' as women not 3 years younger, but 10 to 15 years younger, the difference was negligible. I don't remember much about Barbara. She was in one of the other buildings.
There were three buildings at the time I was working at DSW. I started out in Family Benefits in the old Post Office building. Do you know, I think the manual exchange for the telephone service was still operating in a building behind ours. The Social Work Division, as well as Weekly Benefits and Records were in our building. Whenever I see the letters PSW, I still think automatically Pregnant Single Woman, from the cards in Weekly Benefits. They were paid a Sickness Benefit from the time they were 6 months pregnant, depending on income testing of course. Then over the road, Victoria St, in the Odd Fellows Building, was Admin and Maintenance. The third building didn't come into operation until I went to Christchurch in 1978ish. The rest of the Benefits and Pensions Sections of DSW were on other floors in the Oddfellows Building. It wasn't called the Odd Fellows Building, but that was the name of the building as it was recorded on the lift: The International Order of Odd Fellows. Funny the things you remember.
So now, there is no more Family Benefit, phased out in 1991. The phone business has been privatised and is no longer part of the postal service. And I am sitting on a laptop in Australia writing about my memories of working in the 1970s.
Seems like history.
posted by Ennis @ 10:52 pm
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