JERSEY CAMCORDER CLUB
VIDEO FILM-
September is a special month for me as it was in September 1942 that I started to work as an apprentice at the JEC—66 years ago this year. In those days you had to have a bike, and as I started out that morning I had no idea where I would be working or what I would have to do. Mr. George Greaves was in charge of the Wiring Dept. as it was known then, and he told me to go with Mr. De St. Croix—who said his name was Jack.
So we set off on our bikes to cycle to St. Ouen where he was wiring some lights in a farmhouse at the top of Greve de Lecq Hill. It just seems like yesterday!
But now I think back as to how different things were, and how materials, tools and systems have changed. No houses now are built without electrical installations , and apprentices don’t have to do the same manual work as we did. Materials are much lighter and, in most cases, easier to handle. Fuse boards and main switches are plastic instead of metal and light switches and ceiling pendants are neater and easier to install and connect. They also have battery operated drills and no longer need to fit temporary supplies to operate them. They are supplied with protective clothing and hard hats, and goggles to protect the eyes.
Of course it is the same for everything and sometimes change is difficult to accept. But who would have thought that it was just a few years ago, when video recorders were just invented, that we would all be able to record our children, and our holidays, and make our own films complete with sound and colour.
Then we had the changes from VHS to digital tape, and now discs. It makes me wonder what is coming next in my lifetime.
TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY -
REMEMBERING 60 YEARS ON -
On May 9th 1945 the island was liberated after 5 years of occupation by German forces, and now in 2009 (64 years later) there are still claims about all sorts of events, and some strange stories which have been handed down by word of mouth. These are because the people involved were then children or teenagers and they are now in their late 70s or 80s, like myself, so some of the stories have become distorted as memories have dimmed after so many years.
For myself as a teenager, I was too busy learning how to repair things or to make a crystal radio, or a sawdust burner or a haybox. Or making potato flour for my parents – or thinking if I could pinch something from the jerries – to be concerned about other things that were happening. But any claims that all Channel Islanders were collaborators and willingly worked for the Germans are very unfair. After all there was not much work anyway, which was why the States started work schemes, such as cutting down trees for firewood, and building what is now known as the New North Road.
However for those who did work for the Germans, the pay was good and it was useful for buying things on the black market, such as eggs, butter and meat. And it provided a chance to steal petrol, diesel oil, cement etc, and also an opportunity for any bit of sabotage that one could think of. This might be damaging equipment or draining a petrol tank.
The local women who worked in houses requisitioned by the Germans to billet officers and men were enabled to get extra food to feed their children. They had no intention of helping the occupying forces, only to take as much advantage of the situation as they could.
Of course, my memory now is dimmed, and it is only occasionally that I hear something which jogs my brain to think of these things which I had almost forgotten.
CHARLIE’S CHAT
ARCHIVES 3