I bought my first 60s dress out of GH Martin..bright orange shoes and big orange earrings!
Kathleen
My kids don’t believe us when I say me and me friends would meet up on a Saturday morning and go around the town and we’d be out all day. We had a shop, Chelsea Girls, Garbos and we used to go to Elizabeth’s and we always had…
Irene
That’s when Elizabeth’s was nice.
Kathleen
It was lovely. It’s gone now. We used to have roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and veg because I used to love the cabbage they used to do.
Irene
But before Elizabeth’s was there though, when I worked in G.H. Martin’s gown shop, it was Millburn’s, so the manageress, she used to treat us on a Saturday to a cake. So I was the junior.
Kathleen
Was that Mrs Gallagher?
Irene
Mrs Gallagher. So, I would either go down to Millburn’s, or I would have to go over to Woolworth’s, and I used to have to get the cutting cakes, and used to wait in the queue, and used to cut all the cake up for you and things like that. But they always had fresh cream and everything.
I worked there for three years. Absolutely loved it. Van Allen was the young shop. G.H. Martin was the like, haute couture. What happened was, with me being the junior, I was on, my department was the knitwear department and the skirts and the trousers and blouses. So I was allowed to put things away so nobody could buy them if, you know, if they were running out of stock. And of course it was African violet and the lime green skinny ribs , I had all sorts because of the discount!
Kathleen
Can you remember when I bought my first 60s dress out of GH Martin? The lemon one and I bought a lemon double breasted coat – can you remember, the boucle one?
Irene
Yeah, that’s right.
Kathleen
Bright orange shoes and great big orange earrings!
This memory is part of the Bishopwearmouth Heritage Scheme collection.