When I began my first full time job working for the Ministry of Defence we were told never to wear trousers for work, not even smart suit type ones and no jumpers, T shirts, nothing even vaguely see through, no boots in the office but we could travel to work in them then change into shoes and never ever bare legs. It was dark coloured plain skirts, a blouse with a cardigan over the top and tights and court shoes. Those women higher up the ladder wore a skirt suit and my female boss also frowned upon nail polish and dangly earrings. There were 24 of us in that office, all females and young newbies such as myself were terrified of the HCO`s or higher clerical officers as they were known.
My boss wore a brown tweed suit, flat brogue shoes, her hair pulled back into a severe bun, heavy face powder, red lipstick, (no other makeup though) smelled of a mixture of Woodbine cigarettes and Pagan perfume and was nor ever had been married. She was a stickler for time keeping, smoked like a factory chimney because back then smoking in the office was acceptable, she wouldn`t utter 10 words if 5 would do, you couldn`t or wouldn`t dare argue with her and she would tut disapprovingly if we chatted about pop music , boyfriends, fashion or anything frivolous during work time. I was scared to death of her until the day before I was due to get married at what I thought was the very mature age of 18 and she gave me a wedding gift and a card. The gift turned out to be a set of hand embroidered napkins which she must have spent hours doing and the card was written with such a kind beautiful message.
When I returned to work a week later, as a newly married woman, she seemed to treat me differently, as more like an adult and it dawned on me she simply didn`t know how to associate with us " young ones " as she called many of the staff and obviously she`d never had children of her own so she was totally unfamiliar with teenagers. When I quit my job 3 years later to have my first baby she gave me a hand knitted pram set ie, matinee jacket, hat and leggings and I was sorry to go.
Now I bet she ALWAYS wore an underskirt but I would never have dared ask her !
