As far as her father was concerned, she had a job that brought in a regular weekly wage and that was all that mattered. The more money she and Edmund handed over, the less he had to provide, and that suited him fine. He made it quite clear that in his opinion it would have been better if she’d gone to work at the biscuit factory. He didn’t see the sense in a girl trying to better herself when in a couple of years’ time she would be married, staying at home with kids to look after. ‘You’d have earned a damn sight more money on the production line than you will as a junior clerk,’ he grumbled. Her mother listened, but more often than not failed to comprehend half of what Vera was talking about. Such things as switchboards, telephones and typewriters were outside Annie’s experience, but she certainly felt proud that Vera had managed to get an office job and not ended up working in a factory like so many girls from her school. For Vera, her job was the key to a whole new way of life.
