Originally posted by rod_grant My late father was employed by the State Electricity Commission of Victora (that's the Victoria in Australia) as a ... [drum roll] ... saddler!
He never made a saddle in his life. But he did previously run a boot repair business which meant cutting leather into different shapes (!).
I think the position at the SEC was a legacy one from the olden days when they had lots of horses.
The SEC was the sole supplier of electricity in Victoria until it was broken up and privatised.
So it mined coal (open cut brown coal) built power stations, generated and distributed power all over the State.
It built and owned the town of Yallourn and effectively did all the normal municipal things - rubbish collection, road maint, ran the library & fire brigade, etc etc as well as being the landlord for every house and other building.
When the coal underneith the town became more valuable than the town itself; goodbye Yallourn.
Back to dad's job; He worked at the "municipal depot" (the base for town maint) but all of his work was for SEC instalations themselves - his laid carpet in SEC buildings, he reupholstered office chairs, he made canvas water tanks that fitted into the body of tip trucks (which were used as auxiliary fire trucks when needed).
So, he never made a saddle, but he was employed as a saddler!!
BTW Do I now qualify as a Rupert-story-type-teller?)
just before dad retired he changed jobs so a younger guy wouldn't be let go...he became a storekeeper
it was a holdover title from the past...he did a little bit of everything as well
of all the things he might have been a storekeeper wasn't one of them
and yes it seems you may have a knack for extended narrative however others will have to determine if it is up to scratch
---------- Post added 01-09-18 at 01:08 AM ----------
Originally posted by tim60 My first big scale employer was ETSA. Did the same things as SEC, but one state west. Even did the same story with a coal mine and town, where I first worked with them. SEC coal was better quality than ETSA. ETSA coal: if it breaks it is coal, if it doesn't it is rocks. Back during WWII the railways used the coal. It was so bad they had to make mixed coal/oil fired steam engines - the oil was to get the coal to burn.
And your fathers story reminds me of something I saw about a particular NCO role in the army. Basically the blacksmith SgtMaj in a regiment. Originally to do farrier work for the colonel's horse. Now still a recognised title, and in those fancy dress parades this person wears a blacksmith style apron and carries blacksmith tools. The picture I saw was from the Australian army and the incumbent was a veteran of either or both Afghanistan or Iraq - the recent wars there, not the 19th century wars in A or the early 20th century wars in I.
we had a job on our bigger line crews...skinner...from muleskinner
he took care of the trucks and trailers
horses and mules are still in use
when I was researching the stitching horse I mentioned above I ran across a current (2000?) manual for the use of horses by our special forces
a coworker's part time job was farrier
he shoed stock for pleasure riders and some farmers who still did it the hard way
it didn't take long to find out that while blacksmith and farrier seemed similar at first blush
they were not the same job or skillset