NEW BUSINESS
GIRL COAL MERCHANT. Miss Ivy Goodrem, of Kingsway, Mildenhall, introduced as “once a waitress, who now drives a heavy lorry and hawks coal from door to door, probably the only woman ‘coalman’ in the country,” broadcast on the wireless recently in the popular ‘‘ln Town To-night” series. She showed plenty of confidence, spoke extremely well, and told the interviewer an interesting story of how she- came to take up the work of a coal merchant. “What made you staTt?” she was asked, to which she replied: “I more or less had to," explaining that four vears ago. when 22 years old and engaged as a waitress at Cambridge, her father died. She then “had” to do her father’s work, or otherwise the business he had laboured diligently to build up would have lapsed, for her widowed mother would have- been unable to carry it on. Everyone said that a coalman’s job was too hard for a woman of 22, but Miss Goodrem had other ideas, and. although at first she did not like the idea of a black face and grubby hands, she faced the situation heroically. She gets up early, loads the lorry, drives round to supply her regular customers, then hawks from door to door, and in the afternoon unloads trucks at the station, then goinghome for a bath and to change into woman's attire, for during the day she wears men’s clothes (breeches and overalls), with a beret to cover her hair. She- replied in (he affirmative to the question, “Do you carry coal on your back like a coalman?” and add*ed that, she enjoyed tho work thoroughly, except sometimes in the winter when having to deliver coal over muddy roads at. some outlandish places. In her well-earned leisure she indulges in tennis, swimming, and dancing, and is an amateur actress of no mean ability.—From ‘The Bury St. Edmund’s Free Press.’
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Bibliographic details
Greymouth Evening Star, 16 December 1935, Page 3
Word Count
316NEW BUSINESS Greymouth Evening Star, 16 December 1935, Page 3
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