Joyce's Column: July

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for their kind and considerate thoughts on the passing of the late Roy Deeming, it was lovely to see in words and hear the words spoken that people thought about him, and it appears without any doubt that he was a very well liked and popular man who worked in the amusement industry for some 60 plus years, and in that time he made many friends and sold so many machines and so much leisure equipment to numerous companies but he always made sure the deal was right for both his employer and the customer, so this way everyone was happy.

GeWeTe has a new member of staff, none other than Sarah Edmundson wife of GeWeTe’s Mark, she has joined the company to assist with general administration and other duties (maybe keeping Mark in order.) I am sure she will fit in very well with the team, she is only working part-time for them as she doesn’t want to leave her other job working in a ladies exclusive accessory business, plus designing her own greetings cards, what a talented lady you are Sarah. Anyway Sarah you will be able to keep your eye on Mark and when he comes home at night and says what a busy day he has had, you will know if he is telling you the truth or not!! Good luck in your new position Sarah and I hope you enjoy it, and don’t stand any messing around from the boys.

Hylda Spiro

In my June chat column I mentioned Hylda Spiro and said I would have more to say about her in my July chat column. Hylda was a one-off to say the least and she had a great sense of humour, and I always used to enjoy meeting up with her and enjoying time together. One funny story I have about Hylda and myself is going back to the Blackpool Exhibition days (the good old days and Blackpool was such fun) and we were sitting at the bar in the Imperial Hotel enjoying a drink and both waiting for other people, when another female who neither of us knew came and stood beside us and we both felt she was listening to our conversation. I asked her if we could help, and she told me no, but asked why we were sat in ‘her girls seats at the bar,’ both Hylda and I were at a loss as to what she was talking about but we soon found out. This person was ‘Madame Jean’ that used to run the ladies of the night in Blackpool and 2 of her girls had complained about us being in their seats. Well that made Hylda and myself even more determined to stay in the seats, and we were both in hysterics, so we told her to go away in not very friendly terms. Mind you every time we saw each other after this we used to say ‘what are you charging today’ and both go away laughing.

Rod Haggett

Best wishes to Rod Haggett on his retirement from Wessex Coin where he has been for the past 10 years of his life. Rod joined the industry back in 1977 as a Production Operative for Subelectro, Cheltenham and progressed to Production Manager. In the 80’s and 90’s Subelectro run by Mike Williams, Tony Waller and Les Fowler were one of the big companies in the industry, and Rod actually spent a great deal of his time working for their sister company Veltmeijer Automaten in Holland, and he stayed at Subelectro for 20 years. After he left he had a spell with PCP in Bath, followed by a stint with JNC Sales in Bristol as a Sales Executive before finally moving onto Wessex Coin. He feels now that the time has come for him to have some more ‘Rod Time’ which includes spending more time on the golf course working on his handicap and basically just having time to enjoy life as he wants to.

Rod would like to thank everyone he’s had the pleasure of working with in the industry, and wishes everyone well, as I am sure we all wish you the same Rod, and here’s to a long and happy retirement, whatever you do just enjoy it and make the most of it.

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26 July 2023

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