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The story Here
Well... some of this is fact, some is fiction.
I've been invited on a number of ghost walks, that's true, but we paid for the one I wrote about.
The Trip to Jerusalem pub is subject to a number of ghost walks, but I've not been to the one that goes down into the cellars. The cellar visit was held at the pub across the road, The Salutation Inn - another ancient pub, once frequented by Templar Knights - You know what they say, not a Templar-frequented pub in sight and then TWO come along at once!
So, the setting for the main story was real, the story itself was not. I described the journey down to the cellars, and the rooms - even the hole where the water ran - and the 'penny drop' holes in the roof, up to the pub itself - but the encounter was entirely fictional.
As for the ghost walk before the main story, well, everything I told in my story, was told to us, but I'm taking it with a pinch of salt. The building work happened in the 1970s and I doubt bones would be crushed and mixed with cement. The cement would have arrived on massive mixer trucks, so adding anything would have to be done once the cement got to site and mixing anything with the cement would alter the integrity. No builder would risk that, surely?
Thanks for playing along.
Tell me what you think of today's story.
Truth or Fiction?
When I started my business, I would send out samples of the Arsenal scrunchies so other clubs could see how well they worked (and hopefully tempt them to buy some of their own).
I had mixed results, but mostly I’d get an order (66% success rate with the follow-up phone calls). I picked my target market well and the success of Arsenal at that time helped too, of course.
Eventually, I had a nice little cottage industry going. Aston Villa was one of the first, with plain two-colour scrunchies, but they also ordered printed ones as well – that proved a little more challenging because their other colour is a pale blue, and while they didn’t need the exact match, a similar shade had to be used and then their logo had to be printed on top.
Then, West Ham Utd came on board and I got into a nice little dialogue with the lady that did the ordering. She suggested other items for me to make and sell – frilly items. She wanted garter belts and suspender and garter sets – for weddings
Oh, my word! That was a change in direction and no mistake!
I started looking around for additional machinery to invest in.
I needed a machine that would stretch elastic and then sew lace and printed ribbon to it. I found a supplier of industrial machines and we went to see them. The salesman was really helpful and even suggested a ‘metering unit’ that pulled the stretched elastic through at a constant rate so the lace and printed ribbon would be uniform and neat.
The multi-needle chain stitch machine - with a few adjustments would work!
I managed to buy the machine from my business – even though it depleted the account almost entirely.
The machine was delivered and I set about learning the best techniques with the machine. I had a few additional items on the machine, for holding the reels of lace and ribbon and for guiding the lace and ribbon through straight. The lace had to be sewn in the edge of the elastic so it showed under the ribbon and hid the elastic from view.
I was in my element!
When I had a few orders under my belt, I was able to send off samples of the new merchandise too. Orders and new customers rolled in, it was hard work, but worth it. I had a job that I could do while my children were at school and asleep and I was my own boss!
I had a brilliant idea of approaching The Rocky Horror Show to see if they would like merchandise and they jumped at the chance!
West Ham Utd also asked whether I could make ladies briefs and a new branch to the business became a possibility. Trev was talking about setting up his own embroidery business - see This post.
The pinnacle of my business career would, of course, be Manchester United which, at that time, was the most successful merchandising Football Club in the UK (and probably beyond).
By that time, I supplied Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Chelsea, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur, Millwall, Nottingham Forest, Notts County, Sheffield Utd, Sheffield Wednesday, Manchester City, Celtic, Rangers, Derby County and The Rocky Horror Picture Show and a little club right up in Scotland (the smallest club in the UK) St Johnstone – they had 2 dozen blue and white scrunchies every year).
I sent samples to Man Utd and heard nothing. I phoned and spoke to someone to ask if they were interested but they claimed they hadn’t received the samples. I promised to send another set and the same thing – ‘No, sorry, not seen them… send another set please?’
It made no difference how many sets of samples I sent, they never admitted to having received them. I guessed that Manchester United had more sample sets of other clubs’ merchandise than I did!
Then, in 1995 a miracle happened! Man Utd was defeated in the FA Cup final by one of my clubs – Everton!
I had an evil idea.
I sent a full set of Everton samples – Scrunchies, Suspender and garter sets, a single garter, and a set of briefs (which I was producing alongside Trev by then).
I received a reply back – the first correspondence from Manchester United.
No, they didn’t want any of my merchandise – thank you.
I didn’t care by that point!