After that first day, LIFFE kicked into life, and we were all inundated with work…It was a crazy, never knew what to expect kind of life, but honestly the buzz we all felt, and the feeling that we were the core of somethng big that was to hit the City…Back in those days it was still the bowler hat and brolly brigade that dominated…All that was finished as a surge of coloured jackets peirced through the ” old City ” and became the norm…
We were young, ambitious, and dedicated to making LIFFE become one of the best open outcry markets in the world….So we had the pre opening parties, then after Sept 30th, there was the post opening parties…My life was just a whirl of work and partying…I was lucky I had a very understanding partner and a great live in Nanny as I really only saw my children at the weekends…
In those early heady days of LIFFE characters started to stand out…We were becoming intergrated into one big happy family…even thogh there was 100s working at the Royal Exchange…by this time the LIFFE staff had grown, but I will never forget the few of us at Old Jewrey dreaming and training for this moment….Now it was here and more staff hired…Obviously to be a member of the LIFFE team as a women you had to have the personality to stick it out….wolf whistles, banter, was all part of the job, and if you got offended easily, or was shy, then LIFFE wasnt for you…
I was London born and bred, was bought up with mainly boy cousins…was a tomboy for the first 14 years of my life, so I could take it all in my stride, and most def gave as good as I got…so for me I felt this was why I had been born…I had always felt the odd one out in my family…they wanted me to get married, have children, stay married and live on our council estate…I knew that life wasnt for me…I wanted more….which is why I started at 15 in Whitehall at Williams and Glyns bank….much to my familys disgust…why wasnt I content to work in the co op so they could get green shield stamps…Nope…I had a brain and used it…and my time at 15 learning computers sttod me in good stead for LIFFE….
I used to look at the coloured jackets throbbing in the pits, and I decided I wanted to be a trader…No one took me seriously…There were no women traders on the floor….there was lots of women brokers who had their silver badges, but they didnt really go into the pits…That is where I wanted to be…I knew it was a long shot…so I kept it to myself but working for LIFFE I could feel what the pits were going to do…
Everone was really helpful, and I can say this hand on my heart, at no time at all being a LIFFE girl was I abused or heckled…It was great banter with great people in a great environment….and that is why LIFFE worked in the early days…Respect….and having Ken Heymer as the floor manager was a huge bonus…because he treated the staff like his own children, and would defend us if anyone tried to be nasty, but LIFFE wasnt nasty, it was a mass of peole looking to change the face of the city…and we did….for 18 years…
