In the early days of being in the radio business, the photocopier had not been invented, we had to type each letter which was then signed in ink by a Director. Facsimile rubber stamps were popular in those days, but were not permitted on legal declarations. We could have had these letters printed, but that was much more costly than having a school boy to type them. The upshot is that I have always typed, and even today prefer typing to handwriting.
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I joined South Wales Wireless in 1957 and carried out mundane work for some years and then gradually moved into a management position. My father sent me to trade association meetings which was quite a revelation. I discovered there were other businesses just like ours, in Bristol, the west of England and elsewhere across the UK. I began by attending regional meetings in the South West, and later went to national meetings in London. There, in due course, I was elected national chairman of the Radio Wholesalers Federation and this brought me into contact with a much wider group and perhaps more influenced people.
Harold Wilson's government was determined to appease the Kremlin in the interests of 'better relations', which hopefully would increase trade between Britain and the Soviet Union and reduce the risk of a nuclear war. The Russians saw several benefits from this. In my capacity as National Chairman I was invited, along with others to visit Russia to represent the radio trade. We set off on MV.Pushkin and sailed through the Baltic to Helsinki. The final half hour sailing into Helsinki was memorable because the channel was so narrow that you could almost touch the land on either side of the ship. We then left Finland and sailed on to Leningrad, as it was then known (now St. Petersburg). I visited the the State Hermitage museum which is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, and the showcase of art and culture in Russia.
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Around that time I flew to Japan and the flight was 'over the top' as they say. We took off from Amsterdam on Japanese Airlines and were served sparrow in aspic jelly for breakfast. The first refueling stop was at Anchorage in Alaska. When we took off for the second leg of the flight we were again served sparrow in aspic jelly. We arrived in Tokyo in the evening to be royally entertained by the radio industry in a high rise building. I particularly remember thinking the building was swaying, but was told this was the result of sitting in an aircraft for too many hours.
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We visited many factories and had many a meal in skyscrapers in various cities. One was a revolving restaurant where you could see north, east, south and west as the meal progressed. We'd just about reached the final course when the evacuation alarm went off. We then realised that the mild judder we'd felt a little earlier was the revolving mechanism stopping. We were dining by candlelight so hadn't noticed the electricity had gone off, stopping the revolving restaurant and plunging the city into darkness. Now were were expected to walk down 33 floors in an orderly manner. Happily the atmosphere was buoyed by much fine wine and we sang merrily as the entire restaurant, diners and staff, jogged gently to the street. We had no sooner put a foot on the pavement than the lights of the city sprang into life and we were invited to resume our seats 33 floors up. We didn't.
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Strangely these recollections are clearer than my memory of any of the factories, though I did bring back some small transistor radios and a batch of early calculators.