Let’s Hear It For Mondays!

Artwork by Ellen Simpson

The hard slog was over and ahead was a summer of lazing on Maroubra Beach with my mates. The Leaving Certificate was behind us. It was November, 1956.

 This didn’t last long. All of us were quickly bored. We were too used to working hard. So inside the first week, some of the gang, almost apologetically, almost surreptitiously, disappeared and started to job-search. Me too! I cracked.

 Maths and the sciences were not for me. But I enjoyed English and history, which is why in late November I, Christopher John Golden, was walking Sydney streets and door-knocking newspaper offices. I’d be a journo!

 Remember, this was the 50’s and the silicone chip had yet to arrive, so no Googling for information, and my parents could not afford a phone in the home, so no phoning for an appointment.

 My first door-knock was Frank Packer’s Consolidated Press in Park Street. No appointment, I just walked in and asked the receptionist, could I please have a job? She took me to a staff manager, who kindly gave me his time. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘We have cadet journalist spots coming up, but have you considered an advertising agency?’  I’d never heard of an ad agency, so he explained what they did. Then, from the yellow pages, he listed some names and addresses.

 Armed with his list, I continued walking the city, knocking on ad agency doors. And blow me down if my first door-knock didn’t work! A telegram inviting me to commence work the following Monday was delivered to my home.  The agency was Fergus Canny Advertising, in the old Mission to Seamen building in Kent Street, in the heart of The Rocks. Sydney’s birthplace was where I would begin my new life.

 On Monday 26th November, 1956, I began as a trainee in the press checking department.  Here we ensured that our clients’ ads appeared correctly, and that material got to the papers and magazines on time. There was no electronic delivery of ads then; it was very much a physical thing. Engravings, mats and mounted stereos were what the papers printed from, and this material was hand-delivered from Sydney to Melbourne, to Cape York to Perth, and every other Australian town and city.  

From Checking I moved to the production department, where I began my ongoing love affair with printing, typography and fonts, and the beauty of communication these allow. 

I also met my wife, Helen, at Cannys.  She worked in the TV department and we used to kiss and cuddle behind the 35mm projector. But that’s another love story.

My wonderful life, my wonderful wife, our son and daughter, and the 9 grandkids… it all began on a Monday in November, 1956. Let’s hear it for Mondays!