The time at the factory :

       I started at the factory at the age of 16. We made the frames for televisions. I went there on my bike. As often as possible I went in rubber boots. When I arrived at the factory I left my boots in my locker as I don’t recall that my colleagues wore rubber boots in the factory. Once —I must have been about 18 years old— when I was going back from work towards midnight, I slipped and fell into a ditch. My boots were full and I had wet feet !

       At that time I remember a mechanic next to my mother’s bar, who also washed cars in black Baudou boots. I then stayed on the pavement in front of the shop, solely to watch him. When he was away he left the key with my mother for the customers who wanted gas or petrol… Guess who offered himself for the job!? His boots fitted me quite well : he had big feet ! I did not dispense with them after having served a customer, I fondled them under the veranda. Once I had them on my feet when a customer arrived ; timid and panic stricken, I fled.

At the Roads Department :

       I started with the Roads Department at the age of 20. This is how it happened.

       I was 19-20 years old and I was still working in the factory but I returned for a meal at midday. Four or five guys, who worked for the Roads Department, came regularly to Unverre and each time they brought their snack into my mother’s bar who served drinks to them. Some of them were in rubber boots.

       They sometimes came with the tarmac lorry (the tarmac spreader). I had already seen them “tarmacking” : they wore their black rubber boots that they did not put on in the bar ! I therefore deduced that they left them in the lorry. Once I went to look at their lorry. I saw them and I started to rummage around, when a guy who had stayed inside saw me and asked what I was doing there. Taken aback I ran away (Later this guy became my boss !)

       One day the chief of the team came to put a poster in the café for enrolment in a competition for the Roads Department. The guy said to my mother that this would be good for me, better than the factory —which, in fact, went out of business shortly after. That evening my mother talked to me about it. Obviously this was going strongly through my head ! I was immediately really taken with the idea of being able to work all the time in rubber boots. Of course, for the form, I told my mother that I was a bit sorry to leave my mates at the factory.

       I passed the Roads Department competition towards 1970 and joined them in Brou in 1971. I returned every night to my mother’s house. I well remember the years 78-80 : the cattle merchants of Brou sent their employees to work in Unverre. When they returned from work they were always in their really dirty working clothes. The tobacconist shop nearby did not like this very much : they made everything dirty with their shitty boots, their Aigles, which were mainly khaki or brown. They therefore very quickly became faithful customers… of my mother’s café. And of course it was me who served them. They left late, and drank Pernod. After their visit, my mother cleaned the café…

In conclusion:

       As soon as I was working, I bought myself some boots. My first pair was a pair in PVC. The pair of boots that I wore most were those that we wore at the Roads Department in the years 80-90, black unlined “Clark” Etché.

       My collection of boots started much later ; in fact in 1991 when Pascal came to my house. Then they were well augmented during the time when I was with Jean-Pierre.