All through
the Night ©
By Michael
Casey
Last night I
listened to the radio all through the night, BBC Radio4, I’m a bit of a news
freak so I listened on and off through the night, it was the night of the EU
Vote after all, 23rd to 24th June 2016. Totoro our cat
joined me from time to time to discuss the implications of EU exit and the
price of Whiskas, then she miaowed and looked at the moon from the vantage
point of the top of my bed post. Her tail swishing this way and that like a
conductor, conducting stars in the heavens, before she jumped onto the windowsill
to press her nose against the glass.
So in the
morning I was exhausted but pleased, I had followed the news, one EU vote and 3
political leaders upset. From a news editor’s point of view of view a perfect
story. When you spend a night doing something it’s always great to get a
result.
I used to
work till 2.30am, the graveyard shift and then catch a 3am taxi home, then by
4am I was asleep in bed. I think it was those hours that helped us conceive our
first child, who will hopefully become a doctor. The downside of such hours is
that when I ended that job it took me 3 months to deprogram myself to sleep at
normal hours.
I did in
fact do 14 plus years of night shifts, the full deal, we did 10 hour nights and
even 12 hour nights. There is a strange feel to working all through the night,
ask any night shift worker. Be it doctor or miner or factory worker. My nights
were in computer rooms, I could not work in an office nor in a factory so a
computer room was a good compromise. I started back in 1978, yes nearly 40
years ago.
I’d come in
and tidy up after the previous shift, mag tapes galore everywhere, we’d put our
selection of music on the ghetto-blaster, REM was big all those years ago, it’s
the music which was the best part of the night shift. We shovel paper, 2 part or
3 part continuous listing paper, or audit forms. I’d have to climb Mount
Everest in the paper store room to get more of the correct paper. I’d have to
tidy up there as well. It was 20 year olds in charge of a room full of
computers, disk drives were as big as washing machines then.
All through
the night we’d sling paper here there and everywhere, the ghetto-blaster
fighting over the noise of the AC and the barrel printers, years later we got a
dedicated print room, even later a monitor room so we were not in the paper dust
and ink. It was fun and we enjoyed ourselves, 10 years like that I suppose, and
yes I carried a lot of people, I’ll leave it to your imagination.
At 2am it
was kicking out time from the night clubs, we were directly over one and could
watch down into the Chinese Quarter, we were on Smallbrook Queens Way behind
New Street Station, above Superfi, which is still there. So now you know where
my misspent youth was spent. We all worked hard and sung and shout and let it
all hang out while we worked on market research into alcohol sales. A job for
life or 21 years in my case.
4 am in the
morning we would watch the sun rise over the Blues ground, it was a Pagan ritual
for us, I must have seen the sun rise 1000s of times, so in a way that was a
privilege, seeing Dawn every morning. You also hit the Wall, not the same one
as in running the marathon, though night shifts can be a marathon. No the wall
, our wall was the Sillies, because you were so tired your body just had enough
so you would laugh at anything, so we had a tea break until it passed.
Other people
Normal people, never work a night shift, for them All through the Night, means
a night of passion with Doreen from accounts, or a night at a party where they
fall asleep in a heap with everybody else. The last man standing is dancing
with that pretty Indian Police Girl, he works night shifts and she works them
too. So there is a bond between them, whether she takes down his particulars is
up to them, but she does have handcuffs.
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