Club Meeting:- Speaker Lorna Hickey 'My Job' Talk

Lorna Hickey gave her My life and Job Talk:-

Good afternoon fellow Rotarians and guests. I don’t know how many of you are doing what I do and try to spot just how many sheets of A4 the speaker is clutching.To save you counting there’s three. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Lorna Hickey and this is my ‘get to know me’ talk,Three things I have learnt - the jugs of water are very heavy, you have to eat quickly and you have to give a talk.I am also very aware that I am following the very animated talk from my fellow joinee and international man of mystery Phil and the very informative talk from Ian -I know Ian’s not here today but I did want to let him know that the only contribution I can make to his battery debate is that the price for a pack of triple A’s in Home and Bargain is as the name suggests a bargain.I have lived in this area for the majority of my life and still in fact live in the farmhouse where I was born.I went to school in Calveley, where my grandad and father had attended and then moved to Nantwich and Acton Grammar School, where I was an exemplary pupil.

When I left school I went to work for the Britannia Building Society in Earle Street, Crewe.My manager was Ray Wilkin whom some of you may know as a long standing member of Crewe Rotary Club.In those days Mr Wilkin smoked copious cigarettes in the office and later moved to a pipe so that gives you some idea of how long ago it was.As an 18 year old, I used to think that his weekly visit to the Rotary Club was nothing more than a jolly good skive and the chance to have a substantial lunch. I worked there for five years and then went to the Britannia Building Society in Bramhall, where I was employed as Chief Clerk overseeing and processing mortgage applications. After this I became a director of a publishing company - we produced a spurious publication called the Print Price Guide and Short Run Print Price Guide which gave the definitive price to any print that you wanted to purchase.It shouldn’t have worked but it did!We bought a die stamping company in Bromborough and Rob (my husband) came to run this company for us and this is how I met him.One of the first jobs that we did was letterheads for Rolls Royce - the silver lady mascot being hot foiled onto them.Imagine the shame when I went to deliver them and my car broke down on site!

I then went on to have three children, Joe, Will and Leah but whilst they were growing up I continued to work. First of all I used to rear pigs at the farm.Typically with pigs you either sell them for gold or bronze - all or nothing.My seller number was Hick 007 - licenced to sell pigs!!!

Then I began working at the Birmingham Midshires Building Society in Nantwich and then starting work with ATG in sales and did quite a prolonged stint on secondment to the marketing department of the Regent Theatre in Hanley - joining from its inception.I absolutely loved this job (just the ticket for a larger than life noisy extrovert) and trust me you have never had a bigger challenge than trying to fill a new theatre for a production of a contemporary opera. The locals were still smarting from the closure of the Theatre Royal and very distrustful of the southern based Ambassador Theatre Group and its employees. You’ve also never lived if you haven’t stood on a roundabout in the Potteries with a life size card board cut out of the star of Saturday Night fever waiting to be spotted - just don’t ask! To encourage the paying public into the theatre I used to run tours of the theatre and also went out and talked to groups, WI’s, Rotary and Probus clubs - the Ancient Greeks to Andrew Lloyd Webber in half an hour with an ancient projector that invariably used to have Dan Leno standing on his head!

Latterly I have worked with Rob running our own printing company that we set up in 1998.I do however sometimes miss having colleagues and to this end I work for Boden the clothing company and set up fifteen sales countrywide over a year - you will never have your customer service skills tested until you have been run over by many yummy mummies, little darlings and doting grannies!!Well that’s my work background covered.

I will give you a brief overview of what else goes on or went on - in my youth I was an active member of Rotaract the younger persons arm of Rotary - this was great fun and we raised funds for many charities - not sure whether I could conga from Crewe to Nantwich these days, but most of you who know me would certainly know that I would give it a go!!! Our contact from Crewe Rotary was John Macdonald the photographer from Nantwich Road.He was a very quiet and gentle man and quite what he used to think of his Thursdays in the Leopard I don’t know.

I have always done an abundance of fund raising and my most recent skirmish was a jigsaw challenge with a lad I know with a brain tumour who as you can imagine has many difficulties - we did as many 100 piece jigsaws as we could in four hours and raised nearly £800.

I was a school governor at Calveley Primary School and also at the Wyche.

I am also secretary of the Street Pastors in Nantwich. We aim to go out on patrol twice a week on Friday and Saturdays.The night time economy in Nantwich is thriving. In September however, patrols are sent out on the first three Tuesdays when the students come back to the various nearby colleges. Our most recent initiative with the Street Pastors is to get taxi marshalls for the taxi rank on Swinemarket. This is always a hotspot for trouble - nothing get folks more wound up than wanting to go home and not being able to go immediately. We’ve even persuaded the door staff at The Studio to hand out toast to the clubbers when they leave.It’s amazing what a toasted white slice will do to calm a situation down.

For the past two years I have assisted Adrian the secretary at Nantwich Show, fielding the inevitable difficulties that arise which I can assure you are many and varied.There is not a lot I can do in Nantwich to get tickets that have been left on a kitchen table in Shrewsbury.I am now to become a show director and will be in charge of hospitality overseeing 1300 lunches on the Tuesday of the international cheese show and 1000+ on the actual show day.The catering for this prestigious event is carried out by Harveys Farmhouse Caterers, who are obviously well known to us!

I very much enjoy sport, the whole family are Liverpool fans and I go with Rob to watch whenever there is a season ticket spare.I used to be a proficient water skier, netball, hockey player. I like watching rugby league and go with my family to watch Widnes Vikings. I have recently run the Cardiff Half Marathon to raise funds for the Antony Nolan bone marrow trust, who supported my sister in her transplant.Myself and my third sister Nic were running along the road and the police asked us to move us over to the pavement. ‘Excuse me officer,’ says I,‘ We are running the half marathon’ ‘I know Madam but you’ve taken so long we’re opening the road’ - oh the shame!

I was a member of Mensa for a good few years being eligible to join with a measured IQ of 152 which is attained by 2% of the population. I sat this test at Cardiff University many years ago and actually think that these days I would struggle to find the exam room!!I let my membership lapse as there were only so many corners of pubs I could sit in with men wearing duffle coats putting the world to rights! I love singing and have done two or three shows with Acton Operatic Society in the past.I am now confined to karaoke and singing along with Rob if he gets the guitar out. Anyway, much as I love talking, I’m not wholly comfortable with talking about myself.I sincerely hope that I haven’t bored you all to tears and look forward to many fruitful and fulfilling years as a member of the Rotary Club of Nantwich. Thank you!!!!

During the questions that followed Charles Miller reminded us of the Rotary outing when Norman in attempting to park his car at the Regents Theatre got stuck down a narrow lane and was unable to open the car door and his only means of getting out was through the sliding roof! Graham Tresidder, then had to organise the reversing of the car out of the lane by putting Norman back into the car via the roof. They enjoyed the second half of the Show!

President Tony thanked Lorna for an excellent insight into her life.