At the office party in 1963

Now office parties particularly those held at Christmas have a certain reputation.

They are either mad, bad and dangerous or the sort that you wish you could be rescued from ten minutes after the first bottle was opened.

Looking back most of the ones I went to fell somewhere in between and while the white wine was always tepid and the finger food bland and dubious, the music was good, and most of us had a laugh.

All of which is by way of introducing the office party circa 1963.

They come from the collection of Andy Robertson and capture a lost world of bottles of stout, and gentile behaviour where the staff sit surrounded by boxed sets of accounts and a sales map.

Still there is some forward thinking for someone has had the foresight to pin next year’s calendar on the wall, a sort of reminder that while the staff might be relaxing before the Christmas holiday there was always work again in January.

Now I have no idea which of my two categories our 1963 party fell into but judging by the bored expressions it may well have been a short affair with no danger that anyone was so carried away that they spent the break wondering what they said to their colleagues.

Pictures; courtesy of Andy Robertson