The banking world has changed a lot in the past 50 years, but some of the friendships have remained constant.
Eight women who worked at Oamaru’s National Bank, now ANZ, in 1969, had a reunion in the North Otago town last week.
Some had travelled from as far away as Blenheim and Mosgiel and, as they would do 50 years ago, gathered for morning tea in Oamaru.
“You just pick up where you left off,” organiser Shirley Forbes, nee Wilson, said.
“Some of us hadn’t seen each other for 50 years.”
In some ways, banking then was more simple. There were fewer accounts, security was a signature on a cheque and there were no electronic transactions.
In other ways, it was more complicated. Cash was counted manually and had to be highly accurate, records were kept on paper and, in 1967, the women recalled a lot of overtime converting from pounds, shillings and pence to decimal currency.
But they all agreed it was a good job.
“Well, it must have been good, because it was the only one I ever had,” Kath Rawcliffe, nee Nuttall, said.
The reunion finished with a tour of the bank and a lunch.
