Paid to Drink Beer at £7 an Hour
Jack Hammond, 88 likes his ‘four times’ a week tipple in his local pub but hates to drink alone. He has therefore taken the step of advertising for the job of drinking with him and offers a wage of £7 an hour.
So far, four men have applied for the position and will be undergoing drinking trial sessions in the next week. Jack is still leaving the position open to new applications until he feels he has the right man for the job.
The lucky candidate who is to be offered employment will meet twice a week at Jack’s local pub, the Compass Inn in Windsor, Hampshire. All expenses will be paid on top of the £7 an hour wage.
Since Jack’s wife died 12 years ago he has had the added upheaval of having to move into a care home which has left him feeling lonely and isolated. He said “It was a bit upsetting when I had to leave as I left all my friends back home”.
Before he moved into the care home, Jack would meet his neighbour in Barton-on-Sea four times a week to enjoy each others company over a pint or two of beer.
No Men to Drink With
There is only one other male resident in the home where he now lives but Jack’s son Mike told the Times newspaper “The other man (in the home) is not really a goer. He was a farmer whereas Dad was an electrical engineer. My dad grew up in a city, he is a country man. The other man wants to talk sheep and cows; he wants to talk about golf. They have nothing in common at all”.
Jack does get on with women but he feels that going out to the pub with a lady he did not know would be somewhat awkward and this is what led him to place the advertisement in the local post office in the nearly village of Cadman.
The job application is not so much for a ‘drinker’ but more of a companion inasmuch somebody that can hold a good conversation and hopefully share the same interests as Jack.
Golf is one of Jack’s favourite topics and he enjoys reminiscing his time spent as a radar engineer during the Second World War in Bombay and Kuala Lumpur. Having a maths and physics degree Jack is not interested in anybody who just wants to drink and ‘get out of their face’.
Mike therefore feels that a teenager would have nothing in common with his dad and so far a sprightly 78 year old gentleman who still drives his own car seems to have made a big impression on Jack.
Jack’s son originally contacted a number of agencies to see if there were any volunteers who would enjoy his dad’s company but nobody came forward. Social services made the suggestion to turn it into a paying position and advertise.
It seems once Jack has made up his mind who is to get the job, he can begin to enjoy his half pint of Fosters while holding down various conversations that suits them both.
Pubs with men in flat caps and smoking pipes are now a thing of the past, but gentlemen such as Jack still enjoy sharing a quiet pint with a good companion.