As time goes buy; JOAN, 89, HAS WORKED IN SAME SHOP FOR 75 YEARS.

Byline: AIDAN MCGURRAN

WHEN Joan Lowman started work at Ravens Department Store, George V was on the throne and Hitler was Fuhrer in Nazi Germany.

Much has changed since 1934 but, 75 years on, the shop is still trading - and Joan still works there.

Now 89, Joan joked: "My first wage was about five shillings a week. They've put it up now - but not a lot!" She was first employed at the shop in Southend, Essex, as a cashier in the restaurant.

Apart from a break to bring up her son Jeff, she's worked there ever since - although she now does the accounts.

Jeff, now 67, has retired but Joan says she has no plans to join him. She said: "Why should I retire? I'll do that the day I drop dead.

"I've been a widow for 22 years. What else can I do but come in and nag this lot?" Joan Capp, as she then was, joined the family-run drapery firm when Percy Raven was in charge of the store.

She has since seen three generations of the Raven family take the helm - Percy's son Cecil, his son Roy and now Roy's son Neil, 53.

Neil said: "We've had situations where a customer has bought a carpet, come back 15 years later and Joan still knows exactly where all the paperwork is.

"In some ways she's like a second mother to me. She used to babysit for me."

Joan laughed: "I pushed him in his pram. I can still give him a whack though!"

CAPTION(S):

KEEN TEEN Joan at 15 FAMILIAR FACE Joan as she is today 1934 Raven's when Joan started at age of 14 2009 The shop today, and Joan is still there 1952 Joan goes to work in shop's new location