see the convertible taxis with the fringed tops vanish from Bermuda's road a couple of decades ago.

During her early days in the business, working for Charlie Webb's Upholstery on East Broadway, Mrs. Millett was one of those who regularly made and repaired those fringed tops as well as saddlebags for bikes. Neither are made today as the look of Bermuda's vehicles constantly change.

Mrs. Millett and the other upholsterers from that era have simply had to adjust to keep abreast of the changes.

"Fringed tops were very good business,'' recalls Mrs. Millett.

"When the taxi drivers found that they could have fringed tops attached to their cars, especially the convertibles, most guys would buy convertibles and there was always a fringe top to be made. We repaired them as well as made them.

"Margaret (Richardson) Place, who has passed, and I used to make them. Doreen Jones also worked on them as well as Mr. Webb, himself, who taught us. As far as I know Mr. Webb was the main person for making them in town but there was a Mr. (George) Lightbourne on Ord Road who also made them.'' The making of the tops was an attraction in itself for the tourists in those days as they used to stop and watch the process on the verandah of the store.

"The frames could be folded and we used to put them over a barrel and work on them,'' Mrs. Millett explained.

"Tourists and other people used to stop and watch us work on them. Taxis used to stop and show the tourists when we were working on one. It was intricate work. We were taught to line them up and measurements were very important.

"We could make one in three or four days. Sometimes, working through a lunch hour, we might get one done in a little over two days. Artie Black used to weld the frames.'' Upholsterer Barbara adjusts to changing times The saddlebags were also a good source of business as bike owners had their own bags made.

"We used to make the saddlebags for the Francis Barnett's, Triumphs, Mobylettes and that was one of the first things that I ever made,'' recalled Mrs. Millett.

"They used to fasten them on with straps and we used to make the straps, too.'' Also good business for the upholstery shops was the repair of the genuine leather seats in the taxis.

"We had to sit in the taxis and repair the seats in the Austins and Cambridges,'' Mrs. Millett recalled.

She also remembers making mattresses, with and without springs, for beds and also repaired horse saddles and harnesses.

"Three or four of us would work on a mattress at one time,'' she explained.

"It was work but fun. There were a lot of stages and you had to know what to do with the springs. Then you sewed them together and then came the fitting of the cotton bedding.'' When most of the items found nowadays in an upholstery shop can be purchased in a hardware store, back then you had to be creative.

"Then, there was no such things as staples, we used to use tacks,'' she disclosed.

"We used to mix glue and now you buy contact cement. We used to make our own `hog rings' and now we buy them. We also used to make our own thread for hand sewing from cotton hemp, and we always wore a canvas apron which you don't find in most workshops today.'' Mrs. Millett explained that the thread was made by rolling strings of the hemp together on the apron, combining a waxing and rolling process to strengthen it.

"Now I can buy thread but back then you had to make your thread,'' she said.

It is a labour of love that has kept Mrs Millett in the business half a century. She has seen plenty of changes over the years.

"Suitcases are becoming a business that is beginning to pick up,'' said Mrs.

Millett who gets a lot of work at her Curving Avenue shop, House and Car Upholstery, repairing suitcases damaged at airports.

"We upholster car seats, bike seats, slip covers, drapes, table clothes, placemats, office furniture, boat covers, home furnishings, canopies and awnings. There isn't much we don't do, even leather jackets.

"Slip covers was a really big business in upholstery then. We still do them but not as much as we used to.'' Added the business owner who has been running her upholstery shop in various Pembroke locations during the last 30 years: "I'm not as busy as I would like to be in order to make a decent living.

"I started with with two shillings and sixpence and that's probably what I've got now.

"I've been around the trade over 50 years. I started when I was 13 but at that time I was still going to school and I spent my summers and Saturdays working.'' Mrs. Millett has been a mentor for young girls for several years in her involvement with the Brownies and Guides. She remembers growing up as an impressionable young girl herself in Hamilton. "Sewing was a big thing then for young girls and most girls went into dressmaking and tailoring,'' she states.

"Upholstery must have been in my blood. Todd's Upholstery was on Court Street where Spinning Wheel is now and I grew up on Elliott Street between Princess and Court.

"As a little girl Court Street was a beehive of learning from Angle Street to Dundonald Street. There were cobblers, one upholstery shop, a blacksmith, grocery stores, and a drugstore.

"I used to watch the cobblers make shoes, all sewn by hand, and used to watch at Mr. Todd's as they made mattresses. That fascinated me very, very much to see mattresses being made and furniture made or reupholstered. That was from the age of six or seven.'' These days the trade isn't a big attraction for the younger generation, something which concerns Mrs. Millett. She taught upholstery for a few years at the Warwick Community Centre but gave it up when her own business began to suffer.

"I can't get Bermudians to do it, it doesn't pay well,'' she says. "We were paid to learn, given a small wage, but nowadays people want to be paid to learn a trade and are not interested in learning it well.

"At any upholstery business I doubt if you'll see a family member continuing on the trade. I have four children, three boys and one girl, and none of them followed me in it.

"I know we have a good product and I'm proud of the service we provide.

"I have two excellent workers. Nothing goes out of this store that I can't do.'' She credits her first boss as "being a very good teacher'' but there were certain aspects of the trade he did not want the women to do.

"Upholstery is rebuilding of furniture and Mr. Webb never, that I know of, had women doing that, it was always the men who did that,'' she stated. "The women did the stitching, slip covers, saddlebags, mattresses, drapes, cushions and pillows, but I liked what the men were doing so I always watched them.'' Photo By Nigel Richardson Labour of love: Upholsterer Barbara Millett repairs a suitcase at her Curving Avenue shop. Years ago she was one of those who made the fringed tops for taxis.

Barbara Millett