Childhood
JULIE:
I was born in Brighton, a local girlie.
ZOE:
I lived in Hampshire until the age of nine and then my family moved
to Sussex. I have one elder sister who is fourteen years older.
JEAN: I
was born in Brighton. When I was first born I went to Scotland
for six years and then I came back to Brighton – aged
six. I have one sister, she’s nine years younger than
me … we are as different as chalk and cheese but we
are a very close family.
Click
here to listen: ... I
remember always when I was a child that my Mum, used to have
a ten pound
provident cheque ... every Easter I used to have a new
skirt, new shoes, new pair of white socks, new blouse ...
and we thought that was absolutely wonderful.
CLAIRE:
I have always lived in and around Colchester with my parents. I
did have a sister who was three years older than me … but
unfortunately she died nine years ago.
CATHERINE:
I was born in Germany, Llandsthul but I have got dual nationality
because my father was American … I lived there till I was
eighteen months and then we moved to the States, Louisiana. My brother
was born there and then we moved back to Germany and I lived there
till I was six. Then we moved back to the States to live because
my Dad was in the army. I lived in America till I was twelve and
then my Mum decided to move home to England.
My
Mum’s from Liverpool. I came back with my Mum and my Grandmother
who was living with us because my Father died when I was ten so
my Mum decided she wanted to come home to be closer to her family.
I was really excited about coming back to England because we had
lots of family here and I was looking forward to seeing them again.
I
think I adjusted well, my Mum said that I picked up the language
really well and the spellings because there were a lot spellings
that were different. I adjusted to that really well but it was hard
... I was glad to leave school … I didn’t tell my Mum,
I kept a lot of it to myself because I didn’t want to upset
her because we’d made this massive move and she found it hard,
so … I kept a lot of things from her. I was really unhappy
at school. I missed my friends. She wasn’t happier …
she says it was the biggest mistake she ever made, coming back …
Did your Mum work when you were young?
JULIE:
Well,
she didn’t but my Dad died when I was eleven, my dad died
of cancer and before that she didn’t work at all - she’d
worked at Woolworths in Seaford up until I was born … then
after Dad died, she had to work - for the money, I mean she didn’t
have any choice. She wasn’t particularly comfortable about
it - you know, but I had started secondary school by then and so
she went … she went to work in the office at Bevan Funnell,
the furniture factory in Newhaven, their offices … she used
to start early and she used to finish at - I think about four o’clock
as far as I can remember but she had a bit of a problem with this
because Tideway, the school that I went to, had continental hours
so we used to finish about half past one, two o’clock …
she did get really worried, I remember, about the fact that I was
coming home … I remember her getting upset and saying ‘I
don’t want you to be a latchkey kid!’ Of course,
she was very upset about dad anyway.
Click
here to listen: I
do remember as well, being a bit shocked even when I was little,
when she was at home when I was small, my uncle used to offer to
take us out somewhere for the afternoon, she wouldn’t
go because she wanted to be back to cook my Dad’s tea
- but that wasn’t
Dad. Dad wasn’t the sort who would say to her, I know some
men would …some of my friends’ husbands still do
that now,
… say ‘I want my dinner on the table’
but Dad wasn’t like that but she still felt that because
she was at home, she couldn’t go out, she ought to be
there to have his dinner ready for him when he came in.
ZOE:
Yes, she did work. When I was young … I remember her distributing
leaflets around about free samples of washing powder and toothpaste
and things. And then when we moved to Sussex she had cleaning jobs
or temping jobs in the office. I don’t remember it ever being
an issue that ‘oh my Mum’s working again’
or anything like that. She was always there when I came home from
school.
JEAN:
Click
here to listen My
Mum’s always worked, always worked in the laundry all her
life … my Nan used to look after us … full time …
my Nan used to make such a fuss of us and that, you didn’t
realise that your Mother wasn’t there because we were a very
close family when we were younger. We always had aunties and uncles
popping in and so really, Mum going out to work … she didn’t
deprive us of anything by going out to work, she just wanted to
give us a better life …
CLAIRE:
I don’t remember when I was very young whether she actually
worked but when I was a bit older … she did … she worked
in a University and in school holidays I used to go into work with
her … it was a part time job … because I had a sister,
we would always be together, going to school and coming home from
school so as long as I had her then that was fine.
CATHERINE:
She did. I don’t think she did when we were small. I can’t
really remember. She didn’t when we lived in Germany and then
Louisiana. I think it was when we moved to Kansas … that’s
when my Gran moved over and we lived in Kansas and I think that’s
when she went back to work.
I had always been really close to my Gran because she moved out
to the States to live with us when I was six because my Mum and
Dad both wanted to work so she was like our mother. She looked after
both of us … I think they wanted to have bigger and better
and it required both of them to work ...
I
was really close to my Gran and I just remember my mum being this
really pretty lady that used to just go to work, I just, I wanted
to be like her, she was really beautiful. She always looked really
nice, but I don’t remember being really close to her. My Gran
was sweet, I was close to my Gran but I don’t remember having
any kind of closeness with my Mum.
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