| Description | An interview with Allan SANDERS, a married man with one son, one daughter, who is a Draughtsman/photographer, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. Allan SANDERS’s father was a Pattern maker, born in England and his mother a Secretary born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
01
I was born in Acocks Green…in 1941…and I spent all my formative years in Sheldon…until I got married in 1964.
23” Father worked at Rover, his Mother worked as a secretary.
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Re-start, Dead Track.
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Re-start, Dead Track.
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5” Memories of Sheldon; fields, half-made roads because of the War.
30” I din't feel that there was anything between us and London and probably there wasn't.
59” Childhood friends.
1.52” …There wasn't that many cars about…I remember playing in the middle of the Coventry Road, after the rush hour traffic had come back from Coventry.
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No one had central heating, memories of the house he lived in.
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This obviously was in the late 40’s, so by the time the 50’s came on, people became more affluent…that was because of the War years…we were all rationed…
16” Story about queuing when they took sweets off the rations.
07
I remember the Winter of 1947 when the snow came up over my wellies…
29” Went to Hatchford Brook Junior School. Remembers the school being built.
08
Sitting the 11 plus exam.
2.25” …I left school on my 15th birthday and I went straight to Austria, I was actually on a train going across Germany to Vienna for a month’s holiday…
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3” I first went to Austria in 1954, which was 9 years after the War had finished and it was quite remarkable that these people who had been at War with us, 9 years later would put you up for the best part of two months.
39” The Anglo-Austrian Society approached the school to build bridges Austrian and English children.
59” People would come up to him in the street and shake his hand because he was English. Kindness of the people made a deep impression. Returned when he was 15.
2.01” Very unusual to go abroad then. Memories of going to the Cotswolds for holidays.
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Started working as a tool maker, eventually trained as a draughtsman at Lucas.
1.03” Worked there for 28 years before being made redundant. Began to work as a Wedding photographer, did various different jobs, affected by the problems of the construction industry in the 90’s.
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Talks of interesting photography work.
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9” …in those days in the… mid-50’s the jobs were in abundance…you felt if you wanted it, you’d got a job for life…
41” Comparing short-term-ism of jobs today and the failure of management to plan long term.
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Left school without qualifications.
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Went to a Technical College to gain qualifications in the early ‘60’s.
Did A Level Photography at Solihull Sixth Form College.
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Working at Lucas.
Story about arguing with the company and leaving.
3.22” Trauma and bitterness of being made redundant after 28 years. Only got £3,772 redundancy pay. Friend walked out, the harshness of management.
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Big mistake of Mrs Thatcher to scrap apprentice-ship scheme.
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3” How he met his wife.
16” …it was mid late ‘50’s when we were in our teens…
37” Memories of his teenage friends.
1.43” I met Jan, obviously everyone did the rounds and I met Jan there, thought she was a pretty young lady and we got married in 1964…
2.05” …The 3 years later, Julie came along, and 2 years later Stuart came along..
2.16” His children have their own houses, but are not married.
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They were born in 1967 and ’70, and in the early ‘70’s it was quite normal for people not to lock their doors when they went out…people were always popping in and out…obviously that isn’t relevant now…when we go out, we lock the door, we even put the alarm on…I think society’s come down a few notches since those days…
38” Can’t remember burglaries happening when young.
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Bringing up the children, he was hardly there because of working. They didn’t have a television, their children would go off to friends’ houses to watch theirs. Story about them giving in finally and buying one.
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His son had a serious operation.
Working with a charity.
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His wife worked in a bar for years.
1.33” I was made redundant in 1988.
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2” I was a member, I joined…the cubs…I was seven at the time, so it must have been about 1948, I thought they was brilliant.
14” Memories of the Cubs.
1.42” Story about taking friends around the canals and getting a handbag snatched by a ‘couple of black youths.’ Thinks the Police now are ineffectual, a ‘different breed’ to when he was a kid.
4.02” Well, you were in fear of them, I'm not saying I was ever hit by a policeman but I think anybody in authority in those days was sort of looked up to.
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Story about a man exposing himself in the park when they were children, the policeman was friendly and kind, not like today. Thinks they’ve alienated themselves from society.
1.22” …It's individuals I've worked with….Asians.. I've worked with people from the Caribbean descent and I've got on great with them, I've actually been out to dinner with them…we have a good laugh with them, I think as individuals…I get on well with them…it's like any mass, it's like if you were walking up the road and a pile of people were piling out of a football ground, I think anybody would feel intimidated and I think people do feel initimidated by the mass of…the coloured population of this country and I think they'd probably feel intimided by us. I think they dislike us far more than we dislike them and that's a fact…I've got no real objection to anybody, it's just when they try and impose their views on you…I feel. And a lot of my contemporaries, that they are..
2.31” Story about ‘them’ wanting to change the name of Sparkhill and Sparkbrook.
2.39”I wouldn't think of going to New Delhi and saying ‘and we want to change one of your suburb names,’ I think that's wrong. If you come to this country, or you're in this country, accept it, I can accept some of your views, accept some of mine.
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Re-start, Dead Track.
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Joined a Skiffle group playing the guitar.
1.38” His working life now; still works as a draughtsman and photographer.
3.36” Plans for the future. When he retires, he wants ‘no fuss.’
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3” …in the early 60’s, some of my mates started to get vans and old cars, and that meant we could go further afield…
58” I realised when I got my first car that life would neve be the same…I'd got an old Lanchester.
(Description of his old car, couple of anecdotes about it.)
2.11” Walking experiences in England and Europe.
Support from his wife, redundancy experience.
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“Society has lost a lot for not having continuity”, in relation to redundancy and expecting that at job at a large firm such as Lucas was for life.
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He is against working mothers.
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Early memory of seeing the CBSO Orchestra.
1.52” Loves the architecture in Birmingham. |