| Description | An interview with Catherine LAIDLAW, a married woman with two sons, one Daughter, who is a Supervisor assistant/ cleaner, born in Ireland and now living in Birmingham. Catherine LAIDLAW’s father was a Lorry driver, born in Ireland and her mother a In service/ housewife born in Ireland. In the interview, she talks about …
' Logged by Sonia Southern
01
Born in Southern Ireland on the 13th of December 1947.
15” Her mother was very strict but her father was easy going…there were four children three boys with her being the only girl.
34” Her father was a lorry driver and her mother worked in London for eight years before she came back over to Ireland and married her father.
55” Gives a description of the home she lived in as a child…the children and the parents all shared one bedroom. She shared a bed with her three brothers, up until the age of 12. Explains about the toilet facilities…
02
Concludes on toilet facilities
03
Food…shopping day. Most of the food was grown on the farm.
04
The owner of the farm used to supply them with meat for looking after the cattle.
56” Defines their status…didn’t see the family as being rich. They got second hand clothes from aunts.
2.05” Travelling to school…her brothers used to use their sweet money on fags and she began smoking at 10.
4.16” Gives a description of her school…
05
…One teacher was responsible for three or four classes. She used to have expectations of working in a shop when she left school or marrying a rich man.
1.32” Leaving school and moving into a new school and a new home.
06
Left school in 1963 and had a job in a supermarket.
07
Supermarket job.
1.44” Second supermarket job, she was 16, but they asked her mother if she wanted to do the job and herself. She worked there until she came over to England.
3.20” Coming over to England…
08
…She was 18 when she came over it was 1965; she first went to stay with her auntie in Yorkshire. However she didn’t like it because it was too much like home, so she moved to Birmingham and loved city life.
2.40” Got a job at Midland County and first discovered that there were different nationalities.
3.34” Meeting another girl from Ireland…and people were making fun of her accent.
09
1.20” Her brother demanding that she was never to speak to an Asian again.
10
After the disagreement with her brother she moved to Aston Cross.
11
Getting a job at the HP factory.
2.20” After a visit from her mother, she decided to go back over to Ireland.
12
1960s, she got itchy feet again and saved up to return to England.
13
Meeting an Englishman by whom she became pregnant, so her mother told her she had to marry. Her marriage lasted 4 years.
14
She married on the 25th November 1967, just before their marriage he was arrested. On the day that they were married he was due in Court that day. Her marriage was a total disaster. Her daughter was born in April 1968; at this point they lived in Heathfield Road.
2.08” Her husband attended Birmingham Law Courts…
15
2.502 Discovered that she was pregnant again after he had run off with another woman. Her son was born on the 2nd of July, nine months to the day that he came out of prison, which was the only time that he was in the house.
16
House they moved to on the Stratford Road.
1.44” House she moved to on Benson Road in Winson Green. She had to move to another home in Over Pool Road because her daughter was born with dislocated hips and she needed more space.
17
How her relationship became abusive.
1.50” Meeting another man called Colin, who was a friend of her husband.
4.00” She got a job in Southalls, she was earning more money than her husband.
18
Her male friend took her children out and brought them new clothes.
19
In 1971, she went to the welfare on Washwood Heath Road, and showed a woman her body, which was red raw and bleeding. She was encouraged by the welfare to leave her husband
20
She left the house and lived with her brother for a while, the children stayed with her husband whilst she was looking for somewhere to live, but her husband left the children with a neighbour. So she moved back into the home and eventually got a divorce.
21
Her relationship with Colin...they lived together from 1972/78, and then decided to marry. In 1977, they planned to have a baby who was born on the 1st of May 1979.
2.50” They have their ups and downs but they are happy.
22
Rules of re-marriage in a Catholic Church.
1.05” Colin’s view on the Catholic faith…and his upbringing by a strict Scottish mother.
23
His mother died in 1983.
24
Working and raising children…a double wage helped give the children the presents that they wanted.
25
Times have changed since she worked at the market; she doesn’t like shopping there any more. The fruit used to be nice and fresh and now you are having to pick it from the bottom.
26
Lived in Ward End area for 30 years, it used to be classed as posh, everywhere was well maintained, the area declined when problem families were moved in.
2.00” Lived in Over Pool Road for 18 years and then moved to Foley Road.
27
They lived in Foley Road for 10 years, from 1987-97, in 1997 the Council decided to knock it down. They moved to Burney Lane, which they have lived in for the last 3 years.
28
Changes that have taken place within the community, Asians moving in, little shops becoming less.
29
Race, her daughter married an Asian so her grandchildren are of mixed race.
30
How she felt about her daughter meeting her Asian husband.
31
Started work at St Cuthberts School in 1986, so she could be there for her son when he came home from school. She was the dinner lady at that school, as well as being a cleaner in the evenings at the school.
32
Education and the difference between teaching in her day in comparison with now. Believes that teachers have a very demanding job.
1.50” Tells how her times tables where drummed into them at school and she still knows them to this day. If she got them wrong she used to be beaten with a bamboo stick by the teacher.
33
Re-start
34
Re-start
35
Irish culture, she meets fellow Irish friends on a regular basis.
1.10” Mentions the food that they eat and how supermarkets sell it now. She classes herself as Irish and not English.
36
Her love of reading.
1.20” Thoughts on what she will do when she retires, she loves to comfort people so working as a volunteer, helping those who need it would be ideal.
ENDS |