| Description | An interview with Sonia, a Other woman with one Daughter, who is a Student, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. Sonia’s father was a Engineer, born in England and her mother a Cashier born in England. In the interview, she talks about …
'MS2255/2/051 Sonia Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
01
I was born in 1975 on the 1st January in the house that I now live in with my parents….Handsworth Wood. Mother is a cashier at Halfords, father works in engineering.
20” Earliest childhood memory.
46” Went to Holy Trinity School. Mixed race. There was a lot of bullying on my part as a child….we weren’t made aware of that in those days….
1.38 I don’t ever recall picking on a white girl, to be honest…..
02
I attended Holy Trinity School in Handsworth from the years 1980-86. And I remember in the infants school, there actually still being caning there….Anecdote about being caned for sneaking out of school.
1.03 Come about 1983 an moving up into the junior school, I recall one teacher Mr Hawkins…. Anecdote about conflict with this particular teacher.
03
One recollection of Holy Trinity when I was about 9 years old was one of the caretakers there. I definitely recall him touching me…..Anecdote about having to apologise to this man.
04
I didn’t have any problems being at a mixed race school….we had lessons on their different cultures….and we had special days where we’d get Asian food…Describes the lessons.
1.15 Being at a mixed race school was very different from my home life because my parents attended a club which is totally for white people, so I had no contact with black or Asian children when I was outside with my parents….Racism has grown on me as I’ve got older….
05
As a child my parents took me over to this allotments club….they are perhaps not prejudiced just towards people of a different coloured skin, they’re prejudiced towards women aswell…..Describes the environment.
1.01 As a child I didn’t have any problem with people’s colour….my parents never taught me to call black people names…..as I’ve grown older I’ve found it very difficult not to become racist….Anecdote about verbal abuse from Asian men.
06
Describes the area she lives in. Contrasts Handsworth in the 1970s with now.
1.00 Has lots of black friends and met many when working in a pub from the age of 18. Anecdote about her own daughter’s friendship with a black girl at school. But I bet you in 10 years that’s not how it’s going to be!
07
Anecdote about trying to join the fishing club at the social club, but being rejected as a woman.
08
I went to Perry Beeches Secondary School which is in Great Barr and I started there in 1986 when I was 11. Describes how she wasn’t encouraged to work hard at school.
1.34 Anecdote about drinking and smoking during school hours.
09
Taking GCSEs. Failed most of exams.
10
I left school at 16 in 1991 and I had a number of jobs…. Mother always encouraged her to do part-time work as a teenager. Anecdotes about working at La Galleria.
2.59 From 18 to 20 I worked as a barmaid at the Little Crown Pub…and they were the best years of my life….it wasn’t like a pub….Anecdote about clubbing in city centre. Describes clothing worn at these clubs.
6.44 The drugs that were on the scene then, it was definitely ecstasy….as we got older it was more cocaine….Explains how the drugs were used at weekends.
8.00 I took my last ever drug on my 21st birthday…..Anecdote about after-effects of taking drugs.
10.02 My social life in comparison with other people I went to school with I feel would be very different…. Describes raves and who influenced her.
11
Anecdote about parents discovering a bag of drugs. My parents didn’t have any idea what I was doing until they found some drugs in my pocket when I was 16….
12
After accident decided to leave job at the pub.
1.51 When my hand was better I got a job at Argos, and then when I was 22 I found out that I was pregnant…a horrendous shock to me….trying to come to terms with what I was going to do….I didn’t want to get married…I went through a very difficult stage….I went to clinics and doctors to see about having an abortion, that must be the most horrific time of my life….I did choose to go through with an abortion at first….Description of clinic.
3.57 So 2 weeks later in June of 1997, I chose to go back to the clinic….Decided to keep child. The irony is that Mia has actually made my life now….
13
Reflects on how having a child has changed her.
I enrolled at North Birmingham College on an access course….Mia was born in 1998.
I really feel like I’ve achieved so much….
2.20 I sent off to join the University of Central England and I really wanted to do the Media and Communication course there….Anecdote about being accepted at UCE.
14
When I started at UCE I was extremely nervous because I was perhaps one of the oldest students there….Story about starting at UCE.
15
Living together and not being married wasn’t a problem for my parents….
16
Story about sister’s boyfriend moving in to the family home.
1.37 Being the first in the family to go into higher education. Sometimes mum used to come home and say she’d bumped into an old friend and they’d asked how you were and she’d say “oh yes, she’s pregnant”, and I used to think, and did you tell them I was at college?….I was trying to achieve as well as being a mother.
3.27 Contrasts her upbringing with those of her peers.
17
Being a mature student.
1.03 Birmingham has changed a great deal. I recall going to town as a child in the 80s and it was an enjoyable thing to do, to go shopping…..
18
Would like to work in London. However there are difficulties with juggling work and family.
19
I would like to get away from Birmingham because I don’t see any job opportunities here….I don’t really know what I’m looking for….
20
Transport as a child. Story about rowdy schoolchildren.
21
Chose to have daughter in Walsall. It was like a hotel…Description of hospital.
2.33 But the one thing that they didn’t pick up on was that I had serious post-natal depression….
22
Child-rearing for the first 2 years.
ENDS |