Two worlds collided at the Maples Residences on April 26, but we all emerged relatively unscathed. In fact, I’d say most of us walked away a little wiser.
Thirty elementary school youngsters aged 11 and 12, arrived to interview seniors with a view to writing their biography. Two students per senior — one to interview and the other to record. I was assigned Eric, an identical twin, and Liam, the eldest of three siblings. I think we were all a little nervous.
Since a biography is a chronological record of a person’s life, they looked at their list of questions and started with where were you born and what year? Did you go to school? Did you like your teachers? And, topically, were you ever bullied? No, I wasn’t, were they? No. And, generally, what was your childhood like?
As my age group lived during the Depression and didn’t have much, the youngsters were shocked that we cut soles out of cardboard to cover the holes in our shoes and when the cardboard got wet it squished and tried to fall out of the holes. I was asked why I didn’t get new shoes. Not being able to afford them was inconceivable.
Moving right along, the next set of questions was about jobs. What was my first job? It was at the Empress Jam Factory at 37 cents an hour when I was 14-years-old.
A far cry from kids receiving up to $20 weekly for spending money nowadays.
Also, when I was younger than my interviewers, my sister and I picked blackberries in season and sold them for four cents a box at the corner vegetable store. And we asked the butcher for dog bones for our dog (which we didn’t have) so mum could make soup.
When the recording Ipad needed resetting, it became clear to me that these kids and I weren’t only ages apart, we were worlds apart. They were born into an electronically controlled world, whereas I could remember our first radio and the first biplane flying overhead in Victoria when I was about their age. Everyone ran outside to watch the plane. Now we don’t even duck when a huge jet flies low over our heads. Their age group texts and ours heads for the phone for messaging.
Another question which required reminiscing was what event had the most impact on me as a child. After much thought, I decided it was when I was 16 and lying in the sun at English Bay and a newsboy came by shouting EXTRA! EXTRA! WW2 had just been declared.
The other most memorable event was at the Main Post Office, which is now the Sinclair Centre. Hungry men, who offered to fix a roof or mend a fence just for something to eat, were “sitting in” in protest at the Post Office.
My mother and I stepped between their feet as the police were hauling them off. The same men, many of whom lost their lives in WW2, ran to join the army as soon as war was declared.
Eventually, we neared the end of the interview and the questions became quite meaty. For instance, they asked what advice I would give about marriage. I replied that, since I was divorced, I wouldn’t give any good advice.
They asked, if I had my life to live over again, would I change anything? Yes, a bundle of things. And what did you do that made you the proudest? That was the easiest question of all. With no hesitation at all, it was that I raised four, honest, caring, thoughtful daughters, who respected other people and their property.
I think the session was enlightening for the youngsters, and it was certainly a trip down memory lane for the seniors.
