Participant A Interview
This interview was a part of the project On The Record: A Community History Of Guelph conducted by the University of Guelph’s HIST*3450: The Uses of History. The interview took place on March 13th, 2019.
Due to a privacy request from this interviewee, their name has been removed from this writing as well as the audio of their interview. They will be referred to as Participant A, or A for short, to keep with their wishes to be anonymous. Names have also been removed from the audio file by having a tone played over so not to interrupt the flow of the conversation. ■ Jump to the full interview
Participant A was born January of 1920 and grew up in London, Ontario. Her father worked for the London Railway on the air brakes, but working with the railway meant there were tickets available to his family. Though Participant A did not travel often they had some more memorable experiences. When she was fifteen, A took the train alone for the first time. The trip to Montreal did not begin well as another passenger made her uncomfortable. In thinking she had arrived at her stop, she departed the train and checked with the conductor, who told her it was not her stop and to return to the train. The individual who had made her uncomfortable had also left the train when she had, but had not returned. She continued on the train to meet her mother at the Montreal Port.
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Video of the Montreal Port. |
The Montreal Port is an important location for North America. This port is the shortest trip between Northern Europe and Mediterranean ports and is connected directly to the railway. Historically this Port was important to the foundation and growth of this city. |
Arriving at the station, Participant A took a seat to wait when she was approached by a woman working at the station. Upon finding out that the boat her mother was on had been delayed, Participant A had planned on waiting at the station overnight. With the help of the traveler’s aid and a police officer, she was given fair for a street car so she could spend the night at a friend of her aunt. The next morning, she returned to the station and returned by train with her mother.
These used to be three of London’s Railway stations. Pictured below (in order from left to right) are the Michigan Central Station, C.P.R. Station, and the G.T.R. Station. One has been renovated into a restaurant as two of them are no longer in service.
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Participant A, once she was fifteen, moved from attending school to working by choice. When she was twenty, she married her husband. Together, they had two sons and moved to Ingersoll. It was not until 1951, one year after her husband, that Participant A moved to Guelph with her sons. Participant A began working at a Dominion Store on Speedvale Ave. while her husband worked with for the Guelph Reformatory, helping inmates acquire apprenticeships. A change of location brought Participant A to the Eramosa Rd. store next to a Zellers. During her time at the Dominion store, Participant A recalled that a monkey had escaped from the Zellers and ran into the Dominion Store to the meat department she was working in at the time.
The Dominion Store was a meat and produce grocery store that was known for its meat departments — so much so, that a radio jingle was written containing the line: “Mainly because of the meat” (Bradburn) multiple times. With the decline of the economy, these stores began closing and by early 1990, all locations had closed or been bought and were rebranded (Bradburn).
After Participant A and her husband retired, they traveled, though Participant A did not drive on any of these trips. The trips began with tents as they visited one of their sons in Northern Ontario. Participant A often remained ashore reading while the rest of her family went fishing. Later, they changed the tent out for a motor home and extended their trips down to Texas. They parked along coastal campgrounds, “Close to the border to walk across to Mexico to do some shopping and come back.” (Participant A. 6:00). During one specific trip, she watched people walking across a bridge to return to the US-Mexico border.
Participant A now resides in Guelph. Her history, just as any other, is important in many aspects. Participant A gave light to events that may be forgotten, such as the monkey loose in the Dominion Store, as well as to the history of Guelph, such as stores and buildings that used to be in business. The voices of the residents are just as important to history as the material written and photographed (Salle, Marina, and Hutchings, Richard).
The use of oral history, as it requires many steps to ensure ethical uses of the history, as well as the permission from the interviewee, has kept it from becoming a larger field of history. Participant A gave permission for this interview and recording, allowing for her story to be recorded and viewed by others. The information provided could contribute to many different studies and hopefully is just the beginning of a growth in this field allowing for more personal accounts of history.
The full interview with Participant B can be found here.
Click here to read the interviewer, Allison Taibinger's page and reflection on this interview.