96 years ago

[MrsLizzy]

I went with my partner on Easter Sunday to his church, and was introduced to a lady who is 96 years old.  Now I know that's not particularly unusual these days, but when I got home, I realised she was born before Titanic sank, that she was about four years old when WW1 broke out, and a young woman when Love Is The Sweetest Thing was a hit!  When she was my age, WW2 was only a recent memory and no-one had ever heard of the Beatles.

I don't think we often realise what a treasure the elderly are - they are walking repositories of memories and information and we need to grab them and get them talking before it's too late.  I think the University of Essex does an Oral History course - wouldn't it be great if this was more widespread and we could get recordings of people talking about their memories, that will otherwise soon be lost?

[BagpussBee]

Mrs Lizzy - I completely agree. Life must've been so different for them growing up. There must have been more advances in technology during the last century than any other before it so what must a 96 year old lady have seen change during her lifetime? Cars, music, changes every single aspect of her life. I would love to interview a group of old people simply to get their stories recorded.

When I was working for a local newspaper as a lowly copy typist (and with aspirations to get my name in print that was sadly not matched by the editor) I interviewed my gran about her time at Newark Park (Ozleworth, Glos) as the underhouse maid. I wish now I'd recorded it on tape as I don't have a copy of what she said, I didn't submit it to the newspaper from lack of interest and now, sadly she's no longer with us.

[kerryb]

I have been involved recently in an Oral History Project in Sussex, memories of living on Ashdown Forest and it is one of the most rewarding projects I have been involved in.

My involvement was only typing up the transcripts but the memories of these elderly people are fantastic.  It has been interesting to place their memories of world or national events in with other's views of those events and to see how their views differ from other peoples.

One of the parts I find the most interesting is simply when they talk about how the area/village has changed over the years.  Very enlightening.

If anyone gets the opportunity to become involved in Oral History I really recommend it!

Kerry

[MrsLizzy]

I suppose there's nothing stopping people from seeking out elderly people to interview, as long as the right questions are asked and agreement sought in advance.  Imagine the wealth of material that could be recorded and archived.  It would be wonderful!

[pjbuk007]

What is so sad is that there are many 90 year olds sitting around in hospital wards and care homes with no-one talking to them and just gazing at the telly all day.

Many years ago when I did a stint on a geriatric ward I was very struck at how many of these people had amazing stories to tell, even when they were not able to function adequately in the present day.  I heard stories of living in Lambeth in the 20s and 30s, and all about the Blitz, heroic WWII service exploits etc.  Many of these folk were written off as "demented".

Maybe there would be some way to harnass the surge of interest in Family History and have teams of people chatting to these (in my view) often neglected old people!

[MrsLizzy]

Maybe we need some kind of nationwide scheme to do that.  There is a charity though, called Contact The Elderly, I think - which is essentially that you collect some elderly people in your car and take them back to your place for tea.  This is to counteract loneliness in elderly people.

[Stumped!]

Until she died in May, 2005 aged 99½, nearly every Sunday I used to visit a lady who lived for the last five years of her life in a care home.
She had been a schoolteacher in Leicester, although she was born and brought up in Huthwaite on the Notts/Derbys border.
It was fascinating listening to her recount the tales of living in a mining village where practically no-one could read or write and no-one ventured far from home.
People used to bring letters to her Father to read to them.
As a young child she had to cycle to Mansfield to take the rents to the bank that she had collected from the tenants of some of the properties that her father had managed to to acquire.
When she went to Grammar School in Nottingham, the village was astonished. "Why does thy lass want to go all that way to school?"
Then when she went to Teachers' training college in Leeds.. "What's she want to go to college for? Thou wilt never get a penny out of her. She'll just go off and get married."  She never did.
Peter

[MrsLizzy]

How things have (or may haven't!) changed.  I can't think of many things that I think more important than education, fulfilling potential, etc.  Even the current attitude that seems to be so popular, that education isn't worth the effort unless it's going to get you a great job and earn you lots of money, scandalises me.  It grieves me when I hear people talk about the "School of Hard Knocks" or the "University of Life" - almost all of us have been to those and the entrance exams aren't exactly what you'd call stringent, are they?! You just have to be breathing! 

But I digress! 

[kerryb]

What is so sad is that there are many 90 year olds sitting around in hospital wards and care homes with no-one talking to them and just gazing at the telly all day.

Many years ago when I did a stint on a geriatric ward I was very struck at how many of these people had amazing stories to tell, even when they were not able to function adequately in the present day.  I heard stories of living in Lambeth in the 20s and 30s, and all about the Blitz, heroic WWII service exploits etc.  Many of these folk were written off as "demented".

Maybe there would be some way to harnass the surge of interest in Family History and have teams of people chatting to these (in my view) often neglected old people!

I totally agree with you and wonder if Help the Aged would already be looking for volunteers for visiting old folk.  I don't know whether they do this sort of thing, it was just a thought that occured to me.

Kerry