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Interview with Alexandra Johnston, February 1991- Tape 1, Side A

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Interview with Brantford resident

Interview with Brantford resident

Creators

Gary W. Muir, Interviewer

Alexandra Johnston

, Interviewee

Media Type

Audio

Item Type

Interviews

Description

Alexandra Johnston is interviewed regarding her life in Brantford during the Great Depression and World War Two. She recalls her ancestry, as well as her and her husband's emigration from Ireland to Brantford. She worked to support her community as a minister's wife within the Presbyterian church. Community charity efforts, including from the Salvation Army, are discussed. She recalls the anxiety and apprehension in the pre-war period.

Notes

Interview with Brantford resident Alexandra Johnston regarding her life in the community during the Great Depression and World War Two

Note: The first side of the tape was largely inaudible and therefore hard to record accurately, while the second was much better

Alexandra Johnston interview, Feb 1991
Tape 1, side A
Notes taken 5/22/2024

Subjects discussed, with timestamps:
• 2:40- Ancestry of her and her husband
o He was Irish and she was American
o His sister came to visit a couple of years before she was married, and befriended Alexandra, who was invited for Christmas and met her husband there
o Her husband worked as a minister for the Presbyterian church
o She briefly moved to Ireland, but did not want to stay there, and her husband didn’t want to live in the United States
• 4:21- Discussing how she came to Brantford
o Her husband’s father had an assistant who had emigrated “out here”
o Note: she arrived in Brantford in 1932
• 7:48- First impressions of Brantford during the Great Depression
o “The most dilapidated, dirty, depressing place I have ever seen”
o She arrived in March of 1932
o There were “mounds of dirty snow”
o Discusses how the depression really started in 1929, and by 1932 things were much worse
o There was huge unemployment, recalls how this was before unemployment insurance and how many people had no money for houses, groceries
o “It was not only a physical depression, it was a mental depression”
• 9:24- Describing another family’s experience during the depression
o The family had eight children; the three oldest were 20, 19, and 18
o The three oldest were [house servants?], and one of them stayed with Alexandra for almost a year
o “I think I paid her eighteen dollars”
o She took her money home and her father gave her back two dollars
o The father had worked in mines in Scotland and Australia but was unemployed during the depression and kept the house, and the mother was a [cleaner?]
o After the depression, he was able to get work again and the surviving family members are now doing quite well
• 12:40- Discusses her mindset as the wife of a minister during the depression
o She thought of herself as having a family and a husband foremost
o Decided to “do what she could in the ways that she could”
o She didn’t wear her ring for over two years because it was “too big” and “too much”
o She gave away half her clothes, as did many other people who had money during the depression
• 14:44- Discusses her husband’s role as a minister during the depression
o He felt that his role was to offer “counsel and encouragement”, and financial help as he was able
o Many people were able to do good through “small, practical things”
o Did a lot of work with young people, there was a church young people’s society
o Most of them had enough to eat, but there was nothing for them to do as they didn’t have jobs- the society provided a “weekly social activity”
o “You had to do it all without money, because nobody had any”
o The young people’s society lasted up until the beginning of World War Two, because “all the people that age were gone overnight”
• 18:17- Salvation Army and community charity efforts
o Did “regular handouts”
o Notes that was important to be respectful toward people and show compassion rather than pity, as many people were very reluctant to accept help

[Large section here is mostly inaudible- there are sentences which stand out but it is hard to string together what is being discussed]

• 23:45- Discussion of her husband’s church congregation at the time
o “this congregation was composed of three minority groups”
o Further discussion of the church, largely inaudible on recording
• 29:20- Mayor MacBride
o Johnston “never heard him speak” but knew him as a “silver-tongue”
• 30:05- Transition from being in Ireland to being a minister’s wife in the depression
o Tried to do what was in front of her, and not worry too much about the abstracts
o Mentions factory layoffs of around 75%
• 33:00- Discussion of the pre-war period
o She was aware that there might be a war, because a lot of speeches were made, and there was “an awful lot of talk”
o This discussion was occurring locally and was also in the paper
o Doesn’t recollect learning much in the way of radio, as they had a radio but it was not a very good one
o People her parents’ age were very apprehensive, while people her age were “too busy getting on with it”
o She recalls an apprehensiveness
• 37:30- Newspapers announcing war news
o You got a newspaper once a day, though “reporting was sketchy”
• 39:00- Reaction to the war
o The climate was the everybody had to do everything they could for the war
o She was quite anxious
o Much inaudible from this section onward- discussion of husband being sent to war

Date of Original