Interview with Alexandra Johnston, Feb 1991- Tape 1, Side B
Description
- Audio (MP3)
-
Audio (MP3) - 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 and after World War Two. She recalls life during the war while her husband served overseas as a chaplain, from rationing to home maintenance. She worked to support her community as a minister's wife within the Presbyterian church. She speaks about the aftermath of the war with respect to her own marriage and the marriages of others, along with the importance of support and community during wartime. Notes provided are not a comprehensive transcript, but include an overview of all general topics discussed during the interview.
- Notes
- 0:00- Sex life during the war and contraceptives
• Contraceptives in those days were “difficult”- they were available and known, but people were very shy acquiring them
• Women suddenly became celibate, and “this presented problems”
1:35- Barracks on Grey Street
• There was a barracks there which used to throw parties
• Some were “pretty wild”
2:40- Local militia
• The local militia was gone (the 54th), mention of the 69th
• Anybody in the military that was left behind, she didn’t know, and they didn’t know her- she therefore was not up to speed on exactly what was happening with the military
3:33- Soldiers still in the barracks
• During the day they were in training and “pretty well occupied”
• At night, however, there were lots of parties there
• There were always a lot of men in uniform around, and they were generally well-behaved
4:30- Maple Leaf Club
• She didn’t have much to do with the club
• Went one night and never went again
• There was loud music playing, it was very hot, and they served coffee already with sugar and cream in it
• “It was all [she] could do to keep it down”
6:15- Brantford during the war
• “The town was booming”, as in there were many people around and there was a lot more money than there had been in the past
• Wages in the factories were very good, almost twice what they had been in 1934
• There wasn’t an awful lot to spend money on, so a lot of money was spent foolishly
• Since there was so much tension, if you had money in your pocket and there was a party, people would spend a lot on beer etc.
• You could only get one bottle of whiskey per adult per week
8:40- Rationing and restrictions
• She “didn’t have too much trouble”
• There was a lot of trading amongst people
• She would trade her sugar coupon with a friend for coffee, etc.
• Gasoline rationing was difficult
• She put her car in a friend’s garage and saved her gas coupons to take the children out to the country in the summer
• Milk and bread was delivered by horse-drawn vehicles
• Had a great deal of correspondence with Dean’s [her husband’s] sister who lived in [Belfast?], and their problems with rationing were three times as severe
• Johnson packed two large boxes a month, one for Dean and one for her, with things like towels and pillowcases
• Once, her sons went to camp which required two of a specific type of sheets each for both boys, and had to coordinate with several people to buy enough to send them to camp
• The floors in her house, bought during the war, had been in very bad shape
• She wanted to use linoleum to do one of the floors, and it was extremely difficult to get enough to cover it due to rationing restrictions
15:38- Stockings and tan lotion
• Stockings were very expensive, as were nylons
• Until nylons, people had worn silk or cotton
• Rayon came in at some point before the war
• During the summer, people usually had bare legs due to the heat, and would either try to get a good tan or use a tan lotion
• The tan lotion had to be shaken and dabbed on with cotton, so that you could have bare legs without looking as if your legs were bare
• This may have come after the war
18:37- Support groups:
• Could not think of any support groups that were designed for wives and mothers
• There were lots of established organizations offering support for individuals
• There was quilting and boxes made for men, but there was no support for wives/mothers within the church either
• You didn’t expect to be supported or particularly sympathized with
20:30- House maintenance during the war
• The house was quite large, although there were four children
• The house was in very bad shape, but she managed to “get the minimum”
• During furnace installation, all of the workmen were over fifty due to the war, and were “too old and too stiff” to crawl under the floor and poke a stick out to show where the pipe should go, so that is what Johnston did (she was 30 at the time)
• There were no big structural changes, just paint, wallpaper, and flooring at the time
• She was paying $50 a month in rent, does not remember any wartime changes in rent prices
25:32- Telegrams during the war
• She received a couple of telegrams from Dean in the early days of the war, which were delivered by hand to the door
• They were “simple” things
26:25- Receiving news of the death of her brother
• The one piece of bad news she got was from Sam [inaudible] and his wife Marion, who ran the “CP office” on Colborne street
• One night, the doorbell rang, and she knew something was wrong when she saw Sam and Marion there
• She had two brothers in the pacific at that point, and Dean was in Italy, so she recalls thinking, “Which one? Which one? Which one?”
• “It was a very bad moment”
• It turned out to have been one of her brothers, and she was receiving a telegram about it from her father in the United States
28:05- The feeling about people of Brantford
• The individuals were “very, very, considerate of each other”
• This did not necessarily extend to institutions and government at the time, of which there was “a great lack”
• People were kind and compassionate, and many people had connections with others due to familiarity with their family, friends, or where they lived
• There was a “network” of people who spread news and provided support
32:20- Visits with members of community and congregation
• Older people seemed to “adopt” the younger ones
• She visited many people regularly in the role of a minister’s wife
• There was one lady whose husband died during the war (not due to fighting) who Alexandra visited who just “hung onto [her]” and wouldn’t let her leave
• She sat with her during the funeral and stayed with the woman afterward, because she really needed it
34:50- People coming home during and after the war
• People did not come him on leave, because it was too far
• If they came home, they came home for “a whole variety of reasons”
• One of the officers’ wives had a [welcoming?] party for the commanding officer of the 54th and his wife
• Once the war was over and the 54th came home as a unit, sometime in the summer of 1945, there was a big parade
• Some didn’t come back and some had been transferred, but there was a big parade with a band and cheering
• Dean had come home the first week of May, and had been away five and a half years- he was no longer connected with the 54th division and was now part of the [5th?]
• He took part in the liberation of the Netherlands in Holland, and was sent home by his commanding officer in April so that he wasn’t stuck there for an extended period of time (it was uncertain how long the division would be there)
• He sent a telegraph saying that he was coming home, and hoped to be home by their wedding anniversary, on the 26th of April (he did not make it in time)
• There was an official notification that the troop train from Halifax would be arriving at 9:30 in the morning at the exhibition grounds in Toronto, some day shortly after the 26th of April
• She drove down there and had 24 hours with him to herself, and then they drove home
• People were “just kind of milling around” on the train platform and waiting to greet the person they had come to see
41:31- Aftermath of the war
• Alexandra and Dean were “very different people” after five years had passed
• A lot of married people did not make the transition back to living together well, and there were “a lot of separations”
• Her husband had served as a chaplain, so hadn’t been involved in the fighting force but had always had fighting happening “all around” him
• He was “very jittery and very jumpy” as a result of his service, “just burned out”
• There was an adjustment for men to domesticity, noisy kids, a lack of discipline after the army
- Date of Original
- February 1991
- Playing Time
- 45:20
- Subject(s)
- Language of Item
- English
- Copyright Statement
- Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
- Contact
- Brantford Public LibraryEmail:b4@brantfordlibrary.ca
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