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Res.2.10 Married couple, late sixties, corporation tenants, male interviewer, 22 March 1961

 Item
Identifier: EUA IN1/ACU/S3/4/2/2/10

Scope and Contents

Topics discussed include: Living accommodation and standard of workmanship; behaviour of local children; early life; pensioner clubs; behaviour of young mothers; personal finance.

INTVEEs live in a two-apartment new house in a block of six having moved from a house elsewhere in the area. INTVER describes the accommodation as "pretty unimaginative for 1961, but the insides are quite pleasant. The stairway was quite colourful with blue on the lower half instead of the dark green and I think it was off white on the upper part. The doors were brightly coloured with different colours and I even noticed there were some mats put out, obviously by the tenants, on the common stairway". The plaster of the ceiling of the INTVEE's house had recently fallen down for the third time. At one end of the living room is a bed which the INTVER thinks the husband sleeps in, with the wife sleeping in the other room. They have an "oldish rexine three piece suite in reasonable repair. Nothing about the house was tattie". Male interviewee feels a lot better since moving and thinks the balcony above their window in their previous house, which had been a ground floor house, gave the impression of something pressing on his head and had a lot to do with him feeling depressed. Their previous house was called a two-apartment but was in fact one room with a curtain, they preferred having separate rooms. There were far too many children where they lived before, they were always slamming doors and making noise in the afternoon. There was one woman who would say "you're ready for konking out you know" if they complained about the noise her children were making. They thought the corporation were wrong putting old people amongst so many children. The pipe underneath the bath of the woman upstairs leaked and flooded their house, soaked all the plaster and fungus began to grow. They had to live with the fungus for a year and a half, even in the larder, before anything was done. INTVER thinks the corporation had probably decided to move them rather than do repairs. They are active members of local clubs and they watch television every night. They read the Evening News. They think more women work now than used to and female interviewee thinks this might be to do with smoking - more women smoke now and are willing to work for the money they need for their own pleasure. It used to be only tinkers who smoked. Neither of them think it is a good idea for women to work. They don't think mothers chastise their kids, they are quite frightened of the local children. They spend about 15/- a week on coal which didn't go down too much in the summer as they needed the fire to heat water. 8/6 on rent and 10/- a week on electricity as they switched to a pre-paid meter which they prefer even if it means they pay more. They spend 10/- a week on gas. Male interviewee spends £1 a week on cigarettes and 10/- a week to rent the television. They don't save money and last had a holiday over 20 years ago, before the war. They contribute to the "store" house in Galashiels, which the INTVER thinks is a holiday centre run by St Cuthberts or Leith Provident, but have never been.

Interviewer's thoughts: The couple have no strong interests and don't seem to get much from life. There was nothing apart from the ordinary everyday activities of running a house which kept them going. They derived some satisfaction from club activities a few hours a week. But despite lack of general interest they seem happy.

Dates

  • Other: 22 March 1961

Conditions Governing Access

Public access to these records is governed by UK data protection legislation. Whilst some records may be accessed freely by researchers, the aforementioned legislation means that records conveying personal information on named individuals may be closed to the public for a set time. Where records relate to named deceased adults, they will be open 75 years after the latest date referenced in the record, on the next 1 January. Records relating to individuals below 18 years of age or adults not proven to be deceased will be open 100 years after the latest date recorded in the record, on the next 1 January.

Extent

12 Sheets

Creator

Repository Details

Part of the University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections Repository

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