Threads & yarns. Jim Mulligan.

Threads and yarns

London : Wellcome Trust, 2011.

1 encoded audio file (96:58 min.) + 1 PDF transcript.

01:36:58

Wellcome Trust, 2011

Some restrictions.

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No derivatives 3.0 Unported

In English.

Interview took place on 16th May 2011

This recording is from a series of 8, which were captured by a team of interviews for the Wellcome Trust's 75th anniversary celebrations. Two day-long workshops were held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in May 2011. These were attended by seniors from the London Borough of Camden and textile design students from Central St Martin s College of Art and Design. Seniors and students worked individually to create woven flowers, whilst engaging together in conversation around the themes of health and wellbeing. These intergenerational conversations were audio recorded and formed one part of the project s narrative component. Seniors were also invited to record a story or anecdote relating to their personal experiences of health and wellbeing, in shorter one to one interviews, called Threads. These took place throughout both workshops and were recorded in a separate interviewing space. They were conducted using an oral history approach, with an emphasis on active listening and self-narration. Five of these Threads have been submitted to the Wellcome Library. The three oral history interviews submitted were carried out with seniors in the weeks following the workshops. These more extended narratives, called Yarns, were recorded by the project s Oral History Lead, using a life story approach.

Jim (James) was born in Middlesborough in 1936. He was the sixth child of nine. Both his parents were in good health, although his mother did have spells in a convalescent home after her babies. He recalls how exhausted his mother was all the time. No one ever mentioned that his mother was pregnant; she would just re-appear with a new baby. He remembers that the family was 'on the panel'; a sixpence was collected by the dispensary to contribute to healthcare. He mentions that when he had scarlet fever he had to go to a fever hospital, which was a ship moored on the river Tee. Primary healthcare was provided by a clinic which was 'corporation' funded by the council, providing light treatment, maternity care and footcare. Returning to his bout of scarlet fever, he spent a few months on the ship which later resulted in poor hearing and a mastoidectomy operation when he was about 3 year's old. In 1946, he needed a follow-up operation; he received penicillin in hospital. He talks about wartime rationing and how the family coped. The family had a number of health complaints - his sister had an operation on her eyes, another sister needed an operation for her fingers. There were free health supplements such as cod liver oil and malt extract. One of the most feared childhood illnesses was diphtheria. As a student Jim worked as a porter in a number of hospitals, including a TB sanatorium. He talks about his later life as a teacher and visiting a mental asylum with his students. Very shortly into his career as a teacher, he had a lot of responsibility. His first wife had 4 children in quick succession; Jim talks how fathers were starting to be allowed to attend the births of their children and he was not very keen. He then talks about his brother's and son's eczema and asthma. Later in life he took up running and jogging which he then had to stop for a short while; he smoked for a while before he realised how much his health was affected by smoking. The discussion returns to bananas. Finally Jim offers some opnions on the state of the health service. Time end: 01:36:58:00 Length: 01:36:58:00