In our “British Culture” class, we were given the assignment to meet with a Yorkshire resident and hear about their lives and how they experienced Yorkshire and 20th-century Britain. Meagan Veldman and I met with a wonderful woman named Ivy Eden, along with her equally delightful friend Maureen Stannard. We held an interview at Maureen’s home over a proper English tea complete with cakes and sweets. It started with pleasantries, which turned into lively stories about their childhood, as well as past boyfriends, and fun little stories they used to tell on their shared radio program. While Ivy was telling her stories, I noticed her quick wit and humorous commentary.
Ivy told us about her childhood in Thixendale, a small, picturesque village nestled in the lush country about twenty miles east of York. Growing up, she was one of nine children; she was raised by her father, a veteran from World War I, and her mother, who played the organ on Sundays at church. Ivy said that being raised in such a small village, “we weren’t what you called educated”. She then talked about her schooling. She started out in a one-room schoolhouse filled with children of a vastly different ages. It isn’t surprising that such a small town didn’t put a greater focus on education, for “lads went straight to the farm, and women went to do domestic things”. With these roles already laid out for children, it was only natural to adapt to the idea that school wasn’t as worthwhile.
At the age of eleven, Ivy went to a school with three classrooms and a little window that showed three sycamore trees. “Whoever planted them knew exactly how they would grow and touch each other when they were 200 years old,” she told us. These three trees also became a point of interest to a man named David Hockney, a very important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s. He is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. Although nobody knew who he was then, he went on to paint the famous painting of Three Trees in the Proximity of Thixendale. When Ivy described his visits, we learned that although everyone knew of him and saw him, no one made the effort to know him personally.
One story that struck me as particularly interesting was that a dentist would visit the school regularly to check the children’s teeth and sometimes even drill them. Imagine going to school and having your teeth drilled for about an hour. That was the reality for children in rural village schools. Ivy shared one particularly interesting story with us about this very thing. One day when she was about ten years old, she had gone to school, and she had to get her teeth drilled. But her dentist had had an argument with his wife the night before. The dentist’s drill was powered by the pumping of the dentist’s foot. So, when relaying the story to his assistant, the dentist would get upset and drill faster as he pumped his foot faster. He then would slow down when he got more somber about the fight, and then drill faster again, muttering, “I am so upset, I won’t have it, I won’t have it.” Finally, after an hour of this torture the dentist looked Ivy in the eye and told her, “I will have to pull your tooth out.”
Ivy has lived a long and colorful life filled with delightful witty stories, and she shared many of them on the radio with her dear friend Maureen Stannard on York Hospital radio. On
hospital radio, which was very popular in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, volunteers played music and discussed topics which were then broadcast to the hospitals' patients and staff. In these stories, they would talk about past boyfriends, their childhood, or “teddy boys” (young men in the 1950s who dressed in Edwardian style with slicked hair, drainpipe trousers, and a tie).
One reoccurring story that they share during their broadcast is of Gladys, an imaginary friend of sorts. She is a woman they tend to complain about who is very into computers. It surprises everyone how ‘nasty’ they talk about her, but the joke is that she doesn’t even exist. Another favorite joke of theirs to share is how Gladys’s sister has just had twins, and when asked for their names, she responds with, “Deniece and Denephew.” Although a very well-known joke, this shows how their humor can cater to every age group. Personally, hearing these stories reminded me of my own childhood humor and gave me a sense of excitement from these fan-favorite jokes.
Talking to Ivy, I not only heard fascinating stories, but I was also able to get a glimpse of what life was once like here through the eyes of a local. Today we rarely think about what life was before us, because we live in a society focused on constantly moving forward. We are so focused on the future that we tend not to put much emphasis on the value of the past. So if you ever have the chance, go and sit down with someone and listen to the stories they wish to share. Go out of your way to meet people who you normally wouldn’t, and you will be pleasantly surprised.