STATE Government LIBRARY of South Australia STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA J. D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION OH 1/3 Full transcript of an interview with MARY WATER1VIAN on 1 AUGUST 1985 by Beth Robertson for 'SA SPEAKS': AN ORAL HISTORY OF LIFE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA BEFORE 1930 Recording available on cassette Access for research: Unrestricted Right to photocopy: Copies may be made for research and study Right to quote or publish: Publication only with written permission from the State Library OH 1/3 MARY WATERMAN NOTES TO THE TRANSCRIPT This transcript was donated to the State Library. It was not created by the J.D. Somerville Oral History Collection and does not necessarily conform to the Somerville Collection's policies for transcription. Readers of this oral history transcript should bear in mind that it is a record of the spoken word and reflects the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The State Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the interview, nor for the views expressed therein. As with any historical source, these are for the reader to judge. This transcript had not been proofread prior to donation to the State Library and has not yet been proofread since. Researchers are cautioned not to accept the spelling of proper names and unusual words and can expect to find typographical errors as well. 2 ATB/3/129-3i Mrs Mary WATERMAN 'S.A. SPEAKS' 8503 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface iii Notes to the Transcript iv Family and Background 1 Father's desertion of family Childhood 10 City home Pastimes Schooling 29 Flinders Street Model School St Joseph's, Pine Street Move to Prospect Work 36 Clothing trade: D & W Murray Ltd, G & R Wills & Co, Goode, Durrant & Co Courtship and Marriage 49 Hard times Children 54 Childbirth Child's death Index 61 Collateral Material in File 8503 includes: A copy of autobiographical handwritten memoir 'Down Memory Lane' (M8503) and Photographs (P)8503A,B Cover Illustration Mary Barry (Waterman) aged about 17 in the costume that won her first prize at the end of year fancy dress ball at the Druid's Hall, Walkerville, (P8503A). ATB/3/129-3i Mrs Mary WATERMAN iii 'S.A. SPEAKS' 8503 PREFACE Mary Waterman (nee Barry) was born in 1894. After her father deserted her and her mother about two years later, Mary was brought up in her maternal Irish Catholic grandmother's cottage in Daly Street, Adelaide. Surrounded by variously employed and unemployed uncles, she remembers a lean but busy and happy childhood. The family moved to Prospect in 1907, coinciding with Mary leaving school at thirteen and beginning seven years work as a machinist in clothing factory workrooms in the city. Mary married out of the Church in 1914 to more hard times, and gave birth to her six children before 1930, her second son dying as an infant of meningitis in 1917. Mrs Waterman always took in dressmaking to help support her family and over the years has invariably had parents and grandchildren in her home to care for as well. Mrs Waterman was 90 years of age at the time of the interview. Mrs Waterman is a willing and eloquent speaker with a good memory for detail. Many of these early episodes in her life have evidently been told and retold (i.e. her father's desertion and her child's death) and have become most effective, but nonetheless accurate, stories for it. The interview took place in her sitting room and the quality of the tape recording is good although the record level is a little high and there are some minor traffic noises. The interview is three hours in length and was recorded in one session. 'S.A. Speaks: An Oral History of Life in South Australia before 1930' was a Jubilee 150 project conducted under the auspices of the History Trust of South Australia for two years and two months ending December 1986. The Interviewees are broadly representative of the population of South Australia as it was in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Selection of Interviewees was guided by a Sex and Occupation Sample calculated from the 1921 Census and Inter- viewees were suggested, in the main, by people who responded to 'S.A. Speaks' publicity. Each interview was preceded by an unrecorded preliminary interview during which details about the Interviewee's family history and life story were sought to help develop a framework for the interview. As stated in the Conditions of Use for Tape Recordings and Transcripts adopted for the 'S.A. Speaks' project: 'The copyright in the item(s) [viz, the tapes and transcript of Interview 8503] and all the rights which normally accompany copyright including the right to grant or withhold access to them, conditionally or unconditionally, to publish, reproduce or broadcast them, belongs in the first instance to the History Trust of South Australia for the purposes of the 'S.A. Speaks' project and after the cessation of that project to the Libraries Board of South Australia for the purposes of the Mortlock Library of South Australiana.' ATB/3/129-3i Mrs Mary WATERMAN iv 'S.A. SPEAKS' 8503 NOTES TO THE TRANSCRIPT Readers of this oral history transcript should bear in mind that it is a record of the spoken word. It was the policy of the Transcriptionist, Chris Gradolf, and the Interviewer, as editor, to produce a transcript that is, so far as possible, a verbatim transcript that preserves the Interviewee's manner of speaking and the informal, conversational style of the interview. Certain conventions of trans- cription have been applied (i.e. the omission of meaningless noises, redundant false starts and a percentage of the Interviewee's crutch words). Also, each Interviewee was given the opportunity to read the transcript of their interview after it had been proofread by the Interviewer. The Interviewee's suggested alterations have been incorporated in the text (see below). On the whole, however, the document can be regarded as a raw transcript. Researchers using the original tape recording of this interview are cautioned to check this transcript for corrections, additions or deletions which have been made by the Interviewer or the Interviewee but which will not occur on the tapes. Minor discrepancies of gram mar and sentence structure made in the interest of readability can be ignored but significant changes such as deletions of information or correction of fact should be, respectively, duplicated or acknowledged when the tape recorded version of this interview is used for broadcast or publication on cassettes. Abbreviations The Interviewee, Mary Waterman, is referred to by the initials MW in all editorial insertions in the transcript. Punctuation Square brackets [ ] indicate all material in the transcript that does not occur on the original tape recording. The Interviewee's initials after a word, phrase or sentence in square brackets, i.e. [word or phrase MW] indicates that the Interviewee made this particular insertion or correction. All uninitialled parentheses were made by the Interviewer. Sentences that were left unfinished in the normal manner of conversation are shown ending in three dashes, - - Spelling Wherever possible the spelling of proper names and unusual ter ms has been verified. Where uncertainty remains the word has been marked with a cross in the right hand margin of the Interview Log and Data Sheet which can be consulted in the Interview File. Typeface The Interviewer's questions are shown in bold print. ATB/3/129-3 Mrs Mary WATERMAN 1. 'S.A. SPEAKS' 8503 'S.A. Speaks: An Oral History of Life in South Australia Before 1930' Beth Robertson interviewing Mrs Mary Waterman ammummil a gm mg on 1 August 1985 TAPE 1 SIDE A Well, let's start with your name. Is Mary Waterman your full name? No, Mary Theresa. And were you known as Mary? No, I had a nickname - called Mamie. I don't know where I got it but it was tacked on to me somewhere along the way. Do you think you were named for someone in particular? I was named after my grandmother. She was Mary Ellen O'Brien. That's where I got the Mary from, but I don't know where the Ellen came from - the Theresa, I mean. What was your maiden name. Barry. And what was your date of birth? December first 1894. And where were you born? Hampton Street, Goodwood. Had your parents been living there long, do you know? No, I don't know. And you didn't grow up there, did you? No. I don't know just what age I was but I first - - I remember I was living with my grandmother at Number Seven 7 Daly Street, Adelaide. And I don't remember any other home in my childhood other than that. From what you've told me, you didn't know your father at all. No. Do you know what the circumstances were of him leaving your mother? I don't really know. I was never told anything. But as the years rolled on and I just heard little bits of conversation. I gathered he drank a good deal, because I can remember the night I was born he was supposed to be in the ATB/3/129-3 Mrs Mary WATERMAN 2. 'S.A. SPEAKS' 8503 kitchen playing the accordian 'After the Ball Was Over' and my mother could never stand that particular piece of music. So I don't really know. But - - Did you ever meet him? Well, that's what I was just going to tell you. I suppose I was about five.