Interview 15
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Q: Could you tell me your first memory related to Ladypool Road?

A: Mmm, right let me think, Ladypool Road…. I don’t really mmm, I don’t really have memories or I can remember. Mmm but I think from when I was younger, from the area that I previously lived in to move to here I can just remember that it was, like there was a minority of mmm, like Asians, Somalians, what other races? A lot of different races in the, like, community, and white people there wasn’t very many white people in the area. So I think that’s what I can remember because obviously from when I was younger I got brought up in a completely different environment, well a different environment, a community to what I lived in, well I live in now, but yeah that’s it really, just remembering the people. Mmm I don’t know why that I, dunno why, I think it’s just because I was so used to being like in the area that I grew up in before it was very quiet then wasn’t ever any kids that would go out and play on the road or like I never used to really see people, it would be people walking their dogs up and down the road going to the shop. Where as when I moved to the ladypool area it was just there was a lot of kids out playing, mmm there’d be a lot of people on Ladypool Road, mmm dunno that’s it really, yeah.
Q: So when did you first move here?

A: Mmm I moved here when I was about 8 or 9, so I’ve lived here for about 12 years now.

Q: And how did you get involved with helping out at the Charity Shop?

A: Mmm well it was through my boyfriends Mum, mmm and his Nan, just one day she said that she was stressed with the shop and that she needed some help, so I offered to get involved, mmm and because I’m not working either I thought it would be a good idea to get out of the house and do something positive, so yeah that was it really.

Q: So what are you passionate about? What are your aspirations in the future?

A: Mmm, I enjoy working with kids, mmm I haven’t worked with them much do have like experience. Mmm it’s, its something like I enjoy, that I like have a passion to work with children, mmm but also like, I like the care side of work so caring for the elderly, mmm the elderly, the young people, people with mental health problems. Anything to do with the care sector really I enjoy doing, but then I also like working in like hospitality and restaurants. Mmm, like I’d enjoy working in a pub, so it depends really like I have I’ve got, it just varies like there’s a wide range of things that I’d enjoy doing. So I haven’t really got a set, like a set target it’s just what comes along at the time, if it’s to do with children, if it’s to do with the elderly or it’s a restaurant job, I’d just take it and ……..

Q: Is there something that, mmm makes you tick, makes you feel passionate, mmm that makes you feel like you have a purpose? Or do you think you might not have found that yet?

A: What d’you… as in…like a full….like a reason for why I want to do them jobs, like what…. What gives me that passion? Mmm I dunno I think it’s just because I see a lot of kids, mmm and like they’re not very fortunate and I just think it’d be nice to work with some kids who haven’t got much maybe stability at home or they’ve got like a, I don’t know, Mom and Dad are breaking up or you know just something like that, like I feel, like I’d want to, not maybe, not nurture, what’s the word, I don’t know the word. I just want to com…not comfort but try and, try and give like children some kind of stability and something where they know that’s not gonna kind of go and disappear like, that’s where I think my passion comes from with kids because a lot of kids have like learning difficul…., well not learning difficulties but behavioural problems, things like that these days and a lot of it is down to home life. So I think that, like I dunno it just makes we wanna give, like it just, if I was to work with children, I’d just want to make them happy because you don’t know what their home life is, you don’t know what’s gonna happen when they get picked up, or when they get dropped off, you don’t know so, yeah.

Q: And have you seen, er the road, Ladypool Road change? How do you feel it has developed?

A: Mmm, in businesses wise the shops…it…when I first moved here, I’d say most of the shops on Ladypool Road were open, then up until about 6 years ago, is started going…. Well about 6 years ago, 7 years ago, I’d say it went down hill. And then I reckon it was down hill for about two years and I’d say in the last, probably 4 to 5 years, the shops, the businesses…. pardon me…. have improved, like they’re better, there’s better shops. It’s more like…. On Ladypool Road now instead of it being like fast food takeaways, it’s more sit down and dine kind of food. They’ve got dessert shops, nice dessert shops all down the Ladypool Road, and it’s kinda nice to see that there’s things on the Ladypool Road that kind of fits everybody, because you do see like a white families, a lot of white families, black families, come down to the Ladypool Road to go out to eat. Where I never really used to see that before, so in that sense I’ve seen Ladypool Road change and mmm I’d say we’ve like, the mmm security, so with the cameras and stuff like that there has been more cameras that have been put up and it has, I think it’s…. it’s…. kind of… it has changed the road because there’s less people hanging about, like outside the shops and there’s less people just causing…. not havoc, but some kind of commotion on the road. So yeah there has been some change and I think it’s positive. It’s get better the community, getting better, but I think it just takes time.

Q: So what did it used to be like before the cameras?

A: It was….there’s a lot of people hanging around on the roads, there was…mmm, there’d be like, I dunno it’s hard to explain, people like riding up and down on quad bikes, on motorbikes, they still do that but not as much, it’s not as obvious. I think since the cameras have come in, people are doing things but they’re not so obvious about doing them no more, like, like hanging around in big groups, drinking, smoking, like they’re not doing that as much on the road anymore, now, so I think that is one kind of improvement since getting these cameras put in on, in the area.

Q: Could you tell me about your family? Have you got any brothers or sisters, about your home life?

A: Err I live with my Mum and my sister. My mum had a stroke 3 and half years ago. Mmm she used to drive, she was a care assistant, mmm working but obviously down to the stroke she’s stopped driving and she’s stopped working? She used to work in Bromford I think with like elderly people who had disabilities and mental health. My sister, move in with us, again, 4 months ago now, but she’s started working at a pub in town. So she’s very in and out now, so she doesn’t get to see very much of the area and cuz she doesn’t really like it anyway, cuz she feels intimidated, not intimidated but she doesn’t feel confident walking around the area, because it is like a minority, like it is more Asian people than like White people, so when you’re not used to that it can feel quite scary and intimidating when your surrounded by a lot of people that you don’t know, but that’s all, that’s the family.

Q: who would you say is main influence in your life?

A: I wouldn’t say I have one to be quite honest. Up until my Mom had her stroke, obviously like my Moms always done her best for me, but when she had her stroke it was like the roles got reversed and it was me then looking after her. So it was kind of like any guidance and stuff that I did have, kind of just went because I had to take the responsibility of looking after my Mom, so I kind of just do things how I think things should be done and it’s just down to common sense really. Obviously like if I am stuck for things or you know there’s something I did find out, there is people around me that I could ask. Like I would ask my mum and cuz a few of my friends are older than me and could ask for my friends but I wouldn’t say I’ve got really a main influence. Cuz my sister we get along but when we’re around each other for too long it’s like world war turn, we just argue so…..

Q: So if you needed advice or help who would you turn to?

A: One of my friends probably…yeah

Q: What are you….is there something in your life or a moment in your life that you are proud of?

A: There’s not a moment or a time or anything but it’s just the fact that like I’m proud of the fact like at the age of 16 my Mom had a stroke and I managed to cope so well because my sister lived in Nuneaton at the time and we just lived it was just me and my Mom in our house. So like I’m quite proud of the fact that like for a young person at the age of 16 I coped with it and I think like life… what is it…..life experiences, yeah my life experiences have made me stronger now. Like mmm I had troubles with my ex-partner, I was with him for a while and from that it’s just made stronger as a person. So I’m proud of that really of how far as a person I have come, when really I should have been knocked down and probably like rotting in a hole, in my little hole, didn’t want to come out of my house but my confidence… yeah that’s what I’m proud of, my confidence when mmm…I dunno…I feel it, like it obviously people have their ups and down days so when I’m up I feel really like I do I feel really happy, but when I’m down that’s when I feel quite down but I have to realise then life’s not all that bad. So it is, it’s a daily thing that I think really because I have come quite far, from where I had been.

Q: How do you find peoples attitudes towards you, a white young female, generally in Ladypool Road?

A: Do you mean like shop people, people that work in the shops or general public people?

Q: Just generally Ladypool Road, a bit of both.

A: In the shops, like you can go to the shop at the bottom of my road and they know who we are, in there now. Obviously because they’re Muslim out of respect I’ll go and say ‘Hello Uncle, are you alright?’ and they’ll say ‘Ooh A: how are you today?’ And they’re fine in there like, they’re lovely. Like in one of the meat shops as well, the guy in there I know him. I’ll stand in there and talk to him for 10/15 minutes. Mmm I think it’s more whether you’re like a regular in a shop really. Like they become, not friends obviously but you know where you can stand there and talk to them and ‘Are you alright, how have you been,’ kind of thing but if it was like a shop that I’m not regular to, it would just literally be, not ignorance, it’d just be they’d ask for the money and give your change and that was it kind of thing. And whereas the people, like the public that don’t work in the shops. I dunno it’s just, everyone’s kind of, you’re just left to your own devices I suppose now like….people don’t bother you, or if they do it’s cuz they’re just trying to wind you up. Like the older…like… I’d say if it was my age kid of people like 20, 21, from about 18 to 25. That’s where you’ve got some of them that do still like stand outside the shop but I think it just depends what mood they’re in, sometimes they’ll say hello, sometimes they won’t, sometimes they’ll give you grief, sometimes they won’t. It’s just a lot of people are temperamental in the area so it’s just, it’s just I won’t bother walking down the road saying hello to everyone. I’ll say hello if someone says hello to me. If not I’m just going about my business, get from A to B…so..

Q: Do you feel that that has changed from when you were first here, people’s attitudes, what were their attitudes like then? When you were first here?

A: I can’t fully remember, I don’t think…. Cuz when we first moved here Mom, mom, mom hadn’t had her stroke, she was driving and cuz she didn’t like this area she wouldn’t want to go to the shops in this area she’d prefer to go to where she knows. So we’d drive to the shop we’d normally go to like Moseley Village or Kings Heath or somewhere. So when I was younger I couldn’t really say because we never, we wouldn’t be around like here. We’d literally just lived here and that was it. Like to took me a few years to go outside and play, like because…..I don’t know I just felt, not scared or intimidated, it’s just because I didn’t know anybody. When I did start playing out on my own people would start recognising my face. I think it did start getting a bit easier but I think with the people that like do know my face, it’s was thing where, they wouldn’t cause me trouble and I don’t think they’d like to see me in trouble either, though I think it’s just one of those ones that if I did any trouble or anything and they was there I think they would try and stop it but people do they kind of keep themselves to themselves and that’s it.

Q: If you could sum up Ladypool Road in a sentence what would you say?

A: Ladypool Road is like Marmite you either love it or you hate it!

Q: What do you think of the role of women in Ladypool Road and do you think that’s changed over the time you have been here?

A: Ok when it comes down to women I don’t think that’s changed at all. The elderly they’re ignorant but I don’t think they’re meant to be. I don’t think they’re ignorant it’s just because we’ve got different cultures and different ways of life. So everyone does things differently and the way the elderly do things on Ladypool Road and around here I find ignorant but to them, them elderly it’s probably perfectly fine. Like I went into the shop not so long ago and a woman had a trolley kind of thing and she just like pushed it into my back, she didn’t ask me to like excuse me. She just kind of rammed it into my back as if like move and I didn’t get that. Did she not speak to me because I was a young white woman or what? Like I don’t… I don’t know. But you don’t really see women working, the only places you really see the women working is probably in the dessert shops and the sari shops any type clothes shops really, I’m trying to think about it now. In the eat shops and the vegetable shops it is all men. In the fast food take away it’s men. You don’t see a chip shop with a woman working in it round here, so….and I never have, I haven’t that always what I’ve seen. Women working in either the dessert shops or in the clothes shops and apart from that the men do everything else.

Q: If you had a message that you could give to the women of Ladypool Road, to empower them, what would be?

A: I’d probably have to sit down and write for it to make sense, it probably, just the women need to start standing their ground a bit more and standing up for themselves because I think a lot of women’s way of life, around here is from what’s been drilled into them. So I think it’s got to that point where they just live a certain way to please everyone else around them. So my point would be to basically yeah just stand up on your own two feet and stand your ground and make sure that women fight for what’s theirs instead of just letting like the men do everything. I got into a debate the other day about…..what was it? What was my debate…..? Women are meant to wash up. I didn’t like that at all, cuz women aren’t meant to wash up. So I think it’s just down…..it’s just down to people’s views and peoples way of life and their upbringing, because when people say things like to you, about like my example for the washing up…..it just makes me think like…… hold on a second you’re in my house and I’ve just cooked you dinner and I’ve asked you to wash up and you tell me no, it’s a woman’s job…..and that’s like in my house. So if it’s like that here I have to think about the other cultures as well and what women and men have to….. you know what I mean, like other married couples, other families, what do they go through with their cultures because I know a lot of the women to cook, clean, you know whatever else women have to do, do the shopping, go here, go there. SO I don’t know whether it is just a males way of thinking or if it’s just the way people have been brought up, to think women have specific jobs. Women do this, women…… it’s a mans job to be a fire-fighter, it’s a mans job to be a police officer. It’s stereo typical but I don’t think its meant to be but it’s just because of the way like I’ve been brought up. So when I’m seeing things from the bigger picture, from the outside and I can see what’s happening…..it just seems….I dunno……it just seems….I dunno it just gets me mad. It doesn’t get me mad but it gives me a little frustration because it shouldn’t be like that, everyone’s equal. If we’re all eating together then we can all wash up together, I’ll wash you dry kind of thing. So that would be my little message, women stand up, stand your ground, we’re not cleaners, we’re not cooks, we’re not anything, we’re not a cleaner, we’re just a woman. There we go.

Q: Who made this comment, out of interest?
A: A male. I’m not saying who, just a male, a close male, a close male, and that was it….that’s it.

Q: Why do you think male people in this area have that opinion? Where do you think it’s come from?

A: Probably back home, that’s how they live when they’re back home, in their countries where they come from. That why I said obviously it varies cuz of everyone’s culture and the way they’ve been brought up is different….like……they automatically think, people automatically think in this area it is like a man’s job to bring in the money, put the bread on the table, to provide….but it’s the woman’s job to cook what he’s brought in. I think the man……I don’t know, I think it is just maybe a power thing, not a power…I don’t know…like. I think it’s just something that men have and they think that should happen automatically, you know what I mean….like a man goes out to work when he comes in his dinner should be ready, that’s how he thinks it should be….when really, why don’t you come in from work and take me out for dinner, kind of thing. So I dunno…..mixed messages.

Q: Thank you for your time A: and telling us your story. Just to reiterate are you happy to make this recording available for public use.

A: Yes I am, you can.

Q: Thank you very much!

A: You’re welcome.








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