Dossier f9 - Brunton, Helen

File consists of a recording of Helen Brunton. Topics of the converstation include TAPE ONE Role in women's affairs at Univ. of Saskatchewan. Employment as 'ball of fire' reorganiser of local YWCA (Depression period): unguarded women's residence, communal dining facilities, 'I was always about forty years ahead of my time'. Decline in YWCA religious role 'to lead young women into personal loyalty to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord'. Detailed humorous account of self-surrender to God with pre­ war Oxford Group Movement: personal situation at time of surrender (guilt-ridden, 'heading for a beautiful nervous breakdown', jeopardising successful job); suggestion of Ox­ford Group Movement 'cure' by United Church minister, 1933. Self-measurement against standards of absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness, love; prescribed 'sharing' of sins; huge relief of absolution, 'the load went off'; surrender to God's guidance, practical meditation; facing up to dishonesty of personal relations, confession of true feelings to boyfriend, mother; happy pragmatic assessment, "it worked". Pressured work at YWCA, misunderstandings, unsatisfactory social life; transfer to Toronto (armed with references from R.B. Bennett, local mayor, Member of Parliament), employment as staff writer for Robert Simpson Co. Divine urge to 'go east', acquaintance with Queen's grad Ray Brunton; idyllic marriage, despite middle age, depression weariness, staccato production of children; premature death of husband 12 years later. Supportive offer of farmhouse by husband's relatives; happy four-year rustic existence; need of paying job. Interview with Queen's Registrar Jean Royce, persuasion to drop Royal Military College librarianship offer in favour of work at Queen's. //Employment as medical librarian (Summerhill); excellence as reference librarian, despite lack of training ('just up my alley, and I loved it'); transfer as Supervisor to Reserve Room, Douglas Library, to make way for professional librarian. Excellent rapport with Reserve Room staff, successful cooperative approach to problems; post­retirement friendships with former employees, happy memories of Queen's. Father as English immigrant, graduate of Guelph School of Agriculture, supervisor of Oakville fruit farm; mother as UE Loyalist descendant, schoolteacher; subject's West Indian childhood, parents' failing health, transfer to 'Golden West' (near Saskatoon); vivid recollection of prairie landscape, still revered as ideal territory. Distinction between Canadian Easterners, Westerners; identification with Westerners, their grievances with Ottawa; friendly frontier nature of West, distrustful establishment nature of East. Social Credit victory, Premier Bill Eberhardt (report from IBM employee, 'I've never dealt with such an honest government'); local admiration for Woodsworth. 'Household word' status of Nellie McClung; meaningful acquaintance with Violet McNaughton, 'a real power in the grain growers' movement'; memory of father soaking mother's feet after mother's excursions on behalf of women's suffrage. Poor legal status of prairie women despite working status as husbands' partners; inability to claim after husband's death. Focus of local schooling on English­language instruction for Russian immigrants; canoe trip across Saskatchewan River, two-mile walk, four-mile ride to school for English-speaking children; ringing howl of coyotes on return ride. Attendance at ladies' boarding school (Prince Albert) under Principal Virtue; at Univ. of Saskatchewan; at Havergal (Toronto); at normal school; rural school-teaching appointment, Saskatchewan (1922). TAPE TWO Announcement of WWI by breathless rider; parents' tense reception of news; uncle's seeming exemption as cattle farmer; neighbourhood prize skater returned from war minus a leg yet continuing to practice. Preoccupation with motherhood during WWII (no enlisted loved ones to be concerned for); sharing of extra rationed supplies; husband's fascination for following broadcast news developments. Hardworking enjoyment of early motherhood. "Eldest son's motorcycle accident, brain damage, followed by second son's accident, while subject was working ('we just had a mad house for about ten years'); eldest son's recovery, successful career. Loneliness resulting from dispersed family; travel-cure; revelatory impact of Herb and Judy Claire's Backpacking Abroad, membership in Globetrotters Club (London, England); trip to England, camping sidetour to Greece. Love of casual group travel, 'common' people; preferred travel by bus, not train; wonderful acquaintances, lasting friendships, made through travel; club membership 'The Ulyssians'. Mother's attempts to help out during hard times, underpaid employment as married female worker, restricted to substitute teaching only: 'she felt it, but I wasn't aware of any bitterness'. Unequal pay for equal work of YMCA-YWCA throughout Depression (subject's unusually healthy salary); obscuring of women's rights issue by human rights issue (all salaries should be higher, this is clearly impossible, why even think of agitating for higher women's salaries only?); submission to circumstances. Militant organisation as the sine qua non of success of social rights movements. Vocal female participation in public affairs, 1930s. Switch from outside career to married life (aet. 35); fulfillment in marriage, intellectual upbringing under husband's guidance. //Discussion of books supplied by husband, membership in Fabian-socialist-oriented Left Book Club (contrast with former conservative outlook). Total childcare responsibility: husband's role as breadwinner, thinking companion. Willingness to remarry now, poverty of choice amongst septagenarians. Unparalleled physical vigour following research into sound nutrition (former anaemic constitution); need for expanded nutritional education programmes. Advocacy of equal-parenting marital relation­ ships, improved system of daycare; desirability for men's own sakes of educating boys in domestic science. Dismay at younger generation's esteem for alcohol. Belief that every personal act is critical, either right or wrong. Envious admiration of today's 'marvellous' young people, regret for victims of same generation. Youth-worship in western cultures, shameful casting aside of widows. Value of parents' insistence on social participation, with or without company: 'if I was to go, I went, and I went alone; and after a while I lost my fear of being alone'. Ambition to author book encouraging senior citizens to shed inhibitions, to travel; poster-saying, 'You can fly, but that cocoon has got to go!'. Free time as her generation's old-age luxury. 'Getting right with God' as critical liberating act of one's lifetime; importance of seeing through materialism, laying up treasure in heaven. Membership in Millhaven Penitentiary 'Black Culture Group', organised by prison members.