Dossier f56 - MacLeod, Evelyn M., nee Mactavish

File consists of a recording of Evelyn MacLeod. Topics of the conversation include friendship with Jean Royce; shared character as 'book­ pushers'. Interviewer's recent encounter with Mrs. Elizabeth Wallace. Dr. and Mrs. Wallace's careers, Scottish origins; reasons for coming to Canada; renowned hospitality, friendship with subject's family begun in Edmonton (1929). Elizabeth Wallace's literary interests: memorable address to Queen's Faculty Women's Club; original Christmas card story about holly. Early death of Wallace son; Elspeth Wallace. Queen's Faculty Women's Club (originated by Mrs. Wallace c. 1946); character as pleasant meeting-place (not a support body for male faculty); subject's participation. Portrait of Mrs. Wallace by Grant Macdonald. Crowded housing conditions c.1945: widowed subject and daughter saved from houseless situation by Queen's offer of Wardenship (Roselawn Residence). Charming domestic scene of May Chown, Vibert Douglas, anonymous professor readying the residences. Crowded post-war residence conditions: bunkbeds packed into every room, spartan military folding chairs, collapsible dressers, etc.; tiny Warden's rooms without fridge, stove. Wardenship (1946-51 ), LaSalle Barracks women's residence; large veteran population. Male student accommodation; exploitation by greedy, unscrupulous Kingston landladies.//Veteran appreciation of sudden opportunity to attend university; globe-trotting career of Dept. of Veteran Affairs student Ethel Stewart, who 'never got over the awe and mystery and appreciation of the chance to come to college', OVA students' 'mad enthusiasm', predictable number of failures, drop-outs. Marion Robinson, recipient of lODE, Governor General's awards: scholarship student to the Sorbonne, member of Marty Memorial Committee. Female enlistment during WWII as manifestation of Armed Forces fever; female army occupations. Discipline of veteran students as a positive factor in residence life; women residents' sweetness, enthusiasm; Shrove Tuesday pancake party while subject to goods rationing. Alice King's soft-gloved OVA authority with resident students; prominent career with Steinbergs, Canada Packers. OVA medical graduate Jean Zarfas. Friendship between Dr. Wallace and subject's husband in Edmonton. Subject's origins in Parkhill, Ontario. Toronto art school studies in design, 1911-12.//Art school; subject's pleasure in drawing, printwork; minor talent compared with artist grandson David. Parent's agreeability to studies. Semi­serious desire for degree in English literature. Subject's lithography work (c. 1913), interviewer's copy-writing work (c. 1956), both for Eaton's catalogue. Secretarial course, work for Manufacturer's Life, Toronto. Intense desire to see New York; work in New York and Florida. Marriage in Canada; raising family out west. Retained interest in arts: employment as newspaper proofreader, library worker; pleasure writing up and illustrating significant personal memories for own children (charming, almost Dickensian story of kind shopkeeper's tactful reduction of prices to suit innocent children's present-buying purse on Christmas Eve). Oral history compared with text-book history; interviewer's play, abstracted from tale of Crysler's Farm. Awesome number of years spent by teachers acquiring Queen's degrees at summer school. Subject as Warden, Muir House, summer of 1946; ludicrousness of residence restrictions when applied to veterans; termination of wardenship by Queen's loss of LaSalle Barracks property, 1951. Eight-year stint as hotel matron, Deep River; 3 years in Denmark with daughter Chloe; resumption of Queen's career, 1962; post at Ban Righ, terminated by serious illness, 1967.//High spirits, social life in OVA years. Letting up of residence restrictions during 1960s. Reflections on social trend towards greater individual freedom: lack of considerate self-discipline in otherwise splendid young people. Dislike of social sciences jargon, extremes of personal introspection, speeded-up, dehumanized computer age; gratitude she need only face it at a late stage in life, lack of hope for the future. Sense of personal responsibility fostered by Presbyterian upbringing, lost to present generation. Bastardization of the English language; continuing interest of human life despite all.