TRANSCRIPT

WM - Wilma (Miller) Morrison, interviewee / NP - Natalie Przybyl, interviewer

NP: Let's go back to the beginning and tell me a little bit more about London. You said you were really young, but what do you remember about growing up in London.

WM: Everything was wonderful in London. Not really. I had one teacher who I... We, we lived on the wrong side of the street, if you can imagine! And all the kids that I had gone to kindergarten with, was, uh, they, they all went to this 1 school, and... Oh, I had a wonderful kindergarten teacher, Miss Howey. 90 [sic; should be @ 75 years when recorded in 2008] years ago and I still remember! [laughs]

NP: You always remember the good teacher.

WM: Yeah!

NP: You always remember...

WM: And, um, then... So in Grade 1, I went to Alexander School, and then, er, Aberdeen, sorry. Then Grade 2, I had to transfer, they found out that I lived on the wrong side of the street. So I had to go to this school. And it was way, it was out of the neighbourhood, quite a ways out of the neighbourhood. Uh, so I, had yuh, I had quite a long walk to - the other school was only about, mmm, 3, 4 blocks; like, but it was in the neighbourhood - but this, this 1 was out. And the sort of... it was in the sort of a better neighbourhood? In the... I guess and I know for the most part there weren't any other blacks there, but anyway, uh, [hesitates] the teacher she didn't like me too much and so anyway it ended up that she, uh, she... Nah, I'm not even going to talk about it. But anyway, she ended up calling me a name and, and so my mum had to go to the school. And, um... My mum was really quiet she, but you listened; she spoke very quietly so you had to listen to what she was saying. And, uh, so, I thought I was going to really get it when I got home. She, and she wasn't 1, you know, well, that's so and so's fault, you know; she wasn't 1 to blame. But she told the teacher what she would call me from now on, which was Wilma. [chuckles] And I would address her as Miss Somebody-or-other, 'cause I don't remember her name, 'cause I didn't like her. And so, uh, then my lecture all the way home was, 'You don't like your teacher very much, do you?' And I said, 'No, I don't and she doesn't like me.' 'Well do you know how to get away from her?' And so I said, 'No, how?' I was pretty sure there was as solution coming tomorrow. She said, 'Get your work done and pass.' So, I did my work. And I passed. And you know my what passing gift was? She found a house on the other side of the street - I moved back to Aberdeen School.