Laura Antle, History 150 Spring 2016, Conducted by Julia Brinkman, Social Integration Within Different Societies, March 18, 2016

This interview was conducted via facetime. I had to edit the interview due to the time requirements since it was 41 minutes long. I cut more broad information and/or anything that didn’t necessarily have to do with the topic that my Aunt and I were on. Before the interview started, I charged my iPod as well as my iPhone for the voice memo app and facetime app. I leaned my phone against a prop and put my iPod close to it on my desk. I chose my room because I don’t have a roommate and my hall is fairly quiet, so it seemed appropriate.

Laura Brinkman Antle was born March 4th, 1951, at home by midwife, in Chapel’s Cove, Newfoundland, Canada. Her heritage is Irish, English, German, and French. Her
father (my grandfather) was an American military man stationed at U.S. Naval Base, Argentia, Newfoundland, at time of her birth.  Her mother was a Canadian citizen, working at same base. She is now a retired Human Resources Director with a BA degree in psychology. My Aunt Laura currently lives in The Villages, Florida, during winter months and St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, during warmer months.  She previously resided 17 years in Clifton, Virginia, suburb of Washington, DC; 5 years in Ruislip, England, suburb of London; 18 years in Newfoundland, Canada; remaining years in various U.S. states.

During my proposal I did some light research on Newfoundland and England’s history and geographic location but I wanted to review this material as well as look up a little more back ground on the expenses that come with living in these areas. Newfoundland, also known as Newfoundland and Labrador is located on the eastern edge of North America. Newfoundland is the easternmost province of Canada and is extension of the Appalachian System (mountains). There are tall mountains, many valleys, and an abundance of streams. Its climate is classified as a polar tundra and the area in which my family and Aunt Laura lives is St. John’s which represents the east coast. St. John’s is one of the oldest settlements in North America and Canada. It was founded in 1497 by John Cabot and established in 1583 by the Royal Charter. The culture in Newfoundland to this day have a background of English, Irish, and French. The land is known for fishing and storytelling.  There are two languages spoken, French, which comes from the west coast area and English which is mainly spoken everywhere else but with variety. The pricing to live in Newfoundland, Canada is about three times less expensive than to live in Vancouver, Canada. While looking at exact prices of food, clothes, transportation, personal care, etc. I found that they are around the same pricing that I pay to live in Virginia Beach, VA (middle class) if not a little more. After doing Newfoundland research, I looked up the geography, culture, and pricing of England. Ruislip, England is a town in west London and was originally a county of Middlesex. The area was owned by a Saxon named Wlward Wit, a thane of the king who owned many countries. During a fall down, Arnulf de Hesdin took control of Ruislip. Now in present day, the prices to live there are very high in comparison to the prices to live in Newfoundland. The prices are especially high due to it being near London.

Julia: I am interviewing my Aunt Laura uhm, and I am going to be asking you some questions about… you know… living in Newfoundland and England and also having a government job, raising a family, and being a professional, having a professional job and being a woman… you know, uh, in the 50’s. So starting with government work and raising a family, how was that for you? Was it difficult at all?

Laura: Uh, well, let me start out  uh by describing my early background and my marriage and uhm how that relates to my government job and the different places I lived, uh well, went to live at while I was working… I was posted to. So let me start off with that, so I was born in Newfoundland and uhm I’m also a naturalized U.S citizen. Uhm, I spent half my years growing up in Newfoundland, my childhood years, and half of them growing up in the United States so I have a very balanced picture of both Newfoundland and the United States. Newfoundland is one of ten provinces in Canada and has a unique culture. So what I might say about Newfoundland may not apply to some other provinces especially on the west coast. Uhm, Newfoundland is part of the four Atlantic provinces and… and they all have… they were set largely by the Irish and the English and they just overtime developed their own unique culture much of which derives back to the Irish English Culture. So starting off with that, then uhm, okay so, I understand what it is like to be in both places and I not only understand the culture, I lived it for many years as a child. Uh then, I met my husband, uh… he was in the Canadian Navy stationed at an American base in Norfolk Virginia. Uhm and we married and for a while as a government worker, uh, he was finishing out his career trying to get up to 20 years so he could retire. I was a government worker and we had a child came along. Uh, haha your haha cousin, Karl.

Julia: Yes!

Laura: And uhm, I was working in the United States, so we had this long distance marriage for five years. So, I eventually able to finagle a posting to an American base, uh… called the U.S. Navel facility Argentia, Newfoundland and I spent six years there. Uhm, that was very interesting in terms of culture because I was there as the U.S. Director of Human Resources. In that capacity I hired both U.S. employees and Canadian employees and it was interesting because I understood the Canadian employees perfectly since  I am Can- Newfoundland, Canadian born there… raised there for half my time and uh it was interesting to uh be an American in charge of them too because the American management above me uh expected  me to treat them the same as I would uh a U.S working and that just wasn’t… that didn’t work well because my… the American management above me had no experience in Newfoundland and they didn’t understand the culture. So, I was very effective in that job in communications because I could talk to… let’s say we had problem employees’ disciplinary issues… I was able to talk to them on a level or a plane that was understandable to them and was not insulting to them. Uh, what I will say about Americans when they go… not just to an overseas posting in let’s say Newfoundland, Canada, but anywhere is that Americans bring their own culture and they often don’t make enough of an attempt to fit in.

Julia: To assimilate?

Laura: They don’t try to understand the culture. If you make an attempt interact with, on a social level, and uh understand the culture as an American, you’ll be liked a lot better. And as a director of human resources I was able to manage my employees more effectively well because I had the advantage of being able to live it but I also had to… I guess you might say instructor teach the American management above me ways to deal with employees… to get them to work for an example, to motivate them to work. And Uhm, okay so, with that background, also been raised in Newfoundland and then spending another six years as an adult as director of human resources…

Julia: Mhm…

Laura: I was in my thirties then, uhm, now we own a summer home in Canada so we have been going back and forth for five years in our summer home so we live five months of the year there and seven months here.

[Portion omitted]

Laura: Again, I talked earlier about being born in Newfoundland and understanding the culture. A lot of the culture in that part of Canada is derived from… uhm its heritage is largely English and Irish so I understood automatically the English perspective on things and the Irish perspective on things because it was so embedded in the culture. So, the later on in my career, in my government career, uhm I was sent to be the human resources director in London, England. Uhm by this time our son was… he was six year old, that’s right.

Julia: And did you choose to go there? Did you want to go there or were—

Laura: Yes I wanted to go there. I asked for the posting because I had always wanted to live in England. So, I was… so anyway, they transferred me there and we stayed for five years. And again I was able to use my experience in having grown up in Newfoundland to interact with the culture there and to understand their culture and to motivate them in a way that was… uhm… successful. Uhm, again it was another experience of you advising Americans when there in any foreign location….

Julia: Mhm…

Laura: I’m not saying do as the Romans do because there may be cultural things we just don’t want to do but it really pays off to number one, keep your voice down haha…. I say that because…. We all would — my husband and I and our son Karl would always joke that we could always … if we were traveling in Germany or Italy or wherever, we always knew when an American was around. You know why?

Julia: Because they’re loud speakers?

Laura: Because they’re loud speakers. Their voice would rise above everybody else…

Julia: That’s interesting, that’s funny.

Laura: It’s like… we would almost say it was like they just want everyone to know they’re there and there smart and everything and everyone would be looking at them … you know, ‘Could you just put your voice down’ or ‘maybe you could just shut up, that would be better’ haha and so living in a foreign area, Americans’ just need to be go with the flow, do…watch the customs, try to understand the people, and  don’t be loud and obnoxious and uh embracive. And uhm be very polite

Julia: So what were some other social… socially non accepted things? Was there anything else in England that you know this from Americans are from a different country? You know, people in England didn’t like? Wasn’t socially accepted?

Laura: Well it was an interesting thing because we were uhm U.S. federal workers. My husband worked there to as a contract specialist uhm and what was interesting was that we made friends with many English people uhm we were friends with people who lived on both sides of our house uhm but it was interesting that some of them, not all of them, but we knew it was in the minds of everybody, they would ask us what our social status was. And we would just looked at them blankly because ‘what do you mean is our social status?’ they said well we don’t know what… in other words, what they were trying to say is they didn’t know where we ranked in society. So I’m not saying they have a caste system in England but they’re still conscious of where you came from, not even necessarily your education level, but where you came from… were you the son of let’s say a carpenter and a house wife. Uh or did you come from professional parents so there still some of a little bit of a system there where people seek to fit in where they think is  there social level. And that’s so different from the United States where here it doesn’t matter where you came from… You could come from nothing but if you make it and your making decent money and you rich or whatever, uhm nobody question whether…. Well I shouldn’t say we don’t question, sometimes you might think well…

Julia: Yeah…

Laura: but it’s not uppermost on your mind. Should I socialize with this person because maybe because I don’t fit in his class or maybe he doesn’t fit in my class? So while it’s absent in the United States, it’s much more pronounced in England. So going back to what I said, friends would say to us ‘you know we’re not really sure… I mean are we above your level or below your level? We think we are below your level but is it alright to socialize with you?’ So we were really asked those questions.

Julia: That’s interesting. Did you feel like you were comfortable and you got along with people in England? Was that similar in Newfoundland? Did you feel looking in comparison to both of them do you feel that sense there’s a background in English in Newfoundland, do you feel like people kind of had that with you? And did you feel comfortable enough to consider them as a friend?

Laura: Yes, we’ll go to Newfoundland first, uhm it was an interesting experience growing up in newfoundland because being both American and Canadian by my newfoundland birth… it was interesting that they foremost considered me to be American… that’s what they responded to… to my American side and so even though I did things the way other newfoundland children did, I was still quote unquote the ‘Yank’.

Julia: The Yank? What a yank?

Laura: You know the Yankee

Julia: Oh

Laura: they’ll often referred to Americans as the yanks and that’s came from a lot of military lore especially the world wars… they would be fighting in foreign countries and they were known as the yanks.

Julia: Was that a negative connotation?

Laura: Yes, that was my point. It was negative, it was meant to be a slam, it wasn’t a compliment and you know, you could sense the underlying… not necessarily the resentment toward me but there was always an underlying negativity about Americans.

Julia: that’s interesting

Laura: So that was even in Newfoundland as child because I had to deal with that while I was both citizenships, they saw me as American so I was ultra-careful about fitting in and doing how the Newfoundlanders do. The same thing in England but more pronounced. The English, we were…. I was a federal director for the U.S. navy, Human resource director for the U.S. navy and uhm we the bases brought a lot of money to the English economy but still even though we were contributing, we the united states government contributing, we could still hear the resentment occasionally being called a yank or something like that to let you know.

[Rest of Portion omitted]

The interview went amazing! I left the rest out while transcribing because it was so long and I thought the first part of the interview was very detailed. If I could do it differently I wouldn’t have had so many questions written down and I would have interrupted to steer the interview a little more. It flowed wonderfully since she was my Aunt. I’m glad I did it!