RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979 [summer] SUMMARY: Came to Canada in September 1950; Chinatown was dilapidated and run-down; some of the houses were tiny. Worked for a fish wholesaler for eight years and also as a farm labourer and shrimp peeler; husb;and was out of work in the shingle mill; didn't speak English but surprised people by being able to go out alone; people thought her very brave; bought a sewing machine on credit and learned to alter ;and sew clothes to earn money; when she first came to Canada she thought people in Chinatown were old-fashioned; they wanted women hidden away; if a woman were to look out a window in her home, she wa;s considered shameless and men would stare at them when they were out; there were not many native Indians in the Chinatown area twenty years ago; there are also more prostitutes in the area now; twent;y years ago she was very naïve and didn't know what these women did for a living; now a Canadian citizen and votes in every election; husband came to Canada at the age of fifteen; during the Sino-Japa;nese war, he was able to send money via San Francisco to support her; talks about the positive aspects of government social assistance to senior citizens; gives the wages she was earning in the fish c;annery; talks about the purchase of a rooming house by herself and her husband.;

CALL NUMBER: T3689:0001 PERIOD COVERED: 1908-1964 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979 [summer] SUMMARY: Born in Fernie, BC; parents are of Italian descent; third eldest of seven children; after the 1908 Fernie fire, in which the two elder siblings died, family moved to Nordic, Alberta; was sick throughout childhood; attended five years of school; was blind from age ten to twelve; was married at fifteen after the birth of a child; was naïve about men and sex; mother was Catholic, but Anna attended a ;Protestant church in Nordic because there was no Catholic church in that community; talks of her first husband and his work in the railway and subsequent divorce; worked in Vancouver as a waitress; custody and care of her two children from her first husband; her second husband was away from home working around BC; discusses her husband's problem with alcohol; worked all her life and managed to purchase a house and two small businesses; she talks about and describes various members of her family, and discusses taking boarders in her home between 1959 and 1964.

CALL NUMBER: T3689:0002 PERIOD COVERED: 1925-1979 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979 [summer] SUMMARY: Discusses her relationship with her five children; second husband died in 1966; took in Hungarian refugees, approximately 1957; describes the renters in her home. Her husband cared for her when she had a hysterectomy and was sick and depressed; finally sold the house in 1972; has been in poor health and has had cancer; felt she has always tried to help a lot of people if they are in need; regrets ;marrying so young and naïve. She considers that living on Vancouver's skid road in the East End at present is bad, especially with muggings; relates how muggers once ran her down and stole her groceri;es and the ninety cents she had; she understands what being poor means, as she had in the past gone to the Salvation Army for a meal.;

CALL NUMBER: T3693:0001 PERIOD COVERED: 1899-1979 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979 [summer] SUMMARY: Her birthplace; recalls her education; cruel teacher; living in Vancouver with her mother; Orma's working, embroidery, babysitting, cleaning fish; moving out to Commercial Drive; married at the age of 20 talks of her daughter; impression of life in the East End; experiences and impressions of hoodlums and muggings; description of her apartment; impression of the area on First Church; drunkards; drinking; more on her daughter; Orma's friends.

CALL NUMBER: T3693:0002 PERIOD COVERED: 1899-1979 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979 [summer] SUMMARY: Born in 1890 in Ontario; moved to Winnipeg at the age of 8; her mother; living with aunt; living on farm; got hurt at school; teacher threw her down the stairs; from ages of eight to twelve spent in hospital; sewing experience; Vancouver with mother; effects of the Depression of the family; babysitting; left home at age 18; her daughter and marriage; miscellaneous concerning her health and doctors; comments on her life in general her activities.