JOAN MAINPRICE

Joan Mainprice

Life Stories

From

JOAN MAINPRICE

As told to and written by

ALEXANDER VISSCHER

54

Life Stories from Joan Mainprice As told to and written by Alexander Visscher

Author: Alexander VisscherDesign: Hannah FinchamPrinted by: LuluCopyright: ©2018 Bridging Ages, CIC

Bridging Ages, CIC develops programs to encourage social contact between the elderly and youth. We are based in Sussex, UK.www.bridgingages.co.uk

Contents

Page 7

About: Bridging Ages

Page 9

About: Life Stories

Page 13

PrefaceExpectations from Alexander

Page 19

Chapter 1Childhood

Page 27

Chapter 2Family

Page 39

Chapter 3London

Page 51

Chapter 4America

Page 59

Chapter 5Life Thoughts

Page 67

Chapter 6Past few Years

Page 73

Alexander Visscher Bio

76

Bridging Ages CIC is a small not-for profit community company established in Sussex UK, formed in 2014 by three friends who were concerned about loneliness and the lack of social contact between generations. The Life Stories Project was created to address these issues. In 2017, Bridging Ages was awarded a National Lottery Fund grant to develop a Toolkit for the programme, making it possible for any school or group to bring the Life Stories Project to their communities.

Bridging Ages

98

Life Stories aims to increase social contact between generations. Teens visit older people in their homes, ask them about their lives and then write a professionally published book about them! In the process, young and old come together and each becomes a part of the other’s Life Story.

A Life Stories book is an important family document for future generations. Families can order more copies and usually do! However, the success of the

Life Stories

1110

project lies in the process of making the books. The student visits give support to older people who may be lonely. Conversations with a young person can stimulate reflections on a life lived and honour that life. The older participants tell about how things used to be and what they’ve learned in their lives. It is enjoyable to share these stories with a receptive ear and important to hand down this legacy to the next generation.

Spending time with an older person and hearing a first-hand account of history can counteract negative ageist attitudes in the young. This is important in our rapidly ageing population. For many teens, this project is an introduction to volunteering, which can lead to future civic engagement. In addition, they meet the tremendous scholastic challenge of actually writing a book!

The Life Stories Project builds respect, trust and empathy between generations, and that makes our communities stronger.

1312

PrefaceExpactations from Alexander

1514

My expectation of this project was to learn about the life of a person who has lived for many years. At that time when we weren’t assigned to a partner yet; the Bridging Ages organisers asked everyone what age they considered to be old. I said 56, and they laughed. This was because at the time I thought 56 years was a long time to have been alive. In the end they told me, my partner was a lady who was 101 years old. I was excited to meet someone as old as her. I thought she must have some very wise information that I could learn from.

Preface

Expectations

from

Alexander

1716

LifeStoriesFrom Joan Mainprice

1918

1Childhood

2120

It was 1917. I was born in Little Loxwood in Wisborough Green and I was the new sister of two older brothers. My birth was during the middle of the First World War, at which time, my father had been in France as a Padre for the troops. His name was William Mainprice and he was a vicar who had a parish, where he took care of the members each day. I spent the early days of my childhood in a decent house with a decent garden, although I call it decent, I was quite happy with

1“A padre for the troops.”

Childhood

2322

Joan 10 yrs old

Joan

Mainprice

the place. My family and I lived with my grandparents. I don’t remember much about them, apart from that I really liked them. We actually lived in a restricted area, as a war was going on, but since we had lived there before the war started, we were allowed to stay. In a way we were protected.

Our house was close to a village where my father’s parish was. The members of the parish were nearby and my father would quite frequently leave the house on his bike to visit them. He would do this almost every day, and therefore I didn’t see him very often. I didn’t find this too saddening, after all I grew up with it, so it didn’t affect me too much.

Due to us living outside the village, we had to go to the village daily to get food or visit the parish members. At least one of our family members would go on the simple one mile route on a daily basis. Quite often, when I accompanied my mother to the village I would meet the parish members, whom my mother would also take care of. They were all kind people.

Childhood

2524

Something strange that I seem to remember about my village, is that everyone warned each other away from the local Doctor. I don’t remember why, but it seemed funny to me. However something that I do remember clearly is the religious sect in the village called the Dependenced. It is a religious sect of which there are only two in the whole of England. It was ridiculous for there to be a gathering of people who would listen to the Priest, John Sirgood preach. His preaching was about how the world we lived in was a wicked one and the sooner we left, the better it would be. My brothers and I found it mildly funny, I remember we used to call them Cookler.

There was more to the village than just the religious sect. The village also had a Chinese shop, a typical groceries shop, bike shop, post office, and a butcher. A very simple village in my opinion, in respect to today’s perspective. But back then those shops were all we could have, and we made the best of them.

Back home, during the summer I would find the most enjoyable smell

right in my garden. All one had to do was to stick one’s head out the window and smell a magnolia tree. I remember it smelling so beautiful and that smell is something that throughout my life reminded me of my childhood with my family. The smell came up many more times in my life.

“It’s hard to remember ones childhood when one has lived as long as I have. It has been interesting, odd people come and go.”

Joan

Mainprice

Childhood

2726

2Family

2928

The two brothers that I was born with were named Paul and James. Paul was the eldest, he would always be the cheerful type, but also somehow he managed sometimes to be quiet. He really enjoyed the game Polo though, and he wasn’t quiet during those times. James was the second eldest, and he and Paul always teased me. Now when I look back at it, it makes me laugh.

After a few years, Loxley was born. Sadly he was born with a horrible skin

2“I had a doll who lived outside in the bushes”

Family

3130

disease called “eczema”. The doctor at the time just thought his rashes were over-scratched mosquito bites, I find that ridiculous. Poor Loxley had to pretty much spend most of his childhood covered in bandages, which he would have to change twice each day. Once Loxley had grown up a bit more he would join me and my brothers to have fun in our village. We would cycle into the village on our bicycles. I remember the first bike we had was sent down to our home after our aunt had sadly died in a car accident up in London. We learnt how to ride the bike and then when I was around 12 years old I spent all the pocket money that I had saved so far, on getting my own bicycle. My brothers and I would ride together following the hounds that were running after foxes. The hounds we were chasing belonged to Lord Leckenfield, who, funnily enough, was well known for losing hounds. I found those sorts of things rather amusing.

I spent all my money on getting my own bicycle, and I see how nowadays everyone buys so many things, that are either not needed or not taken care of.

“I believe that people valued their belongings more back then.”

There was another crazy and funny thing we did as children. For fun, we would climb up a small portion of a tree and slide down one of its branches. It didn’t hurt somehow, it was slippery enough to let us be unharmed. When I look at it now, it seems like a very bizarre thing to do.

I really liked my parents. My father was an easygoing man who was very kind. I believed he was probably a pure British-man; William Mainprice was his name. He was rather tall, 6 feet if I remember rightly. He had his religious-duties, and I would say he was very dedicated. I never got interested in doing something similar to that, it didn’t appeal to me. Although I think that is also mainly due to me not contemplating it. However I believed he was doing good in this world.

Just like my father, my mother was easy going. She was kind too, almost never strict or disciplinary. I thought she was a good mother. Her name was

Joan

Mainprice

Family

3332

Joan & Brother going swimming

Joan

Mainprice

Family

William Mainprice

3534

Connie, but I can’t remember her last name before she was married, that made me think about how peculiar it is to lose one’s surname when you marry. Quite often she would go on a walk, which she so enjoyed. She had long hair and was around a medium height and always seemed reasonably happy with William. While William was out taking care of his parish, my mother would take care of me and my brothers. It was sort of her job.

“My parents didn’t always see the same side, but they worked well with each other and stayed together.”

Before my parents met, my father was on an exchange holiday service in Switzerland. My soon-to-be-mother was out with her friends and had decided to invite my father for tea. They got to know one another and over time grew fond of each other and decided to raise a family.

On the day my father returned from Paris he brought with him a doll, and gave it to me as a present. I remember placing her in the bushes outside in the garden and I declared that the bushes

Joan’s mother Connie

Joan

Mainprice

Family

3736

were where she lived. My parents would always bring her back inside and say that it would be damaged by the rain. I never seemed to mind that. They didn’t understand that the bushes were her home. Sooner or later my parents gave up on saving the doll. Now as I look back on it I had more than one doll but that one seemed to be the only one that I can remember. To me, it was a very good one.

Joan

Mainprice

3938

3London

4140

Before going up to London, I finished school at St Margaret’s when I was 16 years old. I got my job through the Principal. She knew of 2 vacancies, which one of them I could have. There was another girl who had first pick. She chose some other kind of job in the city, while I was left with the Cabinet Office. I was happy with the job I got. I moved up to London, lived in Sloane Square and regularly visited back home, as I tended to become homesick. Going up to

3“I never seemed to have green fingers.”

London

4342

London was a big change. Once I was up there I just found the city to be such an extraordinary place, one can’t compare it with the countryside. To me the City just reeks of History and it is fascinating how the whole area was built up. It made living there quite nice.

When I was around 18 years old, and living in London I visited Kew Gardens for the first time. It was just beautiful, I don’t understand why I was so infatuated with the place. I think I liked it for the peacefulness and just the combination of flowers and their smell. It reminded me when I tried to be a gardener, I somehow always managed to be fascinated by flowers and would try to grow my own. I planted many different kinds of flowers but they would never flourish, so I ended up planting Irises, since they grow themselves. I am ashamed to admit it, I wasn’t good at being a gardener; I never seemed to have green fingers. Although I know I wasn’t a great gardener, I couldn’t stay away from flowers. Kew Gardens also had one of those magnolia trees that we had at

Joan

Mainprice

London

Joan Portrait of 20-30s

4544

Joan Portait 30-40s

Joan

Mainprice

home, their smell and looks are just so nice, especially how they reminded me of my home.

As I began to become older I tried other activities. I once tried to go iceskating, it didn’t go too well, I stood there shaking so much, while hanging on to someone. So there I was standing on a frozen pond, not moving but shaking. Skiing was another thing I tried, also didn’t go too well. I remember, we had to walk up the entire hill with seal skin on our shoes, because they supposedly work better for climbing up snow. Walking up wasn’t any problem, but once I was up and looking up to see a mountain that I had only seen from much further down. Now seeing it from a much higher height did not make me feel good. I was terrified of looking down, I had absolutely no head for heights.

During my time up in London I tried dating a few times. It never worked, I was never really obsessed with having to marry anyone or to have children; it just never seemed to cross my mind. All the men that I would have married were already taken. I never interested myself

London

4746

go in, I asked him why I was picked out of the queue. He replied simply with “You looked interesting”. I found that rather amusing. Once I was inside, I was amazed, I never saw anything like it. I sat on a chair above the House of Commons and watched as the people before me were doing political work. I couldn’t believe they governed us.

“Extraordinary.”

There was this time when I decided to take some flying lessons. I went to the local flying club in London, It was called the Redhill Flight Club. This was actually the club where Amy Jonson learnt how to fly. Many people said she was an awful flyer, as she took down the gate post every time she was flew out. I found that quite funny. In the end she became famous for her long distance flights. One of them was the flight from Britain to Australia, which she did on her own, and she was the first female to do so.

One time when we were in the air we weren’t allowed to land, because every time we flew in to land they delayed me

in dressing up nicely or putting on lots of make-up just for another man. I just couldn’t be bothered.

In 1924 the time of the Russian Revolution created a tremendous upheaval. I was up in London, and opposite where I was living there was a lady who apparently had escaped with her aunt from Russia to Paris, while also having lost her family. I found that quite sad, as it isn’t nice to lose one’s family.

“My family meant a lot to me.”

I discovered politics while I was in London, and it peaked my interest. I found it very interesting to see who governs us. Late in the 1980s, I stood in a line once to enter the House of Commons. Back then anyone could enter the building. At the time Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister, so I had to go and see how things went about. The line was fairly long, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get in but I felt bloody-minded and stayed in line, until this man started to walk along the line and stopped by me. He said I could

Joan

Mainprice

London

4948

and my flight instructor, due to other planes having a higher priority. We stayed up in the air for a long time, to the point when it got a bit darker. We began to get lost, because it was hard to navigate. Back in the days we had to look at the ground, because we didn’t have any GPS’s we had to use land marks. After circling round the landing strip a few more time in the dark, we finally landed and that is when I decided that, that would be the end of my flying career.

Joan

Mainprice

5150

4America

5352

In the late 1940s, I went to America to do more work in the Cabinet Office. My travel to America wasn’t the most pleasant. I had to go on a 14 day trip on a ship convoy. We got stuck in Liverpool for 3 days, due to snow. Being stuck wasn’t so bad, but what I found unacceptable was the water slushing around in my cabin. At the time when I noticed and got out of my bed, I shouted ever so loudly for someone to get the water out of my cabin. A man did come but told

4“Water slushing in a cabin.”

America

5554

towards them, after all we are still are human regardless of colour. Nowadays different races are everywhere, working the same kind of jobs as we do. I think we have integrated well.

At the time of my life in America, I did go back home for a 6 week visit to see my family. I remember clearly that my brothers and me were still far from mature, but I have no memory of what we actually did. Sadly our father and James weren’t there. Around the 1930s my father; William Mainprice died, he was about 60 years old when he died and the cause was pneumonia. James, on the other hand, was in the army fighting against Japan which led to his death. He died leading an air attack on the Japanese. The mission was a repeated one from a previous surprise attack. His plane got taken down by these very long poles stretching out of the ground. The first attack was a success but because they didn’t complete it perfectly the second time was an attack without the element of surprise. In the end they couldn’t find his plane nor did they know if he was captured or dead. So the Army

me to please be patient as the rest of the boat had water in it as well. All sorts of thoughts would go through ones head when thinking that the boat was full of water. In the end I still made it to America.

The second world war was an awful thing. So many people died. My job became increasingly more busy due to this war, but the times weren’t always so bad. I managed to play some tennis and there was this one time when I saw planes dogfighting overhead, it wasn’t a nice feeling seeing them fight, any minute they could have accidentally shot us.

Around 1940 there wasn’t just the problem with the war, but things also worked differently back then, when it came to races. In the USA everything was segregated between the black and white people. There was a shoe shop for the white and a shoe shop for the black. Each side had their own buildings. It seems strange to look at it from today’s perspective; it made me think of how I might have treated them. I don’t think I was ever strongly discriminating

Joan

Mainprice

America

5756

declared him dead. Losing my father and a brother wasn’t such a nice feeling, and my family always meant much to me. James had also just married June, and ever since his death June set out to find the proof of his death, but never found anything. Poor June was left alone like that.

Joan

Mainprice

5958

5Life thoughts

6160

I spent at long time in Sloane Square but then moved to Notting Hill and that is where I lived for 40 years before moving to my niece’s place. Here I have lived around horses. Horses are amazing creatures; they do scare me a tiny bit, though, because of their size and the amount of power that they have. My niece’s name is Rowena, and she was the daughter of my little brother Loxley and a woman named Barbara, I really like her; she was nice. Sadly, a while ago Loxley

5“It is one of those things that happen.”

Life

thoughts

6362

Joan with Loxley and Barbara to the right

Joan

Mainprice

past away, he lived for about 76 years. He worked in the library at the British Museum. Poor Loxley had a horrible time with his Parkinson’s, and even though he also had eczema he was actually quite cheerful. In the end, he died in the hospital. Paul had spent a long time in India, but here he unfortunately caught a local disease which everyone else was immune to, apart from him. He died in India, and sadly wasn’t married when he left us.

I haven’t been to many places; I have been to Paris, Spain and America, but generally I don’t think I travelled enough in my life time. In my opinion people nowadays just hop on in a plane and go fly halfway across the globe. I was born at the time at which planes where still being invented. So back then travelling cost a lot more. I wanted and liked to travel, but never ended up doing it. But I just wanted to, simply because I wanted to get out and about.

“If you want to go somewhere, then go there.”

Life

thoughts

6564

people around me, but it wasn’t always that easy. Sometimes you just can’t predict who will get into your life, but something that I noticed, which I think is strange, is how some unpromising people turn out to be quite promising and vice versa. I think its because every one has hidden depths that come out in unexpected situation. In a way the situation draws out their capabilities. The more people you meet the more variety you’ll find, and I think one should get out and about into the world, there is much to see. I regret not doing as much as I could have, I feel like I could have lived my life better. I could have experienced more.

I worked in the same job till I retired when I was 70; it felt rather nice. I was still in London and would still have interesting evenings. I would go around galleries – just to get free food. Life was still exciting especially in London, but at the same time it managed to feel calm as well. My mother lived for a long time, she got to the age of 94 years, and died of old age.

“She was a happy one.”

Throughout all the time that I have lived until then, I didn’t get out enough, is what I feel like now. I didn’t meet many interesting people, which who knows, if I had met more, one of them could have been my husband. In the end I never married, and I don’t think I would have made a particularly good wife anyway. Every now and then I would think about it but never got to find one, but at the same time I didn’t feel an urge to find someone. Nowadays I regret it slightly.I may not have met interesting people but I have come across many people, and I made sure to keep certain types of

Joan

Mainprice

Life

thoughts

6766

6Past few Years

6968

The past few years have been a shutting down of things. I am just less involved; I don’t get around enough. In my opinion turning 101 years old is completely useless, I can’t do what I did 3 years ago and now I need to walk around with a frame. It’s very immobilising. One could say I feel frustrated and stuck, but I would probably fall into a bush of roses simply because I can’t even walk with a stick.

If I got asked if I was scared of death, I would say yes. But I just don’t

6“Make the most of your time, its shorter than you think.”

Past

few

Years

7170

contemplate it that much, I just try to forget it will happen. I manage to stay cheerful, especially when someone is in the room, and although the weather in England is awful, I still live in a nice place with the horses nearby.

The world surely has changed quite a bit, technology has become something ever so amazing, but I think people’s values have changed and so, have their connection with people.

Joan

Mainprice

7372

Alexander Visscher

I am not religious, but I am interested in the way of Buddha. I also generally like the ways of Asian countries (historically as well – Samurai). I enjoy learning about my body in the ways of its limits, and therefore study the Martial Arts. I also enjoy the mind-set of Martial Artists and therefore enjoy mediation sometimes. I like to think logically and enjoy problem solving either through building things or coding.

StudentBio