Adelaide Welling

Although this podcast was initially commissioned by the Willoughby Old Girls for the documentation of their school memories, it has grown to serve several different functions and is subsequently of potential interest to a much wider listenership. This podcast serves the triple purpose of: documenting some of the memories that the Willoughby Old Girls shared about their time at high school 50 years ago, analysing some of the themes (such as opportunities and friendships) that emerged from these interviews, and presenting the original research I undertook on the Pallister Girls Home as a result of their commissioning. Due to the nature of the work, all the sources I drew from were primary. These include: the three hours of audio I took from the Willoughby 50 year reunion, and a pile of documents from the 1960s pertaining to the functioning of Pallister House. Fortunately, all of the primary sources are rich with points of ‘human interest’, and thus used extensively and verbatim.

Quite unexpectedly, the answers the women gave in their interviews at the reunion seemed to follow common concerns and a general theme. Comments such as, ‘I wish I had’ or ‘She made me the person I am’, were very popular. This pattern grew into an analytical argument that is now threaded throughout the piece.

Ultimately, the podcast argues that reunions facilitate self-reflection on the events of the past and a consideration of their impact, positive or not, on the present person. This theme is present in all three of the analytical segments; ‘Friends’, ‘Opportunities’ and ‘Mrs Shumaker’, and is even found as the instigator of the research piece, ‘Pallister Research’. The notion of self-reflection is found in ‘Friends’ as the Old Girls discuss how their friends impacted them, or share that they are keen to see how their friends have changed or stayed the same as a result of the past half-decade. All references to Mrs Shumaker are in regards to her positive influence on their person and school. Self-reflection is seen again in ‘Opportunities’ as the Old Girls share whether Willoughby gave them the leg up in life or not, and extends even to the Old Girl’s interest in researching Pallister House - as the Old Girls were interested in the opportunities offered to the Pallister girls and how this impacted their respective futures.  

As stated previously, due to the expansion of the initial idea (from a keepsake, to a multi-segment discussion) this work now appeals to a wider audience. Had the podcast not grown to encapsulate the Pallister investigation, or the analysis on self-reflection on the past, it would have been of interest to only those whose memories are being shared (ie. The Willoughby Old Girls). In much the same way, a primary school band performance is only of interest to parents of children playing instruments. However, I feel that the Pallister research presented in the podcast may catch the attention outside just the Willoughby Old Girls who commissioned the investigation. The Pallister information holds interest as a story, as would any other podcast about a historical era or place, and its range of listener demographics may include: Greenwhich locals, others who experienced institutional care, or even a past Pallister resident.

Furthermore, the discussion on self-reflection of the past, as interwoven throughout the interviews, similarly aims to broaden the net of listenership. The topic of self-reflection – the focus of the argument - encourages the listener to engage in some self-reflection of their own– how did their schooling shape them? Moreover, the soft analysis breaks up and contextualises otherwise long slabs of interview, using the raw audio to progress the argument. I feel that the added segments – the Pallister research and the ‘self-reflection’ discussion – turn the podcast into a widely relevant piece, as opposed to a shapeless collection of memories only of interest to a few dozen women. The piece aims to hit a sweet spot in the middle; still appealing to the originally intended audience, but also accessible to others.

However, as this podcast was initially commissioned by women in their late sixties and was agreed upon to be a bit of light listening, I didn’t want to make it too academic or argument driven. Instead, the work is pitched as a gentle breakdown of the themes presented in the interviews with the Old Girls. This softcore analysis extends into the presentation of the Pallister Girls Home research, which opts toward ‘human interest’. For this reason I chose to include case studies of individual Pallister girls (all information taken from the primary sources, but names changed) where their ‘before’ and ‘after’ assessments, as well as family situations and personality traits, are used to help create a figure in the listener’s imagination. The creation of this figure is aimed at heightening emotional investment in the plight of these girls. A similar result is aimed for in the ‘Day In The Life’ segment, where sound effects further the imagination exercise.

One may ask how this piece – having seemingly grown big and different from its original idea – is useful or significant to the Old Girls who commissioned it. What I have tried to create is a podcast that helps these women self-reflect on their school days well; for those who bemoaned missed opportunities, I acknowledged the healthiness of self-reflection, and hopefully allowed some airing of grievances that will in turn allow for a recognition of the positive influences Willoughby had on their lives. For those with much to say about the positive, this podcast was a chance to state gratefulness. And for those who have sat for 50 years with the unsolved mystery behind the girls at Pallister House, I hope this podcast resolved that for them too.

— ADELAIDE WELLING

Adelaide Welling, "Willoughby Girls 50 Year School Reunion," History Matters, (27 September 2015)

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