Finally managed to get along to the Little Folly childrens' centre, a new organisation, really well used and full of families all day, in 'The Heath', an estate with a somewhat notorious reputation in Salisbury.
Passing police posters encouraging you to come forward with information and the 'non smacking zone' sign in the centre window, it was, for me, a refreshing departure from the comatose calm of our Wiltshire village. Lucky though we are to live in our own little version of Stepford, at times it makes us want to scream out for a bit of the rawness of the Northern streets we were so used to.
So in I went, set up my recording equipment and tried to explain what on earth my work was about and why I was there at all. During our discussion on night and their experiences as young mothers I gave them a basic felting workshop so that they could work with their children together while also getting something out of it themselves.
Initially, I had thought this a bit of a pointless excercise as I had got so much out of individual interviews where people were able to speak in privacy, that I thought a group discussion wouldn't be so incitful. I was wrong actually, and the small group of mothers were very open and intimate in the things they shared. In a way I could see a real contrast in the act of mulling over memories yourself and the act of sharing and laughing over them with others.
