{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/dj58c9t37p/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dilys Hoffman Oral History"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 1\u003c/strong\u003e: Dilys Hoffman shares memories of her early childhood in Parkway Village during the 1950s.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhoto: Dilys Hoffman (front) celebrating her fifth birthday by riding her new bicycle in Parkway Village with her friend, Lesley, September 1957. Courtesy of Dilys Hoffman.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eDilys Hoffman speaks with interviewer Dexter Fergie about her experience growing up in Parkway Village during the 1950s and 1960s. Opened in 1947 and located in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood of Queens, Parkway Village was built to serve as housing for United Nations employees. Hoffman's parents were originally from London; she describes their move to New York City when her father began working for the United Nations after World War II.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to Parkway Village, Hoffman spent several years growing up in Mexico, where her father also did work for the United Nations. Hoffman explains what it was like for her between the ages of 5 and 13 moving back and forth between Parkway Village and Mexico. Hoffman recalls attending kindergarten, second grade, and third grade at the United Nations International School (UNIS) located in Parkway Village. She also recalls Parkway Village as being a safe, close-knit, and child-friendly community; it offered ample outdoor space where children played together as well as a racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse population that embraced the values of the United Nations.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHoffman reflects on her teenage years in the mid-to-late 1960s living in Parkway Village but spending much of her time in Manhattan to attend school and hang out with friends. Hoffman speaks about her political sensibilities as a teenager, her participation in Vietnam War protests, and her visits to the United Nations during that time. Hoffman discusses her decision to attend university in England and to remain in England after graduation, ultimately becoming a head teacher at a primary school in London. Additionally, Hoffman discusses her experiences visiting Parkway Village and traveling in the United States as an adult, the fulfilling lives that her parents had in Parkway Village (where they lived until the late 1970s), and the negative impacts of increased politicization of the United Nations since her childhood.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhoto: Dilys Hoffman (front) with her older sisters, Gail and Judith, in Parkway Village celebrating Dilys' fifth birthday, September 1957. Courtesy of Dilys Hoffman.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["http://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/search/browse/45802"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2022-06-23 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Audio"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Dilys Hoffman (Interviewee)","Dexter Fergie (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["1940s-2022 (temporal)","Parkway Village, Queens, NY; Manhattan, NY; London, England; Mexico (spatial)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 1\u003c/strong\u003e: Dilys Hoffman shares memories of her early childhood in Parkway Village during the 1950s.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhoto: Dilys Hoffman (front) celebrating her fifth birthday by riding her new bicycle in Parkway Village with her friend, Lesley, September 1957. Courtesy of Dilys Hoffman.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eDilys Hoffman speaks with interviewer Dexter Fergie about her experience growing up in Parkway Village during the 1950s and 1960s. Opened in 1947 and located in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood of Queens, Parkway Village was built to serve as housing for United Nations employees. Hoffman's parents were originally from London; she describes their move to New York City when her father began working for the United Nations after World War II.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to Parkway Village, Hoffman spent several years growing up in Mexico, where her father also did work for the United Nations. Hoffman explains what it was like for her between the ages of 5 and 13 moving back and forth between Parkway Village and Mexico. Hoffman recalls attending kindergarten, second grade, and third grade at the United Nations International School (UNIS) located in Parkway Village. She also recalls Parkway Village as being a safe, close-knit, and child-friendly community; it offered ample outdoor space where children played together as well as a racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse population that embraced the values of the United Nations.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHoffman reflects on her teenage years in the mid-to-late 1960s living in Parkway Village but spending much of her time in Manhattan to attend school and hang out with friends. Hoffman speaks about her political sensibilities as a teenager, her participation in Vietnam War protests, and her visits to the United Nations during that time. Hoffman discusses her decision to attend university in England and to remain in England after graduation, ultimately becoming a head teacher at a primary school in London. Additionally, Hoffman discusses her experiences visiting Parkway Village and traveling in the United States as an adult, the fulfilling lives that her parents had in Parkway Village (where they lived until the late 1970s), and the negative impacts of increased politicization of the United Nations since her childhood.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhoto: Dilys Hoffman (front) with her older sisters, Gail and Judith, in Parkway Village celebrating Dilys' fifth birthday, September 1957. Courtesy of Dilys Hoffman.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/288/695/small/hoffman_dilys_20220623_image2_resized.jpg?1756145072","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288695","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - hoffman_dilys_20220623_clip1.mp3"]},"duration":248.076,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/288/695/small/hoffman_dilys_20220623_image2_resized.jpg?1756145072","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288695/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288695/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-queenslibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/288/695/original/hoffman_dilys_20220623_clip1.mp3?1756144762","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":248.076,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288695","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - hoffman_dilys_20220623_edit.mp3"]},"duration":4460.508,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/288/696/small/hoffman_dilys_20220623_image1_resized.jpg?1756145478","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-queenslibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/288/696/original/hoffman_dilys_20220623_edit.mp3?1756144765","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":4460.508,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Full Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Thank you so much for speaking with me today. I really appreciate it. I have really enjoyed speaking to so many former residents, and I just really appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences. So just to begin, can you tell us your full name?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=0.0,22.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Dilys Eve Hoffman.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=22.0,24.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: And when and where were you born?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=24.0,28.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I was born in New York City in Manhattan, 1952, in the Polyclinic on 49th Street.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=28.0,36.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: And then how did your family end up in Parkway Village?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=36.0,41.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: My father, after he was de-mobbed after serving in the army [in England]—he was de-mobbed, I think, in August—he went for an interview, as they were recruiting for the UN [United Nations], and six weeks later he was on a ship heading for New York City after suffering the vagaries of the war. And he pitched up in New York City with my mom, and they were amongst the first people to be there when the UN was inaugurated at Lake Success. And I think they stayed in hotels and things for the first year while Parkway Village was being built. And then they were, I think, the first family to move in to 144-14 Parkway Village. I think Apartment GA or something. It was the first one.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=41.0,106.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Great. And I definitely wanna return to your father's work at the UN and all that, but we'll get there later. Just to start us off, how long did you end up living in Parkway Village?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=106.0,122.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Well, my father had two tours of duty in Mexico City. So for me, I was in New York in Parkway until I was five years old. And then we went to Mexico City for two years. Then we came back for 18 months and lived in a different apartment in Parkway Village. And then we went to Mexico City and stayed there for four years. And then I came back when I was 13, and we lived in another apartment in Parkway Village. And I was there until I came here to college when I was just turning 18. And my parents kept on living there until—I think it was 1977 or '78 that they carried on living there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=122.0,171.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like to grow up in Parkway Village? You ended up spending a decent amount of your childhood and also teenage years there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=171.0,187.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yeah, it was very different. I remember very clearly being a little child there and starting school at the kindergarten on Parsons Boulevard. And even before that I have memories of walking around and being with my sisters, enjoying their parties with our friends. And we lived in a court on Village Road. We were at 147-43 I think it was—our first apartment, apartment C—and we got to know all the people in our court. I'm sure you're aware of the architecture of it, but the court was quite an insular kind of thing. And, you know, it was our world. And we had a playground behind our house, our terrace house apartment, and we used to congregate there. And I remember long summer evenings being outside and being allowed to play out late and then coming home for dinner and stuff.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=187.0,252.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And the sultry, the weather, the heat, walking along the picket fence around the playground, going on the monkey bars, the H bars, and playing softball with my friends. And I remember very clearly my fifth birthday, I had a birthday party, and there are a lot of photographs of it, but I do remember the day because I got my first bicycle on that day, my two wheeler. I've got pictures of me going around the court in my new two-wheeler [with my best friend Lesley]. Just lots of happiness and, you know, really close friendships as you can have until you're five. And then, yes, and then I started nursery. I started nursery, kindergarten, a bit late because my father had been in the South Pacific for two or three months. He had a tour of duty in the South Pacific.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=252.0,306.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And, so my mom was a bit worried that I was missing him and stuff, so I didn't start kindergarten until a bit later. And I remember being in kindergarten, going into the sandbox, burying the tortoise. And I remember the Queen came to visit. Yeah, I remember the smell of the carton paper that we used to cut up and paint on. And I remember my first boyfriend, Stevie Steiner, who kissed me on the hand. You know, I [unclear] time. And then my teacher was Miss Marie. And then we were told that we were going to Mexico and I didn't really want to go. And we were going to be leaving in January and I'd only started kindergarten that September. So, she came over a couple of nights before we were leaving to say goodbye, and I remember I blocked the door so that she couldn't go 'cause I loved her and I didn't want to leave her.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=306.0,364.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And then we went off to Mexico for a couple of years. Came back and we lived in the next court down in apartment B, 147-48. And, now I was in second grade and I joined them in the middle of the year. So I was in junior B one, I think I was. Junior C one. And the playground was out in the back there still. We had a huge baseball field, where there's now a huge block of apartments, and that was another sort of meeting place for friends and to—we played baseball there and stuff, and all our play times were on the baseball field at that point. And, yeah, I had the same friends because we weren't living very far away from them.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=364.0,414.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: So we reconnected with our friends, and made new friends. Again, we used to congregate in the playground out back and sort of fit right back in really. And then we had to leave again, and that was quite a struggle. So, by the time we came back, I was just turning 13 and this time we moved right down to the other end of Parkway Village near the circle, 150-47, apartment A. It was, for me, the third apartment I'd been living in. For my family, it was their fourth apartment. And, for us, anywhere around the circle might have been a different country so far as we were concerned. When you were growing up, you were so just immersed in your little area, but going down to the circle, it was like going to a different country, you know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=414.0,469.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And, so moving down there was very strange. But anyway, I had a friend who lived in the court, Leyla Reddy, who I don't know if you've spoken to, but she's been around. So, again, I picked up with friendships and made new friends as well. But now we were going into town to go to school. So we had to commute into town to go to the UN school there, which was, I mean, at the time the UN school was in a thirteen times condemned building on 70th Street and First Avenue.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=469.0,504.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And it was freezing. The boiler kept breaking. So, we were—my class, my grade was quite a Bolshy lot. We insisted, although we loved wearing mini skirts, it was absolutely freezing. Then they let us wear trousers and that was a big breakthrough for us. And then a couple of years later, the school moved to an empty warehouse on 54th Street, between First and New York Avenue. And it was kind of an open plan school, but that's where I sort of spent my teenage years a lot. I spent a lot of my time in the city because that's where everybody had moved to. Because, by then, the people who probably wouldn't have been able to find a place in town because of racism, they were able now to find a place. So, there was quite a lot of my friends that moved into the city.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=504.0,562.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And so I spent a lot of time in the city. But there was still a few of us still living in Parkway Village. And we would congregate at the flagpole. That's where the teenagers would congregate. You'd come out of your court and then you were with your mates in various different parts of Parkway Village, wherever they were living. And there was also a lad called Drew, Drew Kendrick, who set up a babysitting circle. And, so there were a few of us—he was like the administrator and he would get people to go and do babysitting for people. And he was a lovely guy, and tragically he was killed in a crash, a motorcycle crash. So, we used to hang out at the flagpole. A lot of my friends were doing drugs and all that sort of stuff.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=562.0,614.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: After all, it was the sixties [laughter]. We were, by then, very kind of hippie-ish and very anti-war. I remember my father—I remember being in town, and maybe missed my school bus because I was hanging out with my friends at the coffee shop. And I'd phone my dad who used to have a carpool to go into the UN. And I'd phone him up and say, \"Hi dad. Is it okay? Have you got room in your carpool for me to come with you to go back home?\" He usually did. So I'd be there with various gentlemen in their car going home after playing baseball under the 59th Street Bridge or something, which I might have gotten up to at the time. And, the friends I had in school, a lot of them had lived in Parkway Village.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=614.0,670.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And I still am in touch with some of them even now. So, they've had long friendships that we forged in Parkway. And it was just a magical, magical upbringing all the way through. We had great Halloweens. We all used to go around trick-or-treating, but we were always trick-or-treating for UNICEF [United Nations Children's Fund]. So we'd spend the morning in school designing our milk carton, because we got milk every morning in these cartons, and we'd convert them into little piggy banks. And we'd go around everybody in Parkway Village, and we'd be trick-or-treating for UNICEF. So we didn't dress up in any costumes. We would just be collecting for UNICEF. And everybody had a plate full of one cents and they'd give us pennies and stuff. And because we were being so good, we all had bags and they'd also give us some candy as well. So it was quite good. And then the next day at school, all morning was spent counting the money that we'd all gotten at Halloween. So that was always a fun time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=670.0,749.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah. Based on the Facebook group for Parkway Village, it does seem like it was a great place for Halloween. A lot of people have memories about that. What did you dress up as?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=749.0,764.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: We didn't really dress up because we were just collecting. We were participating, in as much as we were collecting for our cause, so we didn't really dress up. Well, I didn't. I just was going around with my carton, my milk carton, trying to get pennies as I could. And if they gave us a nickel or a dime or even a quarter, that was great, but because most of them would just get these rounds of pennies, [they would] just give us pennies, a cent or something. But some people were more generous.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=764.0,796.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah. But it does seem that, naturally, the UN was just a really big part of your childhood, between your dad's work—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=796.0,805.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yes. I mean, the UN defined us. And even to this day, when we all get together, what the UN stood for and is supposed to stand for—I mean, it's a tragedy, and I know my dad became quite disheartened by the political side of the UN. But, it was a dream that there'd be peace in the world and that people would have human rights and there would be a special place where children would be fed with UNICEF. So the UN and the UN School had those beliefs and they very much informed all of our lives.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=805.0,852.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I became a head teacher in 1998, a principal of a school, a primary school here in London. And it was such a mixture of ethnicities. I used to call it the UN. It was my UN school. In the classes in my school, you'd have between 14 or 15 different languages represented. It was so diverse. And I loved it. I loved every minute of it. And that was because it was like a dream and it was the UN in the flesh as it were, you know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=852.0,896.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Mm-hmm. I want to go back to your childhood. So you went to the international nursery and then kindergarten in Parkway Village. Can you—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=896.0,907.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I didn't go to the nursery. I just went to kindergarten. I missed the nursery.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=907.0,912.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Okay. So, you went to the international kindergarten. That sounds like a very fascinating place as well because, like your school when you were a principal, it was just very diverse and people came from around the world. Can you tell me more about that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=912.0,930.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: About kindergarten?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=930.0,932.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah, about your kindergarten, what it was like to go to school in Parkway Village.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=932.0,938.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Well, of course my sisters were already at the school, so they would go—Gail is five years older than me—so they were going to the [United Nations International School, also known as UNIS] in Parkway. I think it went up to the fifth grade at that time, and then we would move into the city and there was a school bus to take to town. But I remember, the kindergarten was just like an apartment. I mean the school was just apartments sort of put together. So they all were quite familiar in many ways. I do remember in the winter it being really cold. I remember getting into my snowsuit and heading off to kindergarten with my dad. And he'd usually drop me off and then take Gail and Judith to the other school because it was on a different site.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=938.0,998.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And then he'd drive into work. And I guess my mom would pick me up, though I don't remember. But I remember definitely getting into a snowsuit and going to the kindergarten where I met all these different people. And I learned French as well. Madamoiselle Rouvét was a French teacher. And I remember sitting in a circle and her teaching us French. I remember playing a lot out in the garden, in the sandbox. We had a tortoise that went missing because I had buried it in the sand. Yes. I was a bit naughty. And I remember that we would have a nap time and I was never tired. I never wanted a nap time. I was much too energetic. So I found having to sort of have a half hour break and lie down—that was torture for me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=998.0,1053.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I just remember the teachers being very kind and sweet. But I did—the Queen was coming to visit and all of the UN kids were invited to the UN. I didn't really know what was going on and the whole school left and I was still there. And I was on my own and I didn't know that I was left on my own because I really didn't know what was going on. So I was just sort of sad they were all going somewhere and I didn't know why or where, and I'm sure I was supposed to be going as well, but  I stayed behind. And somebody came while I was sitting there and they said, \"What are you doing here?\" I said “I don’t know!”[laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1053.0,1101.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Anyway, luckily my sister had Asian flu at the time, so she was at home being looked after by a neighbor. And the person took me home and I remember seeing my sister in bed with Asian flu because at the time my parents were meeting the Queen. So that was quite traumatic, I suppose, because I remember it. And I remember the lunches. We had really nice lunches, especially in the winter. In the summer you'd get sandwiches and fruit and things. So, that was the kindergarten—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1101.0,1136.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: In the winter, what would you get?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1136.0,1138.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I think we had a hot meal. I remember the smell of it. I don't remember eating it, but I remember a smell of hot meal—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1138.0,1146.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Was it typically American food or—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1146.0,1148.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yeah, I mean in the canteen as well, when we were growing up, you get hamburgers and hot dogs. It wasn't—healthy meals wasn't really a thing in those days [laughs]. You get [unclear] chips [French fries]. Anyway, when I came back from Mexico [the first time], I was now in the other building which housed the UN school, which was just across the road from where we were in the new courts that we were in. And, I started, I remember starting there in the middle of the year, and there were some people that I still remembered from kindergarten. And, we played, friends, we all played, and I stayed there until grade three, which was junior B.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1148.0,1194.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And I remember then having the food. I also remember Hurricane Donna, which came along in 1961. And then I remember being aware of the presidential race, the [Richard] Nixon - [John F.] Kennedy race. I was aware of that. I was aware of the space ships going up. The first man that flew in space, [Yuri] Gagarin, and the space race, I was aware of all of that at the time. [I] supported the New York Yankees, of course [laughter]—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1194.0,1234.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Was that common? Was being a fan of the Yankees common among your friends?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1234.0,1239.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Oh, yeah. Yes. Because the Mets only came about at the beginning of the early sixties. The Mets were quite new. I mean, until then people actually supported the Brooklyn Dodgers or the New York Giants, but they moved to California. So my dad was a great Brooklyn Dodgers fan. He was devastated when they moved to Los Angeles. But he still sort of supported them.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1239.0,1267.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: So, yes, so we spent about 18 months then in apartment B and I went for a year and a half to the school there. And then we went to Mexico and I came back when I was 13, and then we moved to the other end of Parkway. But by then I was a teenager and also commuting into the city. There hadn't always been a school bus, so I remember commuting with my friends into town, wearing my mini skirt, being bothered a lot by naughty men as well. That was pretty rife on the subway—probably still is.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1267.0,1312.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And then our lives sort of changed. We had friends whose parents were working at the UN. I had a friend, my best friend Shirley, whose mom worked at the UN and her apartment was empty until her mom came home. So we always used to go to Shirley's house to hang out and get up to what teenagers get up to. Basically, listening to music and smoking pot and all of that. I didn't, but they did [laughter]. And becoming more aware of politics and the war in Vietnam. And so quite a different kind of existence from my sort of idyllic innocent childhood.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1312.0,1355.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: So this is when you were an early teenager and just after you returned back to New York, right?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1355.0,1361.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yeah, we got back to New York when I had just turned 13. And I tried to reconnect with my old friends from Parkway, but new friendships had kind of developed because they weren't at the UN school. Not all the people in Parkway went to the UN school. So my friendships then turned more towards friendships from kids who were at the UN school. And some of them had lived in Parkway and others—but I didn't know them. They'd moved there maybe while I was away in Mexico. And, so I developed quite a lot of new friends, or friends that I knew of but hadn't really connected with in the 18 month hiatus between being in Mexico. So it was a lot of moving around. It was quite difficult at times.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1361.0,1421.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah, I would love to hear more about that. Your family is British. You were born in the United States. You spent your childhood in this international community, essentially. And then you also did these sojourns in Mexico. For you, as a teenager, where did you think home was?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1421.0,1453.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Home was always Parkway Village for me. I mean, I wasn't a very happy little child when I was in Mexico. We were living in a place in very high altitude and it affected me physically. I mean, I hardly grew when I was there. And I was often ill while I was in Mexico. So, it was having a sort of psychological effect. And we probably would've stayed longer if I had been happier because my family loved it there. But I was clearly pining for New York and for Parkway Village. But I think the thing about UN families is they were often carted off to go and live somewhere else. My dad, I think he was being involved in setting up the administrative side of the UN in Mexico City. He was jefe de administracíon, chief of administration, there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1453.0,1514.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: It was good for them. It was good for my parents in terms of financially to have these sojourns in Mexico where the cost of living was much less, much lower than New York. They were able to save a bit of money. The lifestyle was very good there. And, yeah, they loved it. And it's only as an adult that I can appreciate the experience of having lived in a foreign country. I came back fluent in Spanish. I didn't realize I had learned the language until I came back. In New York, in my Spanish class, I was the best in Spanish. I had always been the worst in Spanish [laughs]. So, it was tricky. But in retrospect, I long to go back to Mexico because I want to see it through an adult's eyes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1514.0,1567.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I just have this sort of child’s-eye view of being in Mexico City. I remember going to visit dad at the UN in Mexico and sitting in his office and stuff. And it was quite a nice existence that we had there. But coming back was always a bit traumatic because I was quite a shy child, and reconnecting with people who'd maybe moved on in their friendships with other people because I wasn't there. So I had to do that twice. And it took me a while to kind of get sort of stuck in. So I became a bit naughty in my teenage years. I was very rebellious and obviously trying to make a name for myself or amongst my peers.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1567.0,1617.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: But despite that, because my parents, I mean, they were born in the east end of London in tenement buildings. And so this was an opportunity that they, my father couldn't  turn down - he'd spent six years in the Army during the war. And it was an opportunity—at first, they were only gonna stay for a year—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1617.0,1640.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: In the US?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1640.0,1642.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: In the US, yeah. And he was working in the postal service that was being set up in the UN at the time. So I have all these stamps, first-day edition stamps of the UN stamps. And then occasionally he would come home and tell my mom that he's now a P-2 or a P-3, which was the sort of promotion you would get at the UN. And he gradually went up the ranks until, when he retired, he was secretary of the Fifth Committee in the budget division. And he had an office just below U Thant's. So whenever I went to visit him in my hippie attire, in my clogs, we had a great view of New York City from the 37th floor. So, yeah, it's great.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1642.0,1691.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: No kidding. And so far, I have to say that your memories are very different from your sister's.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1691.0,1698.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Oh, really?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1698.0,1699.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Not like—it's not that one of you is wrong or something, but it's just like you ended up remembering different parts of your childhood.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1699.0,1708.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Oh, yes. She was that much older than I was as well, obviously, so—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1708.0,1713.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Exactly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1713.0,1714.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: —[unclear]. I've got a picture here [crosstalk] if you want to see. This is a picture of me at my fifth birthday [pause]. That's in the backyard.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1714.0,1730.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Aww. I recognize that. That's cute.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1730.0,1735.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And here's a picture of—okay, it's the same day, you see me in those dresses later on in my life, but that's the playground behind where we lived. So the garden kind of thing, communal garden, and then the playground. And, you know, the view—Parkway Village was built for families. I mean, I didn't know until quite recently that Parkway Village was built because they didn't think that people from different countries would be able to find accommodation in New York City because of racism. I didn't know that until really quite recently.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1735.0,1775.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: But it was an incredible place to live in terms of all the people from all over the world and the smell of different culinary sort of things going as you walked around the village. And just the fact that it was like an oasis. It was cooler. It was several degrees cooler on a summer's day going into Parkway Village than it was walking along Union Turnpike and stuff. And I've been back to New York a couple of times and I've gone to Parkway every time, and you get the same feeling of—I mean, it isn't anything like it was because it's become a, you know, everybody owns their own properties and things—but it still has that coolness that, you know, it's just, it's like an oasis, literally.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1775.0,1825.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah, I haven't heard anyone say that it's like a physical oasis just in terms of being cooler. But I have heard a lot of people use that word oasis in reference to just how integrated it was vis-a-vis the rest of New York at that time. And you're totally right that in the 1940s it was built to house UN personnel mostly because of the difficulties UN personnel had finding housing, and a lot of that had to do with racism. But I would love to hear more about that. I think that's a really interesting aspect of Parkway Village's history, just the international sensibility about it. The international demography, the international sensibility. So, yeah, as a kid, I imagine you weren't entirely aware of that. But looking back on it, I'm sure you have some thoughts.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1825.0,1890.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: No, I think you don't, as a child, you don't—there aren't races, you know, there aren't differences like that. You're just playing with somebody who likes to play the same thing as you. I know that there was a boy who had had polio, because polio was a big thing in the fifties. So parents were very wary of—they're quite protective of things. But I know that there was a boy who had polio and he was very badly kind of bullied by children because he was different. He had an arm that was stuck up here [gesturing to her chest] and there was the nastiness around—because kids can be absolutely appalling, obviously.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1890.0,1927.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: But I think there used to be these international evenings where the whole community would come together and there'd be music playing and people would bring food from their countries. And it was always a hot summer evening. It went on for a long, long time. And there were things that you could do. There were lots of sort of fairs and things in the summer as well around Parkway. There used to be a fair on the school opposite—there was a Catholic school opposite—and there was always a fair down there that I used to go to, as a teenager this was. But as a younger child, I guess there was an awareness because sometimes they would dress differently. You know, the Indian people would be in their saris and we could smell a lot of the stuff, the smelling of different kinds of cooking.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1927.0,1991.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I guess you sensed a difference of culture, but it didn't really matter because we were just playing ball or baseball or tag, or Red Rover, Red Rover, all those sort of childhood games. People would just congregate at the back in the playground and the gardens around. It was a very child-friendly place to be. You felt very safe. No doors were locked. We could go in and out of other people's houses quite freely. All the neighbors would look out for all the kids. It was like one big kind of maternity wing in a way. And the adults, the mothers mostly, they would be sitting out in the summer as well, smoking the cigarettes and having the odd whiskey and having a vague eye on the kids going berserk in the playground and climbing to the top of the monkey bars and standing at the top, you know, which was always a big thing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=1991.0,2057.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: It seemed very well maintained. And in the winter it was nice and warm. There was central heating that would come on. And I remember a lot of snowy winters, building snowmen with my friends out back. Getting ill, getting all the chest infections, which I did. Going to everybody's house and piling our mittens and gloves on the radiators, and it's that smell of, you know, wet socks and gloves permeated all the apartments during the wintertime. And just sort of maintaining those friendships all through the seasons. It was great. It was great.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2057.0,2107.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Kind of staying with this theme of the internationalness of Parkway Village, I'm curious who your friends were. Looking back, were your friends mostly American or mostly British or did they come from other parts of the world?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2107.0,2124.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Well, my closest friend was American, whose mother worked at the UN. Her name was Shirley. But that was sort of in my teenage years. I found friendships difficult because I was coming in and out all the time during my childhood. I had a friend called Vicky, Vicky Bradford, in kindergarten. But when I came back—and I think she was Afro-American and we were quite close in kindergarten—but when I came back she had other friends. So I had—I developed different friendships. I suppose most of them were American. I had my friend Leyla, who was half Indian and half Turkish. Her father was Reddy, who was very involved in the anti-apartheid movement.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2124.0,2179.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Oh, Enuga Reddy.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2179.0,2180.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yeah. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2180.0,2181.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Oh, okay. Very interesting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2181.0,2184.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And Mina [Leyla's sister] and Leyla lived on our—they're the ones that lived on our court when I came back as a teenager. So I got to be very good friends with Leyla. I still talk to her on Facebook and stuff. Judith's very close to Mina Reddy as well. I had friends of different nationalities, but I suppose really, really close friends—well, Patty Hunt was a very close friend. She's an Afro-American who went to the UN school. Suki, who was from Ceylon, I was quite close to her as well. And there were several Middle Eastern people as well that I was friends with. As a teenager, I had quite a big social group. We were quite a kind of close group and we were all from different nationalities. So it was quite a mixture.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2184.0,2250.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah. That's just really fascinating because this is the fifties and then into the sixties, and you do have friends coming from around the world. That's not the most typical American experience and also not the most British experience either.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2250.0,2271.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: No, but it informed all of our political views and our views on race and culture.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2271.0,2279.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah. I mean, the 1960s in the United States is a very particular time. You have the civil rights movement, and then also the Vietnam War. And, I am interested in hearing how you perceived those things, whether you were participating in protests, for instance.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2279.0,2305.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Well, I came back to the States having watched a lot of movies, war movies, actually, when I was in Mexico. They used to have a program every afternoon where they showed an English movie, and a lot of them were war movies. So I came back and I heard that America was at war and I thought, oh, well, you know, let's support them. And then I got to know a little bit more about it, so I became quite an ardent anti-war demonstrator. I went on lots of marches. I remember very clearly being at the UN plaza where there was a meeting, the moratorium. And Martin Luther King was speaking there, and so was Robert Kennedy. And, so, that was an amazing thing to sort of witness. Obviously I was aware in Mexico when Kennedy was assassinated.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2305.0,2364.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: That's a very memorable thing that happened. But when I came back, yes, I used to go on all the protest marches that were happening in New York City. And I also went to Washington a couple of times as well to protest outside the White House. I remember there was one in '69, I think, November '69—I still have the badges actually—where, you know, about a million people must have descended on Washington to voice our dissatisfaction. Hated Nixon. Hated Nixon. Hated Lyndon Johnson. Hated, you know, all the people who were fighting this war. I just couldn't bear—one of the reasons I came to England was I just didn't feel that I was able to make any contact politically with my country. And so—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2364.0,2420.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Your country as in the United States?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2420.0,2423.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yeah. Yeah, because I felt, and still do—both of my sisters have given up their American citizenship, but I haven't. I can't because it is still so much part of me. And, but yes, I went, I was very involved in all these protest marches and they informed sort of who I am, really. I'm still pretty active politically [laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2423.0,2451.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: I'm curious to know how your parents felt about that. Was that a thing that they were concerned about or supported?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2451.0,2462.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: My parents were quite left wing. But my father was very worried because, as a foreigner, he was a visitor to New York and had a visitor's visa. He didn't want me to go on these marches because he thought I would get into trouble or, you know, something would happen. But mostly he was worried that it would in some way affect his standing, not in terms of his personal, but, you know, actually would he get kicked out of the United States if I was arrested, for instance. So I remember having absolute eruptions with my father because I was saying to him, look, I have a right to protest against something that's not right in my country, you know? And if you don't like it, that's tough, you know? So we used to have raging arguments about that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2462.0,2516.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And my mother was kind of caught in the middle because she completely sympathized with—I mean, they both did sympathize with what I was doing. My dad was just concerned that it might impact in some way his, you know, ability to stay in the country if I got into trouble. So they were very anti-war. And also, friends that they had made since they moved to Parkway, during the war—it's a bit like Brexit here. You know, there were some friends who were pro the Vietnam War, and they were very much anti it. And then it really sort of distanced them from some close friends that they had. So yeah, it affected a lot of people in that way.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2516.0,2567.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: But as a teenager, you're also doing this with your mates. It was fun. There was [a] political aspect to it, but I do remember that when we went to Washington, we were warned, warned not to go, because the army was going to be there and they were worried about violence and all this sort of stuff. And a lot of my friends didn't go to Washington because of that, but I felt a duty to do that. And that I didn't want to—that it wasn't just a party, it was something that you had to believe in. So, yeah, that was a bit tricky. And it was absolutely freezing. It was in November in Washington and it was absolutely freezing, but we were able to stay with some people who offered their houses to people who were protesting. So it was really, really nice.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2567.0,2623.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: The friends that you would've gone to protest with, would they have been other UN kids or Americans?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2623.0,2631.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Both. They were all sorts. A lot of Americans, but a lot of people who just didn't agree with the war, you know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2631.0,2646.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah. There's so many things that we could talk about. You've given me so much here. Another thing that I'm interested in is thinking about the role of the UN in your childhood. As a teenager, you went to the UN to visit your dad. Did you go to the UN a lot as a kid?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2646.0,2672.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yeah. Not as a little kid. As a teenager I did, because I was spending a lot of time in New York, in the city, so I would go and visit my dad if I needed a lift. I got to be good friends with some of the guards who were guarding outside the UN. They got to know me and I loved being in the building. I felt really proud of my dad. I used to wear clogs, so he could hear me coming [laughter]. So I'd be wearing my bell bottoms. I had long hair, you know, parted down—I was a real kind of hippie looking person. But they didn't really bat an eye. I was just Walter's daughter.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2672.0,2717.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And, but I used to go there, and actually I worked at the UN in the book department in 1969. I had a summer job there and used to walk around the gardens at lunchtime and occasionally I'd meet dad for lunch in the diplomats’ restaurant there. And I loved looking at the [Marc] Chagall that was hanging with that—there was a Chagall at the UN. I just loved it there. I loved the feeling of it and the people who are working towards world peace, you know, and, kind of before it started to really kind of fall apart in many ways. Interestingly, I've just read a book by somebody called Shirley—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2717.0,2766.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Hazzard?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2766.0,2767.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Huh?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2767.0,2769.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Shirley Hazzard?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2769.0,2769.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yes. I'm just—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2769.0,2770.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2770.0,2771.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: —reading her book. And, I don't know if you've read it, it's some—People in Glass Houses, or something like it's called. Anyway, and I was reading it and it sort of—you've obviously heard of it—it depicts the life of people working in the UN. But in it, she sort of talks as she's walking around the building, and she talks about meeting somebody in the cafeteria and looking out over the East River to the other side where all the factories were. Or if you're on the other side, you look at the sun setting between the buildings. And that there's a magazine place outside the cafeteria. And all these things are so familiar to me. It's just such an interesting read. So, yeah, I mean, I love the UN and I love what it stood for. And I always got a real lift coming over the 59th Street Bridge on the school bus to see the UN standing there, knowing that's where my dad was working. Yeah. I was very proud.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2771.0,2836.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah. I would imagine. Just as an aside, Shirley Hazzard is one of the best chroniclers of the UN. I haven't read that book, but her book Defeat of an Ideal is quite good. And she talks about how the—I don't know if you've read this—but the moment that the UN really started to fall apart, or when at least its collapse was baked in, was during the McCarthyist period because during the McCarthyist period, as you probably know, Trygve Lie, under pressure from the United States, purged the UN of basically any American who was a leftist [crosstalk]. Yeah, he actually let the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] set up an office inside the UN, which went against the UN charter and all that. Yeah, really. But it just kind of killed morale.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2836.0,2893.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yeah. I read a paper that my friend Linette—she used to be Linette Dell, she's Linette Whitehead now, I don't know if you've interviewed her—she had this paper about the UN school and how difficult they found getting money from the UN because there were a lot of international schools being set up, but this one was being actually associated with the UN. And it sort of talks about the difficulty they had of getting money from the Fifth Committee, which my father subsequently served as secretary. I hadn't realized the difficulties the UN school went through and what kind of a school it actually was because as an educator, I was just going—I mean, I was just going to school as a little kid. I didn't realize that all these teachers came from all over the world, you know, and that they might not have been the greatest teachers actually, because this was an experiment in all kinds of things.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2893.0,2954.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: They originally wanted the UN school to be bilingual, so all-the-classes-in-both-language kind of thing. They developed all kinds of different methodology, educational methodology. I was in the first cohort of people who sat the International Baccalaureate in 1970. There were nine of us. So, although I'd been expecting to do A Levels as my sisters had done to get into university here, I was actually in the cohort that was doing the International Baccalaureate, which was a completely new exam. And so I managed to find my way through that and get to university, but there weren't many universities in England that would accept it because it was a new exam and they had nothing to kind of compare it to.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=2954.0,3009.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah. That sounds super fascinating and I would love to reach out to this person.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3009.0,3017.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: [unclear] [laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3017.0,3017.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: What's that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3017.0,3018.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: That's a whole other story [laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3018.0,3019.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah. Maybe on this topic of going back to the UK, so you've talked about how you were losing your faith in the country that you grew up in, which was the United States, and so you go off to the UK. And what I'd like to know is what that felt like to leave the United States. Like, what things did you, were you missing, and then also what it was like to go to this country that was your family's home country, but which you had a very vague relationship with.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3019.0,3062.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Well, as a UN family, you get home leave every two years.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3062.0,3066.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Of course. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3066.0,3068.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: So every even birthday I was in London with my parents' family, and we'd stay with members of the family. And in the sixties, hey, London was swinging. You know, it was a place to be and I was very proud also of my English heritage, and this was a groovy place to go to. I kind of always knew that I would be probably moving back to England because my parents, once my dad retired, would have to move back to England. So, the three of us knew in a way that we would have to go back to England and that we wouldn't be staying in the States. But they weren't as Americanized as I had become. So when I finished university, I had a decision to make and it was, you know, do I stay now in England or do I move back to the States where my parents were still living.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3068.0,3125.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I mean, my home was still back in New York and I would go back to New York when my parents weren't coming over here for home leave. I would be spending the summers and Christmases in New York. So in the seventies, I still felt that I was a New Yorker and living in the States in a way and that, you know, I was kind of in England, maybe a bit temporarily. Then I met my husband at college, and since my sisters had put down roots here, I sort of felt I probably will be staying here. And it kind of happened that I did. It wasn't like a conscious decision, saying, I'm not going back, but it was a decision to make.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3125.0,3171.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/106","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And when my father retired and we knew that we were finally going to be making a break with Parkway, that was harder. And the year before he retired, I came over with my husband to be, and we stayed in Parkway and then we took a Greyhound bus across the land, and then back through Vancouver I might add, through Canada, and did a big sort of tour of the States as my farewell to America. So that was quite poignant. And leaving my apartment for the last time was quite, quite, quite difficult. And subsequently I think about New York, I think about my childhood, and there are aspects of America and Americans that I miss and I respect. But such has been the horror that has befallen the States over the last few years. You know, I'm kind of happy I'm here, although the same has happened here [laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3171.0,3240.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/107","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: But, like, what exactly did you like about the United States? What were the things that you missed or respected?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3240.0,3251.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/108","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: In some ways I became more American the more I was here because there's an awful lot of anti-Americanism in England. There's a lot of anti everything in England but, you know, they have these kind of views of America and Americans which I, you know—the Americans that I knew were liberal, lovely, witty people. That's the America I knew. I suppose it's New York rather than the rest of America, to be honest with you. I'm a New Yorker and I'm a Londoner, and in some ways that kind of defines me more than the countries themselves, you know? So, yeah, I love New York. I love everything about New York, and I do London as well. So, like, I guess, you know, I went back to New York for the first time when I turned 40 and I was taking my kids. And I had a recurring dream of being in the candy store.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3251.0,3310.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/109","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I used to get 80 cents a week as an allowance and I used to blow it all at the candy store near the Grand Union. And I had all these dreams about going into candy stores and buying these horrific candies that I used to eat as a kid, you know? I mean, the whole thing about Parkway was also about the Grand Union and Key Food and Myers, the hamburger joint on the corner. And I used to go and pick up bagels at the bagel shop or the deli. 7-Eleven there. There was Rex, the chemist, also along Union Turnpike. With my friends, I often would go down to Jamaica Avenue. There was a Gertz there and I used to go shopping. And, actually, the whole area around Parkway Village is horrific [laughs]. When you go back there now you realize, my God, it's a bit edgy [laughs], you know? A bit edgy. But in Parkway you always felt absolutely safe, even in my teenage years when everything around was, yeah, very edgy.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3310.0,3382.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/110","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah, I think that's a really interesting point that your relationship with the United States is really bounded by New York, which in many ways is different from the rest of the country. I think that that's really interesting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3382.0,3400.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/111","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I mean, when we went on the Greyhound—I mean, when we went to Mexico, we drove. So we drove down to Mexico in 1960 and that took us through the southern states, you know, where I hadn't—I hadn't been out of New York City. And it took us through the southern states, down through states that had an apartheid, you know? And I remember my sister and I going to the toilets and it said whites only, and asking, \"Mom, why do you do the whites there? Can't you do your—\" we thought it had something to do with the laundry. You only do the white bits of your laundry and not the colored bits of your laundry, you know? So it kind of had a washing machine thing going on in our heads. And we just didn't understand this separatist apartheid that actually still exists in the States to this day.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3400.0,3467.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/112","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And also, when I went on this Greyhound trip where we went mostly through Kansas, and so you got the beauty of the country, but, yeah, there was also an edginess around it. I mean, we've been to the Grand Canyon, we've been—I've been all over the states. And I love its beauty, and I love the friendliness. I love the openness and the can do and positive attitude of Americans. You don't get that here. When I came back to the States, having turned 40 and been there with my kids for a month, you came back with people, they were automatically nice. And it might not have been—they might have hated you inwardly, but they outwardly were very friendly, outgoing, polite. And it was—it's quite a different at atmosphere here. You know, we don't really get that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3467.0,3524.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/113","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: So, I would love to hear a little bit more about your parents in the last stretch of the interview. I've learned bits and pieces from your sister. And so far you've told me what your dad was doing or how he ended up at the UN in the first place. But I guess a question that I have is, how did they like living in the United States?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3524.0,3558.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/114","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: They loved it. Well, remember, they came from war-torn Britain to this land of plenty where I think the ration of sugar was a pound—you could only have a pound of sugar a week. Well, in England, you could have a pound of sugar every two years kind of thing. It was like there was this land of plenty and central heating and stuff. And they were quite poor when they came over. I think they had about 50 pounds with them when they came over to—that's all they were allowed to take out. So they were quite poor.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3558.0,3594.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/115","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Oh, when you say, \"all that they could take out,\" because of currency controls between the countries?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3594.0,3605.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/116","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: [nods head].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3605.0,3605.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/117","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah, interesting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3605.0,3605.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/118","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: So they were very limited—and they moved into Parkway and my mom had these little tins that she had where she would put money in for electricity or money for this or that, and had to save quite a lot. So when we went to Mexico, that really helped them financially. And they loved Americans and Americans loved them. My parents were very charismatic people. My mother was very sociable, very witty, very well-read. And my dad was quite a dashing sort of individual. He was very handsome. They were a very good looking couple and they had grace and humor and were very warm. My mom was very perceptive and cared about people. And so the friendships they developed in Parkway Village were very firm friendships that they had for all their lives, their adult lives.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3605.0,3664.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/119","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And they would have the same friendships in Mexico. They, you know—people gravitated towards them. So, I have memories of being up, doing my homework and the smoke, cigarette smoke, coming up from the living room because my mom was having a drink with a friend who was crying on her shoulder for one reason or another. And so, yes, they were very cultured, interested people, and they were till the end of their days. They would go to operas and theater and read. They used to read countless newspapers. They knew what was going on in the world. They were interested in what was going on. They had an opinion on what was going on in the world. And my father was a very unassuming individual. He cared about his family and he adored his wife.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3664.0,3722.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/120","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And, I actually have and finished reading all of his letters that he wrote to my mother during the war, as they were developing their relationship. And during the war they got married, and these incredible love letters, but also very interesting sociological and historical statements of what was going on at the time. And they wrote to each other a couple of times a day and had phone calls as well, all during the war. I don't have my mother's stuff, but I've got all my dad's. And then he also—whenever they were separated, they would write to each other. And he attended the [General Assembly]. He was in Paris in 1948, when the first—what was the name of the guy who did that during the McCarthy year? What was his name?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3722.0,3780.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/121","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Trygve Lie.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3780.0,3781.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/122","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yeah. When he was made the General—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3781.0,3788.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/123","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Secretary-General.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3788.0,3789.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/124","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: When he was made the [Secretary-General], my dad was at that investiture in Paris and he wrote to my mom saying what he was doing in Paris. And my mom was in London. They had come over because he was going be here in Paris for about six months. And so he wrote every day to mom and he would write about what he was doing and the work that he was doing there. And he was told there's an invite there to come to meet the new Secretary-General and everything. So all very historical stuff, incredible stuff. And I spent the whole pandemic sitting there reading my dad's letters. It was just fantastic. I don't know what to do with them, but they're an amazing kind of tale of his life at that time when he was a young man.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3789.0,3841.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/125","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: That's beautiful.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3841.0,3844.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/126","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: They were quite amazing people and, you know, they were brave to pick up a family, not once but twice, and take them to a country where they didn't know the culture or the language. It was quite something to do. You know, not everybody would do that. And then having these long journey—we drove to Mexico, but then in 1965 when we came back, we drove back again through the southern counties, the [states]. Just extraordinary experiences that we have, and that's why we have such extraordinary memory of these things. Because we had these points of—well, yeah, when I was eight I was doing this and my parents were doing that and we were here. So, I have an incredibly vivid memory of my childhood because of them and their bravery and their interest to seek new things.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3844.0,3900.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/127","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: So my dad was—he was an unassuming individual. He was very, very bright and also very warm towards all of—I mean, he had three daughters, poor guy, you know. And the apartments, they're not big in Parkway Village, as you are aware. So we were all living in one bedroom and all our stockings would be hanging over the rails and in the bathroom and stuff. So, poor dad in that way. But he was great. He was just great. A lovely, lovely man. And not full of himself at all. [He was] quite self-deprecating in many ways, but very witty, very smart. And my mom was just a vivacious individual. I mean, she was a housewife because that's the way things were in those days, you know? But she taught herself braille and she transcribed braille novels that sit in the Library of Congress, you know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3900.0,3965.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/128","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Really? Wow.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3965.0,3966.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/129","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: Yeah. She used to type away on a braille typewriter when I was a teenager and stuff. And she sent off these great huge manuscripts off to the Library of Congress for people to read.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3966.0,3983.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/130","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Wow, that is so interesting. That is something that I did not learn from your sister. So something that I did learn from your sister was a really interesting diary entry from your mom. When they were going to the United States, she said something along the lines of she's getting ready for her Yankee conversion [laughter]. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=3983.0,4005.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/131","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I have diaries and a lot of them unfortunately are in shorthand. I hate to think what was going on. But yeah, she used to keep a bit of a diary and, yeah, I mean, it was just like that—Wall's going for an interview and then six weeks [later], \"We're going to Yankee land.\" And she told the story of her saying goodbye to her mother. It was very difficult for her. She missed England terribly, and her parents, her sisters. And she was saying goodbye to her mom and she was saying, \"Oh, I'll be back next year.\" And her mom said, \"No, you're not. You're not going to be coming back.\" She was right. But we did come back every two years, so we did sort of get to know them.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4005.0,4052.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/132","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: But for us, we never really had—we had grandparents, but we never really developed a relationship with them because we weren't around them for very long. So our family unit was very kind of hermetic and it's probably why we're so close. Because we had this life that moved from one country to another. And whatever was going on around us, we had each other. So it made us a very closely knit family, which has made the death of my parents particularly hard to deal with over the years.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4052.0,4095.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/133","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Of course. So something that you have mentioned a few times is the disillusionment with the UN that your parents experienced. I get the sense that it happened in the seventies or like the late sixties or something, but I would love to hear more about that and what you think was the impetus for that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4095.0,4122.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/134","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I think my father, who had gone there full of idealism after having lived through this horrific war, and he was at something that was going to promote peace in the world. I'm not sure what he was feeling during the fifties because I was too young. I wasn't really aware of McCarthyism or anything at that point. But certainly as a teenager and coming back from college to stay with my parents, you could feel that he had become quite disillusioned with the politicizing that was going on in the UN. And I think Shirley, what's her face,—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4122.0,4165.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/135","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Hazzard.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4165.0,4166.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/136","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: —outlines, Shirley Hazzard, outlines a lot of sort of little issues around the—and he was in the, he wasn't a diplomat, he was an administrator. And all the things that he must have had to go through I can quite see in Shirley Hazzard's book. So, I think that probably dismayed him—that there was so much junk to get through before you could actually come to a decision, the right decision that would promote peace in the world.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4166.0,4199.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/137","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I think he was worried about what was going to happen in the Middle East. He was very aware that that would be a flashpoint in a future war. And he was very politically astute and he knew what was going on and he was right in many ways of what came to happen in the Middle East. And I think he feels that the UN could in some way have prevented that if there hadn't been this side taking, which is what happens in politics. So the politicizing of the UN I think was something he became very disenchanted with.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4199.0,4241.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/138","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: And just to confirm, so when you say the Middle East, are you talking more about the Palestine Israel conflict or—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4241.0,4252.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/139","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: All of it, because it all stems from what happened after the war. And then in Palestine, which should have been dealt with better, he felt that that was a mistake, and his time in the UN just confirmed that it was becoming more and more of a mistake. And the way the Israeli war, when that happened, both of them—and just how it seemed like it was almost like Northern Ireland and Ireland. It just seemed that these were insoluble problems because people would not compromise on it in any way, and as soon as anything came close to a compromise, it would be blown up. It was all very frustrating for him, and he was angry that the UN wasn't able to do anything about it, that they didn't have better powers to make some—help in some kind of determination, avoidance of the conflicts there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4252.0,4324.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/140","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Well, I just have one more question, and it's just kind of a reflective question. Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you would like to share or that you think we should talk about?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4324.0,4339.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/141","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: I don't think so. I think—I hope I've been able to give you a flavor of what it was like being a little kid and then a teenager in Parkway. I mean, just living in an apartment in Parkway was a lovely thing, even though it was tiny, you know? And we all lived in this one bedroom and my parents had a bedroom and then there's the bathroom and there was downstairs, but we just loved it. We loved the closet space. You don't get closets in England, you know. But just having that lovely environment in which to grow, and knowing that the people around you have sort of similar views really, it was a delight to be in. I don't remember ever encountering any kind of racism within Parkway. I'm sure there was, but as a little girl, you know, I wouldn't have been aware of it particularly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4339.0,4395.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/142","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dilys Hoffman: And everybody there, those that were working for the UN were very idealistic, I think. I think that idealism has fallen away. That's [the] bad thing about it. And similarly in Parkway itself, it's now, you know, people are there guarding their little areas that they now own. It's not a collective anymore. So, yeah, the atmosphere there has changed. And also the upkeep of it, I hear on the Parkway site, they're always complaining about the administration of the place and the pipes breaking down and everything. So it was quite new when we were there, so maybe there was less of that. And so I think I've touched on those things. I hope I've been able to give you some new sort of views on things. I don't know really.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4395.0,4451.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696/transcript/83269/annotation/143","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dexter Fergie: Yeah, no, I learned so much from speaking with you. I really appreciate you taking the time. And, yeah, thank you. We'll be in touch.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/158432/file/288696#t=4451.0,4460.508"}]}]}]}