Frances Stewart
Frances Stewart found work
as part of the Community Programme:
"& I was delighted
when I went for the interview
and got this job,
because I thought
I must be very clever,
but I later discovered
that the lady had to employ me
unless I was a complete raving idiot.
All I had to do
was illustrations of things
in and around school playgrounds
because we were compiling
a sort of observation course
for the children to keep them occupied
in their lunch hour.
A lot of the time was spent
doing nothing
until they realised I was going potty.
Then when other schemes were thought of
such as the Kenley trail
and the history of New Addington
they let me join in
and I started interviewing people
and helped compile the text
as well as doing the drawings,
and I was pleased to find
that what I produced
was worth looking at.
This gave me confidence
that I hadn't really had in myself
for quite a long time."