Remembering Sam Green
Feb. 1st, 2025 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWhen the Parish Council launched its search for suitable locations for blue plaques to commemmorate noteworthy local people and events, durham_rambler suggested Sam Green. We had known Sam in the 1970s, when he was our local City councillor, and were proud that Durham, at a time when when north east England was seen as socially backward, had elected the country's first out gay councillor. (Here's the Wikipedia page.)
The Parish Council has adopted this idea with enthusiasm.durham_rambler and I had assumed that they would seek to install the plaque on the house where Sam was living when we knew him, and which he was offering as a "crash pad" - quotation marks because this term for informal emergency accommodation seems to have fallen out of use, and I get blank looks when I use it. We were disconcerted to discover that instead of engaging with the owner of what is now, of course, a student let, they wanted to affix the plaque to the house where Sam was apparently living when he was first elected, which is the house where we now live (Sam having told us, back in 1975 "I see my mother's house is on the market again...")
At the same time, a project is under way in the University to "research [Sam's] career and write an article about his experience - and what an 'historic first' such as his election does (and doesn't) mean for thinking about social and cultural change over the past 50+ years in Modern Britain." So on Tuesdaydurham_rambler and I went to the History Department to be interviewed by Richard Huzzey and David Minto. The History Department has resisted any attempts to move it into new buildings, and is still where it always was, in a warren of old houses on the North Bailey. I have no idea how they accommodate students (or staff, or indeed visitors) with limited mobility: not only was the office we were visiting on the second floor, you have to find the right staircase (we didn't) or you will find yourself on the wrong bit of the second floor, and have to go back down to the entrance and try again (we did).
Despite this, I was glad of the opportunity to visit the department. I felt a bit mean about this, because they would willingly have come to us, and I think would have liked to see the house where Sam had grown up - but it was so much easier to visit, and to let Richard clear a big space on his table, and set out his (British Library approved, archive quality) recorder, with the lapel mikes positioned to pick up whoever was speaking, and bustle around apologising for the instant coffee...
I enjoyed talking about the past, and remembering someone we had known - maybe not all that well, but known, and liked - a long time ago. At times I felt that what we were doing was establishing context, rather than talking about the man himself, but that's useful too. There were, as I knew there would be, gaps in my memory: the first question was "How did you first meet Sam Green?" and neither of us could remember exactly. Did we meet Sam through the Welfare Rights Group, or did we come to the Welfare Rights Group through Sam? (The more I think about it, the more I incline to the former: luckily, I don't think this matters to the historic record). Interesting, too, after we had stopped recording, to hear some of the things other interviewees had said: I had remembered Sam wearing a single giant pearly earring and some lacy curtain as a scarf, but I had forgotten the holey knitted jumper - and now it was mentioned, yes, I could see it vividly.
Anyway, it was a fun afternoon, and a worthwhile project; now we let the historians do their thing, and later we will go to an open talk, and see what they have found out, and what they make of it all.
durham_rambler suggested Sam Green. We had known Sam in the 1970s, when he was our local City councillor, and were proud that Durham, at a time when when north east England was seen as socially backward, had elected the country's first out gay councillor. (Here's the Wikipedia page.)The Parish Council has adopted this idea with enthusiasm.
durham_rambler and I had assumed that they would seek to install the plaque on the house where Sam was living when we knew him, and which he was offering as a "crash pad" - quotation marks because this term for informal emergency accommodation seems to have fallen out of use, and I get blank looks when I use it. We were disconcerted to discover that instead of engaging with the owner of what is now, of course, a student let, they wanted to affix the plaque to the house where Sam was apparently living when he was first elected, which is the house where we now live (Sam having told us, back in 1975 "I see my mother's house is on the market again...")At the same time, a project is under way in the University to "research [Sam's] career and write an article about his experience - and what an 'historic first' such as his election does (and doesn't) mean for thinking about social and cultural change over the past 50+ years in Modern Britain." So on Tuesday
durham_rambler and I went to the History Department to be interviewed by Richard Huzzey and David Minto. The History Department has resisted any attempts to move it into new buildings, and is still where it always was, in a warren of old houses on the North Bailey. I have no idea how they accommodate students (or staff, or indeed visitors) with limited mobility: not only was the office we were visiting on the second floor, you have to find the right staircase (we didn't) or you will find yourself on the wrong bit of the second floor, and have to go back down to the entrance and try again (we did).Despite this, I was glad of the opportunity to visit the department. I felt a bit mean about this, because they would willingly have come to us, and I think would have liked to see the house where Sam had grown up - but it was so much easier to visit, and to let Richard clear a big space on his table, and set out his (British Library approved, archive quality) recorder, with the lapel mikes positioned to pick up whoever was speaking, and bustle around apologising for the instant coffee...
I enjoyed talking about the past, and remembering someone we had known - maybe not all that well, but known, and liked - a long time ago. At times I felt that what we were doing was establishing context, rather than talking about the man himself, but that's useful too. There were, as I knew there would be, gaps in my memory: the first question was "How did you first meet Sam Green?" and neither of us could remember exactly. Did we meet Sam through the Welfare Rights Group, or did we come to the Welfare Rights Group through Sam? (The more I think about it, the more I incline to the former: luckily, I don't think this matters to the historic record). Interesting, too, after we had stopped recording, to hear some of the things other interviewees had said: I had remembered Sam wearing a single giant pearly earring and some lacy curtain as a scarf, but I had forgotten the holey knitted jumper - and now it was mentioned, yes, I could see it vividly.
Anyway, it was a fun afternoon, and a worthwhile project; now we let the historians do their thing, and later we will go to an open talk, and see what they have found out, and what they make of it all.
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Date: 2025-02-11 02:00 am (UTC)