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Just the Usual WorkThe Social Worlds of Ida Martin, Working-Class Diarist |
eBook Available
An intimate recounting of a woman's work and everyday life in postwar Saint John.
Born in 1907, Ida Martin spent most of her life in Saint John, New Brunswick. She married a longshoreman named Allan Robert Martin in 1932 and they had one daughter. In the years that followed, Ida had a busy and varied life, full of work, caring for her family, and living her faith. Through it all, Ida found time to keep a daily diary from 1945 to 1992.
Bonnie Huskins is Ida Martin's granddaughter. In Just the Usual Work, she and Michael Boudreau draw on Ida's diaries, family memories, and the history of Atlantic Canada to shed light on the everyday life of a working-class housewife during a period of significant social and political change. They examine Ida's observations about the struggles of making ends meet on a longshoreman's salary, the labour confrontations at the Port of Saint John, the role of automobiles in the family economy, the importance of family, faith, and political engagement, and her experience of widowhood and growing old.
Ida Martin's diaries were often read by members of her family to reconstruct and relive their shared histories. By sharing the pages of her diaries with a wider audience, Just the Usual Work keeps Ida's memory alive while continuing her abiding commitment to documenting the past and finding meaning in the rhythms of everyday life.
Bonnie Huskins is Ida Martin's granddaughter. In Just the Usual Work, she and Michael Boudreau draw on Ida's diaries, family memories, and the history of Atlantic Canada to shed light on the everyday life of a working-class housewife during a period of significant social and political change. They examine Ida's observations about the struggles of making ends meet on a longshoreman's salary, the labour confrontations at the Port of Saint John, the role of automobiles in the family economy, the importance of family, faith, and political engagement, and her experience of widowhood and growing old.
Ida Martin's diaries were often read by members of her family to reconstruct and relive their shared histories. By sharing the pages of her diaries with a wider audience, Just the Usual Work keeps Ida's memory alive while continuing her abiding commitment to documenting the past and finding meaning in the rhythms of everyday life.
Details
200 Pages, 6 x 9
26 photos
ISBN 9780228005490
February 2021
Formats: Cloth, Paperback, eBook
“The authors have worked hard to historicize, contextualize, and bring to life Ida Martin, at once representative of her gender, class, race, region, and time, yet unique - which is exactly what makes her story so worth telling. Most important of all, they have succeeded in making Ida Martin the hero of her own life.” Cynthia Comacchio, Wilfrid Laurier University
“Just the Usual Work is a wonderful addition to histories of the Maritime region and a loving homage to a woman whose diary practice spanned almost an entire lifetime. As Huskins and Boudreau navigate the accounts of Ida’s life, their analysis offers readers an overview of a community governed by patterns of seasonal labour, the need for frugal spending, and a complicated sense of contentment alongside a desire for stability. Without flourish or the time for embellishment, the ebb and flow of Ida’s narrative are enlightening and unique, so too are the insights Huskins and Boudreau garner from her words and experiences.” The Miramichi Review
“Just the Usual Work is a stellar example of research that sets diary writing in its historical context. … Michael Boudreau and Bonnie Huskins use this manuscript diary for a deep dive into local social his¬tory, using precise historical research to show how Ida is both representative of her time and place and uniquely herself. They correctly note that “elderly men and women are ‘the most invisible to the social historian’”, and, for this alone, the edition breaks fresh ground in terms of reading life writing across an entire life span.” Canadian Historical Review
“While Ida’s life and personality draw us in, it is the fine work of Boudreau and Huskins that makes her diary a significant contribution the historiography of life writing, gender, and class in postwar Canada.” The American Review of Canada Studies
“It is our good fortune that Ida Martin-wife, mother, grandmother, household manager, sister, aunt, friend, worker, Christian, temperance advocate, and devoted diarist-kept daily diaries and that these have survived. ‘Just the usual work’ enriches our understanding of working-class families and family life during the postwar period. Ida Martin’s diaries provide a unique perspective on postwar Saint John. By situating the diarist within her social context, Bonnie Huskins and Michael Boudreau have looked beyond the seemingly mundane to find the significance of the patterns and rhythms of daily life.” Journal of New Brunswick Studies
“What makes this publication especially valuable is the well-informed analysis provided by Ida’s granddaughter Bonnie Huskins and her partner Michael Boudreau, both social historians specializing in the history of Atlantic Canada. They bring an impressive body of personal and professional knowledge to bear on Ida’s world, fleshing out her often-cryptic comments to round out her life story. A welcome addition to the growing body of academic literature on the surviving diaries of ordinary people who offer a unique angle of vision on the past.” University of Toronto Quarterly
“Just the Usual Work is a wonderful addition to histories of the Maritime region and a loving homage to a woman whose diary practice spanned almost an entire lifetime. As Huskins and Boudreau navigate the accounts of Ida’s life, their analysis offers readers an overview of a community governed by patterns of seasonal labour, the need for frugal spending, and a complicated sense of contentment alongside a desire for stability. Without flourish or the time for embellishment, the ebb and flow of Ida’s narrative are enlightening and unique, so too are the insights Huskins and Boudreau garner from her words and experiences.” The Miramichi Review
“Just the Usual Work is a stellar example of research that sets diary writing in its historical context. … Michael Boudreau and Bonnie Huskins use this manuscript diary for a deep dive into local social his¬tory, using precise historical research to show how Ida is both representative of her time and place and uniquely herself. They correctly note that “elderly men and women are ‘the most invisible to the social historian’”, and, for this alone, the edition breaks fresh ground in terms of reading life writing across an entire life span.” Canadian Historical Review
“While Ida’s life and personality draw us in, it is the fine work of Boudreau and Huskins that makes her diary a significant contribution the historiography of life writing, gender, and class in postwar Canada.” The American Review of Canada Studies
“It is our good fortune that Ida Martin-wife, mother, grandmother, household manager, sister, aunt, friend, worker, Christian, temperance advocate, and devoted diarist-kept daily diaries and that these have survived. ‘Just the usual work’ enriches our understanding of working-class families and family life during the postwar period. Ida Martin’s diaries provide a unique perspective on postwar Saint John. By situating the diarist within her social context, Bonnie Huskins and Michael Boudreau have looked beyond the seemingly mundane to find the significance of the patterns and rhythms of daily life.” Journal of New Brunswick Studies
“What makes this publication especially valuable is the well-informed analysis provided by Ida’s granddaughter Bonnie Huskins and her partner Michael Boudreau, both social historians specializing in the history of Atlantic Canada. They bring an impressive body of personal and professional knowledge to bear on Ida’s world, fleshing out her often-cryptic comments to round out her life story. A welcome addition to the growing body of academic literature on the surviving diaries of ordinary people who offer a unique angle of vision on the past.” University of Toronto Quarterly
Michael Boudreau is professor of criminology and criminal justice, St. Thomas University.
Bonnie Huskins teaches history at St. Thomas University and is adjunct professor at the University of New Brunswick.
Bonnie Huskins teaches history at St. Thomas University and is adjunct professor at the University of New Brunswick.
Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Ida Martin, Her Diaries, and Diary Conventions 3
1 “Getting By” in Postwar Saint John 28
2 Longshoring, Direct Action, and “Being Bad”: A Working-Class Woman’s Perspectives on Working-Class Masculinities 46
3 Dump Trucks and “Chevys”: Gender, Class, and Motor Vehicles in Working-Class Life and Culture 65
4 Sociability: Ida’s Worlds 77
5 Assessing the Social and Political Engagement of an “Ordinary” Woman 91
6 Textual Representations and Interventions: Widowhood and Old Age 106
Conclusion 125
Notes 131
Index 173
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Ida Martin, Her Diaries, and Diary Conventions 3
1 “Getting By” in Postwar Saint John 28
2 Longshoring, Direct Action, and “Being Bad”: A Working-Class Woman’s Perspectives on Working-Class Masculinities 46
3 Dump Trucks and “Chevys”: Gender, Class, and Motor Vehicles in Working-Class Life and Culture 65
4 Sociability: Ida’s Worlds 77
5 Assessing the Social and Political Engagement of an “Ordinary” Woman 91
6 Textual Representations and Interventions: Widowhood and Old Age 106
Conclusion 125
Notes 131
Index 173
Interview, Information Morning, CBC Radio Saint John
Feature, CBC News
Interview, Saint John Times Globe
Virtual book presentation, New Brunswick Historical Society
Interview, Witness to Yesterday - The Champlain Society Podcast
Review, New Brunswick Studies
Feature, CBC News
Interview, Saint John Times Globe
Virtual book presentation, New Brunswick Historical Society
Interview, Witness to Yesterday - The Champlain Society Podcast
Review, New Brunswick Studies
Finalist
New Brunswick Book Award for Nonfiction
Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick
2022
New Brunswick Book Award for Nonfiction
Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick
2022
