ABSTRACT
Arlene was a Jamaican woman in her late forties, who lived with her two grown-up daughters of twenty and twenty-two. She had come to England in the mid-1950s and had worked at UMEC for over ten years, doing the same job on our line for several years. As I often worked directly behind her on the other side of the line, we were in close contact. She was always glamorously dressed in lurex jumpers, short skirts and very high heels, and wore a bouffant-style wig, though for months I thought her hair was straightened and dyed light brown. She used lipstick and powder to make her skin lighter, and was generally concerned with her appearance. She complained that men were always stopping her in the street and propositioning her, but I suspect she was quite flattered by their attention. She said she kept in tune with ‘the younger generation’s’ music and fashions through her daughters. Both of them were clerical workers. The older one was at the Gas Board and sang in her free time; she had been on television and made a record. The younger one worked for the DHSS and was doing an Open University course. Arlene was on good terms with them, more like an equal than a mother, and they shared the cooking and housework. The elder daughter’s German boyfriend was also living with them temporarily.
