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What made me the way I am?
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has affected their current
life, award winning documentary maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how her family history
influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining village in
Yorkshire. For generations, all the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what dad was going
to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing down the mines and suddenly there was no work for
young men like my dad. My mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father was a diplomat,
Mum went to boarding school because her parents lived abroad. They expected her to go to Oxford
or Cambridge University and then do an important job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and people
from communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other places, new
enterprises were starting up and some people were getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether.
Among those people were the 'New Age Travelers'.' They lived in old lorries and buses and travelled
from one music festival to another. These lorries and buses used to travel together in convoys and
they were unpopular with many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and closing down
the festivals. The travelers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There used to be a very
popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the Travelers' were determined to
hold this festival and huge numbers joined the convoys. Two of the people who went to join the
peace convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from school and my dad, who had
decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met - when they were
arrested at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they hadn't gone to that
festival.
What made me the way I am?
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has affected their current
life, award winning documentary maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how her family history
influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining village in
Yorkshire. For generations, all the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what dad was going
to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing down the mines and suddenly there was no work for
young men like my dad. My mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father was a diplomat,
Mum went to boarding school because her parents lived abroad. They expected her to go to Oxford
or Cambridge University and then do an important job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and people
from communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other places, new
enterprises were starting up and some people were getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether.
Among those people were the 'New Age Travelers'.' They lived in old lorries and buses and travelled
from one music festival to another. These lorries and buses used to travel together in convoys and
they were unpopular with many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and closing down
the festivals. The travelers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There used to be a very
popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the Travelers' were determined to
hold this festival and huge numbers joined the convoys. Two of the people who went to join the
peace convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from school and my dad, who had
decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met - when they were
arrested at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they hadn't gone to that
festival.
