Pat and Margaret talk about their uniforms
Audio Credits: From the collection of The Miss Margaret Robins Archives of Women’s College Hospital.
Pat, Class of 1958: When we got our full uniform, um, look at the way our hats are folded. [Looking at photograph.]
Margaret, Class of 1958: [Laughing.]
Pat: Rim came around like this, and, it, everybody in our class, well, everybody, all the students, said that it looked like a strawberry box.
Margaret: Yup.
Pat: So by… this is year three, now. Look at the wings on this! [Laughing.]
Margaret: We, we got very daring.
Pat: We just winged ‘em right out!
Margaret: The other reason we-
Pat: No strawberry boxes for us! [Laughing.]
Margaret: The other, and, yeah, you couldn’t do that. You couldn’t do that and you know. And, and, if you wanted to have your ears pierced, you could not wear anything. Pierced earrings or anything, as a student from Women’s College Hospital. But we found out that if you went to St. Thomas, they let you wear the whole thing. So you waited, if you were lucky enough to get there, and who could afford to pay anybody to do then, so we did our own with a triple edge Mayo needle with a bar of soap behind it.
Pat: Or a cork.
Margaret: But everybody- [Laughing.] Or a cork!
Pat: I had mine, uh, Marnie and I did ours-
Margaret: Mhm.
Pat: -when we went to the O.R., um, because your cap, the cap-
Margaret: Yeah, that’s, yeah-
Pat: -that you wore over the O.R. came over your ears.
Margaret: Mhm, mhm.
Pat: And then by the end of the month it was healed.
Margaret: Yup, mhm, mhm.
Pat: [Laughing.] I fainted.
Margaret: Yeah.
Pat: Did I ever tell you that?
Margaret: No!
Pat: I did!
Margaret: You?
Pat: I did!
Margaret: I can’t imagine you fainting.
Pat: Exactly, it was the only time I was quiet.
Both: [Laughing.]