Saturday, May 13, 2006

snippet 13

I think we were all lucky to have been born into an age when you appreciated life and living and one spent more time outside than inside. I rememn=ber when we got our first fridge and my father took it apart and put it back together again so he knew how it worked then Mum wouldn't use it for ages because it was new and she still kept things in the larder cupboard that was against the outside wall with a wire vent so that the cold air from outside would keep the food cool. lol

we had the safe on the cold wall of the house as well I can remember when we got a fridge... used to live in the sticks those days out past Titirangi, so was pretty primitive stoney roads no footpaths workers buses only ...can remember 6.00 oçlock closing as well one time went to the hairdresser after my day at work it me nearly my weeks wages nearly dropped i can remember that really well 4pound six and four were my wages and hair cost thirty eight shillings I was a dressmaking apprentice wages have not changed much in the dressmaking dept that is for sure....

About the hair rollers,I am sitting with mine in now.I remember getting a hair shampoo and set every Friday and sneaking back to work because my long thick hair took longer to do than my 1hr lunch hour.Then every Wed. I had another backcomb and up in beehive or petal.Oohhh the pain and cans of lacquer and hair clips.Not to mention my wages.This was 1964.bye,back to real life now.lol

The health department, today, would not be too impressed with the meat safe hanging under the trees!! I remember buying my parents a toaster for 25th wedding anniversary! And it cost a fortune.The washing machine's arrival was just wonderful. Only had 1 plug in the house, so had to run an extension cord the length of the house.

See someone has mentioned Portia Faces Life radio show used to listen to all these as a child if home sick from school, morning started with Aunt Daisy and went on to Dr Paul then Portia. Riveting stuff in those days then in the evening there was Night Beat, Life with Dexter, Dad and Dave etc etc and of course on a sunday morning the childrens request session and at midday the general request session. Songs I remember were Three Coins in the fountain, Oh Mein Papa was another regular.

Mercury Our dental nurse used to give us little bits of mercury and make little fairies for snowmen for us. My pet hate was the old buzzer I used to bite it every time and break it and always wondered why I was always first on the list when a new one arrived.

Just after the war, I remember rationing for tea, sugar, & a few other things. Dad used to take me out fishing off Point Chevalier at night & all the street lights would go off at about 10 pm or so. Also, the trams would only be allowed to stop at every second stop. This was to save electricity. Dripping on sandwiches & on toast. Fried bread. Black pudding. Even the fruit on the trees all tasted better then.

I remember Pimms and Cold Duck and Montana Pearl..What dance places did you go to..I went to the Monaco most times and the Top Twenty

Pimms with angostura bitters, that bottle reminds me of a bottle of Tabasco sauce. Talking of living out in the wop wops (someone was), we has two buses a day one in the morning one at night if you wanted to go to Auckland. Before I was born my family had no buses, they had to go to Auckland by barge

Maybe a bottle of Pimms and a couple of flagons (who remembers them) of beer. But a superb evening with 'coal range' cooked supper of bacon and egg pies, savouries, cream sponges and pavalovas etc.All cooked by my dear old Ma. And, another thing, what about all the preserving and jam making we have done over the yeas. What about salting down the beans

you could by flagons of beer just a few years ago (maybe still) they were in plastic flagons though instead of glass. Some places here in West Auckland you can still get the glass flagons of sherry/port etc. Well I say that, I haven't had any filled up for about 4 years at the place I use to go to. ;) :p But you can still go to the vineyard and fill your own if you have one.

my father was a Cornishman - came to NZ when he was 9 - mother, father & 8 boys. Elder sister Wilhemina stayed in Cornwall. Probably they were 10 pound emigrants altho it was never mentioned. Always called our flagons jimmy johns, didn't know any different.

Strangely enough my Dad came from Cornwall but spoke very little of his heritage, but they certainly arrived in NZ as very hard workers. Spent there working days growing potatoes in South Canterbury, and one of Dad's brothers lived in a "frumpy" house with a sod floor. Great people.

did your Cornish father have a second name?? My father only had a Christian name - & so did his brothers. some of my family have been back to where Dad was born - said the houses were so tiny. Guess that was their heritage. Dad was about 5 8 inches.

The Sport post came every Saturday night, reading back, the Dentist in wgtn, think was willis St, my Grand mother lived in Mortima terrace wgtn, spelt that wrong, she put a long board over the bath for extra, bench, the blue for washing,

Point Chevalier was a great place for a kid to grow up. We had few toys but we were only 100 yards from the beach & had the time of our lives swimming, fishing, climbing big trees & high cliffs. In Summer holidays, we'd have breakfast & then bugger off all day until we turned up for tea. My Uncle had a place at Great Barrier Island where we spent some awesome Christmases. It cost 3d to get the tram into the bottom of town.

loved the school milk which we had in summer and we had cocoa in winter and we had apples wrapped in tissues in season, they were nice also, nice and crisp not like the tastless and mushy ones we get nowadays. We made alot of our toys and we appreciated them much better didnt we didnt matter if we crashed our trollies or whatever we would busy ourselves and make another nother was ever too much bother to us.

What did your parents do for a living when you were young. We used to hear many tales of the hardships of the depression years, my father went to a work camp in Taranaki to try and eke out a living and my mother who worked in James Smiths in wellington used to send him 2/6d to help out. Times were tough. Father was a plumber and didnt go to the war as his was an essential trade. Totally different to the plumbing trade now with its plastics and glue. He had his own business and made water tanks etc as well as plumbing and drainlaying. My mother and grandmother used to dribe the spca animal ambulance pre war in wellington and carried a wooden box to chloroform unwanted cats. The storeys used to intrigue us as kids.

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