snippet 9

I was born in Den Haag left in 1961 on the Zuiderkruis, went to Australia first came ere in 1975. I have my collection of clogs around the house, none nailed up on the wall though. I also sell french knitting sets in my shop.

I used to travel to Hawera on football trips in the 60s. I was with Point Chevalier League. We always stayed in the Egmont Hotel & some of the fitter guys would walk up the water tower while the rest of us watched from the private bar. We always were well received & had heaps of great times. We always got beaten in the Saturday game though. Mind you, we always beat the Hawera team when they had their return trip to Auckland

Here is another memory. Butchers shops with sawdust on the floor, you would never see that now. Also in the days before supermarkets everything had to be weighed and packaged. I remember buying bags of broken biscuits for a penny, jaffas 5 for a penny, conversation lollies, bags of sherbert. Trolley derbies with old wooden trolleys with wheels with ballberrings, always intrigued me for some reason. Going to school on a frosty morning and sitting on my small school case and sliding on the frost down some of wellingtons zig zags

I remember conversation lollies and broken biscuits too. I wonder if that's why people complain that they'd never eat sausages as they taste like sawdust? I bet there's a few lumps of meat fallen in that sawdust over the years and just dusted off.

Remember the coronation and a magazine for girls called the Young Elizabethan. Books like Billy Bunter, Just William, Swallows and Amazons. The Tarzan movies, Tarzan was so gorgeous. Helping my Grandmother with her knitting by holding out the skeins of wool while she wound it into balls. Making paper chains for xmas decorations, no store bought then. Walking to sunday school wearing a white pleated skirt and a bunny wool bolero and beret and feeling so smart.

I worked in a grocery shop when I 1st left school, had to cut cheese, bacon etc for customers, weigh up the sugar etc when ordered, the boss used to do deliveries all over the district so we had to make up the orders so he could get away.

We lived in the country and once a week the butcher would come and all the meat was hanging up in freezer trailer And you could pick which piece and how big you wanted..Also the fruit truck would come once a week He would always give me a plum or a few grapes while mum got her order..and the bread twice a week or was it three. All these things delivered to the gate.

we use to have a guy come round with his truck and we'd all go out and see what vegies he had for us to buy. I know he use to sell coconuts and sugar cane. Jeeze and I've just remembered his name too which is VERY spooky to say the least (me remembering not his name) it was Mr Lala,

Our fruit and vege man was Willie Yep really nice guy.

Made some pretty fancy oven cloths out of sugar sacks and mats made out of pull thru rag and talking of rags we used to have our hair done up in rags to make ringlets for special occassions. Remember making marbles out of clay cause we couldnt always afford glass ones and the guys would come along with their great big bonzos or steelies and smash them to smitherines, gosh the fun we had hopskotch. Make knitting needles out of branches and smooth them off and do yards and yards of french knitting with great intentions and not do a great deal with it.

Get the bread out of the mail box and break it in half and pull the centre out cause it had been sitting in the box all afternoon and was nice and warm then put the two halves together and hope Mum and Dad wouldnt find out and when they did say something as they always did we told them the birds did it, little brats we were. Loved rockmelons and used to cut a little "V" out scoop the middle out and put the "V" back in, once again we would get a hiding naughty little brats.

used to do that with the bread.. and I used to go for drives with the butcher when he did his run out to the country.. I looooooved their homemade savs..he always gave the kids one when we went into his shop.. now here's one for the ladies.. do you remember the foam rubber.. pointed falsiessss ??.lol my aunties used to wear them.. seeeeeee.. Madona didnt invent them.lol. the lollies I loved back then were Toffee Bars.. frozen Buzz Bars.. & chocolate fish.. sure you can still get some of the lollies from back them.. but theyre 1/2 the size & 10 times the price..lol

Door never locked Our doors or windows were never locked in fact we used to go away for three weeks holiday and leave them all open to air the place out. How things have changed now. Remember the old outside dunnies and the huge black spiders that congregated in them with all the newspaper we cut up into nice tidy pieces. Xmas day was brilliant, home growen mutton or lamb peas, new potatoes,pumpkin, kumera mint all out of our own gardens and all cooked in the old cold range. Some wonderful cooking was done in the old cold range I can remember Mum baking meringues, cream horns, Fielders Sponges savories by the hundreds. My pet hate was tripe, used to wear a shirt with a pocket when I new tripe was for tea, still didnt work Mum and Dad new what I was doing.

loved it when the townie cousins came for..holidays on the farm...can remember getting many a hiding for standing up on the back of the sledge, holding the horse's reigns (sp) and making all the others sit down on the sledge, then make the horsee trot through a deep puddle hahahaah! coming out the other side, everyone else was wet through & screaming & I would be the only one left in dry clothes..Q;-)

The biking to the bakery reminded me we only had a dairy near us and if Mum wanted anything she'd say "you get on your bike and get me such and such from the shop and I'll time you", so off I'd go like a bat out of hell! Came back and she'd say "oh you were quick it only took you so long to get there and back". Took me a long time to realise I wasa being conned.