Monday, January 15, 2007

page 25

recollections of growing up was getting up 5am, catching my horse and rounding up the cows for morning milking, while still in pj's. All this before I got myself of to school..
I was born 1957 & brought up in Hamilton. Ah! those were the days. I can remember always getting the strap at school ( 6 of the best each hand) that teacher cut the worn end off & gave it to me at the end of the year. Guy Fawkes we used to have cracker fights with tom thumbs. Out playing down the gully at the back of my grandparants place. Late night shopping on friday night was a treat. Always remember the dental nurse & how the drill used to get hot & the smell of meths. The doc came to see you at home with his leather bag. The long hot summer days, when you were little swimming in the nude with out a care in the world. Racing our home made trolly down the hill & rolling it over at bottom to stop. great fun.
Yep I too was the schools nightmare.. miss benge was a young student teacher..she quit.. all my fault, I was so proud...detentions comin out of my ears. I assaulted a prefect and they finally expelled me. I left b4 I turned 15. I was a tuff nut alright
we did the same thing
Used to visit my grandmother in Morrinsville in the late 1950's and the ummmm forget what you called them, having a senior moment (senior day more like).. the man that empties the toilets. Sanitation cart ? Night watchman ? cant remember. Gawd wot a smelly job thatwould have been.
and my great grandfather built coffins and he had to measure the bodies and always used to tell horror stories of dead bodies sitting up and hitting him on the head when he tried to straighten them during the 'plague' years AArrrgggghhhhhh it so traumatised me, had nightmares for years.
Just imagine leaving doors unlocked or even. should I say it!! open in this day and age. I cant remeber where we did that sort of thing but we never had any fear of people murdering us or anything else horrible that they are doing these days....If its like this now, i Shudder to think what sort of society my grandchild will be in in 15 years time.. ohhhhh not worth thinking about

The game is called Magic Robot and there's a couple for sale on here at the moment. I'm just about to go and rummage in the cupboards and look for mine.
I have had a great time reading all the memories in here.Does anyone else remember collecting the Man from Uncle bubblegum cards.

these oldies from tv land....Squiddley Diddley,Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men,Felix the Cat,Clutch Cargo,Ookey Spookey,HR Puffinstuff or my fav,Banana Bunch.....???
I had a beauty cane doll pram with the tassles around the hood and beautifully sprung with the leather straps. My brother used to use it as a lawn mower!!who remembers the "MYSTERY DATE" game??I loved that game and also loved TWISTER.Yep, Mum's pikelets are still made in my house -cream of tartar is the trick, it makes them nice and light.Mum always wore an apron when at home doing the housework.Dad made us stilts out of wood,we thought we were pretty cool. We were very popular in our neighbourhood and at school because Dad was in the merchant navy and did the island run on the "Tofua" for many years. He used to bring home giant watermelons,big bunches of bananas that used to hang in the garage,boxes ofm oranges,pawapaw so we had quite exotic fruit.

Lassie was a favourite programme for me. We didn't have TV until 1966 so my mum and I used to walk to friends place a couple of blocks away each week to watch Lassie. Imagine doing that nowdays!! Used to go up the main street in Dunedin when TV first came here and watch it in the shop windows. I seem to remember watching boxing matches (don't know why cos was never interested in it) and there were crowds of people outside the shops
We hardly ever got to the movies when I was young - only remember two occasions - one was to see the Court Jester, the other I have no idea what, but what sticks in my mind was that 2 of my brothers took me; one of them gave me a parcel to hold and when we stood up at the end there was no parcel there and we never did find it :-( We also had an evening of watching some Charlie Chaplin silent movies in the church hall, which we really enjoyed!
Neither did we, except I did get to see the Sound of Music 3 times. Movies were really special treats. However, my father was a great taker of slides so we had endless slide evenings. When my daughter was about 5 I pursuaded, my then ailing father, to bring them all out...what a blast. She couldnt understand why we were laughing so hard. Unfortunately those are some of things that I lost, along with a number of other things I treasured, a number of years ago. Ah well, I do have wonderful memories :)
Get Smart I used to bike to my friends house in the evening once a week to watch Get Smart. We thought it was so cool. Anyone remember reading Famous Five and all those girls annuals. I still have mine.

I always wanted one of those but for the life of me I cant remember either. How much pocket money did everyone get and what chores did you have to do to earn it. I used to get 6 pence for making my bed and my younger sisters, cleaning out fireplaces and resetting them and then polishing school shoes for my 4 of us. I was also expected to help with the dishes and in the garden with which ever parent I was assigned to. Also got another 6 pence to bank with school banking.
...got 1 shilling a week. But i had to bank half of that with the school bank. To earn this I had to do dishes, make the bed and also I had to hang out the washing. Wasnt allowed to wash it cos it was done in the copper and that was a little to hard for me.I was the one that had to bike to the dairy if we ran short of milk or bread, My brother did nothing and got 3 pence haahah. Well my bank account went down rapidly once I was allowed access to it myself. I read the famous five and the girls annuals dont have anythong left of them tho. But I sold the Rupert books about 3 years ago, didnt get much but made someone happy i guess. I hd most of the series, I think they were run by the Herald or some big company like that. They were great with the hard covers on and all coloured pics
Oh yeah.... school banking... Too bad my mother worked in the Post Office, and would check up on me every week!
No pocket money...
(not with 8 children on a parson's stipend!) but my big brother paid me once to pick the fluff off his socks! Loved the famous five stories and my grandchildren are enjoying them now. Also the Abbey Girls and my brother's Saint books!
Dad use to give us a shilling a week pocket money But only if we spent half of it on mum... Good deal we thought. 1250

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