My Mother was the eldest in a family of 12. She was followed by 10 brothers, and then finally another little girl. My Aunt and Uncles. That last little girl was 2 years older than me.
I spent my childhood with a large group of relations and their friends.
I think I have spoken of the Sunday night's gatherings. A dinner at the big dining table and then around the piano in the lounge. Plenty of singing and there was always someone who played the music.
Of course there was always plenty of laughter , fun and a liberal amount of teasing for good measure. My father was a dairy farmer and also kept some sheep and pigs. Pigs had a big paddock and roamed free not kept like they are today in a filthy pen .
Pigs are very clean animals always had an area in the paddock where they went to the toilet. But not today . How things change.
Uncles came to visit and one had a little sports car with a "Dickie "seat .. in the USA they called it a " Rumble" seat. You can imagine what fun that was for us , my brothers and me to wait up at the gate and then the long drive down to the house in the " Dickie" seat.
I 've written earlier about taking the brothers and some of the other kids in the area down to the Point, a spot in the river to swim. I would have been around 8 or 9 years old , how much more we were trusted in those days.... the end of the 30's and the very early days of the 40's. Nothing untoward ever happened except as I had mentioned the day the tide was out and we slid around in the mud.... then washed off in a spring some people used for their drinking water.
We had plenty of trips to the beach , we all learnt to swim before we went to school. Country school with a horse paddock for those riding from a distance.
In 1942 , I had just turned 10 years of age my father joined the Airforce and the farm was leased and a house was bought in town. Life changed. The war years. There was rationing , but we never seemed to go short of anything. I always remember when the Americans arrived and we had a very special Ice cream shop open in one of the shopping areas. The first Ice cream I had ever tasted. No wonder I am still a fan of ice cream cones.
Very exciting new school with lots of teachers, different activities, even a special uniform , then Intermediate school, and finally Grammar School. The different sports available, Plenty of tennis and roller skating at the weekends, then I took up Hockey , loved that . Swimming too, always participated in the school competitions , can't remember if I ever won... but always enjoyed it. I joined the Girl Guides , do they even have the Guides today?
We led full and happy lives in those days.
.jpg)
I feel for the kids today especially these last couple of years , how all these restrictions have impacted on their development. Unfortunately we cannot turn the clock back, the damage has been done to a great number of young ones. The sooner we get things back on an even track and they settle into a routine again the better for everyone.
When I look back on my life I feel I didn't do too badly, still around , my kids had a good Country upbringing , had a very fortunate schooling , did some exciting things in their adult life. All I feel now is to get the next generation of young ones back into a fun and great learning part of their lives and all will finally come right again. But it has to start soon or a large number will forever have been deprived.
Footnote. I was out at a shopping complex yesterday morning and I was struck with the different people coming in the complex. I was early for my appointment with the Hearing specialist and watched . Mothers wearing masks and young ones around the 3 to 5 just following... once they would have been chatting pulling on skirts, skipping and full of energy . What were they this morning .. no expression, no joyful chatter to Mum just docile little followers. Even one poor little fellow wearing a mask. It was so sad to see such a change in what I remember as excitable young pre schoolers. Will they ever become energetic and full spirited children again.
