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Family played a big part in a kid's life when I was little. 
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.
 
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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.  
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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.   
 
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.
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