Chapter 14 – Little Sister

Joseph 2 and Margaret Dangerfield’s eldest daughter, Alice Maud, was my grandmother and she married Richard Pryor Williams and had three daughters, Jean, Connie and Ronda.

Jean was my mother and Connie and Ronda my dear Aunties. When Aunty Ronda’s husband, my Uncle John, died in 2003 Aunty Ronda moved from her home at Myponga to a retirement village in Victor Harbor. Today in company with Kathy, Ronda’s daughter, my first cousin and her husband Richard Billing, I am visiting my Aunty Rhonda to spend the morning with her.  It is October in 2012 and I have driven to Victor Harbor from my home in Adelaide. Aunty Ronda is a very sprightly 88 years of age. Her cottage is immaculately kept and she is still a very active member of the Victor Harbor Christadelphian meeting.

In 1950, when I was 11 years of age and Aunty Ronda was 26 years of age, my parents sent me to stay with Aunty Ronda and Uncle John on the sheep and cattle station where my Uncle was station manager. The station was owned by the Simpson family who produced the Simpson Washing Machines. For Tom Simpson, Glen Shera was a sort of ‘hobby farm.’ He would visit Glen Shera and go out with Uncle John and drive the tractor or travel around the station boundaries in the old Blitz Wagon. For me, Glen Shera was my most favorite place in all the world. I loved to ride the horses, paddle in its streams, watch the rabbits skitter in and out of their burrows or watch the shearers at their work shearing the station’s Merino sheep. Glen Shera consisted of 6,000 acres of hills, valleys, streams and dams and with its sheep, cattle and horses, there was everything that a tomboy like myself could ever want to be around. Since those carefree childhood days I have always been grateful to Aunty Ronda for having me to stay and I so appreciated her input into my life and the happy memories I have of those long ago days.

“Hello Aunty, How are you?” I asked the small white-haired lady who stood at the door.

“I’m well, thanks, It is good to see you. Come through into the courtyard and I’ll bring you a cup of tea.

I was really looking forward to hearing about my Aunty’s life. Some of my Aunty’s story I already knew but I was sure there was lots I could still learn. I knew that when my grandmother, Alice Maud Williams died, my Aunty Ronda was taken in by Harry and Emma Dangerfield and brought up as part of their family. I also knew that whilst living with Harry and Emma, Ronda had a good home and plenty of everything. On the other hand, my mother, Ronda’s sister, and my father were very poor and suffered many hardships in the early years of their married life. Also, my Aunty Connie, the youngest of the three sisters had the worst situation because she remained in the care of her father Richard Pryor Williams which was not a good thing for a young girl growing up.

“Now what would you like to know about my life, dear?” asked Auntie.

“I’m interested in your early years, at Pinnaroo while grandma was alive and then at Gawler when you went to live with Uncle Harry and Auntie Emma.”

“There’s not much to tell really, but I will tell you what I remember.” It is funny, I thought to myself. Whenever I ask anyone to tell me about their life, so often they say that there is ‘not much to tell’ when I am sure there is plenty ‘to tell.’

“When and where were you born, Aunty?

“I was born on the 1st March 1924 at what was then called the Queen’s Home at Rose Park, Adelaide. I was named Ronda Hope Williams and I was the third daughter of Richard Pryor and Alice Maud Williams (Dangerfield). At that time the family was living at Pinnaroo in a house just opposite the Pinnaroo school.”

“How old were you when your mother died, Aunty?” I asked.

“My mother, Maud, died in February 1931 when I was 6 years old and had just started Grade 2 and would have been 7 years old in March. I think she was 52 years old when she died. When I was born she was about 45 years old. My grandfather Joseph 2 was living with us at that time but soon after Mum died he went to live at Gawler with my uncle Harry (Joseph Henry) and daughter-in-law Emma Dangerfield. I stayed on in Pinnaroo but I really missed him as he had looked after me all the time that my mother had been away having treatment for TB from Muhammad Allum.”

“Who on earth was Muhammad Allum,” I asked.

“Muhammad Allum was a supposedly great healer at that time. Doctors hadn’t been able to help Mum and there were many stories of great cures that Muhammad had accomplished and by this time Mum was prepared to try anything just to get better so she could bring up her children.”

“Did he manage to do any good?” I asked.

“Not that I know of. Mum was living in Edith Street Gawler in a small flat not far from Uncle Harry and Auntie Em. They helped her and did her washing and any other necessary chores that had to be done.”

“They seem to have been very good to you all?”

“They were, and they were always there for my mother, that is for sure. Mum had to be kept segregated from everyone because of her Tuberculosis. She came back to Pinnaroo towards the end and died in the hospital there. What I remember most about her was that she had lovely long fair wavy hair and it flowed over her pillow as she lay in her hospital bed. There were no hugs and kisses for me because it was too risky. I remember one day at home when she was sitting outside in the sun and I was riding a broom for a horse and I passed close to her and then saw her crying, I was upset because I thought that I had bumped her with the broom and I always felt guilty about it, but years later Jean told me that Mum knew then that she would soon die and was crying because she was worried for me being so young.”

“That must have been so hard for Grandma. What was your life like at Pinnaroo before Grandma became really sick?”

“At Pinnaroo we had a herd of cows and I can remember Jean and Grandpa used to milk them and dad too before he started work at Eudunda Farmers in the mornings and I guess it was just Jean and Grandpa in the evenings. We had a milk round and dad would deliver some of the milk on his way to work mostly on his bike and both Jean and Connie delivered some before they went to school. The cows were held in a paddock next to our house overnight and after the morning milking they had to be taken to a larger paddock a couple of miles out of the town which had been given to us by Grandpa, I guess. After school they had to be walked back to the house paddock for milking. I used to help Connie to do that. Jean and Grandpa used to do the cooking as Dad’s hours at the Coop were fairly long in those days. He was the man out the back, the general dogsbody who weighed up the spuds and grain or whatever.

“Was grandma living at home at this time?”

“Yes, but she couldn’t do much, so it was up to Jean and Grandpa to keep things running. When I was 5 or 6 I had rheumatic fever and was not allowed to be active in case of heart damage, so when the others went for walks Connie used to put me in an old wooden cart and push me around so that I could be with our friends. We didn’t have much, but my memories there are mostly happy ones, although I do remember Dad chasing me home wielding his strap at my heels and boy did I move fast. I would run to grandpa and jump onto his lap and he wouldn’t let dad hit me. He put out his arm to shield me from dad because Dad had a foul temper, though I probably deserved a hiding anyway.”

“Your grandpa seems to have been such a kind man.”

“He was and I loved him and he loved me. He was the one who looked out for me. I don’t know how I would have got on without grandpa. We three girls used to go to the Methodist Sunday school and each year there would be a special anniversary day when we all sang the hymns that we had practiced and special platforms were put up for us to stand on. We always had a new dress each for this occasion and a dressmaker, a Mrs Wagener, who always made our clothes, would be busy fitting and sewing and I always felt very gorgeous and excited on the day of the concert.

“Every 8-hour’s day holiday in October we would go on the Sunday school picnic. A horse-drawn wagon would have boxes or hay bales for us to sit on and a team of draught horses would plod along and take us all a few miles out of the town. We all sang and laughed and mucked around all the way there and all the way back. It was a dry and desolate place for the picnic itself but that did not seem to matter much. I had a special girl friend who lived near us and her name was Joyce Winter and her older sister May was Connie’s friend and we spent a lot of time together but I think they went to the Lutheran church as I don’t remember them being at the picnics. Connie and I each had a pet goat called Trixie and Minnie. We also had a pet galah and a white cockatoo. I also had a pet lamb that used to follow me over to the school and I was in trouble when it followed me into the classroom and refused to go out. Connie was in trouble too because the galah flew into her classroom and got up in the rafters and his droppings were not appreciated and neither was his language as he learnt it from Dad and Connie who could both swear like troopers.

“When I was about 7 years old I reckon that I had whooping cough and I must have been delirious at times as I could see fairies on swings and could see their house on the ceiling. I also remember coughing and not being able to get my breath and Jean used to hold my hands and try to comfort me. She would have only been about 17 years old herself and had a lot of responsibility. She always told me that she could control me all right, but Connie was rebellious. When Connie was about 12 years old and out of control she was sent to live for six months with another family who had a girl about her age. She was most unhappy there and I don’t know if it helped at all.

“When I was 8 years old and in grade 3, I was sent to Gawler to be with Grandpa at Uncle Harry’s place. I spent most of my spare time crying as I hated the large school and I could not cope with the school work as they seemed far advanced there with sums and things that I hadn’t learnt at Pinnaroo. I loved being with Grandpa again, but really missed my family and friends back home. I don’t know how long I lasted there but I ended up back in Pinnaroo. Then after a year or so back there Jean got married to Maynard O’Connor and went to live on a farm at Mylor and Dad and Connie sold up at Pinnaroo and I think they moved to Adelaide somewhere and I went back to Gawler. I was in Grade 4 then and a bit older and just had to cope, but for years I was so unhappy not being with my family and Ev used to sometimes give me a hard time which I probably deserved. I used to cry myself to sleep every night. I had to share a double bed with Ev and that must have been hard for her because she would have been in her teens as she was 9 years older than me. Auntie Em expected Ev to keep me on the straight and narrow so I must have been a burden and a responsibility for her. Overall, the family were all good to me and grandpa spoiled me rotten. Uncle was a lovely man and was always happy and used to sing ditties to me and recite all the Australian poems just to get a smile out of me as I guess I did not smile very often. I do not remember ever hearing cross words between him and Auntie and they would often waltz around the room together if they heard a catchy tune on the radio and they were good dancers too.

“There were always visitors coming to stay with us at Gawler, often unexpectedly and late at night. The Rellies from Broken Hill would all come and doss down. I’d have to sleep on the floor and share with my cousin Dawn. She was a very pretty girl. There would be lots of fun going on as our boys were great at short sheeting beds and tying up pyjamas and used to tie a cow bell under their beds. There would be squeals and giggles and all sorts of goings on as the Broken Hill crowd loved a good time. Aunty’s hop beer was very popular as well. Ev would play the piano and sing out of tune and the board games would all come out. How Aunty coped with it all I can’t imagine as there would be four or five adults and sometimes several children in two cars. All I know is that it made a lot of dishes as there were 9 of us without the extras. There were several beds out under both sides of the verandas and Roy and Bill and Geoff slept in them and Lance slept in the bedroom but they all had to dress in there as there were only the 3 bedrooms plus the one built out the back for Grandpa.

“Sometimes at Christmas we would go to Jamestown to stay on the farm with Uncle Lock and Auntie Suzie Crawford. They had two daughters Jean and Doris and a son Gordon. Dorrie was a year younger than me and she was so active and could run like a hare and I would always be left behind. They had turkeys that used to chase me and that helped my speed quite a bit I think. I didn’t particularly enjoy farm life, but I used to be quite happy for the company of someone of my own age for a change. Auntie Suzy and Jean were really good cooks and the food they had there was really yummy, but it was all female hands on deck for the dishes. We would always have to spend at least one day at Caltowie to see Aunty Anny Laube who was a spinster and then to see Aunty Lydia Amey. I forget her husband’s name. They had a son who was deaf and dumb and it used to fascinate me to see them talking on their hands together in utter silence. I remember that Uncle tried to teach Ev to drive when we were on the way home from Jamestown and she was hopeless and she never did learn thank goodness or I might have had to go with her.

“Most school holidays I would go and stay with Jean and Maynard. They were only at Mylor for a short time as there wasn’t enough money in whatever they we doing there. They were desperately poor and I usually lost weight while I was staying with them as rations were very scarce in their place. I still enjoyed getting away from Ev’s continual nagging. She was a champion at it. Later Jean and Maynard moved to Maude Street Unley to a shabby cottage and I used to spend my holidays helping to look after the children. Poor Jean she was snowed under with pregnancies and grizzly kids and precious little money and was always in debt and bemoaning her fate. That was the depression years and there were plenty just as poor around in those days and I guess I was lucky to be living with My Uncle’s family as it didn’t affect me much at all as there was always plenty of good food there. Uncle used to grow veggies of all sorts and there were orange trees and mandarins and grapes and a huge fig tree, also apricots and passion fruit. There was a terraced garden leading down to the railway line and there were several almond trees there and several peach trees too. There was a cellar under the house and it was always full of all sorts of preserves and jams and pickles and tomato sauce, and not forgetting the hop beer. We had plenty of eggs from the chooks too. We also had a lovely flower garden at the front and that was a job Aunty enjoyed. She was very knowledgeable about flowers and people walking past would often stop and admire the garden.

“We had a pet magpie and he used to sit out the front and when anyone went by he would say quite plainly ‘Who are you?’ and they would be looking around to see who it was. I did not like that bird as he would attack my feet while saying ‘Whoopee!’ and I would go screeching off to put my shoes on so that it didn’t hurt as much. Also at night he perched under the back veranda and it was my job to clean his droppings. He got into strife with Uncle one day when he was planting out some onions and Maggie followed behind pulling them out. I cannot remember how he died but I do remember being very happy about it.

“We had a huge fig tree out the back which was fed by the bath water and I used to love to climb up and perch up where I could see and hear all that was going on. I used to get rid of my warts with the sap from the stems of the figs. When they were ripe I had to help to pick them for jam and that was not a good job as the sap was so sticky and it made you itch all over and there were always masses of big dark juicy ones. The job I enjoyed most was washing the bottles for the hop beer as I could do that in the cellar where it was always lovely and cool and I could slop away in the water.

“Was Auntie Em as good a cook as I have heard?” I asked.

“Auntie was the best cook! That was why it was possible for them to be so hospitable. There was always plenty of food in the pantry and lots of freshly cooked cakes and biscuits so that she could entertain at the drop of a hat. Friday afternoon and Saturday mornings Ev and Aunty would get up and cook for the week ahead. The sponges and butter cakes were used first and the “keepers” like biscuits and fruit cakes were kept for later in the week. They used to make honey buns – enough to fill a four gallon tin and they were there to be had at any time as they kept well. The rock buns we usually ate first but even when stale they were great when dunked in tea. Of course there were apple pies and tarts and sausage rolls. Ev’s sponges and cream cakes were something special. I hated to be around when all this was going on as the dishes were mountainous. I didn’t mind being around when the icing was going on, though.

“Grandpa’s main job was chopping the firewood and splitting the kindling. He used to cut the newspaper in squares and put string through one corner and that was hung in the dunny down the back yard for toilet paper. I used to scrunch it up in my hands while sitting there to soften it before use. He also dried the dishes sitting on a stool as his knees were painful. Quite often he would cut up beans and shell peas. His job too was to keep the birds from pecking holes in the figs and he would sit on his doorstep with his gun and have pot shots at them. There was an old stretcher under the shade of the fig tree and that was his favorite place for his 40 winks in the hot weather.

“I always dreaded Monday’s going back to primary school – especially when I was in grade 4 as every morning without fail there would be a 20 word spelling test and Miss Flamank was a weirdo. If we got more than a few words wrong we would all be lined up out the front for cuts across the knuckles with a ruler and on a cold morning that really hurts. It didn’t happen to me very often as I really swatted up on spelling after the first few times. The only lessons I enjoyed were English lessons and writing essays and copy writing as I usually got good grades in those. However, I was lousy at mental arithmetic and in grade five Mr Hussey used to line us up and we got cuts on the back of our legs. I was quite often in the line up, but he didn’t hit the girls very hard as he was quite a nice man for a teacher. I was often kept in after school for arithmetic when I didn’t get my sums right and would have to stay until I got them all right.”

“How awful that teachers were able to give children handers like that. I’m glad they aren’t allowed to do it any more.”

“Well it was common when I was at school. Other than that I had plenty of friends and enjoyed recess and lunch times. When I was in grade six I remember a new boy being brought into the classroom and he was only a small lad in short pants. His name was John Critchley. I started going to Gawler High school in 1938. That year, all schools were closed until the end of March because of an epidemic of Infantile Paralysis or Polio as it is now called. As I lived quite near the high school I was expected to go and collect lessons and do them at home, but those living further away did not have to do that. When we finally got back to school we had to have a 10 minute break out of doors between each lesson which we all thought was rather good. I really enjoyed high school as in first year we had a lovely young woman teacher and she encouraged me a lot. We had the head master for maths and he helped me a lot with mental arithmetic. I was still not good at it but I did improve quite a lot.

“About this time when I was 14 years old I fell madly in love with a boy who used to leave chocolates and apples in my desk and used to wink at me when the teacher was not looking. He also used to write love notes to me and leave them on my desk. I never did get to go out with him or even get near to him as that was strictly forbidden in those days. However he lived at Lyndoch and the train used to go past the back of our house and it left after I got home from school so I used to sneak down to the back terrace and he would wave out to me as the train went past and throw me kisses. Aunty would have grounded me forever if she had caught me at it. I was not even allowed to talk to boys on the way home from school or I would be in big trouble. After I left school, he wrote me asking for a date but I was not allowed to go and never did see him again. John was in the same classroom as me but we were not an item at that time.”

“Why didn’t you write back to that boy who lived at Lyndoch?” I asked feeling quite curious about him.

“I don’t know, I just didn’t.” Auntie Ronda shook her head and looked thoughtful. I bet she had asked herself that question on occasion as well.

“In January 1939 my dear old Grandpa died suddenly. We had a dreadfully long heat wave that summer and Grandpa was in deep distress with heart failure and at times gasping for breath. He had tablets to help him but Aunty had charge of them as he could only have them at regular and strict intervals or they could be dangerous. In the evening he asked me to get the tablets from Aunty as he really needed to have some, but I had been warned that he could not have them and I refused him. Then in the early morning hours I woke to hear Uncle calling out that Dad has shot himself. I will never forget that night. I would have been 14 in March of 1939 and he died on 8th January. I felt mighty cut up. They had the funeral that very day I think, but they didn’t let me go to the funeral. I was sent into the neighbor’s place. I wish I had been allowed to go to the funeral, but at the time I didn’t think anything about it because children just didn’t go to funerals, but now, I do wish I had been allowed to go. They put the coffin in the bedroom under my window and after that I just used to think about him every time I went in there so after that I slept outside under the veranda as I could always see the coffin there in my mind when I went in that room.

“He must have felt so desperate to do that. He probably didn’t want to be a burden on Aunty either. But what a way to die! It must have been awful for Auntie Em and Uncle Harry to have that happen,” I said.

“Yes, it was. At the end of 1939, the year Grandpa died, I left school because Aunty thought I was never going to be an academic. I was so upset that I sulked for days but Aunty would not be moved. So I ended up getting a job with Helmers, a dress shop in Rundle Street in Adelaide. I worked there for about a year and then I was talking to one of my school friends who happened to be working at the Eudunda Farmer’s Shop in Gawler and she said that they were looking for someone in the grocery department and that quite a few of our mates were working there as well. I got the job there and it was better than chasing the train every day as I was often running late. I had not been there very long at the Co-op before I noticed that John had grown out of short pants and was quite good looking as well, but was very shy of girls. He did not tell dirty jokes like some of the other boys but was a bit standoffish. So I was quite surprised when Collin Hillier told me that the gang were all going for a walk after work that night and John wanted to know if I would go with them. He was too shy to ask me himself. I was keen to go but wasn’t game to ask Aunty as I had a fair idea what her answer would be. I told Roy about it and he said he would see what he could do. He got Aunty to agree to let me go and I was really pleased, but Roy told me he would ‘knock my bloody head off’ if I didn’t behave myself and I had to be home right on the dot. So off I went and John was so shy and didn’t even hold my hand, but when he took me back to the front gate he gave me a quick peck on the lips and took off like a jet. I was a ‘gone goose’ after that and clean forgot about my high school romance.”

I laughed as I visualized Uncle John kissing Auntie Ronda and then running off ‘like a jet’ and then Aunty Ronda describing herself as a ‘gone goose.’ Every generation has its own language.

“About that time when Uncle was about 62 years old he had a stroke and that changed all our lives. He was unconscious for several days I think – he finally regained consciousness but was completely paralyzed down one side of his body. His stroke was caused by a blood clot as he had low blood pressure. He was very heavy nursing and remained that way till his death at about 75 years old. Lance married Bernice Lunn when I was about 12 years old and Ev married Len Gore when I was 15 years old and I was one of her bridesmaids and Jean Crawford from Jamestown, a cousin, was the other one. I can’t remember who else was in the wedding party. Geoff and Roy and Ivor were still living home at that time. Unfortunately soon after Uncle’s stroke I had to leave the Co-op and stay at home to help Aunty with the housework as uncle took up so much of her time. I had only been there about a year. At that time John got his call up for the Navy and we both left the Co-op at the same time. John was 17 ½ and I was 18 ½ then. I was really pissed off as I missed the companionship of the Co-op mob and missed John even more.

“The second World War broke out in 1939 when I was still at high school and Geoff was at that time working as an electrician at the Munitions works at Salisbury and his hours were long and in the winter he left home in the dark and got home in the dark too so the training of his pigeons was my job for 2 shillings a week (20c). While they were flying I had to clean out their water bowls and measure out their seed which I might add was all sorts of seeds for their strength and stamina and check on the breeders who were in separate quarters and did not get out to fly while in there. I had to be out of bed at the first sign of light and ‘shoosh’ them out to teach them to rise early when racing and they had to fly around in circles for 20 minutes – ½ hour and it was not always easy so I had to stay out there all this time ‘shooshing’ them up as some would like to get down to feed. Then I had to keep an eye on them to make sure they all landed and went in the drop.

“When I got home from school I had to let them out again and keep them up, but the trouble was then to get them all back in before dark as some would land on the shed roof and not go in and sometimes they would all keep flying and as dusk set in they could hit power lines and get wing damage. I would have to be there and make soothing noises to kid them in as they would get spooked if they saw a cat around or just something different around. I used to be mighty worried if some were still out when Geoff got home as he would come in the back way and go straight to the pigeon house and would come in roaring like a bull and accuse me of not letting them out early enough. Many a yelling match we had over those damn birds. Aunty would have to get on to Geoff and back me up before he would let up on me. However, he did well with winning many races and I ended up with a brand new bike for my trouble. Sometimes when Geoff had to work on a weekend when there was a race on I would have to keep watch all day for the birds to come home and that was a real worry for me as sometimes they would get spooked and not go in the drop and just sit there and every second was precious. When they did go in I had to quickly get in there and catch the bird and get the rubber ring off the leg and put it in the special clock and turn the handle that would record the time. Pity help me if a bird came home and I missed it.”

“He would have had to pay me a lot more than 20c to do that job, that’s for sure,” I said.

“That’s what I used to tell him sometimes. Soon after I was at home helping, Aunty decided to get treatment for Uncle in the city so they went to stay with Ev and Len when they were living out Enfield way as they could get a physiotherapist to call to the home from there to treat him as in those days there were none at Gawler. So I was left home to keep house and look after Geoff as Roy was married by then and Ivor was away most of the time in the fire brigade. I had to be up about 5 am to get his breakfast and cut his lunch for work and get him out of bed and he was so hard to wake up. I would have to call him several times and shake him awake and then he would get mad at me for my trouble. Then when I had him on his way it would be time to train the pigeons and feed the chooks with bran and pollard mixed with warm water and kitchen scraps mixed in and they loved it to warm them up on cold mornings. I was kept pretty busy as I had the entire house to keep clean and the washing to do without the aid of a washing machine and the ironing plus the garden to water and learn to do the shopping. I used to be very worried about cooking meals for Geoff as he was very fussy and I was not a good cook. Sometimes he would sit down and look at his meal and say ‘What is this muck?’ and sometimes he would push it aside and I would have to fry him bacon and eggs or something.”

“Oh Aunty, the way men were allowed to treat women in those days is pretty disgraceful. They’d be called ‘chauvinistic pigs’ in later generations, that’s for sure.”

“Yes they would, but not in my day.”

“I always had to make sweets as well and I was a bit better at that. I often had to buy cake for his lunches when mine were a flop and that was not done when Aunty was around as she didn’t seem to have flops. Some nights Geoff would have to work late and come home on the late train and I would be home alone and scared and hearing all sorts of creepy sounds and mighty glad when he got home. I think Auntie and Uncle were away for quite a few weeks, but the therapy did not seem to help him very much as he was not very cooperative.

“I had met up with John but then he went into the Navy when he was 17 ½ years old and he was in there for three years. I was pretty busy writing letters and waiting on the postman for letters from him and feeling very worried as the war was not going well up in the islands and several local lads had lost their lives or were prisoners of war or just posted as missing in action. One young lad from our street was lost when HMAS Sydney was sunk. At one stage John’s father was sent up in his job as line-inspector for the PMG to Alice Springs and also to Darwin for about six months so John’s mum had a lot of worry on her own with both her men away and Brian to care for. I was sub-intermediate in 1939 and at Gawler High School when the Japs started bombing in Darwin. We were all instructed to dig a trench to use as a bomb shelter in case we got bombed. There was a lane between us and Aunty’s neighbors, the Jordan’s house so our boys dug a trench between our two houses. There was a great to do about digging this trench but in the winter it filled with water and it was more like a swimming pool than a shelter and quite useless.

“The Americans were camped just out of Gawler at Sandy Creek and so we had American soldiers chatting us. A lot of American’s were left around Gawler afterwards. I wasn’t allowed to have anything to do with them. Aunty looked after me well! My cousins too, I couldn’t do anything without someone checking up on me. When I first went to Gawler I could hardly walk because I still had rheumatic fever and had it since I was six. I lived with aunty and uncle from when I was eight or nine. January, when grandpa died, was in the school holidays so they sent me away to Adelaide where I stayed in a house where Uncle had his business and he had rooms there. Auntie wanted me out of it because of the trouble with grandpa’s death. One day Uncle and I walked from Gilbert street, Gilberton, right to the ecclesial hall in Halifax street Adelaide to go to the meeting.

“That would have been quite a walk!”

“Yes it certainly was. Now where was I? Oh yes, well I’ve already told you that in 1940, I started work at Helmers’ dress shop at 99 Rundle Street, Adelaide whereI was a sales assistant selling dresses. Well, over Xmas I worked at John Martins too for a couple of weeks and hated it there and I hated it at Helmers too. I travelled to and from work by train but I wasn’t used to Adelaide and hated all the travel. I had to work Saturday mornings as well and Saturday night and I had to catch a midnight train to Gawler and run home in the dark. I worked there for a year and then some of my friends were working at Eudunda Farmers and so I got a job there in the grocery department. John was there too. I used to ride my bike along the railway line along Short street and then down the railway line. I worked there for about 18 months until Uncle had his stroke and then I had to leave work and help Auntie with Uncle. I went back there again after we got over the first hurdles with Uncle. I had about a year at home then I went back to the Co-op.

“In 1948 Auntie Emma also cared for Marilyn who was Ivor Dangerfield’s (Bill) daughter when Ivor and Marilyn moved in with her in 1948. Despite the demands placed on her by Harry, and the fact that she was well into her 60s, Emma was prepared to care for another small child, she was an amazing woman. Marilyn said the had many happy memories of life with Emma in our lovely old house at Gawler. Despite his condition, Harry used to entertain Marilyn for hours on end reciting poetry and telling stories. Emma would also talk about her times on the farm with her brothers at Eyre Peninsula.

“Aunty used to have an obsession with not wasting water. All the bath water was allowed to stand and settle and then it was used to wash the clothes. The house at Gawler had an underground tank with a hand pump. It was Marilyn’s job on Sunday night to pump up enough water to fill the copper, washing machine and buckets. Emma always washed on Monday morning and she would save the water and bucket it out onto the garden when the washing was finished. Aunty was a very traditional housewife. Monday was washing day, Tuesday ironing, Wednesday cleaning, Thursday was for shopping mostly done over the phone and delivered and Friday was cooking day. She cooked most of Friday in case there were visitors on the weekend. There was a very large tin in the kitchen which was filled with a plain bun – any visitors helped themselves. She was famous in the family for her “Sea Pie.” This was a mountain of chopped vegetables, bacon and diced meat wrapped in a dumpling dough and pudding cloth and cooked for a number of hours in a large stock pot of water and served with lashings of tomato sauce.

“When did you marry Uncle John, Auntie?” I asked.

“On 1st Dec 1945 I married John Vere Critchley in the Gawler East Methodist Church. John’s sister Patricia was my bridesmaid and Albert Drake was the best man. We went to Victor Harbor for our honeymoon because John had only one week’s leave. The war was only just over and we weren’t permitted to go interstate. We stayed in a guest house which is now called ‘Smuggler’s Inn.” It is opposite where the garage was where I used to get my car serviced. The war ended in September 1945 but John still had to go back to Melbourne after his leave was over and I went to Aunty’s and back to work. I worked there until April of 1946 and then John got demobbed and we rented a room first of all with a friend of Mum Critchley’s who used to rent out rooms. Then we rented a house at 12 Twelfth street Gawler West from another friend of Mum’s and we were there until Raelene was born 12 months later on 17th Dec 1946.

“We lived there for a couple of years and John got a job with the Income Tax department. He stuck that out for about a year and decided he wanted to join the soldier’s settlement scheme for going on farms and we were sent down to the South East to Francis and this was for John’s training. At this time Raelene was about 6 months old and Kathy was conceived down there. We had to live with a chap on the farm and I had to cook and clean and I had morning sickness and everything. I used to ring up and write to Aunty and Mum Critchley always kept in touch. Dr Fry, who was Jeremy’s father used to come and stay at the house and Jeremy was the man John worked for. I was expected to cook for them and any visitors.

“Once again I can see that women didn’t seem to have many ‘rights’ in those days.”

“Rights? What were they? Not only that, but we, John and I, had to eat in the kitchen but I had to serve their meal to them in the dining room first, but when Jeremy’s father wasn’t there Jeremy would eat with us in the kitchen. I only got to the shops once while I was there. Jeremy did the shopping and I had his pet lambs to rear. It was obvious that Jeremy was just looking for cheap labor and that’s why he took people on for training. John had to work really hard while we were there. When I got close to having Kathy, John stayed there and I went back to Gawler to live with my mother-in-law. John took the weekend off and help me pack to go home and drove us to the station. Mum and Dad looked after me then and they had a beautiful peach tree and I used to have peaches and cream to eat and they waited on me and it was so nice after all the work I had been doing back in the South East.

“On the 1st March 1948 Kathy was born at the Hutchesson Hospital at Gawler. I stayed on there while John had to finish out his term in the South East. When Kathy was nearly one, John got a transfer and he commenced work at Glen Shera on 1st Jan 1949. For a time I was living back at Gawler with Grandma West, John’s Grandmother and she helped look after Kathy. When Kathy used to cry and I couldn’t cope I would put her down by the chook yard to howl and that used to stop her. Then grandma West used to come and rescue her. John’s mother and Grandma West were at odds and didn’t agree on lots of things. They used to get under one another’s skins. I used to fall out with both of them now and then! Raelene had trouble potty training and none of us could agree on how she should be trained. But I liked grandma West and so did Kathy. Pat, John’s sister, was there too and Brian his brother.

“John was at Glen Shera boarding with Tommy Carter and John lived in a little room at the back of the Shearer’s quarters and had his meals in with Carter’s and that continued until the Carter’s left and then John and I moved into their house which would have been when Kathy was just 18 months old. We were there about a year and they were building another house for us. Connie and Syd Wicker were in the main house. We’d only been there about a year or so and we were up in Gawler for the weekend and Syd Wicker left and decided to go as a Valuation person. After he left, a chap called Nugent moved in. He had a wife and two children. We went up to Gawler for the weekend and while we were there this man Nugent went into our house to our wardrobe and took John’s gun. Which was there in the wardrobe. He took John’s horse ‘Joan’ and rode out to the back blocks and shot himself. He had been stealing sheep and the police were after him. We were lucky we were at Gawler and out of it. Then we got a phone call and had to rush back. The Roberts were out in the little back room in the house where the billiard room used to be in later years – there was a room out the back, where the Shearers used to come. The Roberts were in there and they had their meals in with us because they didn’t have cooking facilities. They had a boy who was in the police force. We went and visited them at Wilmington when they moved out. They didn’t have a manager then because Nugent’s wife and kids had to move out after he shot himself.

“Old Fred Simpson had taken a fancy to John. Between Fred and Tom they decided that John would learn as he went. He used to spend most evenings over with Syd and his spare time was spent learning how to run the station. Syd told them that John would be a good option but when Vickers left Nugent came in as manager but when he shot himself, John took over. We shifted into the main home and then John had to go for 6 weeks training to do with soldier settler thing. They paid his wages but they were also subsidised by the Government whilst he was there. He used to come home for the weekends and during this time Mavis Hillier and her daughter Margaret came to stay with me while John was away.

“On 27th Aug 1950 I was baptised on the station. Auntie Em, Charlie Briggs and Stan Lund came down to the farm. They asked me questions about my beliefs and then I was baptised in a little old tin bath at the back and I remember that the water was cold. John hated the fact that I was being baptised and so he was off in a huff. He went off for the day taking the kids with him and wouldn’t even stay while I was baptised. I got married to John thinking I would change him to be a Christadelphian and he was hoping he would change me from being one. We both stuck to our guns. He straight away went and joined the freemasons to nark me. I was upset because now I knew he wouldn’t change to be a Christadelphian. Then he gave up the Freemasons because they were ‘too religious!’ He was a paid-up member until he died. It is supposed to be all secret but he couldn’t learn his lines so he had to get me to help him learn them, so nothing is secret – all this silly ritual. I remember something funny that happened on the day I got baptised. We had a goat and it was tied up to an old blitz chair and after I was baptised it took off after me and I went round the house with the goat chasing me pulling this chair behind him and it followed me into the bathroon and the goat ended up in the bath.

“In 1951 I learned to drive and John and I nearly had a divorce over it. I got lessons from John while he swore at me. If there was only one tree in the middle of a paddock that I was driving in I would nearly hit it every time. He said I was so dumb he didn’t know why he married me. I used to have to drive Raelene to school. She couldn’t cope at school so after the first term I kept her back one year. The next year I sent her to Myponga school and kept Kathy back home so they wouldn’t be in same class at school. It was around about this time that Jean sent you to Glen Shera for the holiday you spent on the station.

“I have never forgotten that holiday. I simply loved it at Glen Shera. I remember my cousin Shirley was there too and a boy called Leon. Who was he, the boy Leon?” I asked

“Leon was the son of one of the station hands and it was school holidays of course and so the three of you children were there at the same time.”

• Fay riding Uncle John’s horse Joan. My cousin Shirley Candy in the background. I love this photo because I felt so ‘free’ at Glen Shera.

  “I have a photograph of that time. I am riding Uncle John’s horse ‘Joan’ and I was definitely less than 12 years old because I still had long hair at that time and Shirley was in the background in the photo.”

“Yes, I remember taking that photo.”

“I can remember going out with all the stock men on horses to check on the sheep in the far paddock. I nearly got myself killed on that occasion. On the way home we were all galloping back and I was way out in front. We went down the hill, past the shearing shed and then up towards the home sheds where Uncle John kept the Blitz-wagon and there was a water tank next to one of the buildings and just a narrow space between the wall and the the tank. I expected the horse to go along the main pathway into the quadrangle near the Blitz-wagon shed, but instead it went through that narrow space between the wall and the tank and I swayed in the saddle and only missed smashing into the wall by about 1 inch. If I had hit that wall I would probably not have survived.”

“Don’t tell me about it. I was always scared something would happen to you while you were at our place. You were such a handful in those days. I worried about you so much. I knew that if anything happened to you, Jean would kill me!” Aunty groaned and shook her head.

“Yes, Mum certainly would have because I was the only girl in the family.” There was a knock at the door and Richard and Kathy came in with two or three bags of groceries. Ronda began emptying the bags and putting the contents into her fridge and pantry. Aunty made us another cup of tea and we chatted for half an hour or so and then we finally said our farewells and commenced the drive home.

“Did you get all the information you wanted?” Kathy asked

“Pretty well,” I replied. “Have you got anything more that you can tell me about those years at Glen Shera?” I asked.

“Well, I can remember that mum used to get sick of us girls and once she shut us outside and I was still in nappies and there were ants crawling over me and when Mum came out and found me with ant bites all over my legs she felt really guilty. Pop Williams used to visit us. He made a see-saw for us and he used to fix everything for Mum. Mum was never overly happy with her dad, but we loved him. He used to give Mum money when he came. He was a hunchback, all bent over. He couldn’t stand up straight. He broke his back when he was up north and he was crippled for the rest of his life.

“We regularly would go up to Gawler to visit my grandmother, Elsie Vera Critchley and from there we would go to see Aunty Emma Dangerfield and I used to meet up with Helen Hillier (Dangerfield) and Margaret Dangerfield, Geoff and Ina Dangerfield’s daughter and Marilyn, Ivor Dangerfield’s daughter. They lived on the right hand side of Sandy Creek road at 12 Edith Street, Gawler. We girls used to get on really well and I loved playing with them.

“At Glen Shera, Tom Simpson used to come round to visit dad on Sunday and they would go on horseback around the boundaries of the station and Tom would check on all his polo ponies that he kept at Glen Shera. I can remember going to Myponga school on the bus and on my first day I wouldn’t put my case down because I was scared I would lose it. Grandpa Critchley died when I was five years old. He used to visit the station because he was a PMG line-inspector for the south and when he was working that way he would call in with a pocket full of lollies.

“I had scarlet fever and rheumatic fever at age nine and I had to stay in Victor Harbor hospital flat on my back for a week. I also had all the childhood illnesses. I had special permission to wear slacks at school because my legs had to be kept warm. Three people at the school had rheumatic fever and one of them died. I had a friend Jennifer Hunt from Grade three and she gave me a white cat called Mickey. I remember Mum had trouble getting pregnant but that would have been all right as far as she was concerned because she really didn’t want any more children but John did. She knew that John MUST have a boy and so until she had one, she would have to go on having children. She used to get us to pray with her for a son, to get the boy John wanted so she could stop having children. Mum wanted to bring us children up as Christadelphians. John didn’t care if the girls were brought up as Christadelphians but not the boys. Ronda was allowed to have the girls but not Johnny. John Snr used to tell us girls that we didn’t have to do our Sunday School work if we didn’t want to. I used to do my Sunday School work but Raelene didn’t. As we were growing up Raelene and her friend Jennifer tried to match make me to the type of people they liked whilst Dad was trying to match make Raelene to people like himself. I liked Richard because he was ‘religious.’”

“Do you remember what year it was that I came to visit and you that time when you and Raelene were going to hockey practice?”

“Well in 1967 I gave up hockey, so it must have been in 1966 was when you came to visit.”

“How did you end up becoming a Christadelphian, Kathy. I know that you used to do correspondence Sunday School when you were a little girl but then, that all stopped, so how did you eventually come to be a Christadelphian?”

“Our original contact was with the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1974 when they came knocking at our door when Richard and I lived at Myponga at 8 Stephens Street. These JWs advised us not to tell Mum about them because they knew she was a Christadelphian but I did tell Mum about them and she said, “You have to be careful Kathy about what they teach.” Then Mum told Dad that the JWs were calling on Richard and me. Dad, didn’t like the Christadelphians, but he liked the JWs even less and so he told Mum to tell us if we must have ‘religion’ then get the Christadelphians down and not the JW’s – better the devil you know than the one you don’t. So Dad got Rex and Dianne Dangerfield to come to see us and they have kept in contact with us ever since. They also always kept in contact with Mum and Dad and that helped a lot. They came down and said they had ‘the truth,’ and left some books.

“Then we heard on the radio, on 5DN, an advertisement about a lecture being put on by the Woodville Ecclesia, ‘one minute to midnight’ about the Christadelphians. We attended the meeting and I walked in with a short skirt and two little boys, Jason five and David was three. After the meeting Cleon Wigzell talked to us. I was all wrapped up with the devil and Cleon told us that there was no supernatural devil to be found in the Bible. They kept in contact with us and gave us literature and we compared everything they said with what the Jehovah’s Witnesses had to say. We found that to our way of thinking the JW’s beliefs just didn’t add up. We went to Woodville for about eight months. Then we decided we needed to be baptised but our problem was that Woodville meeting was simply too far away for us to attend so we began to attend the Victor Harbor meeting. We went to Victor Harbor’s special effort in November 1975. I remember Arthur and Maisie Cobbledick came out to visit us. It was at that time that there was supposed to be a big flood coming up the gulf that would swamp Adelaide and Don Dunstan went and stood on the jetty. We attended South Adelaide meeting and that’s when Ruth and Richard Provis and Rex and Dianne Dangerfield were very friendly to us. We were baptised on 18th Jan 1976 but had our tutoring after we were baptised. Arthur Cobbledick had a class with us every Friday night for a year after this and we continued attending the Victor Harbor meeting. We also went to the 1978 Bible School before Sarah was born in September. We travelled to the school in tandem with Max Lund and Lorrely Cole.

“That was also when we share-farmed on the dairy at Glen Shera in May 1980. We were there for nine years, from 1980 to Jan 1989. Jason had a job down in Adelaide. Then our contract was changed at Glen Shera so we decided to leave. We had bought an investment property five years before we came to Adelaide to live. Dad died 2nd May 2003 and Mum stayed at 1 Eats street Myponger for one year after Dad died and then sold the house and moved to the Village at Victor Harbor. And that’s our story.”