The Blacksmith’s Daughter by Fay Berry 2013 - Chapter 24 - 1956 - 19560107 - Fay Berry

The Blacksmith’s Daughter – Chapter 24 – 1956

The 1955 school year was over and the next milestone for me was to find a job, well I put it off for as long as possible. I told Mum and Dad that since I would be working for years and years to come, it would be nice to have a quiet Xmas and be able to spend some time with my friends. As far as Mum and Dad were concerned, I think that as long as I was prepared to accept my “fate” then it was not a problem to them how long it took me to actually ease myself into the “workforce.”

On Saturday 7th January, 1956 I visited Bev Rivers one of the girls in my class at Unley High. Bev lived on Sturt Road where her parents owned a market garden. Whilst we were still at school Bev and I had decided to organise a picnic for a few members of our class at Loftia Park during the school holidays and so we took the opportunity to make sure we had thought of everything we would need to take on the picnic which was to be next Sunday. The Christadelphian young folk had often had outings to Loftia Park and so I knew what train to catch and where to walk when we got off the train.

I left Bev’s place late in the afternoon and went home for dinner. In the evening, Mum and I went to see ‘Blackboard Jungle.’ Mum didn’t like the movie much, but I did. When Sunday came I felt quite excited. I hoped enough of my friends would turn up to make the outing worthwhile. I arrived at the Mitcham railway station just as Al Kalnins was turning up and soon Bev Rivers and Kirk arrived, only four of us, but that was ok. We got on very well and I knew we would have a good time.

We purchased our train tickets and boarded the train up into the hills. I didn’t remember the name of the station we needed to get off at but the conductor watched out for us and put us off at the right station. We still had quite a long walk to Loftia Park and Bev wasn’t too happy with the distance and time it was going to take to get there. We arrived at Loftia Park eventually, and we went swimming in the pool and diving off the diving board that was there. It was great fun, for me, at least. It was less fun for Bev because she couldn’t go in because it was “that time of the month,” which was a shame.

We went for a long walk as well and were there for about three and a half hours. We ate our picnic lunch and later on in the afternoon, we had to tackle the long walk back to the station. We had left it somewhat late to start our walk and were all pretty tired on the way back. It took longer than expected to get to the station and so we missed our planned train home but it didn’t really matter and everyone agreed it had been a good day.

On the following Monday, I started to job hunt in earnest but with no luck. Mum decided to ring up some business colleges and inquire about courses they had on offer. She talked to the principals at Muirdens and Charters. I was pretty glum because I didn’t really want to go to a business college at all but there didn’t seem to be too many other options. How different my life could have been if Mum and Dad had let me go to University. In the end Mum got me to enrol with an employment agency and get some part-time temporary work which might lead to a more permanent position.

The agency I went to see was called “Comprehensive.” I had to do various tests including shorthand and typing tests. I got work immediately and started work that very afternoon. I was sent to see a Mr Blackwell of Colton, Palmer, and Preston and was put into a typing pool with seven other girls to type invoices. The girls were nice and the job was good enough for a temporary position, but I wouldn’t have liked it as a permanent position. I worked for a few days at this job and what kept me going was the thought of my visit to my Uncle’s Station at Glen Shera, Mount Compass which was coming up soon.

I received a letter from Walter Pearce from Sydney. He was the boy who stayed with us in Adelaide so he could play the wedding march at his friend’s wedding. It was a letter once again about his sister and how wonderful she was! Then there was a disaster for me! The results for the school examinations had been posted and I had failed my Geography exam and that meant I had failed my Leaving Certificate! I did not even get a credit in English, my best subject, whereas Wendy Swain did. I was really miserable about that. My English writing is good if I have time to think about what I am going to write, but not so good when I have to write “off the cuff.” The only bright spot to my day was that it was time to pack up and catch the bus to Glen Shera, Mt Compass. My Uncle John was Manager of Glen Shera one of the Simpson family’s sheep stations (they made washing machines) and I was to visit my Auntie Ronda and Uncle John and stay with them for a week.

I caught the bus and arrived at Lana Coona Corner Mount Compass where the bus dropped me off and Uncle John picked me up in his car and drove me the rest of the way to Glen Shera just in time for dinner. After dinner Uncle John took me with him whilst he put some fish in their dam. On the way back he stopped the car and we got out and chased rabbits which had been dazzled in the glare of the car’s headlights. That was good fun. There was a large warren under some tamarisque trees and there were lots of rabbits.

On Saturday I got up really early and went for a long walk, ending up at the Ellis’ dairy farm which was part of Glen Shera and also owned by the Simpsons. It was two or three miles away from the Glen Shera homestead and I was hoping that I would meet Mr Ellis who ran the dairy for Uncle John, but it was so early in the morning that there was no one to be seen anywhere on the farm. Then Mr Ellis came out to milk the cows, I was standing behind some coke bags some distance from his door. I stepped out from behind the bags and said “Hello” and the poor fellow practically fell over with fright. I told him who I was and at first, he just gaped at me like a landed fish, but then said, “Hello” back.

I told him I was staying up at the big house and had just come out for a walk. He was quite pleasant after he had got over his shock at seeing me so unexpectedly when they were miles from any other neighbours. I only stayed for a short time and I noticed that he continued staring after me when I left.

On the Sunday, Tom Simpson and his wife Bardy (Penfold-Highland) visited Glen Shera. Tom often used to come to Glen Shera on a Sunday and Uncle John was expected to entertain him all day. He would set him up on the tractor and give him some work to do. He wasn’t much trouble when he was on his own but when his wife was with him, as she was on this day, they used to fight and squabble from the moment they arrived to the moment they left.

It amused me for a time but I got tired of them and went for a walk to the dam. The dam was surrounded with thick clay and I had fun making dishes and plates out of the clay and putting them in the sun to dry. It was a really hot day and I looked at the dam and thought how nice it would be to go for a swim. In the end, I decided not to swim because the clay surrounding the dam was so thick and sticky and I thought I might have trouble getting out of the water when I had finished swimming. When I stood too close to the edge of the water my legs sank down really deep into the mud.

Uncle John had promised to take me riding while I was at Glen Shera and on the Monday he saddled up his horse “Joan” for me to ride. Then he laughed at me because it took me such a long time to get up onto her back and I felt quite insulted. Uncle John was always teasing me. I think it was his way of showing that he liked me but I had never coped too well with teasing after having three “teasing” brothers. When I was seated in the saddle, Uncle John slapped Joan on her haunches causing her to gallop off under the tamerisque trees. I had to throw myself backward and lie flat on my back in the saddle to avoid being knocked off by the low branches of the trees. I think that Uncle John was not terribly thoughtful or very wise at times, because that was not the only occasion when he almost got me killed, or at least badly injured.

When we rode to the side of the dam John pretended to push me in, but my foot slipped and we both almost went in. It would have been interesting if we had fallen in because I could swim but John couldn’t, and he was a sailor too! There were about three other families living at Glen Shera, and the menfolk worked on the station with Uncle John. One day we all saddled up some horses and rode down across the valley to the shearing shed and then up through the shearing shed gate and out onto the open hillsides. We were to do an inspection of the sheep that were in the outer paddocks, just to see that everything was okay with them, and also to fix anything that needed fixing. I had nothing to do except to ride my horse wherever I wanted and it was such good fun, especially having a horse all to myself.

When it was time to go home the horses all got really frisky and excited and it was impossible to hold them in and we all rode towards home at a gallop. I think I had a strange idea abou what horses “knew” at that time in my life. I thought that they knew more than me and that I could leave everything to the horse to work out. I was in the lead because I was the lightest in weight of anyone there and I and my horse just sped along. We were coming to the gate into the shearing shed paddock and I was thinking,

“I’m sure the horse can jump this gate.” So I raced toward the gate, and then at the very last moment I thought, “What if the horse doesn’t jump the gate?” I pulled on the reins and leaned back in the saddle and the horse came to a screaming halt with it’s neck right over the gate. I don’t think anyone realised what had nearly happened, but I was really shaken. That was not the last scare I had on the ride back home.

When we went through the shearing shed gate the horses raced past the shearing sheds, down the valley and up the other side towards the home cobbled yard. There was a big water tank near one of the buildings and instead of going along the main path to the cobbled quadrangle, my horse diverted to the shorter route between the tank and the building. The space was just big enough for the horse to go through with little room to spare on either side. I was swaying a bit in the saddle and as we raced through the small gap I was sooo close to that wall, and if I had hit it I would have been dead, very dead I think. I was shaking when I finally slid off the horse’s back and I didn’t even stay to say goodbye to the men, I just ran into the kitchen and collapsed on a seat and asked Aunty Ronda,

“Could I please have a cup of tea?”

On Saturday, I woke up feeling awful because it was time for me to go home. I always left Glen Shera almost in tears because I loved the place so much. When I used to hike at Glen Shera I always used to sing the song by Sarah Vaughan because I loved Glen Shera so much.

I’ll be loving you eternally
With a love that’s true, eternally
From the start, within my heart
It seems I’ve always known

The sun would shine
When you were mine and mine alone
I’ll be loving you eternally
There’ll be no one new, my dear, for me

Though the sky should fall
Remember I shall always be
Forever true and loving you
Eternally

Uncle John drove me to catch the bus and I was miserable and wistful all the way home.

In early January I spent quite a bit of time at the Manser’s. One day I went to their place to meet Des’ and Brian’s new little baby brother, Graham Charles Manser. He was very cute and looked just like his father, bald head and all! In the afternoon I had a dentist’s appointment to have my front tooth drilled for a new cap. My dental work was the legacy of the Viney boy pulling the handlebars of my bike the day before I turned nine, causing me to fall and chip my front tooth. My visit to the dentist was not enjoyable!

I went to see Mr Hergstrom again at “Comprehensive” to see if there was a job available. He sent me to see a Mr Schumann, of Schumann Lighting, a company located at 42 Halifax Street Adelaide. Mr Schumann was owner and manager and his company produced lighting for domestic use. This job proved to be a major trauma for me. When I first met Mr Schumann I did not like him very much. He was a big, tall, arrogant man and seemed rather haphazard in his way of working, but I hoped he would be okay as a boss.

On my first day at work in my new job, I arrived first thing in the morning and Mr Schumann showed me around and introduced me to his employees. There was a man called Mr Rowe and a woman called Zenda who were assemblers in the factory. Zenda seemed very pleasant and so did Mr Rowe, but my new boss scared me a bit.

Mr Schumann didn’t seem to have any immediate work for me to do so I cleaned and dusted the office and did some filing. I looked at some files to try get an idea of past work that had been done but for the next couple of days, my job was to type price lists. I had to type 12 copies of each price list. It took ages to do, not like it would be today with a word processor. Instead, we had to use a typewriter and make carbon copies.

When at last I had finished, Mr Schumann told me that I had done them wrong and that I would have to type them all over again. I knew it was not my fault. The prices had changed and that was not my fault. I had done them exactly as he had asked. It became obvious to me that he really was looking for direction himself, almost as though he wanted me to manage him, not him manage me. I could see that he needed a senior to organize him; someone who knew his business and could run the whole thing for him. I was too raw and inexperienced for that. He had chosen a junior, me, because I guess I cost less than a senior, but he needed a Senior not a junior.

I had been working for a little over a week when I got a phone call from Mr Hergstrom asking me to leave my job and to immediately come and see him. I had no idea what he wanted. I packed up my things and left as I had been told. Mr Hergstrom told me not to even say goodbye before I left but to come straight into the “Comprehensive” office.

When I got to “Comprehensive,” I was told that Mr Schuman didn’t want me to work for him anymore because he didn’t like the way I answered the phone. He said that when I came out to tell him who was on the phone I would say “Jones is on the phone” instead of “Mr Jones is on the phone.” I thought to myself, “Well why didn’t he tell me that? I would have done whatever he had told me to do.” Then Mr Hergstrom said Mr Schumann had decided to hire a senior not a junior for the job. I was devastated! It was my first real work experience and I had tried so hard and it had ended in just over a week. I went home and cried my eyes out and told Mum there was no way I was going to go back to the agency and try for another job. Mum and Dad decided to send me to Pride’s Business College to get some proper training for office work. What they should have done was send me to University to get a decent education and a decent qualification, but that was not to be.

For a time life went back to normal. Mum enrolled me at Pride’s but classes weren’t due to start until February, so for me, it was still holiday time. There were a number of outings for the young people that I was able to attend and I was glad to do so. On Sunday I went to the Temple for the morning meeting and then in the afternoon, I caught the Henley bus with Andrew, Des Manser, and Alan Cheek. We got lifts in cars at the other end to West Beach where the Strudwicks were holidaying. We had a great time at the beach and Des was doing a line for me and Roger seemed interested as well. I decided it was such fun receiving boys’ attention. I got a ride back with my brother Graham and we went to the night meeting.

On the Monday there was a trip to Port Noarlunga for the young people. We went by bus and it was a lot of fun. We swam and played keep the ball away and after that, Nancy King, Rosalie Foster, Dianne and Roger Stokes and I walked to the river. After dinner, we all went out onto the jetty and Max Kennett and I dived off the top of the jetty. There was a new boy Trevor (not Gore by the way) who liked me and Roger Stokes did too, and also Lew Osborne it seemed. Roger kept trying to “protect” me from the grasp of Lew and Trevor and, vain girl that I was, I did enjoy myself and liked them competing for my attention. When we arrived back in town, Dean Pitt and Roger walked me to the bus. I found Dean quite interesting to talk to.

After that, often after Sunday School, Dean Pitt and Roger Stokes would walk with me to Hindley street where they would buy me a “Jungle Juice” at the Black and White cafe there. This little ritual, which I enjoyed so much, came to an abrupt end when one day Roger and Dean decided, of all things, to fight it out over me! An actual fistfight would you believe? Apparently, Roger won the battle, though I am sure that Dean being the gentleman that he was, wouldn’t have wanted to fight with Roger, but in Roger’s view, he had WON me as “his girlfriend.” That is what he actually told me!!!! I asked him how he could possibly think he could “win” me by fighting over me. I told him I had no intention of “going with” either of them. So that was the end of that, but what I did miss was the “jungle juices” they used to buy me. Such is life!

Mum and Dad often took Graham and me to the beach and we would meet up with the young people. I remember one evening at West Beach, that the water was so flat and calm that I spent the evening floating along way out from the shore with no one there but me. I wished the summer would last forever! At this time I began to think about being baptized. I had listened to one particular lecture by John Martin which had impressed me a lot and this really got me thinking about baptism. I had already been having a night with Pa Harris on a Thursday night each week, but not with the intention of being baptised, but just to learn more about the Bible. He would get me to take notes of the things he taught me. He had one saying that I have never forgotten. It has stayed with me all my life since then. He would say it to me over and over again,

“As with the natural, so with the spiritual.”

Always from that time on I would look at natural things and then look for the spiritual meanings of those natural things. When I spoke to Pa Harris about being baptised he sent me to see Mr Colquhoun. I arranged to see Mr Colquhoun at his place on Thursday the 9th of February and rode my bike there. He asked me a million questions and seemed pretty satisfied with my answers, but in the end, he told my parents he thought I was too young and should wait another year!

In February 1956 I rang Mr Pederick my Geography teacher, and he agreed to coach me for the Geography supplementary exam. I attended a class at his home with others in a similar position, but Mr Pederick was such a hopeless teacher that I did not learn much. What probably saved me in the end was that on the day of the Supplementary exam which was held on 14th February (my Dad’s birthday as it happened), that just before the exam I read about four pages out of a geography textbook. By coincidence, four of the compulsory exam questions were taken directly out of the pages that I had just been reading! When I opened the exam paper and saw that I knew the answers to the questions I was so grateful. I felt sure I would pass the exam and my Leaving Certificate would be secured. I so wanted to pass the supplementary because I still had hopes that Dad might let me go to University if I passed my Leaving.

I understood why Dad didn’t want me to continue on at school. I knew that I had not worked hard during the year and my results had been pretty dismal, but not only that, Dad would have been feeling the pinch financially. He had just taken Maynard into partnership in his business and had to repay the 300 pounds that it had cost the Government for Maynard to be enrolled at Teacher’s College. Then not long after that, Charlie wanted to leave Teacher’s College as well and so that was another 300 pound Dad had to pay back. Dad was convinced I would marry and any money he spent on educating me beyond preparing me for an office job would also be wasted. So it was pretty unlikely that Dad would change his mind and let me go to University. I had done the weeping and crying and carrying on “like a pork chop,” and that hadn’t worked either.

And so as I have said previously, the next question that was presented, given all of the above, was “What was I to do next?” The answer came loud and clear, from my entire family, “Get a job!” The only good thing for me was that Mum and Dad didn’t seem to be too worried about exactly WHEN I got a job and that meant I could ease myself into my working life a bit more gently than other girls that I knew. In November, December, and January of 1955, 1956 I had been able to have a break and some enjoyment before I started my serious “working life.”

The Adelaide ecclesia permanently hired tennis courts on South Terrace (where Veale Gardens is today) and most Saturdays the young people would go there to play tennis. My mother was a pretty good dressmaker but there was one thing she just did not seem to be able to master and that was putting up the hem of a dress and getting the hemline even. I remember one Saturday I wanted to go to tennis in the afternoon and I asked Mum in the morning whether she would make me a new tennis dress. She said “Yes” and she very quickly ran up a dress for me. It was fitted to the waist and sleeveless with a square neckline but the skirt was a full circle.

As usual, Mum had trouble putting up the hem. I stood on the table for what seemed like forever, feeling very faint, as Mum went round and round putting in pins to mark the hemline. When she thought she had it right she cut the excess from the hem, but when she checked it again, it was still “not right,” so she went around again. By the time she had finished, the skirt had gotten very short, and that day it was a fairly windy day as well! I played three sets of tennis which I won and then I played a set against Len Wigell which I lost. In the evening it was Young Folk’s Class and I went in the car with Allan Cheek and some other young people. Perce Mansfield and John Martin were the speakers and the subject of the evening was the “Book of Daniel.” Afterward, I talked to Lewis Osborne and Roger Stokes for a while and then caught the bus home with Glennis Lawrie and Lewis Osborne.

On the Sunday after Sunday School, we had a singing practice for prize giving and then I went in Denise Mansfield’s car with Nancy King and some others to walk around the shops for a while. I knew there was going to be another group of young people coming into the city a bit later that I also wanted to meet up with and so I got my brother Graham to drive me back to the hall to see if they were still there. Dean Pitt was there and I talked to him for a while and then some of the crowd decided to go to the Grosvenor Hotel for tea. That was going to cost too much for me so Dean, Lewis, and I went instead to the Railway Station to buy our tea.

After that, we walked along the Torrens for quite a long way, but then to my dismay, we came upon the rest of the young people who were also walking along the edge of the river. My brother Graham was with this group and he said rather loudly to all and sundry, “This could NOT be my little sister. My little sister wouldn’t be walking along with two boys, all by herself..etc.” I was embarrassed but Dean and Lewis just laughed it off and we continued walking together back to the Hall. We were late for the meeting and I was still worried about being thought a “flirt” so I walked in first and they followed a little while later. I hoped by this means that I might preserve my reputation.

On Monday Mr Pederick rang me and, joy of joys, he told me that I had passed my Geography Exam and so my Leaving Certificate was secured. I could scarcely believe it. I was so happy. I decided to write to Walter Pearce in Sydney to tell him so that he wouldn’t anymore have to feel guilty about distracting me from my studies when he was in Adelaide wanting to be entertained. Dad was certainly pleased when I told him that I had passed, but he still wouldn’t hear of me going to University. On Tuesday I stayed home to help Mum and spent all day, it seemed, doing dishes, getting meals, and morning and afternoon tea. I decided I’d hate to be a housemaid and wondered whether you would feel different about housework if you got married. I supposed it would be all right, but I wasn’t too sure about it.

On Wednesday I rode to Brighton taking with me all of my swimming gear. I put on my flippers and swam out to a boat by the jetty and watched two boys who were diving there. Later in the morning, I joined up with four girls I met on the beach and we swam around at the end of the jetty, then one of the two boys borrowed my flippers, and then the girls and I went to have something to eat. Afterward, we got talking to the boys and then we did some more diving and jumping off the jetty. Later another boy who was nearby joined our group and we all swam together. One of the boy’s name was Stephen Moore and he was a station hand. I was very interested in his being a station hand and arranged for him to come to my place the next day. It had been a wonderful day.

On the Thursday I rushed around getting things ready for my new friend Stephen Moore to arrive. Mum and I were wondering what he would be like. At one o’clock he rang up and told me he would not be able to come because his motorbike had broken down. He asked me if we could make another time and we arranged for him to come the following Tuesday. I was disappointed that he hadn’t been able to come that day because I had hoped he might come with me to Young Folks on Saturday. I went to Lindsay Colquhoun’s place for my study with him, but before I went there I met up with Anthony from Berwen Paine Advertising and chatted with him for a while.

Friday I got up early and worked like crazy because I wanted to be early to go to the beach. I got a flat tyre on the way and had to mend that and then when I got there it was windy and the sea was rough. At the beach, a man tried to strike up a conversation with me and I was horribly rude to him but it didn’t seem to penetrate and it was really hard to get rid of him. In the evening Mum and I went to the Manser’s and we stayed there fairly late. Mum was happy to be with Mr & Mrs Manser but I was disappointed because Des and Brian weren’t there because they had gone to the movies.

On Saturday at tennis, we had to forfeit because I had been absent the previous week. After tennis, Roger Stokes, Glennis Lawrie Don McColl, and I went rowing on the Torrens and Roger Stokes paid me a lot of attention. It was Young Folk’s in the evening and afterward, Dean Pitt and Lewis Osborne asked me to come with them to get a drink. Jim Luke and Geraldine Wigzell came with us and they walked behind us and Roger Stokes, Lewis Osborne, Dean Pitt, Langdon Palmer and I walked together. Roger got jealous of Lewis for walking with me. Each time Roger tried to walk next to me Lewis would push in between him and me. When we reached the shop, they began to quarrel over who was going to buy me a drink and I got so fed up with their childishness that I paid for my own drink while they were still arguing. After that Deane, Roger, and Lewis came to the bus stop with me. Dianne left and then Roger went to catch his bus and that left just Lew and me there.

The next Sunday I stayed home in the morning and Dad brought Nancy King home for lunch. Dad really liked Nancy and once again he said that could never understand why all the boys weren’t “beating a path to her door.” After Sunday School there was a singing practice and then we went to have dinner. Dean and Lewis wanted me to go up to the shop to get a “jungle juice” but I was with Rosalie so I told them I would stay with her. I was happy to be with Rosalie, but I did miss the “jungle juice.” After the night meeting, I went with Dean and Lewis to the Torrens again and Roger was there with Audrey Churches. We talked Barbara Foulis into going on Popeye with us and when it was time to go home they all walked with me to my bus stop.

I had told Dean that I would soon be going to Sydney with my Mum and Dad and Nancy King to pick up my brother’s new girlfriend, Beth Joseph, and bring her back to Adelaide to live with us. Charlie had met her when he went to Sydney with Perce Mansfield the previous year and he had been introduced to her by David and Wendy Pogson. Dean Pitt said he would miss me but he was going to have a crowd of the young people to his place at Beefacres around about the time when I came back from Sydney and he said he would be sending me an invitation to come along. He told me that the Pitts had a market garden at Beefacres and they had a great big house and lots of outbuildings and a tennis court. It sounded good to me so I said I would love to come.

The next day I purchased a new red diary with a lock and then spent the afternoon reading EV Timms book “Forever to Remain,” I really like EV Timms books. There was a pamphlet distribution in the evening and I went with Max Kennett. I really enjoyed walking with him and putting pamphlets in all the letter boxes.When we finished we went to a milk bar to have a drink and Max bludged a twin choc from John Broadbridge by tossing for it. I went home from the distribution in Robert Stokes’ car.

At the beginning of March 1956, we packed ourselves up ready for our trip to Sydney. On Thursday 1st March, we finished packing and in between times I read “Botany Bay,” another good book. I was pleased with myself for not feeling too excited about leaving for Sydney the next day. In the evening I went to the library to get a stock of books to take with me for the holiday. I decided that I would write letters to Roger, Geoff, and Anthony while I was away.

I woke up on the Friday and began thinking about our imminent trip to Sydney but didn’t have much energy to think about it at all. Nancy turned up at about seven a.m. Dad had some work still to do on the car before we could leave so we didn’t end up leaving until about 11. 00 am. I was so tired that for most of the first day of our tip I lay on the floor of the car and slept. We stopped at Coonalpyn first and sent a telegram home and then we stopped again at Kaniva and had tea there. We spent the night at Dimboola and a young guy told us there was a swimming pool at Dimboola but Dad wouldn’t let us swim until the next morning.

When we woke the next day, on Saturday 3rd March, Nancy and I went to the pool early in the morning. We plucked up the courage to go into what we thought would be icy cold water but to our surprise, it was lovely and warm. There was a beautiful diving tower and a pontoon there, all on the river. I took photos of Nan (the one that you like Sharon King) and she took some of me. It was so hot that we swam at each place we stopped at. We stayed overnight at Yass and so first thing in the morning, Nancy and I walked upriver from the bridge until the water became quite shallow.

We got into the water and soon found that although it was quite shallow, it was fast running. To our delight, we didn’t have to swim, just float, because the current carried us along with the flow of the water. It was the most delightful feeling I have ever had. I only felt like that on one other occasion when I floated down the river to the outlet at Noarlunga and out into the sea. I will never forget the feeling of weightlessness in that water. We went down and down until we came to the bridge where we swam to the edge and finally climbed out of the water and walked back to our camp. It had been such fun.

When we first arrived in Sydney, we stayed with Bruce and Elaine Philp at their house at Loftus Avenue, Loftus. Bruce was a real comedian and we had such a good time with him and his family. We also met another two families there, who became good friends. One family was called the Deversons and the other the Swans. The Deverson’s had a son called Anthony and I got on really well with him. Val and Gill Swan were quite young and they had twin boys, Paul and David. I stayed at their house for some of the time we were in Sydney and slept in the twins’ room. They used to sleep on their tummies with their bottoms up in the air. In their sleep, they would rock and rock, so much so that their cots would move across the room. It was quite funny to watch.

One day I went with the Deverson’s to a National Park that was nearby. We went with a whole group of Christatdelphians and some of the ones who were there with us were Ted Spongberg and Malcolm Kirkwood and a boy called Stone, I think his name was. We swam in a river in the park and we had a great time. Anthony Deverson and I agreed to write to each other after I went back to Adelaide and we did and kept the correspondence up for some time. We used to write some of our letters in a code that Anthony taught me. Next, we went to stay at the Joseph’s family farm at Bodalla. That was a real experience for me. Mr and Mrs Joseph, Beth’s parents, had twelve children, and each child in the family had to look after the next child down, so that Beth’s mother didn’t have to do too much work.

On Wednesday 7th March, 1956 we went out with Beth’s brother David and all the kids on the tractor. Photos were taken of this and I still have the copies. We also went swimming in a pool there and when we came back, I persuaded Uncle Bill, Beth’s father, to let me ride their horse. I trotted off and then started to canter, heading towards the gate that led out of the home yard. I was trying to guide the horse through the gate but not very successfully. It refused to go out of the gate but turned towards the barn where its food awaited it.

Unfortunately, the horse turned, but I didn’t. I was heading out through the gate and the horse was heading towards the barn and its lunch. I came off of the horse and smashed my wrist into a tree that stood between the gate and the barn. The force was so great that I was spun around so that I was facing back in the direction from which I had come. The horse, stirrups flying, went merrily on its way towards the barn and its food.

As I lay on the ground, over a rise in front of me there came, one by one, all 12 of the Joseph children. In my dazed state, it looked to me like a tribe of Indians coming over the horizon. My wrist was badly broken so they put me into their car and drove to Bodalla, but there was no hospital there so I had to be taken on to the Moruya Hospital. The agony on that trip was awful and when we arrived at the hospital I was told I needed an operation to set my wrist because X-rays showed that I had an “impacted fracture of the radius.”

For some reason I was put into the maternity section of the hospital to wait for my operation and the women there regaled me with horror stories of what was going to happen to my wrist and me when the doctor got to it. When they gave me the anaesthetic I was determined not to breathe so I wouldn’t go unconscious, but of course, I did. When I came out of the anesthetic, I felt so groggy and did I groan! I went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until the next morning which was the 8th March. The nurse who came in to tidy me up told me that during the operation I had kicked her across the room and she had to be sent home to recover. Oh Dear! Dad & Mum took me home later and was I glad to get out of that hospital. When we got back to the Josephs’ farm, David made a great show of smelling my breath and pretending to swoon from the alcohol in the anesthetic.

Everyone told me that I was unconscious for hours after the operation. It had taken 1 1/2 hours just to get the bones apart before they could set my wrist because they were so badly impacted. Dr McKie was my doctor and he did a good job because I have never had any trouble with the wrist since then. The breaking of my wrist and the subsequent operation left me feeling very emotional. We were in the middle of doing the readings a few nights later when I burst into tears and everyone wondered what was wrong with me.

The morning of the next day it was time for us to go back to Sydney. I told David that I wouldn’t kiss him goodbye unless he shaved. David made a great show of rushing back inside to shave. He shaved so quickly that he cut himself twice. To my satisfaction, he kissed me first, before he said goodbye to Mum and Dad and the rest of the family. I thought to myself, “Why is it that all the nicest boys are either married or engaged?” I thought David was terrific. When we got to Bodalla we said goodbye to Peggy, David’s fiancé and in the end, we were all crying. I felt utterly bereft at saying goodbye to them all.