The Blacksmith’s Daughter by Fay Berry 2013 © - Chapter 47 - 1959 05 22 - Fay Berry

The Blacksmith’s Daughter – Chapter 47

The Marysville Conference was a great conference. Although the weather was cold and the days were damp it didn’t rain all that much which was a good thing for us. My favorite outfit for the conference was a red, green, and black plaid, box-pleated skirt, a thick white polar neck jumper, a red duffle coat and a very long black and white scarf which I wound around my head and a multiple of times round my neck because it was so cold. I wore thick stockings and lace up shoes (boots were not in fashion at the time but would definitely have been the most suitable wear for the weather at Marysville).

I wrote home to Mum and to Jeff as often as possible but it is so hard to write letters at a conference. I had a bad dose of laryngitis which didn’t help matters much. I was most unhappy that Jeff hadn’t come with me, but because I was able to get around with Barrie Stretton, Rhonda Bowen and Eric Mansfield, it meant I had good company, so I didn’t feel Jeff’s absence as much as I otherwise would.

(In one of my previous chapters I wrote up about a midnight feast which I thought had occurred during the Southport Conference but in fact it was at the Marysville Conference that this event actually occurred. I have removed the data from the Southport Chapter and the actual details of this happening is described in my diary entries in Chapter 47).

One afternoon a group of us went horse riding which was such fun and I had the time of my life. Nancy Martin, Keith Martin’s daughter from the farm at Back Valley South Australia came off of her horse and badly gashed her leg. Some wise young person (not me) had insisted we tell the hosts where we were going, so we did have permission for our ride which was a relief to us all.

After the conference I drove to Sydney with Barrie Stretton and Rhonda Bowen as their chaperon. I remember vividly the one night we spent in a motel at Yass on the way to Sydney. Yass has to be the coldest place in the world I am sure!! The motel didn’t have separate rooms it had a series of cubicle-like bedrooms each with a single bed and a small wardrobe and insufficient blankets on the bed. The front wall of each room didn’t reach the ceiling so there was no possible way for the room to keep any heat in during the night. Instead the cold air came in over the wall into the bedroom.

Rhonda had one room, Barrie’s was next hers, and mine next to his.

I got into bed fully clothed. I was wearing my warmest outfit which was the clothes that I have already described; stockings, shoes, skirt, polar-necked jumper, scarf wound round my head and neck. I froze!!! and so did Barrie and Rhonda. To make it worse, Barrie had bad indigestion, and he burped and belched all night and received abuse from Rhonda and I and everyone else in the other rooms as well.

Half way through the night I could take it no longer. I got out of bed and had a hot shower to warm up and then got dressed and went outside. Across the road there was a petrol station and I could see that there were a number of people sitting inside drinking hot coffee and what was even better, there was a roaring log fire to keep them all warm. It was 2.00 am in the morning. And guess what? There was Barrie Stretton sitting right next to the fire drinking hot chocolate. Barrie and I spent the rest of the night there snug as could be. Next morning we were both in trouble with Rhonda who had spent the whole night shivering in her bed. “Why didn’t you come and get me?” she said. “We thought you must be asleep,” was our answer. “I hate you Barrie!” was her answer.

I had the best time in Sydney. Barrie and Rhonda were still on holiday and so they took me everywhere with them. They took me to Basil and Nancy McClure’s place. We knocked on the door and Nancy poked her head out of the door but wouldn’t let us in. She said she was cleaning up the house for Basil’s class that night and she hadn’t finished and we couldn’t come in. Barrie, cajoled her and sweet-talked her and finally she let us in. I could see what the problem was. The whole house was clean and tidy except for the kitchen. Here everything that had been removed out of the other rooms in the “tidy up” wasl in the kitchen and Nancy had no idea what to do with the stuff.

I visited Rhonda’s place with Barrie one day. Sister Bowen and her three children, Rhonda and Elaine and Barrie all lived in a house adjacent to the Lakemba Ecclesial Hall. Barrie and Rhonda made me laugh all the time. Rhonda was so different to me. Alongside Rhonda I felt very staid and sombre. Rhonda was like a ball of fluff. She loved to dance and she and Barrie would dance round and round the lounge room. Elaine would sit in an armchair with her feet folded underneath her and Barry would be fixing his motor bike in the lounge! Then Barrie would have a disagreement with Rhonda and decide to go home and start walking out the door. Rhonda would follow after him , yelling, Barreeeeee, Barreeeee, come back heeeeeere!! And me, I would sit in a lounge chair in the lounge and just giggle to myself at their antics. I felt so happy in Sydney, I really did.

I stayed with Charles and Beth for some of the time but then It was home again by train and back to Adelaide.

Back in Adelaide, Jeff and I were still having ups and downs. If I thought that once I started really “going with” Jeff that all would be well, well, it was not to be. Jeff seemed more interested in Bible study than he did in spending time with me. It was all the philosophy of that era, we were taught by HPM that it was God first, ecclesia second and husbands, wives and families last. At a later date in my story I will say what I now think about that patriarchal pyramid!!

It seemed to me that Jeff would be quite happy to throw me into the company of other eligible males rather than “waste” time and money taking me home or spending time with me on a weekend. I was lonely and felt neglected for much of my time “going with” Jeff. There were some attractive boys around as well and George Hawkins was one of them. If I rang Jeff up for reassurance, he would often be very abrupt and irritated with me and this made me feel very insecure. I do not remember many? any? happy times over this period.

In August 1959 the weather was beautiful. Gorgeous sunny days , ideal beach weather. Saturdays were my worst days. Jeff’s study time on a Saturday was too valuable, he said, to spend sitting on a beach somewhere with me. I felt very alone and very restless. I ended up catching a bus out the front of our house and going all the way to Kirkcaldy Beach (Grange). There I met up with Robbie Berry, Jeff’s brother. I pretended that my name was Rhonda (after Rhonda Bowen) and had great fun teasing him with my knowledge of his personal information. He became very curious about me as a result.

My Sister-in-Law Beth O’Connor (Joseph)’s sister Jan Joseph and her friend Joyce Rosser came to stay at out place around about this time and their story will be told in Chapter 48.

DIARY ENTRIES

19590522 Letter to Jeff from Fay – Mary-Lyn, Marysville, Vic. – Dear Jeff, I received a letter from Mum today in which she said that you are disappointed not to have heard from me. Seems like you have won my Mum over. I think she rather likes you! I am sorry I didn’t wire you all sooner but it was impossible. We were told that telegrams could not be sent until Monday because the Post Office was closed and then on Monday I gave a telegram to Wilma Galbraith (all telegrams were sent through her) and she forgot about it so it didn’t get sent until a day or so later. So you can see I did try. At first I wasn’t feeling up to writing. I still have laryngitis and I still have a rather bad cough. I seem to have a lot of phlegm pretty deep in my chest. Anyway – as if I’d neglect you dear Jeff, since I love you so much! I am still getting around with Barrie Stretton, Rhonda Bowen and Eric Mansfield. I’m pretty safe with them (from rumors I mean). Have to go, Dick Ladson has just called us over the mike. I’ll send this now.
Lots of love, Fay

19590522 Letter to Fay from Jeff – Dear Fay, From the confessions which you have sent me it would appear as if you are thoroughly enjoying yourself. You say you are having a wonderful time (I suppose all the boys are as well, sigh!) and I am glad to hear it. I hope that you are being looked after, not being able to speak up for yourself. One thing that has worried me is that your inability to say a loud and definite “NO,” to the boys must be causing embarrassment and awkward situations. Then again they might not be as embarrassed and awkward as I am. However I am sustaining my dwindling hopes by gaining strength and nourishment from the apprehensive gnawing of my fingernails. If you don’t hurry home, then at the present rate, I won’t have any arms left to put around you. I sympathize with you in your struggles!! to behave, knowing of your highly developed natural flair and super-ability to do otherwise.

Enough of the frivolity. It is but the anguished distractions of a suffering, lonely, distressed and jealous male in his meaningless and useless protestations against the merciless and unbearable situation he finds himself in. Where is my “WIF”?? However, the most important aspect of the Conference is the group discussions upon God’s Word. It is great to hear that they are going well. Monday evening must have been quite good. Adelaide’s display must have been quite stirring. I am curious to hear about those Tabernacle slides from Sydney and also about the Gospel Proclamation efforts by YF in England. Your mother rang through telling me that you had sent your love by telegram! I guess that will have to suffice under the circumstances. I agree that it would be good to have been at the Conference together, perhaps we can do that next time (DV). The night after all the conference crowd left for Melbourne, the Adelaide Young Folk’s class was held. There were 40 to 50 present and the night was a discussion group on one of the Conference subjects, “Faith.” John Knowles, Ray Frankham, Des Manser and I were group leaders. Proved very successful and lasted until about 10 .00 pm

There has been a couple of setbacks in organising the special effort. Lindsay Colquhoun gave a lecture at Cumberland Sunday evening after going home from Sunday School because he wasn’t at all well. He had a fever on Monday and has developed Pneumonia and complications. He will be completely out of action for about three weeks and consequently can take no part whatsoever in the Campaign. Negotiations for the Majestic Theatre broke down through the manager changing the terms of the agreement and almost doubling the price for the hire of the facilities. A strong protest by HPM caused a change in the situation but there remains a lot of doubt. The Tivoli has been previously engaged as an alternative venue. Work by printers and sign writers has been held up. However, after a little despondency, enthusiasm is running high again and the effort will go through with God’s blessing, we pray. The Billy Graham campaign seems to be lacking in appeal and spirit so far. The nights have been very cold and consequently have affected outdoor night meetings. The ‘Flu has a grip on the community and business houses, shops, factories are suffering from the effects. Ecclesial meetings have suffered also. I was out with your Father and Maynard Monday evening and tonight (Friday). Maynard is not doing well at the moment. Brother Gilbert Hollamby is showing a wonderful spirit. He has exceeded the allotted time given by the specialists by over a fortnight and is hanging on. His brother Alan says that there is no cure or any other previous cases known that have overcome the disease of the kidneys.

Associated Public Relations are still in business. Mr LJ MacNamara was featured on a full page which dealt with Pope Products. No noticeable reference to your ex-boss, Unusual? If you let me know the time of your departure from Sydney I may may be able to send more details of affairs here in Adelaide. Somewhere in here I resigned from APR but I am not sure just when I did this.

Remember me to Charles and Beth. Tell them I may be over later on in the year with HPM. Keep your chin up and my ring on your finger (prospective).

Lots of Love

Jeff. XX XX

(I have realised that my description of a midnight feast at the Southport conference actually occurred at the Marysville Conference, so I have included this information in this chapter and removed the information from the earlier Southport Conference Chapter.)

19590527 Letter to Jeff from Fay – Dear Jeff, I hope you are missing me, because I am missing you. The day before we left Marysville I nearly drove our breakfast table crazy (not the table but the occupants) getting up every minute or so to go to see if the mail had arrived and when no letter arrived for me from my “Darls” (as Eric Mansfield calls you – “How’s your ‘Darls’ Fay?) I could have cried. But when I arrived in Sydney to find your seven-page letter I felt much better! I am now at Charles’ place and I have a full day ahead of me just to sleep and laze and read and write you a long long letter telling you more about the Conference so if you haven’t got an hour or so to sit down and read, you’d better not start reading my letter. So, here goes – The Marysville Conference –

The first people I met when I arrived at Marysville were Barrrie Stretton and Rhonda Bowen. Rhonda made me laugh so much when we met. She simply shrieked when she saw me and came running up and gave me this huge bear hug. She is tall and slim with blond puffy curls and she was wearing this beautiful green coat that her Mum has made for her. (I simply love that coat and have been wearing it whenever she isn’t wearing it). I could only whisper “Hello” because I had no voice. From then on we stuck together. Eric is funny, he was trying to win up the waitress and nearly always had her blushing and us in fits of laughter. There were girls galore who were setting their caps at Eric, but he is absolutely “girl-shy.” You should have seen him run when one of his fans hove into view. I think he was as grateful to have me to get around with because I was “safe” (since you are my boyfriend) as I was to have him to make up a foursome with Barrie and Rhonda. Robin Mansfield, believe it or not, now has a reputation a mile long? He had three different girls that I counted at the Conference. The last one was a girl from Tasmania. Don McColl has also kept up the Adelaide tradition and is now going with Lois Hawkins, a Melbourne girl, whom he has met at Marysville. I am of course remaining faithful to my one and only, but you are right, without my voice giving a resounding “No” it has proved a little difficult at times. Rhonda and I found a solution to the problem. Barry has given her a beautiful new marquisette ring so she gave me her old one which I am wearing on the third finger of my left hand – and when anyone gets a little too enthusiastic, I plead “a previous engagement.” Anyway, Barrie and Eric are pretty successful at keeping the “wolves” away from my door.

We tried to sit at the same table for meals, but eventually they made us break up our little group and mix with more people at meal time. That was because meals were such fun at our table that people began to get jealous and plan campaigns to join our table. We did managed to get at least one meal a day together. I haven’t felt too wonderful for the first few days at the conference and so my eating habits have definitely not been “relentless, invincible and awesome” as you so insultingly described them. Also, with Eric so intent on doctoring our food with liberal additions of salt and sugar the food has been largely inedible, and I have lost weight, not gained it. Thankfully he stopped doing that after the first day or so or I might have starved. Please don’t gnaw your fingers too much and whatever you do don’t start on your arms. If you knew just how much I’m longing to feel them around me again, you’d take good care of them.

Well I do have a confession to make and I certainly need to do it before you get to hear Don or Robin’s version of events.

One dinner time, Don and decided we should plan a midnight feast which we then set about doing. We mad our plans and it ended up with the boys in the basement buying six pound’s worth of food and inviting the girls along. Well some clot told Keith Cook about it and it wasn’t long before Bro and Sister Pearce were warned of the event and they kept up a very strong guard on things on the night planned for the feast. To help you visualise the happenings, here is the layout of Mary Lyn and how we designed a route for the girls to get to the boys’ dorm undetected, hopefully by the hosts.

(Plan of Mary-Lyn and the route to get down to the basement)

It was arranged that Rhonda who was on the ground floor should come to my room and wake me a half an hour after midnight and then I should wake the girls on my floor and then we would try to get down to the basement for the feast. There was a hitch. It was very late before we got back from the hall, and so it was about 11.30 before we got into bed. The first thing that went wrong was that Sis Pearce heard me coughing and came to give me some cough medicine. I tried to hide it but she saw that I was in bed with my clothes on. She gave me five minutes to get into my pajamas and into bed. Just as soon as she had left the room, I got May Frederickson to get into my bed and we bolstered up the double bed so it looked as though May was still in bed with Janet Mainsbridge. Then I slipped out of the room across the corridor into another passage and lay down on the floor to wait. Then Sis Pearce came back to our room to check up on me and seeing somebody in my bed she didn’t look any closer.

For the next 3/4 of an hour I hid in passages, behind doors, and in and out of wardrobes whilst Bro and Sis Pearce searched all the rooms on the top floor to see if any midnight feasts were being conducted. To get to the ground floor you had to go past Bro and Sis Pearce’s room down the stairs where it was all well lighted. It seemed almost almost impossible to get to the stairs because there always seemed to be at least one of them standing guard at the top of the stairs. I decided to “be bold” (though I am not sure that “the Lord my God was with me” for this occasion. Bro Pearce had his back to me and was shining a torch into one of the boys’ rooms, so I slipped up behind him and down the stairs in a flash. It wasn’t hard after that and I made it to the boys’ dorm with no further difficulty. There were about 30 boys and no girls there when I arrived. “Oh dear!” I thought, and dived under the nearest bed and stayed there. Then Rhonda called down from above that she wasn’t gong to come to the feast, but when the boys told her that I was there, she decided to come. Judy Mansfield and Rhonda Bowen were the only ones who got past the barriers to the feast, but they were no sooner in the room than Bro Pearce walked in and roared them all up. He sent them back to their rooms and then gave the boys a lecture. I didn’t know what to do next, so I stayed under the bed and waited until Bro Pearce had left the room

I climbed out from under the bed which turned out to be Des Manser’s bed. I handed him the coke I was still holding and then crept out into the corridor. I was just going to go past the dining room when I saw Harry Pearce standing out side the door just waiting. I crept back into the passage and waited. I could have gone back into the boy‘s dorm and maybe have climbed out the window, but I decided that if I was to be caught it was better to be caught in the passage than in the boys’ dorm. It was lucky I stayed there because Harry walked back then and found me. He glared at me and then asked me what I was doing there. I told him I was waiting for him to leave so I could go back up to my room. He sent me upstairs. I met Keith Cook on the stairs and I told him I had already been caught so there wasn’t anything for him to do. He threatened to give me a hiding with his slipper and escorted me to my room and then left. A few minutes later, Sister Pearce arrived and just about scorched my ears off. The next day news of our escapade was around the young folks like wild fire and everyone’s attention was focused on us three girls. How were we to know we’d be the only girl from the top floor who’d manage to get to the feast? Bro Pearce gave the Conference a short lecture and forbade anything of a similar nature from occurring again and that was that. Well it was fun while it lasted, but all those boys scoffed all that six pounds’ worth of food and we got almost nothing for our efforts. I like the part in your letter which reads, “It is but the anguished distraction of a suffering lonely distressed and jealous male in his meaningless and useless protestations against the merciless and unbearable situation he finds himself in. Where is my “WIF?” But where do you get all these words that you string together? Anyway, do you realise that I’ve never been homesick before? But this time I am homesick, homesick for you.

The study groups were not really that good, I didn’t think. It was nothing for four different study groups to come to four different and opposing conclusions. The evening on Marriage and divorce was interesting, but not very constructive, but they got more discussion on that than anything else. It was run in the form of a panel of “experts.” Keith Cook , Bro and Sis Pearce, Joyce Watson and Bro & Sis Wauchope.The evening was generally conducted in a rather light strain, but it was concluded that marriage out of the truth results in ecclesial decline. Jim Luke was rather annoyed at the “lightness” of the evening and he got up in the end and asked how far a boy should go with a girl when he takes here out. He specifically asked for a direct and concise and straightforward answer, not the answers the hosts have been giving to date. He didn’t get his answer though. Bro Pearce decided that under ideal circumstances a boy should not embrace a girl until after he is going with her. Jim got up again and said he thought that was hardly practical. They compromised a bit and said that perhaps it would be all right if the boy gave the girl a kiss now and again and held her hand.

Eric Mansfield, he was furious. He said that here was a very real problem for young people which if the hosts and hostesses had any sense they could give some valuable answers and do the young folk some good. Quoting Eric “but, they’re asked for a direct answer but they don’t give it.” Anyway, after the evening had gone on in this strain for some time Bro. Wauchope got up and said, “Those who thought that the panel have done a good job will they please clap. Loud clapping except for a certain row containing Eric Mansfield, Robin and Judy Mansfield, Barrie Stretton, Rhonda Bowen, Brian Luke, Peter Weller, and Shirley Cobbledick and a few others, including me who all sat in stony and silence.

On the second to last day of the Conference there was a business meeting. Esther Kenny, one of the girls in Melbourne who has her head well screwed on, and is a member of the Conference Committee, got up and said that she thought there has been something lacking at the Conference and she thought that there had been no time for private meditation, prayer and study, and she thought that an hour should be set aside for that, an hour when people had to be quiet (to my mind she is right. I even found it difficult to say my prayers at night because of girls giggling in the next bed). Anyway, David Cordury (secretary) disagreed and said in effect that a meditation period was unnecessary and there wasn’t time for it. Then James Hillhouse got up and said that he agreed with Esther. He said he thought that we ought to have more prayer. In fact he thought it would be a good idea if we had prayer meetings like the Baptists do and that we ought to pray for each other “as the spirit moves us, for I believe that we have the Holy spirit.” Interesting! I am glad to hear that the Billy Graham effort is still going on. But don’t kill yourself with work, because I want you to have the strength to put your arms around me when I get home. I hope everyone in Adelaide is still praying for Bib Hollamby. He’s a wonderful brother and he has helped our family a lot in the past (he was Mum and Dad’s best man at their wedding too). I’m glad to hear Mum is getting better and I hope she is resting.

I don’t think there will be time for you to answer my letter because I leave Sydney on Sunday 31st May,1959 but if you think you can get one to me before I leave, please do.

It was Lakemba’s Galatians Class last night and I put my foot in it. I asked a question and it seems that it is almost unheard of there for a girl to speak in a meeting. I received one of Charlie’s “polite” notes post haste, which read, “hold your horses and pull your head in.” I said no more. Evidently they have been having a lot of trouble in getting a study class going at all and it is held in the formal lines of a midweek meeting rather than the friendly atmosphere of Rose Park and hence you have to be careful what you do or say, because the class is liable to close down. Why is it men do not want women to “have a voice?” Drives me crazy!

By the way, it is now Thursday and I still haven’t finished this letter. I could sit down and write all day. I’m missing you so much. Rhonda and Barrie are picking me up today and they are taking me for a drive. Do you now how Nancy Martin is now? We went horse riding one day at the conference (we had permission – sigh of relief) and she got a pony that wasn’t properly broken in and she was tossed. She cut her leg pretty badly and had to have four stitches put in. Miles Martin, Kevin Thomas and myself went for a ride afterward and it was lovely. The growth around Marysville is a “jungly” type of growth and there are creeks and streams galore. We followed a little track that led to a creek which was so narrow you had to lean low over the horses necks or you’d be sent flying. The horses know the paths well and cantered along the narrow paths, across little bridges, over fallen tree trunks. It was terrific. Kevin’s horse lost a shoe going over one bridge. Kevin Thomas spent most of the conference trying to do a line with me. I felt so sorry for him, because he didn’t have much success. If Don McColl shows you a photo of Kevin carrying me in his arms don’t misconstrue it – actually somebody pushed me off a big fallen tree trunk I was standing on and I went “head over Turkey” straight into his arms. Of course, Don and his camera weren’t far away! Jeff, I’ll be home Monday night, so if you can, please come out and see me. I’m going to demand all the kisses and hugs I didn’t get because you weren’t here. I love you, Fay.

19590616 Tuesday – This evening, George Hawkins, Robin Mansfield, Don McColl, Des Manser and Brian Manser and of course, Jeff Berry, came to our place for dinner. From there we went on to a meeting of the un-denominational crowd at Le Hunte St, Kilburn, the ones Dawn Lawrey and Marie Brumby and myself were talking to about the Truth when we met them on the train coming back from Melbourne from Marysville. We lost our way and arrived at their meeting and had to walk in while they were all singing a hymn. Don and Robin and Jan and Fred Hackett were there when we arrived. We listened to everything that happened with great interest. Well, was their meeting weak! Every second word they said was an appeal (two women were doing the “preaching”). “This appeals to my heart,” or “I felt,”or “we feel that God has promised us “something.” We had some terrific discussion afterward. We stood and talked with some young people from the church for an hour or so after the meeting. I stood with George Hawkins for most of the time and he’s terrific! He’s got a wonderful knowledge of the Truth. If Jeff wasn’t my boyfriend….! Afterward, a boy named Robert Goldsworthy said he would take anyone home who lived near Henley Beach. So Jeff left me to the tender mercies of George! This did not make me very happy. He gave me the money for a taxi home if George ran out of petrol (his tank was showing empty) and Jeff went with Glennis Lawrey in Robert Goldsworthy’s car. I pretended I didn’t care if he went without me, and put my arm through George’s. With a laugh, I told Glennis to kiss Jeff goodnight for me and then went off with George and Glennis Masters. George dropped Glennis Masters off first and then drove me home. When we arrived at my place, he turned off the engine and made it quite obvious that he intended to sit and talk for a while. That suited me. I felt lonely! And peeved with Jeff. For a while we discussed the “non-denominationals” and gradually the conversation turned to the circumstances of his acceptance of the Truth. George was brought up in the Truth in Perth, WA. His parents provided an example for him to follow, he said. He was baptised, but then gradually by neglecting to read the Word, he drifted from the Truth. He was offered a job North of Perth, a job that offered big money. In only a few months he had saved one thousand four hundred pounds. Of course, he lived it up big and lived only for cars, and keeping super fit by going to a gymnasium in his free time. He is 24 now and for years he has believed that he is sure to be a bachelor. I couldn’t see why he felt that because he was very good looking, but then he is not very tall, only about 5 ft 5” maybe, but apart from his height, there is nothing wrong with George. He is good looking, well built, in fact he is terrific!

While he was in the bush he forgot all about the Truth. He reckons he couldn’t have told us which end of the Bible you’d find the story of Abraham. Then then the Suez crisis came and he began to be vaguely uneasy about things and where he was going in life. He remembered a few things about prophecy. Eventually he decided to go home to help with the family. The first thing he did when he arrived home was to look up his “larikin” friends. They all had cars. He bought an Austin Healey. It cost him eleven hundred pound. He had the body painted pink and upholstered with leopard skin and had his hair bleached to fit in with the “surfing” environment of Perth, but all the time, he hadn’t forgotten what he’d come home for. Each night, he’d open up his Bible and read about three verses and then in his mind he’d be making a racing turn around a corner. Then he’d read a few more verses and then he’d be racing someone up the street. Gradually, to his surprise he found he was reading the Word and could understand much of what he was reading. He began to call on brothers like Trevor Stagg and spend evenings with them discussing the Bible and pretending he knew the Truth and trying to speak intelligently, but all the time taking what they said. It wasn’t long before he learned more and more of Bible doctrine. Now Georgie has a terrific knowledge of the Truth and a wonderful way of speaking to strangers.

George said that for three months he didn’t work until he had just about used up all his money, then his father found him a job painting. The chap he was working for was a very rough type with a rather lurid past and of course George “spoke his language.” The result was that George brought him and his son into the Truth and now in turn this man has interested two of his friends in the truth. God’s ways are wonderful. Then George told me how he had met Roma Kettera and fallen for her and for a while he was on top o the world, and could hardly believe that he had a girl at last. But then, there was trouble in the family, they didn’t approve of him or something, so things didn’t go too well. On top of that, though Roma was enthusiastic for the Truth George felt that she had a few queer ideas which she would no let go of. Well, the result was, that George came to Adelaide. I could tell that George has got an inferiority complex a mile long and has been too shy to even look around to see who among the girls is without a boyfriend and who isn’t. He said for ages when he first came over he lived on Perce Mansfield’s doorstep and just about worried the daylights out of him, getting notes, and listening to him talk. But when he stopped that, he started to think about himself again. He had almost decided to pack up and go back to Perth when the Melbourne trip came and he went with Perce.

George told me it was a terrific trip spiritually, but he had met no-one he could be interested in. Then when he came back, he once again felt so low he had decided to pack up and go home, but then Arnold Cheek asked him to go to Sydney with him. Then Roma Kettera came through Adelaide on her way to Sydney where she intended to spend a working holiday. George escorted her around while she was in Adelaide and before she left, she told him that she wanted to call the whole thing off. Well, that put him in the depths of despair. For a while he went around thinking the world had come to an end. He wrote her a mushy letter saying he had to see her again and talk things over. Then he went to Sydney, had his talk with her and things seemed to be all right again. But, he told me that he doesn’t see any future in it, too many objections, too much trouble. Then he told me about the picnic the other day and how Carol Mercer had made a play for him. He said he couldn’t believe it (talk about an inferiority complex). He said she was the first girl he had taken home since he came to Adelaide. He was obviously terribly flattered by her interest in him. I said that if he would stop thinking about himself and open his eyes and look around him, he’d see a dozen girls who would go for him if he gave them a chance. I told him that if I hadn’t been going with Jeff, I’d most certainly be making a play for him as well. He sat silent at that. Hope it sunk in. It’s funny how wrong appearances can be. He seems so self-assured and is terrifically attractive. Unless he had told me all this, I would never have known how lacking in confidence he is. He asked me a bit about Carol. I said that as far as I knew she was a nice kid, a bit young gor him I would have thought. He asked me about how she was as far as the truth was concerned. I said I really didn’t know, because going to Woodville I didn’t see her very often but I felt sure that if he liked her she would try to please him, so she would grow in the truth anyway. But I told him it would be a responsibility taking on such a child and just hoping she will develop in the right way. He agreed with me and said that he too felt that a difference of eight years was too much.

We chatted on and then George asked me what I thought would embarrass a boy most if he is going with a girl. I said I didn’t have a clue, and he told me it was for a girl to pay for herself when the boy took her out. “It’s the same when a boy marries,” he said, “he can’t bear to have to look up to his wife because that is not how it is meant to be.” He said, “The man would rather that the woman had nothing and that everything she had was provided by him. That is also how it is meant to be,” he said. This dumbfounded me, because it is certainly not how I felt it “should be.” I thought of myself. If I went out with a boy and I was not sure I wanted to “go” with him, I may want to pay for myself when we went out together. Or even if we were “going together,” and I had money and he didn’t then I would have no problems about paying my share. And what happens if the girl has more brains than the boy, does she have to hide her knowledge “under a bushel” just to make him “feel” that he is superior? I told George that I didn’t see things the same as he did on this matter, so we simply had to “agree to disagree,” because he thought that way quite strongly. I thought to myself that maybe George does need a girl to be much younger than himself to ensure that he feels “superior” to her! Then George asked me why Jeff and I were not getting married straight away. I said that we needed to save before we could marry. George asked me how old I was and I told him I would be 20 in November. “Going on for an old maid,” he said. He asked me how we both got on as far as our knowledge was concerned. Was Jeff superior to me in his knowledge. I told him him how that at first Jeff had given me an inferiority complex because he was so quick and intelligent when it came to study but I soon found that my comprehension was as good as his, and my English was much better than Jeff’s. Jeff can wade through the works of the Apostacy in the public library and glean the good points whilst discarding the rubbish much better than I can, but between us our scope is much broader than each of us would have been on our own. “Besides, with the family I come from and three pretty brilliant brothers, I have always felt I could hold my own with them because “It is not what you’ve got, it’s really how you use it in the end that matters,” I said. I told him Jeff and I had studied Colossians together and George thought that was terrific and showed that we could blend together. Then George told me that my reasons for not wanting to get married yet were unsound and that I had better revise my ideas but fast. I thanked him for his “opinion” and “exhortation.”

I asked George about how he had found the girls in Adelaide, was there anyone who had interested him or not? He said there wasn’t, he’d been too shy to go along to Adelaide ecclesia much to find out. Not only that, but he never knew who was attached and who wasn’t. I felt sorry for him. He was really in the doldrums. I was sitting very close to him (where I was when Glennis Masters was in the car. I didn’t move over when she got out) and I longed to put my arms around him and comfort him, the mother instinct in me, I guess. Seeing I’d started to feel like that, I decided it was time I went inside. The conversation had begun to lag and I could tell that the pause was the kind that happens when a boy decides whether or not he’s going to make a move towards a girl. I sighed and asked him what the time was. He put his arm behind me and reached for the light. I looked at my watch, 12.30. I thanked him for taking me home, smiled at him, debating with myself whether I should kiss him goodnight or not, decided against it, and gave him my hand instead. He clasped it, and looked me straight in my eyes, and I had to turn to get out of the car before I did something I would regret. It was lucky I did, too, because Jeff rang me the next day, asking if I had arrived safely, and one of his questions was “Did George kiss you goodnight,” thankfully I could say “No, “but,” I said “If he had, it would have been your fault for making me go home with him.” I love Jeff so much, but I am only flesh and blood. He often throws me into the company of other boys and I wish he wouldn’t do it. I suppose he thinks he can trust me, but what it does is make me feel that he doesn’t put enough value on me and because I feel that way, I am in danger of doing something I shouldn’t, just to “nark” him.

19590617 Wednesday – One day, when I am old, perhaps I will have learned the wisdom of acting upon reason, not emotion. On Tuesday after I left George and came inside I couldn’t sleep – partly because it was freezing cold, and partly because I couldn’t stop thinking about George. I realised then that if I kept thinking about him, there would be trouble. I remembered something George had told me, that he had been watching Jeff ad I at the picnic and had noticed that when Robin and the other boys flirted with me, Jeff had been embarrassed and jealous. I had questioned Geroge about this, and he told that Jeff was like himself, he said that in Jeff’s position he would have been embarrassed and jealous because after all, I would be his girl, and he wouldn’t like to see other boys “laying hands on me.” Well, all next day, I thought about George and tried to excuse myself by thinking that if Jeff had put more value upon me, he wouldn’t have been so quick to get George to take me home for the sake of his convenience the other night. Anyway, by this evening, I was feeling lonely. I didn’t go to the dressmaking because I felt too tired after having almost no sleep last night.

I rang Jeff. He had just got ready to go to bed to look at some books which had arrived from England. I told him I was missing him and he said, “that’s too bad, because you won’t be seeing much of me because I have too much work to get through.” This did not make me feel better. We started to talk about the meeting the other night. I asked him how he had got on with Glennis Masters. He said that by the time the evening was over sha had admitted at she didn’t know much about the Truth, was asking him questions about the resurrection and she agreed that it would be a good idea to have another night’s discussion about it. I told him how I had got on talking with Robert Goldsworthy and I also told him how well George had done. Then, like the stupid fool I am, I told him some of the things George had told me when he was taking me home, how he wanted a girl, but didn’t expect to get one and how I had told him how mad he was seeing there were a number of girls who would go for him if he’d only give them a chance. I said, “Fancy Gorge of all people having an inferiority complex, when he’s so good looking, strong in the Truth and such a terrific lad.” I ‘m pretty certain I was trying to make him feel jealous. Jeff said rather quietly, “It’s a pity you’re not free to go and help him out?” I realised I had gone a bit too far. I had wanted to make him jealous, simply because he often seems not to want to go out of his way for me or to be with me and I guess I want him to be prepared to go “through fire and water” for me. Quickly I said, “No, I’ve got the boy I want.” For a while Jeff changed the subject and we talked along happier lines. But then, he said, “Well if you’ve got nothing else to say, I’ll go to bed.” “Oh Jeff,” I wheedled “I don’t want you to go.” “Well you’ve got nothing more to say worth saying have you? and besides, it’s freezing cold here,” Jeff said. “Well go and put something on so you won’t be cold,” I asked him. “No,” he said, “have you got anything else to say?” “You just said you don’t want to talk to me,” I mumbled. “Look,” said Jeff, “If you don’t start being reasonable and not being so illogical, you might find that I have got nothing more to say to you and I might hang up.” “Oh,” I said, and sat silent and I thought, “So that’s what he feels about me.” Then he said, “And if you want it straight, studying time is too precious to sit here giving little disjointed comments about nothing, so..” “I’m sorry,” I said in a clipped, hard little voice, “Goodnight,” and then I put down the receiver. Well, for a long while I just sat there thinking that it had been all my fault for trying to make him jealous and that had probably been the reason for his harshness. But then I began to get frightened, I felt so lonely, so abandoned. I began to cry. I tried to pray, begging Gd that he would not to take Jeff from me. I turned up the Psalms and read some of the Prayers of David. I read and read and cried and cried until I felt sick. Then I put down my Bible, put out the light and just lay there, trying not to think.

19590618 Thursday -This morning when I woke up, I felt rotten. I picked up my Bible and did my readings, but I couldn’t face reading Eureka so I left it where it was. I went out to get my breakfast and the first thing Mum said to me was that I looked terrible, “Did I feel bad?” “No Mum, I feel all right.” (Nothing that 6 months in hospital and an operation to have my heart removed couldn’t fix!) All morning Mum tried to find out of there was anything wrong. I pleaded too many late nights, but she didn’t believe me. Eventually she asked me what Jeff had said to me. So I said in a sickly sweet voice “O lots of things, so how about minding your own business?” Immediately I felt sorry I had said it, I was making bad worse. “Honor your father and your mother….” O God, please don’t take Jeff away from me. Later this morning at work I was doodling on copy paper and I wrote, “Have you forgiven me yet, Jeff? I love you.” On impulse I put it in an envelope and posted it to Jeff, then immediately wished I hadn’t done it. We are very slack at work at the moment and I had nothing to do (first time since I’ve been with APR). I read Eureka all the morning and made notes on the Seven Golden Light stands and Seven Stars.

After dinner this evening, I couldn’t settle to anything. I was supposed to go to Cooking at the School of Mines where Jill Strudwick is my teacher, but I couldn’t face it. I waited and waited for the telephone to ring and at last it did, but it wasn’t Jeff, it was Bob Goldsworthy. He wanted to know why I had invited him to come to dinner and go to the Sunday meeting and had not incuded his friends. I told him that he had been the only one who had expressed any interest in going with us to the Sunday meeting – all the others said they couldn’t make it on a Sunday. He said he may come next Sunday Week. We talked on for about an hour and a half, discussing the Bible. He had evidently spent the whole of the afternoon studying to find the answers to the questions I had put to him the other night. We spent most of the time discussing Proverbs 8. When eventually I hung up, Ken Niejalke’s father and also Ken’s Auntie and cousin had arrived so I had to go in and help entertain them. Mum sent me out to put the kettle on and I took the opportunity to ring George Hawkins. It was about 9.30. I reminded him that he was coming to our place for dinner on Friday week, not tomorrow night – I told him that the Manser’s had got the date wrong and needed to make sure he know the correct date. I asked him if he had got home safely the other night and he told me that he had, though he had his heart in his mouth all the way because by rights he should have run out of gas just after he left me. I told him that Bob Goldsworthy had rung up and that we had discussed the Bible for some time and that Bob had got into a row with his girlfriend because he had been willing to stand out in the freezing cold and talk to us when he always leaves her place at about 9.00 because he has to start work so early in the morning. She told him that next time he came to her place, she would make him stay and talk to her through the window until 1 2.30. Poor Bob. George and I laughed about that a bit and then I told him that I was in the dog house too. I told him about the phone call Jeff had given me at work and how that he had wanted to know if George had kissed me goodnight and how that on the phone that night I had told him that I thought George was terrific and that I couldn’t understand why George thought he couldn’t get a girl. How Jeff had got jealous and said that it was a pity that I wasn’t single so that I could do something about it. Then how the argument had developed and finished.

I told George how mad it had made me that Jeff would send me home with him for the sake of convenience rather than take me home himself, then have the cheek to be jealous of George, even though he himself was responsible for the situation. George said he could understand it and that Jeff would much rather have walked me all the way home, but he’d tell himself that it wasn’t reasonable and send me home with George and yet be jealous – Men! I told George how I used to try to make Jeff jealous because I didn’t know whether he’d care if someone else was trying to take me from him or not. George told me that he would care all right. He told me that at the picnic he had been watching Jeff and I and he said that Jeff was quite aware that I would only have to lift my finger to have half a dozen of the boys come running. (George said it, I didn’t). Though Jeff would be jealous of them, he’d hide it. George asked me if I remembered when Jeff was cooking the chops at the picnic, standing there all alone while I was down on the barge with Brian Manser and George and Carol Mercer. I told him that I only do that sort of thing because Jeff lets me – I’d give anything to have him show that he is jealous, tell me off and forbid me to flirt like I do with the other boys. It’s just that he never sees to care and I get hurt. I told George how that on the phone Jeff had told me that studying time was too precious to waste time whispering sweet nothings over the phone to me. George told me that showed that Jeff wasn’t very mature at the moment because he hadn’t yet learned that more was required of a man than becoming a walking encyclopedia. George told me that the trouble was that I’m about five years ahead of Jeff in maturity and that Jeff will learn to apply the scriptures as he gets older.

Then I told George of the struggle Jeff and I are having physically and that if we kept going as we were we’d be in trouble. George told me that to his mind it just showed how much Jeff loved me. I said, “That’s all very well, if we could be married it would be all right.” Then George asked me why we couldn’t get married. I told him “No cash,” but all I could get out of him on that score was “So what?” I told him that Jeff had wanted to get married this Christmas but that I hadn’t. Well, as far as George was concerned, that was the whole reason for our trouble. He asked me had I given Jeff any reason and when I told him that I had, he asked me if my reasons were any good. I told him that it was the same, “No cash.” He said, “I said ‘good reasons,’ because that one doesn’t hold water.”

Then I told him that if we get married now, I’d have to work and if I were trying to run a house, go to work and try to study the Bible as well, the Bible would get neglected. Then George asked me why God had commanded the wife to learn from her husband at home? I was silent, so he answered his own questions. “Because he foresaw this situation. Woman was made for a help-meet for man. I told him that Beth had not done any study since she was married – he asked me if Charles had “fed her” at home I said that “I guessed so.” “Well that’s how it was meant to be” said George. Well, one by one he knocked down my arguments. Eventually I told him that I had been so ashamed of myself for squandering my money, (conferences, typewriter etc) and that I didn’t want to get married with nothing.

19590824 Two saved off of Kirkcaldy. – There was an article in the paper today about some lifesavers who rescued some yachtsman from the sea. In the group there was a photo of Jeff’s brother, Robbie Berry!

One of the rescued yachtsmen, Bernard Holding is carried up the beach by (from left) – Barry Holding, Gregory Playstead, Tony Anderson, Bob Berry and Ron James.

Two saved off Kirkcaldy. Two lifesavers – one from WA – saved two young men clinging to an overturned yacht in choppy seas off Kirkcaldy late yesterday afternoon.

The yachtsmen, Bernard Holding of Seaview road, Kirkcaldy, and Jorgen Brinch, clung to their 14-footer about half a mile offshore for nearly half an hour. Artificial resuscitation was successfully applied to Holding on the beach after the rescue. Both men were also massaged to combat effects of exposure and given hot coffee. Robbie Berry, a senior member of the Grange Surf Life Saving Club and Douglas Milne a member of the Scarborough (Perth) Lifesaving Club who is in Adelaide with the WA Senior Rugby Union team went to their rescue. Mr H Wilson, publicity officer of the Grange Surf Life Saving Club said last night. “The pair, who were working in the club shed paddled out on a double ski in water made choppy and bitterly cold by a strong gusty southerly. The Yachtsmen were in the water about half an hour and it took the lifesavers up to another half an hour to get them on to the double ski and bring them ashore.” Mr Wilson added the double ski which was like a big surfboard had a tapered nose and was equipped with paddles. The Grange Life Saving Club had not started beach patrols yet. People on the beach had drawn the lifesavers’ attention to the overturned craft.

This story was in the Advertiser, Monday 24th August 1959, slap bang on the front page. It was broadcast over The News all day. Robbie Berry, Jeff’s younger brother had become a bit of a star

19590826 Wednesday – I think I shall try to keep a diary again. Since I stopped, I have developed a very short memory. Since the advent of Derik Ward and Frank Hill at work, I have been removed temporarily from my office to share Mr Muller’s old office with Derik. This will last for a month or so until the new offices are built upstairs. Derik will be transferred upstairs, Frank will go in this office and I will return to mine.

Being in with Derik does not disturb me very much since I know it is only temporary, but I couldn’t stand it if it were permanent. There is little love lost between the two of us. He is an Ex-Truth reporter and typically bumptious and conceited – though what he has to be conceited about is beyond me! He is very untidy in his habits and in his mind. I am used to receiving press releases to type up from Mr Muller and Mr Martindale whose work is impeccable. Each story they write is carefully checked and proof corrected. Not so Derik! He is used to having his work subbed and consequently never checks a thing, but leaves it to me to correct his frequent errors. Though fuming inwardly I have done this up until yesterday. After Jeff’s lecture in which he told me that if the reason for my slavish service to APR was in my mind under the heading of “Do everything as unto the Lord,” then I was sadly misguided. (He says I exhaust myself so much at work that I am little good in the evenings when I could be doing a service to God). Well I have taken his words to heart. Last night Derik gave me an urgent story to be typed for The News. He then went out to start his car which had being playing up, intending to return for the story when his car was going again. I typed the story, and as usual found one or two glaring mistakes, and the “gate” put one paragraph too early. Of course I had typed the gate in before I realised this. I began to fume, then I made a decision about what I would do in the future. I would type his stories EXACTLY as Derik had presented them to me, errors and all, his errors of sloppiness and laziness. I am afraid I thoroughly enjoyed doing it (not the spelling errors and things that it is my job to correct, but the structural things that it is his job to do). Then I left for home so that I wouldn’t have to do it again, I still don’t know what Derik thought about it, because he hasn’t said a word. He obviously realises that he can’t complain when it is his job to write the story, not mine. I’m going to do that each time from now on. Why didn’t I think of it before? I’ll train him up yet. I have told him to check his work enough times anyway.

19590829 Wednesday – What a day, I still can’t stop laughing. It was a glorious day today and I couldn’t face going through my books, so, as Jeff was working overtime, I decided to go to the beach. The bus that goes past our place goes to Kirkcaldy, so I caught that at about 1.00 pm. And arrived at about 2.00 pm. I lazed on the beach for about an hour and then the members of the Surf Club came out with skid boards. One of them was a boy who looked awfully like Jeff. It was not his actual face and features but the way he walked and his movements that reminded me so much of Jeff. I immediately guessed that he must be Jeff’s younger brother Robbie. I went down to the water to watch them all use their skid boards. They’re round things that they throw down in about 2 inches of water, run like mad after the board and then jump on them and then they skid for about 20 yards, depending on how good they are at using them. I noticed that Robbie is very well built. Robbie must have seen me looking at him rather intently, because he kept glancing in my direction.

After a while, I walked back to my clothes and lay down on the sand again. In a few minutes the lifesavers came back again and returned the boards to the lifesaving shed. I went up to the kiosk to buy a stick of liquorice and went up on to the roof of the dressing shed lookout to eat it. I stayed there for about 10 minutes and then when I looked around, Robbie and another lad dressed in blue jeans and nothing else came up onto the lookout and stood a few yards away from me. From the ragging the other lifesavers started to give them (they were working on a boat in the club grounds below) I presumed they were trying to make a pick up. Well, a devilish little scheme began to form in my mind. Under the ragging they were receiving, Robbie and the other lad left the roof and went back to the grounds where they too, began to work on the boat.

A bit later, Robbie and the other boy got onto a motor scooter and went off down the esplanade. I thought my scheme had come to naught because it looked as though they were going home. I stayed a few minutes longer then went down onto the beach and picked up my clothes and towel and took them into the dressing shed. A minute later, I couldn’t find my purse, so I ran out into the sand to see if I had left it where my clothes had been. I had, and as I picked it up, I saw Robbie and three other boys lying sun baking on the sand. He must have just gone around the block on the scooter and then come back.

I walked back to the shed with my purse and then one of the lifesavers walked past me and someone yelled out to him, “What’s it like over there?” “The scenery’s fine” he called in return. “It might be from your view, but it’s not from mine,” I said. Of course, that started it. He stopped and began to talk to me, and in a few moments the rest of the club (there must have been about 20 boys) converged on me and joined in the conversation. Robbie and the other boys stayed where they were. The boys asked me my name and other particulars, none of which I gave them. I told them that my name was “Rhonda.” I had been thinking about Rhonda Bowen so much since I got back from Sydney that it was the first name that came to mind as an “alias.” Then Robbie yelled out to one of the boys, “What was that you said about remaining a bachelor?” I called back, “What was that, Robbie?” Robbie looked amazed. “How do you know his name?” One of the boys asked me. “I know more about him than his name, ” I replied. Of course, they related that back to Robbie, who was naturally curious. I looked at the time then and knew that if I was to be home in time to go out with Jeff I’d have to leave right now.

After I had dressed, I walked out up the ramp onto the road. Some of the Lifesavers called out to me but it took me a few seconds to realise they were talking to me because they called me “Rhonda.” I walked towards the bus, but then the cricketers pulled up beside me. They offered to give me a lift to where I was going. I paused for a moment, decided that seeing I had gone so far, I might just as well go a bit further. I got into the front between two of the boys and asked them to drop me at the bus stop. They delberately missed the bus, so I told them that seeing they were going to be so persistent, they could take me into town. They then informed me that if that was the case, they had better pick up the other two boys whom they had left behind in their haste. They turned the car around and headed back to the beach. As we tuned the corner into the Esplanade, I saw Robbie just getting on his motor scooter to catch me up. I bobbed down so he wouldn’t see me. Then the next thing I saw when I looked up was the car I went home in last week loaded up with lifesavers intent on beating Robbie to it. I ducked again.

We picked up the other two boys and went back along Seaview road, passed Robbie again, I ducked. Passed the other car, ducked again.

Naturally the other boys commented on my mysteriousness. Well I was sitting upright again when the other car passed us again tooting its horn and waving at us. They had seen me. Things are getting a a little out of hand. When I met up with Robbie in the future I had intended to be able to say that I had gone a bit out of character in letting them get friendly with me because I had wanted to know what Jeff’s brother was like, but how am I going to explain away the other five boys? They dropped me in town and I waited until they had disappeared before I went to catch my bus. Well, they don’t know who I am, or anything about me, anyway.