Early Memories

At eye level, to my left, gold letters on a leather satchel, carried by my father, containing my things. I am holding his hand while he guides me over the rough overgrown ground of the sloping track that leads between high hedges, from our house in Ruarangi Road to Mt Albert Road, where we will catch the tram at the Owairaka shops on our way to stay with Granny and Grandpa and Auntie Dot. 

Early June 1936

Gaze grandparents with Olly and me.

At our front door, the silhouette of a lady dressed in black with a black hat, being greeted by Mummy. She is Mummy’s granny, come to talk to us. 

Anne Bigelow, nee Brown

It is early afternoon. I am standing in my cot, trying to bite the painted wooden rail at the top of the cot-side.  I have removed my dirty nappy and spread poohs all over the cot, the wall, and myself. I can taste the painted wood, feel its solidity, and smell the poohs still. 

Just at this point my mother brought a group of friends to see the toddler!

I am standing beside the kitchen cupboards below the bench and sink in our house on the slope of Mt Albert. I can see the edge of the bench above my head height to my right. Mummy and Daddy are doing the dishes and talking, unintelligibly to me, to each other. It is evening and the room is full of electric light. 

I can feel the rough velvet of the car seat on my legs and smell that musty odour of a car locked up all night. Through the front windscreen I can see a patch of sky, with red, white and blue flags stretched across it. Beside me, my father’s bulk, unusual on a weekday. 

Dominion Road on Coronation Day, 12 May 1937, in my grandparents’ car. Contrast with Anzac Day, a few days before, which they tell me happens every year. To see what else was going on that day, go to Papers Past and look up the Auckland Star for that afternoon!

It is a wet day.  From the window in the alcove in our kitchen, where we eat our meals, we can look down on the countryside from Mt Albert to Mt Roskill, and everywhere there are big ponds of water.