Early memories: where were they set?

An early colour slide of Olly and me

My earliest memories are of events around my first home, at Ruarangi Road, Mt Albert. The House was built for my parents when they married in 1932, a gift from Fred and Julia. It perched on the side of the hill at Mt Albert, looking east over Mt Roskill and Three Kings, and north over Mt Eden to the city.

The right-of-way at the cul-de-sac end of Ruarangi Road, was a walkway down the hill to Mt Albert Rd to provide a short cut to the Owairaka tram terminus.

Lunch with the builders

The original house had two rooms in front, one the master bedroom and the other our “sitting-room”, which had a small sunporch on the front. Behind the sitting-room was the kitchen, with its modern electric stove and an alcove for meals looking out to the east. Behind this was the bathroom and wash-house. In the fourth corner was a second bedroom; the front door, porch and steps were between the two bedrooms.

When I was quite young, the house was extended with the building of a family room/lounge at the back.  I had lunch each day on the site with the builder’s gang. At the same time the back verandah was widened and enclosed to form another bedroom for me, when Olwyn grew old enough to need a room of her own.

Later still, an open verandah was built on the end of my room, with French doors opening on to it. There was no outside access to this verandah; it was half a storey off the ground.

There were several empty sections in our street, but over the road from us lived Reg Barker, one of Dad’s closest friends, and his wife and twin daughters, who were around Olwyn’s age. An area below the street, bounded on two sides by the right-of-way, was used as sites for early state houses.

There was an empty section to the west of us, and when the war came, my Dad dug a dugout and covered it with corrugated iron for an air-raid shelter. It became a favourite play area.

At a later time he put up a swing in the back yard, on which we had many happy hours of play.

No 248, a regular on our route (photo MOTAT)

I loved travelling to town on the tram; I would sit in the front side seat and watch the motorman through the glass doors. From there I could see the points change when it came to a junction. I studied the map and learned all the routes.