Family History 1.129

 

War Ends

The whole world relaxed when the war came to an end in 1945. But the rationing of foodstuffs and petrol took a while to lift, and the war regulations continued to harass the legal world for some time. On V-J (Victory over Japan) day in August, two days before the end of the school term, everyone in Auckland was told to go home when the news came through, and the bus companies laid on free rides home for everyone.  Noel reached Papatoetoe about midday and found the children in school assembly celebrating the victory in long-winded schoolteacher style. However, restraining his impatience, he managed to retrieve the children from the clutches of the education system and they all enjoyed four days unexpected holiday together. 

Over the following months, friends who had survived the war began to arrive home and start to settle in to normal life. One such was Gilbert, Noel’s second cousin, who had been a captain in the army.  Noel brought him home for dinner with the family before he caught the train back to his family in Wanganui. 

Franklin had by now almost completed his primary school education and Noel discussed with him what he wanted to do by way of secondary schooling.  It was agreed that they would try to get him in to Auckland Grammar School in the city. His school reports had always been good and his placings at the top or near the top of his class in the last year or two. So Noel took his son to the enrolment day at the Grammar School and showed him the hall where he himself had sat and the classrooms he had been taught in. Franklin spent 1946 to 1950 at Auckland Grammar, in early years travelling by train, and later, as we shall see, accompanying Noel by car. 

The 1929 Austin 7 was by this time nearing the end of its useful life.  Month after month it had been used for emergencies and special outings up to the limit of its permitted one gallon of petrol. But soon after the end of the war, Noel sold it for a slightly more recent Austin, which enabled the family to make good use of the relaxed petrol ration available after the war.  However one day on a longish expedition to Muriwai Beach, as the car was rounding a corner on the metal road, one of the family with sharp eyes called out, “Look, there’s the sea!” Noel, unfortunately, did so and when he looked back at the road found he was too late to avoid a glancing collision with a car coming up the hill in the opposite direction. No-one was seriously hurt, and once everyone had patched up their small cuts and bruises and the other family had been placated temporarily, it was discovered that the damage to the mudguard and wheel was too great.  The family limped back to the nearest suburb, but the smash had distorted the wheel so much that the very thin tyre wore out.

1947 Ford Prefect

 

As a result of this episode Noel decided to put his name down for one of the new post-war Ford cars (Prefect) then coming on the market and a brand new vehicle was delivered in 1947. Costing about 450 pounds the Prefect was a 10 horse power car with four doors and a minimal boot.  But it carried the family for many miles and ran through two motors in its five years.