Religious Journey Resumed

 

Life begins at Forty 

Part I

 

One of the differences between Margaret and me when we were discussing marriage was the different stages we were at in our religious journeys. Synchronising our steps in this regard was an important challenge. 

Margaret was a regular at the Paihia Open Brethren Chapel Sunday morning services, and in the evenings she would drive to Kaikohe to the chapel there.  And her main loyalty was to the Te Atatu Bible Chapel, where Denise and Rod and many of her Auckland friends were based. 

As I have said, I had long ago left such regular religious affiliation behind, though my thoughts often went to matters of spirituality on Sunday mornings, out of long habit. 

So we spent time discussing the basis of her religious ideas, which she had formed through attendance at Methodist Sunday School, and later at activities associated with the Bible Chapel in New Plymouth, and with the Youth for Christ movement as well. 

I talked to her about my developing ideas in connection with my work in India, in discussions with Brian Smith, and with thinking since returning to New Zealand. 

We discussed the basis of the authority of the Bible as a set of rules for living, the disjunction between the ideals preached by Jesus and the practice of the churches, as well as other specific doubts about some of the central items of “faith” as defined by evangelical theologians nowadays, like virgin birth, resurrection, eternal life, and so on. I was reassured when Margaret told me she had also had some queries about some of these points which had never been adequately explained for her. 

When we moved to New Plymouth, Margaret started going to her old Bible Chapel again, and soon found herself questioning their conservatism: women were still second-class members, as far as she could see. She wanted to make a contribution, as she could in such activities as the Urenui Beach Mission, which she was part of each January. 

After we had married, I had joined her at Urenui; we both did the cooking for the mission team for two successive years. It was always important to me to meet Margaret half-way in these matters, and the mission team was a valuable service for the beachgoers at Urenui, quite apart from its Christian content. 

A great community effort

 

Last night we went to a celebration dinner.

 

Just round the corner from here is a hotel, the Quality Plymouth. It has a large ballroom, where they served dinner to around 200 people. We were all guests of the 24-hour Book Sale for the New Plymouth Opera House.

 

For 25 years since 1990, the Opera House Trust has run an annual 24-hour book sale. Hundreds of ordinary people have volunteered to help and for the last couple of sales this has included us, wrapping books or operating EFTPOS machines.

 

Over the quarter-century, this event has raised more than a million dollars for improvements and new equipment for the Opera House, and it has enabled the TSB Showplace, as it is now called, to operate debt-free for the first time since its foundation in the twenties.

 

This year is the last time it will be held; to thank the volunteers the Trust shouted everyone dinner and drinks and entertainment.

 

We thought we would know lots of people, but were surprised to find only a handful we knew: a couple of accountants who work at schools Margie has taught at, an old childhood friend of hers, one other former colleague and his wife, and a former colleague of mine from social work days in the eighties.

 

There were several speeches, and the food was delicious: quite ordinary but beautifully cooked and presented rather well for such a large gathering. 

 

We chatted to those we knew and a couple of others and joined in the congratulations for the people who had been the leaders in this impressive community effort.

 

PS: Just across the street from there, and at the back of the houses on the opposite side of our street, is the site of a new hotel, an even bigger one, to be called The Hobson. We have pile-drivers making a noise all day every day at present. I have sketched the building site several times and here is the latest version:

 

 

 

 

Back to the present day

 

Like many other new Zealanders, we watched the TV1 Leaders' Debate last night.

 

The telephone poll at the end told us nothing we did not know already: National Party supporters own more mobile phones than Labour supporters.

 

The commentaries in various media this morning were much more measured and thoughtful: Cunliffe by a head.

 

My own impression was that Cunliffe looked much more statesmanlike and steady, John Key was like a little puppy-dog trying to get attention, talking too fast and slurring his words and not making himself clear.

 

On the issue of foreign ownership of New Zealand land, I felt Labour had the weaker argument; I still like the Labour position on emotional grounds.

 

On all the other serious matters, I thought Cunliffe's arguments were clear and well stated, with good factual backing.

 

Two commentators I heard this morning on radio, academics both of them, more or less confirmed my impressions, and ended by saying that any impartial observer would have to give the debate to Cunliffe.

 

They were sceptical about David's positive comments about John Key and National achievements, as being part of his act. I disagree; I thought a concession or two to the opposing party was typical of Labour Prime Ministers. Certainly in my lifetime I would expect as much from Kirk and Lange.

 

On the other hand, such generosity I do not expect from National leaders: Muldoon, Holyoake, Shipley spring to mind. With the possible exception of Jim Bolger, who was more genial and humane than the others, my impression of right-wing leaders is that they regard their elevation to positions of leadership as perfectly natural, and so they are always in the right.

 

One of the reasons for John Key's popularity I think is that he does not fit completely into that mould, but comes across as more human and fallible than the rest. Good on him for that!

 

All three participants in the debate were, at least, competent. I think Mike Hosking's encouragement to the two leaders to talk over each other was a mistake. Otherwise he did well. His questions were varied, interesting and rapid-fire when needed.

 

I will look forward to the next debate with some interest!

 

 

On the Hustings

I have recently started writing for the Carersair Blog as well as this one. Here is my latest post for that site.

What a week this has been in politics! We have been to two pre-election meetings, neither of them very well attended. 

The first was hosted by the teachers’ union, the NZEI. They had four speakers: Plunket, Kindergarten Association, Principals’ Association, and a paediatrician from the local hospital. They highlighted issues like child poverty, and lack of money for early childhood education. They asked some questions of the politicians. 

Then we had responses from three party representatives: National, Labour and Greens. 

Finally the NZEI chair asked for questions from the floor and the last of these blew the discussion wide open. A white-haired lady announced she and her friends were from the National Council of Women. She had watched a stream of carers looking after her husband who died last year. They were all good workers, but all were finding it difficult to cope on the minimum wage. What would the politicians do? 

Labour talked about increasing the minimum wage, the Greens talked about Living Wage. National mentioned the subject of enlarging the pie so everyone’s slice gets bigger. Whereupon the NCW lady interrupted and told him not to waffle but to say what they would actually do, to much applause from the rest of the audience. 

The other meeting was to watch a film: it featured Robert Reich (Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labour) and was called “Inequality for all”. It was very well produced and is well worth looking at.

All the statistics about social problems followed the same graph as income inequality: they looked like the Golden Gate Bridge, with two peaks, one in the 1930s depression, and one in the last decade with the Global Financial Crisis. 

One of the people Reich had brought in to support his argument was a billionaire whose income was in the tens of billions. He said his tax rate worked out at about 11%. And that is one of the problems: if big corporations and wealthy people were paying their fair share, governments could afford to lift the investment in carers and caring. 

So don’t sit wringing your hands or cursing all politicians!  Use your brains, do a little homework, and make up your mind to vote for whichever party you think will make life better for all carers, and even more importantly, the people they look after.

Family History 2.46

Bigelow History

Post-1630

 John Smith Bigelow

 

This is the painting of the last ship built in the Bigelow shipyard, and christened Welcome. She was wrecked off Whakatane in 1916.

 

John Smith Bigelow was still a boy when his family sailed from Pugwash in the George Henderson, eventually settling in Auckland and establishing the shipyard in St Mary's Bay.

 

After he took over the family business, he used to entertain visiting ships' captains, taking them to his home to meet a "native", who turned out to be his eldest son, William, who was then a baby.

 

Just before Christmas 1874, John had married Mary Ann Brown. Mary's family had come to Auckland from Nottingham in 1865 on the ship Caduceus. Both families were members of the Ponsonby Baptist Church and their social life was closely connected with that community.

 

Auckland was growing rapidly in the late nineteenth century, and so was their circle of friends belonging to the church.  When the Ponsonby Baptist Church was established in 1880 with 19 foundation members, six were from John's family and five were from Mary's.

 

In 1885, when John was Secretary and Sunday School Superintendent, he and the minister, Rev Charles Carter, had a disagreement. The other leaders refused to take sides and begged the minister to withdraw a letter he had written asking John to resign his official positions in the church. The minister resigned when the church members agreed that he should withdraw the letter.

 

The next minister, a younger man, also had trouble with John and other church members and had to resign also. The nineties saw better days, especially with the arrival of Rev A H Collins in 1892. The community was by no means conservative, as this extract from one of Mr Collins's sermons shows:

 

"The time will come when the capitalist will cease out of the land. The skilled manager will remain at the head of the industrial army, but the capitalist who lives only on the fruit of other men's toil, will be as extinct as the dodo....[Now] those who work most have least to eat, and they who work not at all live wantonly on the earth and speak loftily about the improvidence of the working classes."

 

John and Mary had five children. In 1876 William was born, named, not John in the Bigelow tradition, but after Mary's oldest brother who had recently died. (See later posts for a continuation of William's story)

 

John Smith Bigelow and Mary Ann (Brown) Bigelow

In 1879, the second son, John, was born. Uncle Jack became a well-known bookseller. His shop was in Shortland Street just off Queen Street, and specialised in books about nautical subjects: navies, yachting, rowing and so on. The Bigelow family were keen members of the West End Rowing Club. During my high school days I worked at the shop for holiday jobs a couple of times.

 

1881 saw the birth of Frederick. Uncle Fred saw action in World War I and lost a leg.  When we used to go to stay with him and Auntie Katy (Dreadon) on their farm at Pukehuia in Northland, we were fascinated by his wooden leg.

 

Reg was born in 1884 and Daisy in 1889. Reg's wife was from a prominent Northland family; her father was an MP and they owned a grocery business in the Bay of Islands. Daisy married another of the Dreadon family; it was from another Dreadon that my parents bought the house in Papatoetoe.

 

John Smith Bigelow died in 1903 as the result of an accident at work, so he never knew my mother, his granddaughter; by this time William and his wife and young son were living in New Plymouth.

 

Here is a brief obituary from the Observer of 30 May 1903:

Mr John Bigelow, whose life was cut short by an accident at Calliope Dock this week, was a member of a family which has been prominent in shipbuilding matters in the Waitemata almost ever since Auckland was founded. Numbers of the wooden vessels which were at one time so numerous in these waters were built by Messrs Bigelow and Sons, of which firm John Bigelow was the junior member.  

In more recent years, Mr Bigelow has been the superintending shipwright to the Northern Steamship Company, and it was while directing operations on the Wakatere that he met with the fatal accident.  

Mr Bigelow was an active member of the Baptist Church, and also an enthusiastic temperance worker.

Mary Ann, however, lived on for many more years. She came to visit my mother once when I was very small.  I simply remember her as a lady in a black hat (all ladies used to wear black straw hats in the thirties) standing at the front door when Mother and I went to answer the doorbell.

 

 

 This rocking-chair, which is used in our lounge all the time, belonged originally to Mary Ann. The fabric has been recovered twice by us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family History 3.04

Goodwin History

Family Tree Document continued

Robert Smith the first had several daughters. Elizabeth the eldest married James Chapman of Kettering. [The next] married James Law of Rothwell. Sarah married Richard Humpry of Rothwell. Mary married Edward Punter of Rothwell. And Nan married carpenter York of Rothwell. 

Robert Smith the second was twice married.  His first wife was Elizabeth Page of Desborough, by her he had 5 children; they all died in younger years.  His second wife was Catherine, daughter of John Stafford, gardener of Kettering; the issue by her are two: Robert Smith the third was born Sept 18^th 1779; John Smith was born March 7^th 1782, he had the misfortune to be an idiot, he died of cancer about 1823.  

He [ie Robert Smith II] also had a daughter who was twice married. She was born Feb 1785.  Her first husband was son of James Buswell, collarmaker of Kettering. She had two sons. The son James was married and left a family: one son named John and several daughters. Her second son was named Samuel; he is married and has a son named Samuel, who with his father is a-living. 

She afterwards married William Loasby.  She died Nov 1844. 

Robert Smith 3^rd as before said was born Sept 13, 1779.  In the year 1804, Oct 1^st, he was married to Frances, eldest daughter of Thomas Lillie of Broughton.  Their family besides two who died in their infancy: Robert Smith 4^th he was born August 7^th 1805. Also Elizabeth who was married to William Henson the builder.  She was born Feb 19^th 1808 She was married Jan 8 1828.  They have three daughters: Elizabeth, Frances, Kezia. Also Thomas Smith the blacksmith; he was born Aug 6^th 1814.  He married Ann, eldest daughter of Robert Scarborough of Irklingborough.  They have at this time two children: Mary Ann the eldest and a baby named Robert. Also another, the youngest daughter.  She was born Oct 6, 1818 and was married to Daniel Goodwin, slater and plasterer of Collyweston in 1835.  They settled at Kettering and have a family of six children, namely: Thomas, Robert, Elizabeth, Frances, Lillie, Ann and Daniel.

 

That is the end of the document.

 

Here is a nineteenth century map of that part of Northamptonshire, so you can locate the places mentioned in the document:

 

 

Family History 3.03

Goodwin History

A few years after this, another member of the family copied out a family tree, which gives the names of lots of Robert’s relations. I suspect the copier may have been Robert himself, who at the time was perhaps looking for a handwriting exercise. Here is what they wrote:

Some information relating to Robert Smith Family first written Nov 17^th 1728 – copied April 13^th 1848 

The first account I have seen was about 7 years ago in the hands of my kinsman Jacob Smith. I saw a Bible with the name Roger Smith 1707 which was probably the said Roger Smith’s handwriting.  

This Roger Smith lived at Rothwell. He had two sons and some daughters.  His eldest son Roger settled at Great Oakley; he had a son Jacob Smith who lived at Kettering until his death.  He had several sons: Roger, who died lately, and several others. 

The first said Roger Smith’s eldest daughter was named Elizabeth; another of his daughters was named Ann, she was married to John Gotch, shepherd at Glendon.  They had two sons: Thomas the eldest was father to John Cooper Gotch, Esq, the banker.  His second son John was father to John Gotch, butcher of Kettering.  The good old man was very infirm and blind. He has been dead several years. He had a daughter William Clipsham’s first wife and others. 

The first aforesaid Roger Smith’s second son was named Robert, who we shall call in this account Robert Smith the First.  He died soon after Rothwell Fair in the year 1781. His eldest son, who we will call Robert Smith the second shall be more particularly mentioned hereafter. 

His second son William Smith when young went to London and died there. I never could learn whether he left any issue. 

His third son Joseph settled at Kettering. He married Ann, the daughter of Thomas Quince the cowherdsman. Of his children William the eldest settled at Kettering; he has a large family chiefly sons. 

Joseph Smith’s second son was apprenticed and settled at Marborough in Leicestershire and has a family. 

Joseph’s eldest daughter was married to James Paine of Kettering, wheelwright. His youngest daughter was married to Thomas York of Kettering.

Family History 3.02

Goodwin History

Emigration to Auckland

Quite what he expected to find here I cannot imagine, for slate rooves are nowhere to be seen except on the Auckland Art Gallery. So Robert took up plastering, and used to make and install those decorative plaster ceilings that were so common around the turn of the twentieth century. 

Robert had two daughters, Julia and Kezia (Kitty); a third had died in infancy. 

In Auckland they found a house in Newton, down the hill from Karangahape Road, and it was there, in the kitchen, that Julia was doing the family’s ironing when the great Tarawera eruption happened on 10 June 1886. She used to talk about how the wall of the house seemed to come closer to her and then move away during the shake that accompanied the eruption. In the evening the family, along with hundreds of other residents, climbed Mt Eden to watch the eruption in the south-eastern sky. 

In Kettering the Goodwins had attended the Baptist Church, Fuller Chapel, which was famous as the place where the Baptist Missionary Society had been founded in the late eighteenth century by William Carey and several of his associates before Carey left for Calcutta. The BMS later gave rise to other societies, like the NZBMS, with which I worked in Tripura. 

Julia and her sister attended the Fuller Chapel Sunday School, and we still have a letter which was written after they left by the Pastor to encourage Julia. 

The family history goes back beyond the early nineteenth century in Kettering however. Robert’s mother was a Kettering girl.  Her father, Robert Smith, the third in line of that name, was quite an identity around the town. In 1837 he had been asked to talk to the Kettering Historical Association about the land ownership system in that part of the country. His text of the address was brought to New Zealand by Robert when he came, and is still in the family.

The information provided by Robert is mostly of interest only to the Kettering people, who knew the land that he was talking about.  But his introductory pages are of general interest, especially the following story in explanation of his being well informed on this subject: 

“For a long time previous to the year 1787, one Thomas Fox used to lay out the grass for the mowers in Kettering open fields.  By laying out the grass I mean making knots in the grass, to mark how far the respective farmers were to mow. When old Fox, as he was called, died, which was in the year above mentioned, the farmers turned their eyes towards my father, who they thought most likely to succeed him. 

In Kettering open fields there were more than 3660 pieces of land; to understand the exact proportion, relation and situation of which, must necessarily take a great deal of time and study: to assist him therefore in this business, he employed me in 1788, when I was but 9 years of age, to write out for him a copy of Braisier’s Survey of the Lordship.  This Brasier’s Survey was made in 1728, consequently when I wrote, it was 60 years old: in the course of which time most of the names had become obsolete, for I believe but about 4 continued the same: but having been used to write the old names over, and over again, from the said Survey, it led me to be very anxious to know where they lived, and what was become of them: many hours have I spent in  the churchyard to find out their gravestones; and if any of the old people could tell me the farm yards of those persons, whose names were in the survey, it was to me a delicious treat.”

Robert’s reference to Kettering open fields means he is speaking of a time before the fields around the town were fenced, in otherwords, before the Enclosure Act covering Kettering had been passed by Parliament.  The Enclosure Acts permitted landlords to fence the open fields and graze sheep on their land instead of renting the land to tenant farmers as they had done for centuries. The tenants in many cases had to migrate to the growing cities and try to get jobs in the new mills that were being built everywhere.

Family History 3.01

We are nearing the conclusion of two family histories: the story of Noel's father's family (Gaze), and of Mary's father's family (Bigelow).

 

From this post we begin a third history, that of Noel's mother's family (Goodwin). Before long we will tackle the fourth story, that of Mary's mother's family (Robinson). Both these are as fascinating as the two we have been following for the last few months.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 Goodwin History

 

  Robert Goodwin

 

 

Somewhere near the centre of England, in the top right-hand corner of Northamptonshire, very close to the border with Lincolnshire, is a village called Collyweston. For at least two generations in the early nineteenth century it was home to our branch of the Goodwin family. Robert, my great-grandfather, and Daniel, his father, lived and worked there.

Collyweston

  

Collyweston, which has less than 300 inhabitants, is famous for one thing: slate. For Collyweston is a locality which lived by its quarry, now a nature reserve. Catherine Bates and David Watt, who have researched the history and use of Collyweston stone slate, write:

“Once brought to the surface, the Collyweston 'logs' were naturally frosted, split or 'clived' in regular thicknesses, dressed, and 'parted up' into individually-named sizes. The slates are traditionally hung on battens using either oak pegs or small animal bones, and bedded on a lime- based mortar.

Changes in farming practice during the late 1950s and early 1960s gave rise to a growing number of redundant traditionally-slated farm buildings. As farm machinery increased in size, many of these buildings were demolished, providing a plentiful supply of suitable reclaimed material. The mining of new slates thus became uneconomical and most of the mines were forced to close.

 

This source of reclaimed Collyweston stone slates is now itself becoming exhausted and the use of cheaper substitutes (replica concrete or fibreglass slates) has become increasingly common. The Collyweston Stone Slaters' Trust (founded in 1974), English Heritage, local authorities and others are now investigating ways in which to support a revival in the supply and use of new stone slates.”

This is what a Collyweston slate roof looks like during repair work:

 

The Goodwins used to work on the roofs of buildings like this one, and especially on the roofs of grand houses in the region, building or repairing the slate work. 

Later in the century they shifted to the larger town of Kettering, and it was from there that Robert brought his family to Auckland in 1884. 

 

Family History 1.155

Gaze History

NSG Memoir concludes

Margaret Cowie continues:

 

Through father I have a strong impression of a man of compassion and practical kindness. Hal Coop was my eye surgeon till he retired.  When we met after that he spoke of his mother's reliance on Uncle and of her deep sense of loss at his death.

 

I link him with the integrity of the law.  I am back in Grandpa Bigelow's dining room after his death.  His three children have been choosing objects.  Aunty Win wants the pearl ring Grandma left me, for Barbara.  Father had bought this ring for his mother with his first earnings and I longed for it but felt tongue-tied in face of Auntie's claim.  Uncle cut through undercurrents by asking if the ring had been specifically left to me.  On being told it had he said, "The ring is Margaret's; there is nothing more to decide." To my grateful ear those words embodied the inexorability and simplicity of living by the law.  It was one of the small life incidents that helped me finally to develop my adult ethics.

 

Faith.  Was it my father or your mother who told me that when he was dying he said to her, "I'll be better there than here."  To me he belonged with a faith at full tide - not ebbing with that sea we know now.

 

The more I am reminded of his full name the more perfectly it seems to suit him - the celebration of a joyous Christian festival, the social caring, the steady looking. His quiet words carried weight through the integrity and benevolence that lay behind their formulation.  The last words of The Woodlanders feel right for him "...for you was a good man and did good things." 

 

Thanks 

This memoir has been compiled by Frank Gaze with the contribution and help of many family members and friends. 

Many people wrote down their own memories of Noel and contributed them to the collection, where you will find them either quoted in full, or incorporated into the main text.  They were:  Don Bird, Grahame Bond, Edna Buddle, Zaida Coad, Margaret Cowie, Hugh and Dorothy Dickinson, Olwyn Gaze, Stuart and Catherine Gaze, Gladys Massam, Dorothy and Ivan Phillips. 

Others contributed in other ways.  Terry and Karen Gaze and Catherine and Stuart Gaze took photos of houses around Auckland; Matthew Gaze enhanced all these and especially the historic photos of Noel on his computer and helped with formatting and editing the text. The opinions and comments of Olwyn, Stuart, Catherine, Terry, Karen, Margaret, Matthew and Julia have all added to the content and presentation you find here. 

It has truly been a family effort and thus a family tribute to a much-loved father, father-in-law, grandfather and friend.

 

Family History 1.154

Gaze History

NSG Memoir

Olwyn continues

 

This is when I got to know my Dad and we had some great times together.  Mum wasn’t very well around 1955 so Dad took her for an overseas trip.  He sold the house and when they returned they rented a house in Woodside Road for a few months.  It was there that we hosted Mum, and Dad’s Silver Wedding (1957).

 

St Leonards Road

 

Dad busy with his legal business.  He was known to be good as chairman for committees with usually an unbiased opinion.  President of Baptist Union in 1962.  I can remember him practising for his speeches when he used to get very nervous because of the difficulty with his voice and speech.  He used to get a lot of sputum and saliva; sometimes when we were out in the car he would roll down the window and spit across the road, just to shock us.  He enjoyed his year as President as he met so many interesting people.

 

He was a good Dad to me.  I have no real unhappy memories.  We had differences of opinion, but we could usually laugh about things as he had a great sense of humour and teased me a lot.  He was much loved and a man of integrity.  When he died I thought he was old and at the right age to die, but now that I am older than he ever was…..I wonder.

 

 

Margaret Cowie (nee Bigelow), daughter of Mary’s brother and Noel’s friend, Jack:

 

 

Why did he move you round Auckland?  I remember summer holiday visits to Owairaka, Mairangi Bay, Papatoetoe, Grange Road.  One pleasant family home and then another pleasant family home.  It was a mystery to me and I realize that, accustomed to my parents' peripatetic life, I could not understand why those who could achieve stability might not choose to, at any rate where homes were concerned.

 

Father's stories of the unimaginable time before our generation existed frequently included Uncle Noel.  His tone in hindsight I would describe as combining warmth and deep respect.  This perhaps describes my impression of Dad's life-long feelings about uncle as I registered them.  Anecdotes of Mt Eden and Baptist Youth activities had specific associations of enthusiasm, engagement, dedication, fun.  How I wish I could remember specifics.  Somewhere I have a photograph of your father and mine and Jo Coop with bicycles on a bicycling holiday remembered with cheerful affection.

 

(To be continued)

Family History 1.153

Gaze History
NSG Memoir

SOME PERSONAL MEMORIES 

Olwyn:

 

 

Sandringham

 

Dad bringing me a wooden toy truck and a kaleidoscope when I had mumps, I think.  Mum and Dad giving me an enema in the bathroom both trying to hold me down as I screamed! I still have a lock of my baby hair in an old envelope labelled in Dad’s writing ‘Olwyn Anne’.

 

Papatoetoe

 

I remember him coming back from his medical for the army during the war. It was the first time I heard my father cry and it was then that I began to understand what a wonderful person he was and most of the time was so positive with such a bad disability.  I remember his joy when he and Mum hosted different functions in our garden and home: the BYMOA Club, the Papatoetoe Baptist Church garden party, family get-togethers.

 

We had a Baby Austin car.  Dad would take us out into the country to Redoubt Rd and on the hill would turn off the engine to save petrol as it was rationed at that time.

 

He liked to travel and took us to many exciting parts of New Zealand.  One Christmas we camped at Scandretts Bay out of Warkworth.  The trip seemed to take all day.  We saw whales, visited Kawau, had a wonderful holiday.  I remember we had a windup gramophone with records of Dame Clara Butt.  Our Grandpa Bigelow stayed there with us and one day when we were out in Scandretts launch the dinghy broke loose and was drifting away.  Grandpa hooked the dinghy with his walking-stick and I thought him a hero.

 

Grange Road

 

Dad’s Mum was not so well so Dad decided to move nearer to Mt Eden where our Grandmother lived.  Dad found a house which was an exciting house for us teenagers but was a lot of work.  Dad was pretty busy with his law firm, Baptist Theological College work, Epsom Church work.  On Sunday mornings we were always pretty busy as Mum was often getting ready for guests or helping at church, but Dad always beat the ice cream which was homemade so it would be set for lunchtime.  Actually all the time from my childhood , Dad always got up first and made Mum a cup of tea which she drank while still in bed.  Dad read the paper and then made porridge or rolled oats and vimax.  Dad also usually washed the dishes while one of us children wiped (though Franklin was usually at the toilet),

 

Everybody's doing it

Sketching

On Saturday I went to a workshop at Pukeariki held in conjunction with the current exhibition. The show is called "Home Work", and contains one work each by a cross-section of Taranaki artists. You can see it at http://pukearikihomework.com/

 

One of the artists is Brian Gnyp, who is also a member of the group called Taranaki Urban Sketchers.

http://taranakisketchers.blogspot.co.nz/ There you can see a couple of the sketches done at the workshop.

 

Brian explained the gist of urban sketching. You just go out into the urban environment and draw what you see. Then you post it on the internet to share with everyone else. You can see the results from around the world at http://www.urbansketchers.org/

 

I had time to try three different views from just outside the front door of the museum. Here is the first of them:

 

 

Our U3A group joined the workshop on Saturday rather than meeting as usual on Friday morning.

 

The fortnight before we met in what is called the Wall Gallery, where there is a display of work by a Taranaki comic strip artist called Graham Kirk. We set about studying his work and trying to emulate his skill in producing recognisable sketches of faces with a few lines.

 

Graham also has a picture in the Home Work exhibition.

 

We worked for a couple of hours on this project, together, and decided that next time we will try drawing each other's faces live in the same way.

 

Anyway, here is my effort to copy one of Graham's faces, which is of an acquaintance of ours in New Plymouth, a well-known local identity, whom Graham had used as his model for the comic strip character:

 

 

So during the last week or two I have been trying the same technique on photos in the paper. Here is one effort, the day after the death of Robin Williams:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The character on the right is Alan Beck, the helicopter entrepreneur, from a different section of the paper.

 

Saturday ten days ago Margaret and I each worked a shift at the 24-hour Book Sale run by and for the Opera House Trust here. I picked up a book of old (1960s) photos of New Zealand for 50c, and have been sketching some of them since then.

 

Here is my effort at Cathedral Square as it was in those carefree days fifty years ago:

 

 

Why don't you have a try yourself!