Seventy years ago

Another holiday

In what we called the "August" school holidays of 1947, when I was 13 and in Year 10, the family had a holiday in Wellington.  We travelled by the Limited Express (7 15 pm departure from Auckland Railway Station) which took all night to reach Wellington (9 am).

You will be interested in the three-page account I wrote at the time detailing the trip from one end of the island to the other.

A Classic Holiday

Summer 1950-51

Here are some box Brownie photos from our family holiday at Christmas 1950. Noel and Stuart trying out the Bumper Boats at Caroline Bay in Timaru.

In those days the car was hoisted on to the deck of the ferry for the trip between the islands: Wellington to Littelton. Our boot was loaded with luggage and spare petrol cans to cope with the family of five in a 10 horsepower Ford.

One of the fascinating places we stopped for a look was the Hanging Rock near Fairlie, with its cave paintings.

And the extreme southern adventure on New Year's Day was to Half-Moon Bay at Oban, Stewart Island, for a swim.

Stuart was nine, I was seventeen, and Olwyn fourteen at the time.

Romantics Galore

Thank goodness the world is full of dreamers!

What a glorious day for a walk! We drove halfway to town and walked from there to the Farmers Market. 

There were half a dozen tents set up in the Huatoki Plaza. Before you get there you can hear a young man singing, accompanying himself on a guitar and helped by a friend with a drum from some Asian country. The songs are strident, full of passion and not all that tuneful.

Next to them is a mature lady selling baked goods of various kinds. We later buy one of her cinnamon buns for morning tea. Next to her two young guys grind and sell coffee from Papua-New Guinea. We order a coffee to go with the bun.

We bump into a friend who is standing for the position of mayor in the local elections in six weeks' time. Her attitude is "Che sera, sera". She cannot do more than she is already doing for the community; she has a long history of  service in a variety of ways. We wish her well.

Over the way a stall selling processed meats of various kinds, And another selling sauces and chutneys.

Most elaborate is Margaret's cousin's tent. He has a small farm where he grows lavendar and garlic; his stall sells various lavendar products: shampoos, perfumes, hand creams and so on. He also grows tea and a variety of herbs which he processes into a range of herb teas.

We wonder how many customers he gets each time he sets up his stall, a process which takes 30 minutes (and a similar time to dismantle). He is also standing in the elections, after a life-time of adventurous enterprises and community service.

All the time we are wandering around there are only a handful of customers; these days the crowds are in the chain stores in the new shopping centre on the fringe of town -- which looks just like similar centres in every provincial town in the country.

So cheers for originality, enterprise, and dreams! Some of them may change the world occasionally, and the rest will fade out of sight. But what a drab place it would be without them!

Memories on Paper

Old documents

A few posts ago I showed a photo of the Chevrolet my grandfather bought in 1939.

A year or so later he wrote a letter to me, which you can read here. He was 73 at the time and I was approaching 7.








A dozen years later I was called up for Compulsory Military Training. This was at the time of the Korean War and it was the popular system in all developed countries to require a period of military service.

I opted for the Air Force and was accepted as a trainee pilot.

Before we had barely completed our initial training (at Taieri Airport, with instructors on leave from their normal jobs as agricultural topdressing pilots), the Tiger Moth planes were scrapped, and we were discharged, being just as obsolete as the planes!

Here are my discharge papers.

When I worked in India I didn't need to fly, but I did need to drive, and here is my Driver's License.

The mission owned at various times a Dodge station wagon and a Landrover. The four-wheel drive capability was very necessary, as the roads in those days were very primitive, although the Indian Government built kilometres of good roads very quickly.

In about 1960 I walked for a day and a half from the end of the road to attend a district conference in one area; five years later we were able to travel the whole way by the Landrover.

Newspaper Appearances

In the Press

Several times over the years press reporters have shown an interest in my activities, and here are four examples:

In 1953 I attended a conference of Baptist young people at Mooloolabah on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, and was met in Brisbane by a reporter from the Courier-Mail.

Much later, around 1979, I was interviewed by a Taranaki reporter on my experience of India, particularly of the State of Tripura, where I lived for around seven years.

From 1995 to 2000 I was a member of the Taranaki Regional Ethics Committee, which advised on all health research in Taranaki which involved human subjects. Here is one reporter's account of an interview I gave the local paper.

And a year or two later I took up playing the clarinet and joined a community concert band of adult learners. Here is what the same paper made of their research about our music!

Schooldays

School photos are a record of one's growth, and of one's progress through the education system.

Here is a selection of mine:

This is my last photo from Owairaka School. This was at the worst phase of World War II; class sizes were large as you can see here. You will find me fourth from the left in the front row.

Later in 1942 we shifted to Papatoetoe. Here is my photo from 1945 taken as the war was finishing:




























Again I'm in the front row, in front of my best friend, Ian Bond, who is immediately right of the name-board.

The next year I started secondary school at Auckland Grammar (second from right in second row from front).

Early in my career at Grammar I joined the staff of the library. Above is the team from 1949. My favourite teacher, Owen Lewis, is on the left. Next to him is my closest school friend that year, John Imperatrice. I'm on the right of the front row.

Last comes the shot of my final year, 1950. Form Teacher was "Teddy" Driver.  You'll find me third from the right in the second row from the back. If you know Colin Maiden, you'll find him in the back row. And Ritchie Poole is here, along with members of the Paykel, Airey, Rae and Barfoot families. And Jim Feist, who was my closest friend in this class.

Back to the sketching

This week

Well, fortnight or so!

No, I haven't been entirely neglecting sketching.

At Puke Ariki museum I found this strongly-lit carved panel on the front of the wharenui:

It was a good exercise in capturing light and shade with pencil only.

Nearby a display about Mt Taranaki, on this occasion with lots of schoolchildren milling about. Not one of my better efforts - I think the kids may have distracted me:

Here are two from the front window of our new house, the first looking across the cul-de-sac to a couple of neighbours' houses:

And here is the front fence between our lawn and the street:

The guy who helps us with the garden has now removed all the surplus vegetation, but this reminds us of what a mess was here when we first arrived!