Work in progress
Previous | Contents | Next Depression or not, I don’t think my family ever missed a summer holiday at Whananaki or Oakura, and, before I started work for my new bosses I went with them to Oakura. Usually two or three families would hire a truck onto which all our ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next Colin wasn’t his real name. ~IanMy new boss had the knack of extracting the maximum effort from me for the least possible cost, and he made the most of it, setting me subtle challenges which I felt compelled to meet. He was completely callous in ... Read more
My father Cliff loved an audience, and his grandchildren proved to be better listeners than me. Dad and I certainly enjoyed a good argument — more I’m sure than those around us — but as his son I found sitting and listening to him harder than they did. Fortunately he ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next Dorothy thought that parts of this were in poor taste and unnecessary. You’ve been warned. ~IanAnother farm labourer arrived. He was a boy from Auckland and much older than me, probably about sixteen. He was related to an elderly couple who owned a sheep and ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next I gradually made progress towards achieving my ambition. Dave arrived every day to do odd jobs and take the cream out to the corner for collection, about a mile away. The cream was transported in a light flat-topped cart to which Mary was harnessed. The ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next The Hikurangi telephone exchange operated from 3.00am to 10.00pm. Only once during those first few weeks was I able to ring Jimmy Orr before he went home after night shift — and this before we had sat down to dinner. I could never be sure ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next I said I’d keep myself out of Cliff’s stories, but I find this hard to read because of the treatment meted out to cows and dogs. It’s certainly not how they were treated on Dorothy and Cliff’s farm, but a good reminder that managing animals ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next I’ve renamed Cliff’s first employers the Smiths because that’s the most common New Zealand surname. ~ IanAnyone who could get you a job during the Great Depression was doing you a big favour, and when Nellie found one for me I was properly grateful. Nellie, ... Read more