It is good that I was able to see life on working farms. I have good memories of being in the packing shed at Uncle Ernie's farm and watching apples being graded, sorted and packed ready to be sent away to market. At some stage Mum purchased the farm on which we were staying and I remember our being sent to help the farm manager chip the rows of cabbages.
the farm
I dont think these are rows of cabbages..may be potatoes.
When we first arrived the orchard was very neglected but as I said earlier the trees were full of summer fruit. Later the apples came on so we always had a good supply of fresh fruit.
I remember this photo being taken. We had not been there very long and the cart was found among the farm implements. Dad was there and he told the girls to sit in the cart and Alan to pick up the shafts as if he was going to take us for a ride. I am fairly sure that the other two smaller girls are Gloria and Lynette Marshall, daughters of my cousin Edna who was with us for a short while.
I met Edna again some years ago at a family reunion in Brisbane.
Hilary with Edna Marshall at reunion in 2003
Uncle Ernie had Italian prisoners of war working on his farm. They were very fond of Ernie's little girls as they missed their own families very much. Most of them had been captured in North Africa and sent to Australia and placed in POW camps. From about 1940 Italy was no longer a major participant in the war in Europe so many were released to work on farms. If my memory is correct they had their meals with the family . They used to talk to us and tell us about their families, showing us photos. They were good workers and very friendly men. I learnt a few Italian phrases from them but the only phrase I remember is a swearing phrase taught to me by one of my Italian school friends. Mum came out to the veranda one afternoon to ask what all the giggling was about and we had to do some quick thinking as Lois and I were practising the phrase. It used to come in handy to mutter quielty ( very quietly) when I didn't want to do something.
We didn't see so much of our Auntie Ethel , one of Mum's older sisters, and Uncle Will as they were a bit further away. Uncle Will was in charge of the Forestry at Passchendale. Mum went down to Brisbane once, taking Lois with her and Alan and I went to stay with Auntie Ethel . She was very strict but was kind to us. I remember helping her in the kitchen and enjoying that. I was never confident around Uncle Will...for some reason I was not comfortable in his presence...perhaps he was just different in some way from my father.
When I went into Stanthorpe for Rural school I sometimes had to go to the shops first to buy ingredients for the cooking class or items for sewing. One of the first things we had to sew was a large wrap-around apron similar to a lab coat which we had to wear during the cooking class.. I seem to think the next may have been a pair of bloomers...an exercise in flat seams! I sometimes also had to buy a few things like cotton which Mum needed. When it was time to make a dress, I bought some white cotton voile ; the teacher decided it would be good fabric on which to learn pin tucking so I had to sew pin tucks all over the front of the bodice. Mum was not very impressed with my choice of material...probably wondered when I would ever get to wear it.
I think it was probably for Mothers Day that I bought this gift for her in Stanthorpe.
The Wandering Musician
Mum gave this back to me some years before she died and I now cherish it. I can still see my pencil "To Mum" on the back.
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