Today
a soggy sky greeted me with grey clouds lined in a red hue, Magpies
getting their breakfast off the lawn... a quiet time...
I am reminded of my childhood and today want to relate a happy time growing up.
My
Mum was one of many children, as a child I knew of her twin sisters who
lived in the same town but not so much of the others. One day she
received a phone call ( we had a party line phone and you had to pick up
the receiver and ask a lady for your number and if someone came on the
line whilst you were talking you would say "working"..)
In
the Christmas holidays we piled into the Ford Escort and headed North
... not to Alaska... but off to Northland, it took all day to get to
Whangarei (fongaray) and we went to see another Sister and her husband a
lovely couple who I had a lot to do with later in my life. they had no
car and walked every where. Many years later, Hubby and I moved to
their town for work and with our young baby, I told her I had a mouse
in the house and she walked all the way to me to help ... lovely.
Oops I digress, we stopped there for a drink and a pitstop and a chatter of years gone by.
Then
another hour and a half to Kaitaia ( ki tie a), then on to the little
area where the Aunty and Uncle lived. they were caretakers of a holiday
home for the Catholic Church brothers who were teachers in the larger
city of Auckland.
When
we arrived, it was getting dark and the lovely old house looked
amazing ... two large eyes (windows) and a beautiful moustache (
verandah) and two giant Norfolk Pine trees in front, we parked on the
lawn .. it was soft and squishy, thick and lush beach grass on top of
sand.
We
were going to sleep in a tent for a week ... I met two new cousins and
we got out the ABBA record and it played most of the time with my cousin
and I dancing to it 🙂.
We
went to get supplies before the Brothers arrived and cleaned up the
house. They were very austere men and not wanting to talk to children
on their break. But I wore them down. 🙂
Mum
and Aunty did a cooked breakfast and the washing, then we were free to
walk the Ninety mile beach just across the road and watch the waves and
seagulls, pick up shells and run and run ...
One
day we stopped at a neighbor way up the beach and in his house he had
almost a museum of flotsam and jetsam picked up over the years off the
beach. Everything was labelled and in cabinets he had built.
We
also met a cousin who had a farm and was also a milkman, he drove a
tractor around the area with the milk bottles in crates. People put
their little crate out with the empty glass bottles in and money and he
would take the bottles and replace them with milk bottles ( one pint)
with foil caps on top.
He
would bring the money to Aunties place at night and she had a 'thingy'
that you could put in handfuls of money and it sorted it into
denominations that were bagged and taken to the bank.
Over
the years times changed and people stole the money so tokens were
brought out and then they stole the tokens. The lovely sound of the
clattering of glass being put in mail boxes along our roads, died out.
Now its a cardboard box from the shop.
One
day we were taken to town and a bus pulled up, my Aunty had organised a
trip the Cape Reinga on a tour bus. My cousin and I went alone. The bus
driver talked all the way describing the area and what we would see.
Two oceans met at the top of the Island and we could see the waves
crashing into each other along the line. I was amazed.
There was also a letter box you could purchase a card and post it from the top of New Zealand.
On the way back we stopped at a huge sand dune and some people sat on sacks and shot down the dunes. Yuck too sandy for me 🙂, we were taken back to town and went home worn out with excitement.
On
another day we went up behind the lovely old house to the Gum fields,
when NZ was colonised, a lot of the men worked in the gum fields digging
up gum .
There were still little huts and cooking pots though you did need to be careful not to fall into a hole.
Hugs and take time to remember where you came from and who added joy to your life.
Christine
