MEMORIES ... 08/28/2021

 

 

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.

It was a real holiday going there and for many years we helped out.   

Hugs and take time to remember where you came from and who added joy to your life.

Christine