Workshops

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

families




This is a photo of my Nana and me - found while I was hunting for my Shirley Temple ringlets and hand knitted dress photo. People keep asking me to post a decent picture of myself but I am not worth it - not much better when I was younger but at least I didn't mind posing. My grandparents lived in Masterton which is in the Wairarapa - east coast north of Wellington and I used to love going to stay in the school holidays. My grandfather built the house for his parents and they went to live there when the parents died. You forget how little people had (and did it matter?) and how primitive things were - we are all so spoilt these days. The house is still there in Rennall Street and apart from a coat of paint and no trees, looks very similar but so much smaller than my mind remembers. I do remember the potty chamber under the bed for night time as the toilet was way out the back and far too cold for little Dale who was probably too lazy to empty it in the morning.....I must have made friends there as we used to roam everywhere, go skating and to the pictures. My grandmother to played the piano until her arthritis got too bad (a fear I have) and knit - she knitted a lot of baby clothes for various customers. I think I got the knitting and music from her through my mother. She also used to babysit out on a farm north of town and I loved going there as well. It's amazing what you remember. My sister is much more clued up than I am. She died when I was at university and I really wanted her treddle sewing machine but my uncle in his wisdom took it to the dump. When she was young, my mother was sent off to work and told to send her wages home so that her brother could have things like tennis rackets and bikes and go to university. No wonder my mother insisted that my sisterand I have a decent education. She should have had the same opportunity herself.

Enough of that. Some fabulous goodies from Sarah Lawrence arrived today along with mountains of parcels. Sarah has created some fabulous stamps and I want to play with them now but I have to finish my downunder postcards and they are not right. This design is called Spiral jewelled backgound.

2 comments:

Zaz said...

aw Dale! super photo and wonderful memories ..........life just seemed so much simpler then!

but they also didnt have the WWW!! could we manage without it now?

Sara

Digitalgran said...

I agree with you Helen. I go down memory lane more often these days! I laughed when I read about the potty under the bed. Would you believe that is one thing I kept after my mother died, her mother's potty. Thought it would make a good plant pot:>) I'll take a photo of it soon. This also reminds me of working as a chambermaid in a hotel(school hols) when I had to empty them into a bucket with a lid. Ugh!!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...