From the shop at Paeroa, we moved to Hikutaia.
Hikutaia... Hikutaia was about half way between Paeroa and Thames on the main road, it was just a pub on one Corner and a country shop on the other, we lived up the road between them, just renting a farm house, off a bee keeper that lived up there.
My father started working as a porter or night security at the Thames hospital while we lived there. Something pretty bad looking back happened there, I'm lucky.. well I'll tell you the story, and you decide.
This was one of the first places we were allowed to watch TV, and I had gotten to love the TV show, The Family, An American Show, about a happy family, where the hugged each other, and no-one got beaten, and the young sister actually liked her older brother.
It was just about to start one Sunday night, and my father come in and wanted to watch Country Calendar, I had a yelling fit about it, but he won, so I didn't get to see it that night.... I was furious, he went off to work at 10 pm, and I decided i was going to kill him. A slight over reaction...
I slept in the lounge, which looked out over the the driveway where he would walk when he came home from work, just after 6 am. I went on got the .22 rifle, loaded it, and aimed it out the window, practicing aiming where he would walk. All night I fumed and hated, and thought about things he had done over the years to annoy me, and I was still awake when he got home, I aimed the gun, got him in my sights, and pulled the trigger... and for fuck sakes the the safety catch was on.
Thinking back, its a wonder I didn't explode with rage. But the moment I had planned had passed, he was out of sight around the back of the house, so I pulled the gun inside, laid it down between the bed and the wall, and eventually went to sleep... next morning I got up and went to work, or school... next afternoon, I got home first and put the gun away. As far as I know, no-one ever knew about that....
A month or so later, mother and Dad had a huge fight, and Dad left home for the last time. I had started work by then, and don't remember seeing much of him for years. Next time I think, was when my beloved younger brother was about to go to prison, for a long lag, I'll remember when I get that far with the story.
My first job, was working in a shoe factory in Paeroa, only two things I remember about that job, was my weeks wages were $42.80, and about the second week I was there, Elvis Presley died... the boss loved him, and was crying for days.
I worked there for 3 or 4 months, then found a job working on a Pig Farm, up near Helensville, Mother drove me up there for the interview and I stayed. I was only there for a week, which I loved, then the boss said I either started having sex with him, or I was fired. The last thing I wanted to do was go home, so I went back to the house, they went out that night, so I got drunk and went into their medicine cabinet, got out all the pills that sounded like they were not for stomach upsets, or boring stuff, and swallowed all I thought sounded serious one.... they must have been serious ones, because I darn near did it that first time, and the doctor reckons I must have had previous experience... not likely, I just used my brain, something that was for constipation or upset stomach weren't going to be much help were they... Mother arrived the next day, and took me back to her house.... I found another job a couple of weeks later, on a dairy farm in Reparoa, down between Taupo and Rotorua, a 30 a side herringbone shed, and about 350 cows.... I was there 2 weeks before the new boss put the same hard word on Me as the pig farmer, I wasn't going to leave again, and another overdose was out of the question, so I just let it happen. I worked there for 3 or so months, was very good friends with the wife, and the oldest daughter, and a shag on the side, at least daily, to the boss. Buy the time I left there, mother had moved again to Netherton, the other side of Paeroa.
Netherton, I don't remember much from there, mother was house keeping for the houseowner, he was a home kill butcher, he was a dirty old man as well, but he didn't touch me.
I got drunk for the first time there, totaled me wee self I did.
I learned to pack meet there, and how to make corned beef and bacon, that's all I remember.
Hamilton/ Fairfield was the next place Mother moved, and I went with her. She moved quite close to my grand parants, her parents, and used to spend a lot of time helping them out, Pop was blind by then, and she used to do housework for them, and cook a lunch for them on days when meal on wheels didn't deliver.
Owen was still around, and going to school then, he was always popular, so I started to get to know his friends, a girl he was having sex with was Judy, and we became friends, that friendship lasted about 35 years in all... we'd lose contact as our lives went separate ways, but I would always find her again, and we'd pick up were we left off. I can't say much about what she and I got upto, without incriminating her, we were pretty wild without our parents knowing about it.
I went to stay with the Reparoa boss for a school holidays, they moved up to South Auckland by them, he was back with his wife, but had sex with me once, which ended up in a pregnancy. I still wasn't 16 yet,
We moved house again, while I was away, to another part of Hamilton, Five Cross Roads in Claudlands.
Hamilton/Claudlands I went to stay with family friend on a dairy farm just out of town, while there i was drenching the cows for bloat, and one of the cows with a short stubby horn, swung her head around, and the horn, caught me under the eye, giving me a very impressive black eye. I went to the doctor wondering if I was pregnant, I was, the doctor asked me about the black eye, and he didn't believe me, which was good in a way, because when I asked for an abortion, he got right on it, and had be in hospital within a few days, writing on the form I was in an abusive relationship.
I had the abortion, without saying anything to mother, but was away from home for a couple of days in Hospital, and the social worker, talked me into telling mother when I went home. I'm pretty sure that was the last time she beat me, I didn't cry, just stood there while she laid into me. Then asked her if she was finished, and went into my room and cried in there alone.
My eldest brother got into drugs by now, he was living in Tauranga, and he took the .22 rifle, and held up the bottle store at the Te Puna pub, he got a sentence of about 3 years... secretly, I was a happy camper about that... couldn't have happened to a more deserving asshole...
Otorohanga. I just remembered I did see dad again, he got a job at the piggery, by were we first lived in the Waikato, Owen had left school by then, and we went over there to work, and so did I.... hell, pigs show up in my life alot, it must have been something about drinking off that sow, back when I was 3.
Dad was working with the wearers and baconers, my brother Owen used to make the food for the they had over 500 sows by then, so there weren't many nights one wasn't giving birth. Sleeping with a sow like in the photo was pretty common they like some company when they are giving birth,
whole piggery, it was the biggest piggery in the Southern hemisphere by then, and was very impressive. I still liked the farrowing unit the best, and started doing the odd night shift when I sow was due to farrow,
Often 5 or 6 were popping out pork sausages as I used to call them.
Sometimes i would help Owen with the food, milk tanker loads of whey were delivered each day, thinking about it now,
Owen had a pretty responsible job for a 15 or 16 year old. If he fouled up, he could have killed all the pigs, or made them all very sick at the least.
Anyway, like I said, the whey would come in, he would add sackfuls of nutrients into this massive vat, with the whey, sackfuls of crushed grains, then whatever else was around, I remember once we had a truck and tailor full of 20kg blocks of cheese. I forget what was wrong with then a few had broken bags and had gone moldy, buy I know everyone in the piggery took home a big block to eat.
Owen and I would have big machetes, and cut the plastic wrap off the blocks, cut them into 4 or so pieces, and throw them into this great big old cheese grater. it would do a big wheelbarrow full at a time. We'd tip the grated cheese in with the whey and turn the stirrer on.
Another time there were pellets and pellets of cans of evaporated milk, Owen devised a way of poking holes they the tins, while hold the pellet over the vat, so the milk spilled into the vat.
Owen would make the food, and leave it stirring, then the food would be sucked up into a high pressure hose line, they people in different parts of the piggery would feed their pigs.
Hamilton, back to Hamilton, and I started working at horticultural research station, on the Ohaupo, it was a neat job, we got picked up in the morning, and taken to work in a van, which was right over the other side of Hamilton. The trips to and from work, were as entertaining as work at times. I worked in the blueberry testing area, that was were American blueberry cuttings were brought into the cuttings and grown, then those mother plants propagated, and other hard and soft wood cuttings taken, and grown.
The Second generation of plants grown, was planted out on research stations with different soil types, South of Auckland, throughout the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, basically between Taupo and South Auckland. The different cultivars were grown, and crops closely monitored over about 5 years I knew of, just to find the best growing soil for each species. That's where I came on the scene, the studies had almost finished, and now they were propagating cuttings for the first sales to farmers, in that same area as the plants grew.
So I started caring for the hardwood cuttings, and taking and growing the softwood cuttings, by the THOUSANDS.... then as they rooted, potting them up into larger bags.... So I'm the Nanny of the original blueberries sold in New Zealand.
Some people don't like boring jobs, the same thing day after day, but I truly think that's their problem, a job is what you make it, I found it interesting to see how they grew, and even if i was just potting, seeing how quick I could pot them up, there was a clock right in front of me, so I could time myself in seconds once I got that fast, how long to remove plants from original pot, and get them into the next side pot, then when I got to quick at that, how fast I could do a tray of them, then how quick I could use 1 whole mix of potting mix. How many plants at one size could be done with that one load of potting me.
Then because I was going so fast, I got ahead of the workload, so the old woman who was our boss, got me to help cultivate the different Bamboo she had there, and cross pollinate camellias, rhododendrons, azaleas she had growing there. Very interesting work. I worked there for about 9 months, maybe a year. I can't remember why I left, I think mother might have thrown me out of home.
Himatangi Near Hamilton: So I started getting jobs where I could live in, dairy farms, and housekeeping and childminding for farmers wives generally. One of the first jobs was a woman with two single births toddlers, and twins about 11 months old. I was supposed to help her with the twins at feeding time, and other than that look after the rest of the house, and cook for the husband, grandfarther and farm labourers.
The twins girls were very cute, but seemed to me to be stunted in their development. They should have been sitting, standing and crawling, almost walking by then, and should be well on there way would verbalizing, and getting close to saying first words. After a few weeks, I could see what the problem was, they weren't being socialized enough, they would come out of their cots, get bathed and fed, and put back in their cots, until the next feed. They kept each other company, never spent any time on the floor, or their brothers never were allowed to play.
They defiantly had their own twin language, but there mother never spoke to them, just made goo goo noises.
The mother also feed the girls the exact same thing for each meal everyday, for the months I was there.
Farex and Watties Tinned Apples Breakfast, Baby Rice and Watties Tinned Apricots tinned food for Lunch, And cooked mashed Potatoe, Carrot and Silverbeet for dinner. Every day for months.
I looked in their Plunket book once, and saw that was the exact menu the plunket nurse had suggested back when they first started solid foods. They were about 16 months old now, so had had the same food every day for about 8 months, they were picky eaters by then, and not growing much.
I suggested to the mother I make them different vegetables for dinner, Maybe kumara one time instead of potatoes, or add a little bit of meat juice or gravy to the mashed foods, maybe some pumpkin instead of carrot.
She would have none of that, she didn't want them to get allergies she said.
She would have none of that, she didn't want them to get allergies she said.
The twins and other two were left with me one day when they parents went to the airport to pick up visitors, I feed them lunch and dinner.... I shouldn't have done it I guess, but I feed the twins, scrambled eggs for lunch, and different vegetables for dinner, along with some nice gravy I had made for the adults dinner...I also let them feed themselves, they couldn't use a spoon, so I let them use their hands, those poor girls, darn near chewed the their hands off, they were so hungry for different food.
The mother never found out, and after that she left me with the kids a lot more often, and I would give them different things to taste, I didn't know about food allergies in those days, but they never had any reactions to anything.
I have often wondered how those girls grew up after I left, they would be mid 30's now.
Putaruru: Another job I had housekeeping, was for a solo Dad in Putaruru, he had an son about 8 or so. When I visited the house for an interview, was the first time I had experienced Deja Vu. I didn't feel anything driving upto the house, but there had been a recent addition to half of the front of the house.
But when we went into the front door, and looked down the long hallways, I felt very strongly, I knew that house as a little girl, as the grandmother showed me each room, I knew the shape of the room, where windows and wardrobes would be before she opened each door. It was spooky in one way, but nice in another way. When we got to the back of the house, looking at the back garden through the kitchen window, again, I knew the old tree's out there, they were much bigger, but a couple of the old oak trees were very old, and even had the marks on the bark of branches, showing the damage done from old swings, exactly were the swings I remembered where. UNtil I saw those tree's I had convinced myself, the house was just built to the same plan, but down Southern Hawkes Bay somewhere....
I enjoyed that job very much. It was a big old house, but I found it easy to keep clean and tidy. The Father and Son and the male boarder, had lived alone for quite a long time, so having someone to cook good old fashioned healthy meals was a real treat, and they were always complimenting my cooking skills.
I was there several months, and joined the local theater group, and worked in the wardrobe part, changing costumes, adding accessories, and and tailoring them to fit, whoever was wearing them. They were a great bunch of people, always laughing and having a good time, and of course being overly dramatic in any conversation they had.
They were working on a production, I think it was called vaudeville, mainly singing and dancing, two songs I still remember where, "I've go a lovely bunch of coconuts" and I'll have to go to google, and see if can guess the word I want in the other title. Wait right here. I'll be back soon hopefully, maybe you could go grab a drink, or have a toilet break while you are wait....
Oh that was quick only just over a minute, I guess if you took a break, I have to wait for you to bet back now.... do do do da de da da.... ;)
Ok, google got it in the first try, I searched for... Old vaudville Song title, "the biggest aspadestra in the world" and straight away it worked it out....
Old vaudeville Song title, the biggest aspidistra in the world"
Google is such a helpful program or page for people that don't spell too well, I just love it...
Anyway, those where the two songs I still remember, I used to know all the words back then. Once the costumes were all altered and looking perfect, my job with the company changed to dresser, and helping with costume changes.... As I said, it was so much fun being around those people, they would drink loads of wine, before, during and after each rehearsal, and of course when the show was actually being played in front of an audience most of them were... pretty bloody tipsy, to put it nicely by half time.
I was about 17 or 18 by then, and got my first education of drinking nightly while the show was playing....
Funny I hadn't thought of that house, job or that group in years, before I just wrote about it. Good times. In later years when I first had my two children, I often planned to get into the theater again, when my children were older, but it wasn't to be.
A family friend at that job, was a lovely guy with Downs Syndrome, I had never spent any time with someone with that condition before, and had always been a bit scared of them. Actually thinking back, I'm not sure he did have that, I don't remember the facial features of someone with Downs, whatever it didn't matter what he had, in those days he was just called retarded.
Anyway, he was the loveliest guy, like a big child. He would happily help me with anything he could, and had a keen childlike sense of humour, he'd follow me around, and talk to me for hours and hours, he was a lot of fun.
The solo Dad I was working with, had his girlfriend move in, she was lovely too, but I sensed it was time to move on.
I'm a little hazy about where I went to after there, back to Hamilton I think, probably back with mother, until I found a new job. Oh yes, that's right, yes I did go back to Hamilton, I got a job commercial cleaning, first at a squash and sports club, and then a second job cleaning a boys school, up near the Waikato University, St, something or other I believe.
My eldest brother came home on pre-release weekend leave from prison, something not good happened on that weekend home, and knowing he would be home for good again, in a couple of months, and it would all start again, I worked hard at those two jobs, and saved enough money to go to Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia. A week before he was due to come home, I flew out to Aussie.
But when we went into the front door, and looked down the long hallways, I felt very strongly, I knew that house as a little girl, as the grandmother showed me each room, I knew the shape of the room, where windows and wardrobes would be before she opened each door. It was spooky in one way, but nice in another way. When we got to the back of the house, looking at the back garden through the kitchen window, again, I knew the old tree's out there, they were much bigger, but a couple of the old oak trees were very old, and even had the marks on the bark of branches, showing the damage done from old swings, exactly were the swings I remembered where. UNtil I saw those tree's I had convinced myself, the house was just built to the same plan, but down Southern Hawkes Bay somewhere....
I enjoyed that job very much. It was a big old house, but I found it easy to keep clean and tidy. The Father and Son and the male boarder, had lived alone for quite a long time, so having someone to cook good old fashioned healthy meals was a real treat, and they were always complimenting my cooking skills.
I was there several months, and joined the local theater group, and worked in the wardrobe part, changing costumes, adding accessories, and and tailoring them to fit, whoever was wearing them. They were a great bunch of people, always laughing and having a good time, and of course being overly dramatic in any conversation they had.
They were working on a production, I think it was called vaudeville, mainly singing and dancing, two songs I still remember where, "I've go a lovely bunch of coconuts" and I'll have to go to google, and see if can guess the word I want in the other title. Wait right here. I'll be back soon hopefully, maybe you could go grab a drink, or have a toilet break while you are wait....
Oh that was quick only just over a minute, I guess if you took a break, I have to wait for you to bet back now.... do do do da de da da.... ;)
Ok, google got it in the first try, I searched for... Old vaudville Song title, "the biggest aspadestra in the world" and straight away it worked it out....
Old vaudeville Song title, the biggest aspidistra in the world"
Google is such a helpful program or page for people that don't spell too well, I just love it...
Anyway, those where the two songs I still remember, I used to know all the words back then. Once the costumes were all altered and looking perfect, my job with the company changed to dresser, and helping with costume changes.... As I said, it was so much fun being around those people, they would drink loads of wine, before, during and after each rehearsal, and of course when the show was actually being played in front of an audience most of them were... pretty bloody tipsy, to put it nicely by half time.
I was about 17 or 18 by then, and got my first education of drinking nightly while the show was playing....
Funny I hadn't thought of that house, job or that group in years, before I just wrote about it. Good times. In later years when I first had my two children, I often planned to get into the theater again, when my children were older, but it wasn't to be.
A family friend at that job, was a lovely guy with Downs Syndrome, I had never spent any time with someone with that condition before, and had always been a bit scared of them. Actually thinking back, I'm not sure he did have that, I don't remember the facial features of someone with Downs, whatever it didn't matter what he had, in those days he was just called retarded.
Anyway, he was the loveliest guy, like a big child. He would happily help me with anything he could, and had a keen childlike sense of humour, he'd follow me around, and talk to me for hours and hours, he was a lot of fun.
The solo Dad I was working with, had his girlfriend move in, she was lovely too, but I sensed it was time to move on.
I'm a little hazy about where I went to after there, back to Hamilton I think, probably back with mother, until I found a new job. Oh yes, that's right, yes I did go back to Hamilton, I got a job commercial cleaning, first at a squash and sports club, and then a second job cleaning a boys school, up near the Waikato University, St, something or other I believe.
My eldest brother came home on pre-release weekend leave from prison, something not good happened on that weekend home, and knowing he would be home for good again, in a couple of months, and it would all start again, I worked hard at those two jobs, and saved enough money to go to Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia. A week before he was due to come home, I flew out to Aussie.
Part 1
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