Living History

Frank's story - 1940s events for kids

Christmas was a great time as a kid in those days. Christmas morning was not always that great for us. Money was scarce and Dad some times did not get home from shearing until late Christmas eve. If Dad was not home before we went to bed Mum would sing us a song call “The little boy that Santa Clause forgot”. Just in case Dad did not make it home. Still we managed to get a sock filled with some lollies and a comic book. My grandmother ran a boarding house and all the families gathered there for Christmas dinner. There would be up to 30 people. I don’t know how they managed it but we all sat down to the traditional roast turkey, ham and lamb plus the plum pudding with threepences inside we would stuff ourselves trying to get a piece with a threepence in it.

Another highlight as a kid was when the Circus came to town. My grandmother’s house was near the center of the main street and at the rear there was a large area of vacant land. The circus would set up camp there. My grandmother knew the Ashton family of Ashton’s Circus and they would always visit when they were in town. All of the boys would turn up hoping to get a job putting up the tent. But us smaller ones never succeeded the teenagers would get free tickets for their efforts. After the circus had moved on we would put on our own backyard events.

The annual agricultural show was another day that was full of activities for the kids. Those with horses would be busy with a range of events, for the rest of us there would be competitions for billy carts, decorated bikes, painting and writing, cooking and sewing for the girls. One year I remember my cousin Jill and her friend Roma were taking their scones up to the showground when Jill had an accident on her bike and the scones fell out of the basket and were ruined. This happened right outside our house and they come in crying to Mum.

Mum asked how much time did they have left to get their scones up to the hall. About two hours was the reply. After patching up the wounds, Mercurochrome and Band-Aids usually did the trick. Mum proceeded to whip up a batch of scones. She packed up six scones each for the two girls and said just pretend that you made them. Well as luck would have it Jill won first prize and Roma missed out. Now Roma knowing that they were from the same batch of scones asked the lady judge what was wrong with her scones and the Judge replied “oh yours had too much cream of tarter in them”. When she told Mum, Mum laughed and said silly old fool I have never used cream of tarter in my life. Poor Roma could not say anything otherwise Jill would have been disqualified.

The other annual event was the Race meeting a great excuse for the ladies to dress up for the day and we kids just ran around all day as there was nothing organized for us. However in 1952 when I was eleven a Tiger Moth Bi Plane landed at the racecourse. And after the last race had been run, began offering Joy flights at a cost of 10 shillings. This was the first time I had seen an airplane apart from at the pictures. And I was desperate to have a go. I ran home and begged Mum for the money, promising to do anything to earn it and pay her back. She gave me the money and I raced back and joined the queue. When my turn came up the pilot said I was too small and some one would have to sit with me on their lap. Another bigger boy in the queue said he could do it and the pilot said ok. Well those fifteen minutes of flying over Delegate would have to be the high light of my entire childhood. As a reader of Biggles books here I was actually flying through the air it was just magnificent. In my adult life I have flown in Jumbos, Helicopters and Balloons. But nothing has equaled the feeling I got that day.

Frank

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