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From: "RichardB" <>
Subject: Wychyproof Memories cont.
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:59:13 +1100


J: Ah ah. Did you have any jobs either at home or for payment to do before
and after school?

E: We had plenty of jobs at home. We didn't get paid for them because you
didn't get paid for things in those days. The jobs were there. You just
did them.

You went and brought the horses in as we lived on a farm. And there was
ploughing or different farm work. We milked the cows. Six cows. Aagh! I
hated milking. We had to do them before we went to school - and separate
the milk. Separating the milk is getting the cream out of it and we had a
machine that you put the milk in a big bowl and you turned the handle and
there was two spouts and the skim milk came out of one and the cream came
out of the other. We used the cream to put on our porridge and eat it as
bread-and-jam-and-cream or made butter. Things like that.

J: Oohh!

E: Of course we gathered the eggs. I suppose I take it for granted what I
did and I don't see that it's very interesting but I know that you've got
two chooks so you know how gathering the eggs goes. But say if you had
chooks that you couldn't count?

Because - you see - chooks lay eggs and they also have chickens and they
might hatch them in the haystack or down behind the shed or in the wool shed
and that all of a sudden a hen will come along and it's got 9 or 10 or
perhaps a dozen - I've known them even to have 15 chickens. So you don't
know how many chooks you had!

And of course they were an easy source of meat. If anybody came unexpected
- well all you had to do was go and catch a chook and chop its head off and
put it in the oven and you had meat for dinner!

J: What was the most exciting event in your school days?

E: Seeing the eclipse of the sun. I couldn't tell you what year it is now.
I don't know. I might have been about 8 but anyhow that is immaterial. And
we looked through coloured bottle - beer bottle. And now they say you
shouldn't look at the sun when there is an eclipse and all this with a
pin-hole and things. Well we looked and I think my eyes have lasted pretty
well haven't they because I still only use glasses for reading?

And that was really the most exciting thing because the whole world seemed
to still.

It went still and the birds were quiet and it was though you were waiting
for something. And it wasn't an eerie sensation. It wasn't frightening
but in a way it was wonderful. You know - mysterious and magic.

And that is one thing that I think that was one outstanding thing I can
remember in my childhood.

Oh - and another thing. Up the country we don't have much rainfall.
That's up the Mallee. And there was big channels along and the State
Rivers - the water supply people was called in those days - they used to
send water down these channels.

And everybody had their dam cleaned out and the little channel that met up
with the big channel and when it came down you opened the - what you call
the sluice gate - and the water ran into your dam. And from farm to farm
people would ring up and say "the water's on the way!" And us kids used to
all dash down to the channel to see the water come and it was a real thrill
because the this water - it was coming quick and it was tumbling and it was
brown and you know that you were going to have water to (throw?) at the
little bit of garden that you could have and to do things in.

We never used the dam water for the house. We only used to water the cattle
and the horses and things like that because we had a big underground tank
that we caught rain water and we had to be very careful of water.

We used to have to wash in a dipper full of water. A tin dish out the back
with a hunk of soap and a towel hanging up and every morning you washed
there. And you had a good hot bath in a tub that you just fitted in, every
week. But it didn't mean that we were grubby or unclean because any creek
or channel or dam or water hole we could find - us kids - we used to swim in
it.

We never learnt to swim. Nobody ever taught us to swim like you people have
to take swimming lessons. We just got in and paddled and then gradually we
learnt to swim and we were swimming. We don't know just how but coming home
from school, all the clothes would be off - girls and boys - in the nude.
We didn't know anything about all this business of porn and sex and that you
should hide your body. We just swam because it was just the shear joy of
swimming.

And those two things in my childhood, they're the most wonderful things I
think - to see the eclipse of the sun and to see the water coming down.
Of course we saw the water coming down every year but it never lost its real
thrill and we were always really quick to see it coming down because when
you're in the country, or when you're short of water, you know - you know -
water is more precious than gold or jewels or pearls or anything. Because
without water we couldn't live very long. We could live only a couple of
days without water. And yet we waste it. We think it's going to last
forever. If you lived up the Mallee, you'd know!

(J refers to his notes) E: You don't have to follow that. You can ask me
things out of your mind!




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