More childhood memories

Barbara's
birthday
1921.
Apart from
Nancy and
Barbara I
recognise
Hilda Winstone
front left






Below- Nancy and Barbara playing at sailors. 1920?
The little boy may be Hugh French.















There were several families with young children in Clifton
and Hauraki Roads and along Takapuna Beach
and Nancy remembers lovely birthday parties with fairy
bread and cakes and homemade sweets made by the aunts.
Parties aside, they were quite strictly brought up. We
were often told about how grandpa used to say "piece of
dry bread?" when the children said they were hungry, and
when they refused it- "Well, you can't be really hungry."
Nancy also remembers the day she complained that she
didn't have enough porridge and she was given her father's
large soup plate of cold porridge with salt, no sugar or milk,
and she had to eat every bit.
She also told us how grandpa wouldn't let them cry when
they were hurt- they were expected to be stoical and not cry
from the pain.
Tom's cousin Carpenter, his wife Ruby and their 4 children
lived at 10 Clifton Rd so there were cousins to play with- a bit
younger than Nancy I think. I remember Elaine, one of their
daughters, reminiscing with Aunty Barb about how they used
to pull up young carrots from the garden and use them to skim
the cream off the pans of milk in the dairy.
There were also the French boys, the 3 sons of gran's sister Rose
French, who died when the youngest was a baby. Jack, Hugh and
Graham came to live with the Arthur family for several years until
their father was able to care for them- presumably he remarried.
Another story mum used to tell us was how Graham, the youngest,
used to scoot around the upstairs hall on his potty and scooted
over the edge of the stairs where he hung precariously, wailing
"naughty potty, tip Graham over."
There was also a live-in maid and at some stage a man to help with
the heavy work, who had a room at the back of the woodshed,
and Mrs Joyce who lived with the family and did the sewing. She
may have been later on but it certainly must have been a very full
household.
Ethelwyn went as a boarder to Solway College (Masterton?) when
she reached secondary school as Takapuna Grammar had not yet
been built. However, cousin Kathleen Miles, the daughter of gran's
other sister Kate, came to stay with the family so that she could attend
Auckland Girl's Grammar.