A letter in September tells of dinner with Perida and Piraya Iz and Mustafa and Ruki at Bebek. A few days later we went to the Covered Bazaar or Kapali Carsi with Perida looking for a worktable for Graham and some floor coverings. We bought a gaudy striped mat 14 feet by 10 feet for 150 lira (about fifteen dollars at that time). Good Turkish carpets are valued highly, approaching the values of Persian carpets, costing in excess of $150 (again, at that time). In Australia of course at that time the price would be double that. We saw old flintlock pistols in the antique section priced at about $100. Silver filigree work on bracelets attracted Ainsley and Robyn but even though there were hundreds on sale, the patterns did not vary much. High brass vases were there in plenty as were brass samovars and pots. China plates appealed to Marcia. The atmosphere in the bazaar was fascinating to us. Crowds of people, mostly Turks, wended their way slowly along main aisles past numerous side alleys. At each junction the pedestrian traffic leaving and joining contributed to slowing the pace in the main aisles. The shops or stalls varied in size but most were arranged to display all the wares on sale from small jewellery through pots and vases to carpets and furniture. Items in their hundreds were hanging from curtains or pegs on the walls. Our eyes could scarcely keep up with the shifting vistas constantly appearing with our progress through the bazaar. The sound of thousands of voices unhindered in volume by such niceties as thoughtfulness for others added to the turmoil. Smells of the multitude plus spices, tobacco smoke, garlic, coffee and tea wafted into tired nostrils. Fatigue overcame us and we went home to the glorious horizontality of our beds.
Although a trip to the island of Buyukada in the sea of Marmara had been planned for the next day, this was postponed so we took a ferry up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. Our boat zigzagged across the water to landings on either side many times enabling close up views of habitation on both banks. Wooden houses, with their unpainted surfaces grey with exposure over time, were built right on the bank at the water’s edge. Sometimes part of the house could be seen hanging right out over the water. The trip from Bebek to the entrance to the Black Sea lasted 3 hours. On the way the passengers on the ferry moved around and a familiar accent came into our ears. Sure enough we met two people from Sydney and an older couple from Victoria’s Western District. Graham approached a German gentleman who turned out to be a physician from Frankfurt who was about to spend 40 days in a monastery in Southern Turkey. He was very pleased to speak with Graham.
Unfortunately many letters home mentioned sickness. There was no doubt that in the first three months, despite care in our habits and eating, we succumbed to much more sickness than we were used to in Victoria. There was, too, pressure on the children from the newness of the school system and the paucity of companions. Despite these shortcomings and the lack of a car and hence restrictions on our outings, I prophesied in one letter that having this experience to look back on later would compensate, especially when the memory of the troubled times had faded and the benefits could be recalled. Another compensating factor not to be ignored would be the improvement in our finances.
We had dinner with the landlord of the flat in Bebek. They are wealthy and their apartment shows it. Marcia says that on a smaller scale it reminded her of the porcelain and furniture displays at the Topkapi museum, the Palace of the rulers of Turkey throughout the years. M. loved the carpets, both Turkish and Persian. They had texture like velvet and such lovely colours and patterns. Despite their wealth the couple were quite homely and pleasant under their sophisticated appearance and pattern of living.
The famous trip to the beach at Floria with the Buckleys is mentioned in a letter from Graham. He starts by describing that one day later he is suffering from sunburn from head to toe. Grah. recalls “having a good time except for the kids who are real little B’s”. Susan was the child who, when asking impolitely for sweets and being questioned as to what were the “magic words”, uttered that now famous “I WANT”.
The brother of one of the Turkish vets was being married at Kadikoy over the Bosphorus from Galata, in a “wedding house”. I do not know whether they ever have religious weddings at mosques or whether they are all like this one. Arriving at noon we were in time to see the bride arrive, with the groom. She was arrayed in the finery typical of Western weddings. We assembled in a room forming three sides of a square. The fourth was made by a table at which the fathers sat, with the bride and groom and the “parson” or celebrant. He seemed to wear as a uniform something like a mackintosh. He read out a few speeches and soon after he had begun, he stopped and it was all over. It took about 8 minutes. No music was played and there was no great joy on the beholder’s faces. As we filed out we shook hands with a row of people including the pair, and someone presented us with a small pottery dish of sweets. That was it.
Because the occasion had taken little time, we decided to explore the spice market near the Galata bridge over the Golden Horn. We lunched at a restaurant quite well for the equivalent of one dollar. We walked through the spice market where there were some interesting shops. Marcia got herself a pretty plate and a spoon while Grah bought crossed swords and a long pipe. Ainsley and Robyn bought dolls with exquisite dresses. Next morning we were awakened by much tooting and about 25 big buses rolled by full of suited men. Large black and red banners were draped on the vehicles. We did not find out what all the activity was about.
In December I went on a field trip to the west of Turkey in the part called Thrace that borders with Bulgaria. We went to a town called Vize and to a village near it. It was raining heavily most of the way, and the scenery was marred, if not quite obscured. Rolling plains and low hills predominated, with much of the land consisting of rather tiny 1-acre blocks under cultivation. There were some interesting hillocks at intervals, which turned out to be burial grounds of an earlier time. At the village we were ushered into the local hall where all the menfolk had gathered, as is their custom. All had their cloth caps on inside and were dressed in suits or sports clothes of some mileage.
Perhaps the villagers had been told that some foreigners were visiting, and this was the reason for such a good turn out, but we will never know. We were shown through a typical village house. The construction was of mud bricks faced on the outside with a clay and straw plaster. Inside we saw the bedrooms, rather small, with two shortish beds. On the floor were straw mats partly overlaid by cheap but colourful woollen carpets in several layers. Around three sides of a square were small covered cushions for sitting and the walls were draped with various embroideries for decoration. A child was sleeping in a wooden cradle suspended from the ceiling.
Dr Henry Chu called in on his way to Beirut. We dined together and chatted. During the night we awoke a couple of times and found that it was snowing. It was a great experience to see the snow gently falling through the beams of the streetlights. Silence prevailed and there was a presence that we were unused to. Next morning I went to the hotel to pick him up and snow was falling again. The children were able to witness from the relative comfort of the heated apartment, a lovely fall of snow that settled on the grass and trees. The children attended a carol singing at the Headmistress’s flat and they found this very pleasant, no doubt enhanced by the presence of snow. This would have been a great experience for the children, because there would have been no other reminder of Christmas in this Moslem country. I spent the morning with Chu at Dr. Nietzsche’s and then we lunched here and chatted all afternoon. During this time snow was falling constantly. It was a very pretty sight and we took some photos of the children and of the snowman that they built.
Around mid-December Ainsley’s letter to her grandmother wrote of the approach of Christmas. Robyn and she made some decorations and hung these with the few cards that had arrived. The large room was hard to decorate with the little at hand. At the school, which was associated with Robert College, it was arranged that everyone would give and receive a present. Each pupil drew a name from a hat, and bought a present for that person to a value that was limited.
Ainsley passed her music exam with 100%, matching the result of Joanne Wood expressed in my mother’s letter. A. also had exam results of 7A’s and 2 B’s.
By mid-January more snow had fallen. Robyn had made a snowman, and Graham had sculpted from soft snow a statue of Robyn, beanie and all. These looked lovely, indeed as Ainsley remarked in her letter. There was real talent there, and we took photos of them for posterity. Ainsley slipped over in the snow and damaged her kneecap. Occasionally holidays came along. After the end of Ramazan (Ramadan) there was the Sekur Bayram for two days, during which much slaughtering of sheep and feasting took place.
We visited the famous Aya Sophia (many different spellings). It was built in 500 AD as a Christian church. When the Turks took power in 1400 AD it was converted to a mosque. Now it is part mosque and part museum. The huge dome is an architectural masterpiece, particularly considering the date of construction. Beautiful mosaics dating back to the Christian era have been uncovered on the walls. Ainsley described a marble stone with a hole into which one should put one’s finger to bring good luck. (Perhaps it means you are lucky of it doesn’t get stuck). Nearby is the Museum of Antiquities. There one can see hundreds of relics unearthed in Turkey and elsewhere. The pottery and metalwork of several thousand years ago used not to intrigue me when I saw them pictured in encyclopaedias. Now, however, being fired by the history surrounding us and seeing these artefacts at first hand I have found them fascinating. The rooms with the marble statuary were so cold that we did not spend much time there. In fact they make one try to think about the nature of “cold”. It is hard to think of it as an absence of heat. When you touch one of these statues it makes your hand physically cold and this seems like a positive rather than a negative characteristic. Outside the building water had flowed out of a short pipe draining the roof, and frozen for a distance of several feet down from the opening. It was an amazing sight and suggested that time had stood still.
On the 12th February I flew to Athens, arriving about lunchtime with a wait of about 6 hours before my onward journey. I lunched at a restaurant in the middle of the city and took a taxi to the Acropolis, the hill on which the Parthenon stands. I walked around the top of the hill and in and out of the Parthenon itself. It has such wonderful lines. The gracefulness of the proportion of width to height, I believe, is due to the use of the “Golden Mean”. Time and conquerors have ravaged the building destroying some of its structures and gloss.
The same day I flew Swiss Air to Cairo and Khartoum. The temperature of 85 degrees Fahrenheit was in contrast to the cold of Turkey and Athens. I stayed at the Grand Hotel, a sprawling two storey building reminiscent of colonial days, set on the banks of the Blue Nile. For the next four days I attended the meetings at the conference and the social events that were held each night. I saw the Blue Nile and its junction with the White Nile, Kitchener’s gunboat, the former residence of the Governor and the fort at Omdurman. The latter seems to be the beginning of Sudanese History. There was no talk of the days of the Turks during the Ottoman Empire, only of Kitchener and the times since. Independent since 1962 they seem to be valiantly and intelligently trying to build up but the country is very poor. Income depends on cotton and cattle, with not much of that. the people are hospitable, and most of the senior veterinarians had been overseas for long periods. There is a large University in Khartoum with 5000 students. Interestingly the Uni buildings and those of the Government seem to be the only ones of note in the city. Both Gregory and Hudson attended the conference. My return flight was via Cairo and Beirut, to Istanbul. When Turkey came into sight, the land as far as the eye could see was covered in a white blanket of snow.
We planned to visit Beirut at Easter when the Turks have Kurban Bayram. This is a good opportunity to let the family see more of the Middle East. There is a slight complication with the airfares to Beirut—there is a 100% tax applicable. We overcame this problem and set off to Yesilkoy airport. There we were approached by the Tax agent with the advice that there was some error in the bookings. This by now was not an unexpected happening. Yes, he said, it looks as if you will have to travel first class! Well, of course we objected and only accepted reluctantly! We set off in a Scandinavian Caravelle that was almost noiseless. We had a marvellous dinner with champagne, and enjoyed the flight. Dr Chu and a friend from Cambridge (possibly Audrey Newnham) met us and settled us into Aoun House Hotel. The next morning we had to get some nose drops to clear Ainsley’s eustachian tubes that were painful from pressure differences. We explored some of the city that is devoted to commerce and retail merchandising and we enjoyed a morning of window- shopping. The stores and small shops were sophisticated compared with those in Istanbul. We were amazed at the range and quality of the goods on sale. It was like fairyland. Moreover the prices compared favourably with those in Australia and were often cheaper than some in Turkey.
In the afternoon Dr.Chu called for us and we drove up to the nearby hills where with the sun shining, we had absolutely glorious views of sea on one side and snow-capped mountains on the other. We lunched at a Chinese restaurant. In the afternoon Dr.Chu called for us and we drove up to the nearby hills where with the sun shining, we had absolutely glorious views of sea on one side and snow-capped mountains on the other. In the evening we visited Audrey Newnham and husband who now live in Beirut as he works here at the American University.
The next day Chu took us to Baalbek where excellent Roman ruins still stand. If anything, the run up to Baalbek is as impressive as the ruins themselves. The route passes over a snow-clad mountain range and a long run up a beautiful valley. I wonder now whether at the time this was the place where I was told that it was the biblical “land of milk and honey”. Perhaps that was in Iran. We were fortunate enough to be taken out yet again on the next day. This time we went to Saida (Sidon). The weather was not prepossessing, but there was some sun and some rain. It is a charming small town near Tyre. Little alleyways lined with tiny shops wound through the town. The people that we met were friendly, and the children were happily curious. We explored a well-preserved Castle built by the Crusaders on the harbour’s edge. After Saida we visited Beit Eddine, a palace built in the 1700’s by the ruling Ottoman representative or Emir. It is considered here to be a grand palace, but to me it fell short of expectations, except for some rooms panelled with Lebanese cedar.
On the next day, Thursday, we strolled around the shops until the allowance was spent. Nearly all of it went on presents for other people. Marcia carefully chooses a distinct item for each person. This takes a long time (but she loves it). I think she should select only two items and buy the appropriate number of each. Last night we shouted the Buckleys (who are here too) and Dr. Chu to the Casino du Liban. It was a wonderful night. The casino is primarily a gambling place like Monte Carlo but also has a theatre with a floor show that is famous throughout the Middle East and rivals the Folies Bergere or the Lido. It is a first class show, fast moving and glamorous, lasting 2 hours. Naturally the children stayed at home, as it is not suitable for them.
We had wanted to go to Jerusalem at Easter and although we are currently very close, the time and the extra expense have proved too much so we will not see Jordan or Israel at this time. We may get to Byblos tomorrow: it is another ancient town as the name suggests.
As mid-1967 approached the time remaining in Turkey diminished. Ainsley’s letters to my mother said that while she was looking forward to seeing her and in having a break from school, she was reluctant to leave Turkey. No doubt there was a constant fascination about the place and many m9ore sights to see than we had managed. The most recent visit was to Buyukada an island in the sea of Marmara. We travelled ‘by ferry for 30 cents per head, taking 2 hours” We hired a horse and buggy that took us all around the island in about an hour and a half. Quoting Ainsley “then we had lunch at a posh restaurant, took a buggy up to a pine forest and sat and looked at the most beautiful view that you could ever see”. The island had no cars and the absence of noise was restful.
At various times the British and American navies sent vessels to visit Istanbul. On one occasion two of the wives took their children and ours to the ships, out of interest. The nature of the visit altered somewhat after mutual interests with the sailors came to the fore and the presence of the children was not so welcome. While descriptions of events are scanty, reports of events to the husbands are probably also scanty. Let us say that a good time was had by all.
Around this time Graham was sitting for exams controlled by the correspondence school in Victoria. They required supervisors to be present. As I recall the British Council acted for some of this and as far as German was concerned, arrangements had to be made to have a German speaker read the dictation. Fortunately Dr. Nietzschke agreed to carry this out. He and his two daughters duly came to the apartment and took on the dictation. I wonder whether they may have been a distraction, attractive as they were. However Grah passed German without any trouble.
One of the delights of having a small gap between buildings on the other side of Kucuk Bebek square is that we can see the rather majestic merchant ships from the Russian Black Sea ports passing down the Bosphorus towards the sea of Marmara and out to the Mediterranean. As I was writing this Robyn, now nearly 6 is writing a letter as well, but in the phonetic style taught at her school. It reads like this HA PE BUVDA. This translates to Happy Birthday!!
Today I was sitting on a chair on the front porch and suddenly out of a clear sky, the porch lurched violently from side to side about 4 times. People ran out of their houses into the street and pointed. Possibly they were seeing the tops of taller buildings still swaying. Marcia has her own story to tell of how it affected her in the kitchen. Of course it was an earthquake but it was far away from here, as much as one hundred miles away I believe. Grah was annoyed because of all things he was on a swing in the backyard and did not feel a thing.
Around this time, in mid 1967 Mum moved into her unit in Clayfield. This move sounded very suitable from many points of view as it would be more manageable than a house, and was near transport.
Bill Watson and I went on a business trip to Teheran in Iran, visiting a vaccine establishment, the Razi Institute, associated with the famous Pasteur Institute in Paris. Dr Baharsefat whom I had met in the US met us. He helped us to visit the right people in the Institute and then helped to entertain us in our off duty moments. Dr Sohrab, whom we had entertained in Yeronga long ago, also entertained us. We obtained permission to visit the Palace of the Shah that was his second palace. We saw huge graceful rooms with mirrored walls everywhere. There were large displays of pottery, china, glass and dinner services of gold. These were often labelled with the giver of the present, usually royalty from some European State. The wealth of the leaders of these countries is awesome. In the streets at this time we saw some protests. Marcia suggests that they were anti-Shah at this time. Our car was man handled and bounced by a number of people. Bill Watson was all for leaving expeditiously, but the driver, my friend Baharsefat did not seem unduly worried so I kept as calm as I could. Later we were able to drive away through a gap in the crowd. It was a small example of what we often see happening on the news in other countries.
At a Persian market I bought a watch for Marcia and one or two knick-knacks showing old style Persian inlay work in designs and scenes. The other purchase of which I am quite proud was the silver tray and liqueur set. This heavily engraved set of 6 silver glasses and a silver flagon was for sale at the State run emporium for a fixed price that I considered quite reasonable and far less than it would have been at home. Bill, who hailed from Liverpool scorned that easy purchase and sought a similar article from a roadside stall. Here he attempted tough negotiation and it seemed to be cruelly successful. He paid far less than I did. Soon after we returned to Istanbul I asked whether his wife had liked the gift. He said that she had but after a few days the silver had all turned black. Apparently the quality was not there, because at no time has extreme tarnish been a problem with ours in 33 years, and the assessed value is now many times the sum that I paid for it.
A final requirement for our part of the project was to organize a course in infectious diseases of sheep and goats to benefit several countries in the region. We prepared lectures and displays for this and were greatly assisted by the presence of Fred Brown, a technician working in diagnostic bacteriology in the Veterinary Service in UK. Two veterinarians from each of 6 Muslim countries attended the course that was to run for about 3 weeks. It was held in the Resort attached to the main Turkish lab at Pendik. This was where numbers of Vets from all parts of Turkey were housed during their summer vacation. The course went well and then it was time for the project to fold.
We were to report to Rome for debriefing. I had accumulated some leave from FAO and in addition CSIRO had indicated that I should visit some appropriate laboratories in UK before returning. Thus some financial help was available as well as the permission to spend some time in UK. This was very acceptable, and indeed well earned even though I say it myself. We had worked hard during the 13 months here, and not only trained the counterpart vets but done enough research to produce about 5 major and 2 minor scientific publications.
On a less modest note I should record that the project manager, Dr Wallace Stableforth, asked me to stay on past the allotted time, but CSIRO would not agree. He was the former head of the laboratory side of the whole UK Veterinary Investigation Service. As it happened Watson later became the head of Weybridge like Stableforth before him, and I am sure his record in Turkey helped to get him that position. The project must have been extended, because Foggie from Scotland was appointed for a spell and a technician was required for him. I was asked to recommend someone, and I suggested Jack Etheridge. As it turned out he had about two years there with Foggie. This was not the only opportunity that arose from this project. Doug Skerman, an Australian Veterinarian whom I knew well, was working in FAO and was about to head up a project in Cyprus and Jordan. He invited me to be the microbiologist on the project. This had all the earmarks of a wonderful opportunity. However before much time had passed war broke out in the Middle East between Israel and Egypt and the project was shelved. Thus we missed out on being in two of the most interesting countries in the area. One never knows what might have been had this been our next move. It may have had a deleterious effect on the education of the children.
We had rather wanted to see Gallipoli (Geliboli). Unfortunately the times of the ferries forced one to spend more time there than we could afford. Buses were more suitable but very risky, and less desirable for the whole family to travel in together. We did not get there. We had however, travelled to the famous towns on the west coast by the kindness of Lloyd Whitten. We saw Izmir (Smyrna), Mt. Uludag and Bursa and then the areas around Ephesus. One cannot help being entranced by the sight of these very ancient buildings and hearing the stories of the history of these places.
Anyway we packed up and arranged the air freighting of our goods to Australia. We flew first to Athens. The two days spent here were full of interest. In the afternoon following our arrival we took a bus to Cape Sounion. At the destination there are remains of what must have been a delightful building overlooking the clear water of the Aegean. Allegedly this was where Aegea awaited the return of Theseus from some journey. On the boat the signal that Theseus was still alive was to use the white sails. Black sails stood for death. Unfortunately as so much time had passed, this coded was overlooked and the black sails were still aloft. Aegea took this to mean that his son was dead and he committed suicide by jumping over the cliff. His distraught son had the Temple of Poseidon built in his memory. When we visited it was late afternoon and we watched the sun go down through some pillars of the Temple. Graham took photos at this time that were worthy of the National Geographic Magazine. The view was superb. The next day we took a long boat ride to Hydra and some other island in the Aegean. Again the striking clarity of the water and its beautiful blues and greens impressed us. The islands and the way of life appear to be peaceful and very livable. It should be an ideal environment for creative writing and painting.
Any city would be in stark contrast to the Greek islands and London was no exception. We did not tarry long there, but made contact with the Scientific Liaison Office. Then followed a train ride to Scotland. In Edinburgh we picked up the Hire Car and visited Moredun to see Stamp with whom I had renewed my friendship in Turkey (and whose family had befriended ours). On the walk around the lab. I was introduced to a young Australian named Peter Doherty who was doing some post-graduate work with Stamp. He had worked, as did I, at Yeerongpilly with Geoff Simmons. He later won the Nobel Prize in Medicine (Immunology). We drove to meet Bill Watson in Pooley Bridge. He was stationed at the Veterinary Centre in Penrith where we went to discuss the publications resulting from our work in Turkey. After a day or two here in the Lake District we drove slowly down the West Coast enjoying all the delightful sights of England.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Chapter 21
The letters to my Mother in Queensland from Marcia and me in August 1965 following my return from my first overseas trip have been interesting to read again in February 2000.
From that August through to November fairly frequent letters tell of the family activities, especially of the weekends. Some weekends were mainly concerned with maintenance of the household such as mowing, cleaning windows, cleaning the car, repairing or painting some item or continuing the constructing of woodwork projects such as the green cupboard and drawers (which we still have some 35 years later). Others included taxying children to tennis or to town for shopping, still others tell of drives in the country, often fitted in after a visit to the laboratory to do some task required to be done at that time despite it being a week-end. Specifically, in this period, as well as carrying out maintenance, we visited Ballarat and Daylesford, built a slot-car track (mostly Graham’s work), we took Graham and Ainsley to tennis lessons and G. played in competition.
Holidays were in the air and we eagerly awaited January 1966 because Mama Manson had found a house at the beach in Queensland that was available to rent for the fortnight we had allotted. Some of the visitors at Hone Avenue around this time were Dr Roger Watson and wife, Dr Jack Arundel and wife, Toby St George and wife, as well as a visitor from Thailand. Marcia’s Mum and Dad as well as my Mother had visited while I was overseas.
The financial state of our family should perhaps not be mentioned, as, after 16 years of working, it was woeful. There was seldom any spare cash, it appeared, but we were keeping our heads above water.
Cousin Eva had three trips overseas during this time. However, sadly, they were not all happy trips as both sickness and other problems occurred. One old friend who accompanied her on one trip turned nasty and caused Eva to cancel the trip and fly home.
Some of the letters written by Ainsley (10) and Graham (13) are quaint in hindsight, and all of them give insight into their characters at that age. Graham had completed the third year of high school. His exam results at the end of 1965 were very good being in the 80 to 90% range, and although they were just short of what was required for an Honours Certificate, they were adequate for a Junior Certificate. This paid towards schoolbooks for further years. Ainsley’s results were not detailed in this the last year of primary school, but she received an Honour’s Certificate. Robyn was about to start kindergarten.
Soon after the end of the calendar year, we set off for Brisbane by road in the EH Holden. Few details of this holiday seem to be available, but as we always enjoyed our holidays in Queensland it is probably safe to say that this was also an enjoyable stay. At the end of the stay in Queensland Marcia and I drove back to Melbourne, leaving the children to spend a little more time with Marcia’s folks. We drove down the coast route all the way. Some of the prices for motel accommodation are interesting. A room for one night could be had for $8.40. We passed through Sydney, staying at Mittagong then Moruya and Eden. Total petrol cost was $20. Soon after our arrival back, at a time when the “nectarines and apples on the trees were ripening” as were some grapes, we picked the children up at Essendon airport where they landed in a Viscount.
Returning to work after the break was hard, as always. The same was true for the children returning to school after the freedom of the vacation. One of the usual pleasures that softened the blow for me was reading the accumulated mail. This year was no exception. Amongst the mail awaiting me at work was a letter that proved to be very important to us. It was from Dr. Wallace Stableforth the former Head of Weybridge Laboratory, which is the centre for Veterinary Diagnosis and Research in the UK. He wrote from his position as the Officer-in-Charge of a project for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In it he invited me to apply for a position working for one or two years in Turkey on research on diseases of sheep and goats caused by mycoplasmas. This was one of the major areas of work that I had been associated with at Parkville and on which I was considered to be knowledgeable
I was absolutely over the moon at the thought of it. With difficulty I forbore to mention it on my arrival home, but awaited an opportunity when we were all seated at dinner to announce it. With what I hoped was nonchalance, I asked the family whether they would like to go overseas for a year. The result was a resounding yes, but perhaps they individually picked out their favourite location. They were not familiar with Turkey, but were still keen when they learned that was the venue. This of course was a major opportunity in our lives. We indicated our strong interest in the proposal and accepted subject to some more details and permission from CSIRO. Over the next few months we made enquiries about schooling for the children, about housing and transport and other conditions of living. The conditions seemed to be good as the costs of the family to accompany me would also be covered, school fees would be paid, and some holiday time would eventuate and the salary was considerably more than I was getting at the time and was tax free. I would have to pay my own premiums to keep up the superannuation, but this was manageable. There was some allowance for rental assistance as I recall, so that there were not many out of pocket expenses. It all sounded too good to be true, and indeed in the event it gave our finances a much-needed boost and provided other benefits that should gradually unfold if you read on.
We started to make plans for a positive outcome and decided to rent 10 Hone Avenue and to store most of our goods. We would take most of the kitchen equipment, personal items but no furniture. We made enquiries about schooling for the children, about accommodation and what equipment we should take with us.
As CSIRO was no less a bureaucracy than the Public Service the pathway to acceptance was strewn with problems. From Section Head to Officer-in-Charge to Chief of Division to Executive each step involved delays. In 1966, leaving CSIRO for long periods was regarded with some disfavour, possibly because of a possible brain drain. It was a prized perquisite (even though it was to the benefit of CSIRO for personnel to have such an experience. This type of absence was perhaps less of a problem because it did not tap into the small budget allocated to overseas trips. Anyway it was April before I received permission from CSIRO to be absent for a year and we still had to wait for definite word from FAO. A lot of work had to be done just on the expectation of going, without the guarantee that it would happen. When FAO finally contacted us it was in the form of a cablegram. This itself implied urgency and after having waited nearly five months, I tore at the envelope feverishly. To my astonishment it told me that I was expected to report to FAO in Rome in 10 day’s time. We laughed hysterically. Although it was a profound relief after so much waiting to have confirmation, it was impossible to agree to the date. Immediately I had to request that the date be put back to allow about 6 weeks to complete arrangements. These covered getting medical advice and vaccinations, arranging education in Turkey , deciding on equipment, packing up household goods to be sent to Turkey, renting 10 Hone Avenue, shopping, changing business addresses, writing to friends and relatives about the move and arranging banking. Even so the rate of completing the arrangements had to be stepped up.
Around February Mitzi came down from Brisbane to spend some time with us. No doubt this was just before she was due to start at the Uni. We took her out to see the sights as often as we could. It was not easy combining outings for a visitor with the needs of the household, the schooling of the children and my work, and the added complexities of the proposed overseas trip and closing off avenues of research. However Mitzi seemed to enjoy it despite that around her life had to go on as usual or even faster.
It should be mentioned here that my Mother kept all our letters to her from the time we left Brisbane in the 50’s, through the 60’s and into the 70’s and even the early 80’s. From this valuable collection I have been able to record detail that almost certainly could not have been provided without them. A bonus for Marcia and me in going over these letters was the delightful surprise that there were a number of letters from Graham, Ainsley (aka Elisabeth) and Robyn amongst them. On reading them we appreciate how much pleasure these would have given Mother C. at the time.
Our parents decided that they should visit Sydney and combine it with a farewell to us as we were going away. A few days before our departure date Marcia and the children flew up to Sydney and stayed at the Hotel Metropole. Unfortunately I had to work right up to the day before our departure from Sydney so I flew up after work in time to join in a family farewell dinner. Next morning when we were just about due to go to the nearby terminal of Qantas, one of our children was missing. Great panic ensued with much rushing around trying with limited resources to cover all the twisting corridors of a large hotel. However one of us finally found the missing child who had taken the opportunity to visit the gift shop but had got lost in the labyrinth trying to return to our room. We whizzed around to Qantas where we found the airport bus for our aircraft had left. With very commendable speed Qantas hired two cars and we were sped to the airport at or above the speed limits, making it in time to hear a boarding call for the flight. There were the inevitable forms to be completed before we could leave, and with the final boarding call ringing in our ears we just made the flight. In the years to come we would have other close shaves but this one was memorable. Our farewells with our folk were somewhat rushed but did not mar our appreciation of their presence and the warmth of their farewell.
The aircraft was a Boeing 707 that was in those days the most up to date transport, pre-dating the Jumbo. No record seems to have been kept of the stops we made on the flight or how well we withstood the rigours of the flight that was much slower than it would be today. Marcia recalls that we landed in Darwin and Colombo before reaching Rome. We did have to go to Rome before Turkey, as the Headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) was situated there and new appointees had to attend briefing sessions. Hence I learned about the responsibilities of being in a foreign country, of being under the United Nations umbrella with some Diplomatic privileges, how the finances were worked and of the dire need to make reports to Head Office. For this purpose a portable typewriter was issued forthwith and carried the proviso that we practically had to guard it with our life.
We were put up in a pensione in the via Cavour and I made my way to the FAO headquarters which was near the ancient hippodrome, in the via Della Terme di Caracalla. The atmosphere of this part of Rome was something to savour. Roman remains lined the route to FAO and the Colosseum in all of its glory was nearby.
Marcia and the children spent time walking around the many streets in the vicinity of via Cavour about which I cannot report. M. says there was a favourite Ristorante where the waiter took a shine to the family and presented M. with a dish, which only recently she passed on to one of them. We took a Pan Am flight to Turkey and at Yesilkoy airport we were met by Stableforth himself in the Fairlane station wagon that I later came to know so well as it was our transport daily to work. We drove from the airport all the way to Pendik, taking in the walled city of Istanbul and the vehicular ferry over the renowned Bosphorus with its long history. Mosques thrust their minarets into the sky, higher than all other buildings. In fact we learned that no building was permitted to be higher than the mosques. We pulled up at the Dr. Erdun’s Tesisleri right on the water, with its own beach (plage). A bunch of Caucasians later straggled up and were introduced. It appeared that these were some of the other workers at the lab, who had been forced to walk to the motel from the lab to get their lift in the Fairlane back to Bebek. It was not a good introduction to them as they were put out by the use of the car for the so and so Australian family when they wanted to get home.
We needed to decide whether to live somewhere near Pendik and the lab, or to live as some others did near Istanbul in a suburb known as Bebek. The advantages of living in Bebek included proximity to the Robert College, an American school to which the children would go, so the decision was straightforward. With some help from members of the staff in viewing flats, we finally settled on a large ground floor unit that happened to be next door to Stableforth’s unit. He and his wife also had a home somewhere near Pendik.
After finding an unfurnished flat the next step was to get beds and chairs and a table, refrigerator and some appliances. There were other “expatriates” known to Project staff who were able to advise and in some cases to sell equipment as they were leaving. Quite soon we had most of the essentials for living. Turkish striped sheets were used as curtains, the iron beds were made to size, so in our room we had one single 6-foot bed and the other was 7 feet long.
Settling in was harder for Marc. and the children than for me. Each morning I showered and dressed, breakfasted and was picked up by another Project member for the drive down to the ferry. All this was carried out without the need for speaking Turkish, although it was our intention to learn some of the language. The fares were paid with a coin or a token. We were able to relax for the journey across the Bosphorus and to the appropriate ferry stop at Kadikoy. The ferries were well built and well maintained and some were carried vehicles as well as passengers. One could have a drink of tea (chai) or dilute yoghurt called ayran. Long after we left Turkey a bridge was built over the Bosphorus somewhere near the Rumeli Hissar.
Most of the people one sees are men. Women tend to remain in the homes more, although young women often worked in the business part of the city, and they usually dressed in western clothes. In the suburbs or the countryside, the women work in fields while the men discuss “matters of state” grouped together in the tearooms.
Many ferries ply their trade on the Bosphorus and there is a constant cacophony from the blowing of ship’s horns. The old city of Istanbul is very picturesque as seen from the distance of the waterway. It is constantly fascinating presenting differently in different lights. Further from the city, the newer areas that can be seen on the banks are nearly all medium- rise apartments. There is no land to speak of that is not built upon and parks are very rare. To the westerner there is a definite ambience of the East aroma included. Wile building and houses and other structures may be modelled on western ones, these do not appear totally western. You know you are not in a western city.
At this stage in later 1966, the work is going very well. I have isolated many strains of what appear to be several different mycoplasmas from diseased sheep and goats selected by Bill Watson the English Veterinarian with whom I work. We look forward to identifying these organisms and testing their pathogenicity. Bill is very competent and we work with two Turkish veterinarians whom we are committed to train in research methods. They are Fahri Arisoy and Oguz Erdag, and we find them very cooperative.
So far, when moving amongst the people, we have come to appreciate their good qualities. There is no overt friendliness neither is there any hostility. (An occasional older fellow witll spit in front of us as he approaches and it is hard to tell whether this is a natural need or a gesture of distaste for the westerner). Another possibility is that the common habit of chewing betel nut was responsible as it is said to encourage excess salivation. The faces of passers by usually are impassive. Shopkeepers can be very helpful. They almost always offer tea before settling in for a session of negotiating. If one is leaving and is uncertain where the next stop is, a boy will often be allocated to walk us to that shop. Incidentally the tea is always black, as milk is not generally available. Goat’s milk is more readily available than that from cows, but now some of this has changed with the advent of more tourists. Marcia shops at Taxim or Bebek and seems to get on with a minimum of the language and a lot of pointing. It would be difficult to write a thumbnail sketch of Turkey, or of Istanbul or of the culture. We are able to observe, but cannot communicate adequately nor read the papers so we do not know what Turks are thinking. There is a small paper in English and of course some citizens as well as expatriates can speak English and do pass on quite a bit about the culture.
From that August through to November fairly frequent letters tell of the family activities, especially of the weekends. Some weekends were mainly concerned with maintenance of the household such as mowing, cleaning windows, cleaning the car, repairing or painting some item or continuing the constructing of woodwork projects such as the green cupboard and drawers (which we still have some 35 years later). Others included taxying children to tennis or to town for shopping, still others tell of drives in the country, often fitted in after a visit to the laboratory to do some task required to be done at that time despite it being a week-end. Specifically, in this period, as well as carrying out maintenance, we visited Ballarat and Daylesford, built a slot-car track (mostly Graham’s work), we took Graham and Ainsley to tennis lessons and G. played in competition.
Holidays were in the air and we eagerly awaited January 1966 because Mama Manson had found a house at the beach in Queensland that was available to rent for the fortnight we had allotted. Some of the visitors at Hone Avenue around this time were Dr Roger Watson and wife, Dr Jack Arundel and wife, Toby St George and wife, as well as a visitor from Thailand. Marcia’s Mum and Dad as well as my Mother had visited while I was overseas.
The financial state of our family should perhaps not be mentioned, as, after 16 years of working, it was woeful. There was seldom any spare cash, it appeared, but we were keeping our heads above water.
Cousin Eva had three trips overseas during this time. However, sadly, they were not all happy trips as both sickness and other problems occurred. One old friend who accompanied her on one trip turned nasty and caused Eva to cancel the trip and fly home.
Some of the letters written by Ainsley (10) and Graham (13) are quaint in hindsight, and all of them give insight into their characters at that age. Graham had completed the third year of high school. His exam results at the end of 1965 were very good being in the 80 to 90% range, and although they were just short of what was required for an Honours Certificate, they were adequate for a Junior Certificate. This paid towards schoolbooks for further years. Ainsley’s results were not detailed in this the last year of primary school, but she received an Honour’s Certificate. Robyn was about to start kindergarten.
Soon after the end of the calendar year, we set off for Brisbane by road in the EH Holden. Few details of this holiday seem to be available, but as we always enjoyed our holidays in Queensland it is probably safe to say that this was also an enjoyable stay. At the end of the stay in Queensland Marcia and I drove back to Melbourne, leaving the children to spend a little more time with Marcia’s folks. We drove down the coast route all the way. Some of the prices for motel accommodation are interesting. A room for one night could be had for $8.40. We passed through Sydney, staying at Mittagong then Moruya and Eden. Total petrol cost was $20. Soon after our arrival back, at a time when the “nectarines and apples on the trees were ripening” as were some grapes, we picked the children up at Essendon airport where they landed in a Viscount.
Returning to work after the break was hard, as always. The same was true for the children returning to school after the freedom of the vacation. One of the usual pleasures that softened the blow for me was reading the accumulated mail. This year was no exception. Amongst the mail awaiting me at work was a letter that proved to be very important to us. It was from Dr. Wallace Stableforth the former Head of Weybridge Laboratory, which is the centre for Veterinary Diagnosis and Research in the UK. He wrote from his position as the Officer-in-Charge of a project for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In it he invited me to apply for a position working for one or two years in Turkey on research on diseases of sheep and goats caused by mycoplasmas. This was one of the major areas of work that I had been associated with at Parkville and on which I was considered to be knowledgeable
I was absolutely over the moon at the thought of it. With difficulty I forbore to mention it on my arrival home, but awaited an opportunity when we were all seated at dinner to announce it. With what I hoped was nonchalance, I asked the family whether they would like to go overseas for a year. The result was a resounding yes, but perhaps they individually picked out their favourite location. They were not familiar with Turkey, but were still keen when they learned that was the venue. This of course was a major opportunity in our lives. We indicated our strong interest in the proposal and accepted subject to some more details and permission from CSIRO. Over the next few months we made enquiries about schooling for the children, about housing and transport and other conditions of living. The conditions seemed to be good as the costs of the family to accompany me would also be covered, school fees would be paid, and some holiday time would eventuate and the salary was considerably more than I was getting at the time and was tax free. I would have to pay my own premiums to keep up the superannuation, but this was manageable. There was some allowance for rental assistance as I recall, so that there were not many out of pocket expenses. It all sounded too good to be true, and indeed in the event it gave our finances a much-needed boost and provided other benefits that should gradually unfold if you read on.
We started to make plans for a positive outcome and decided to rent 10 Hone Avenue and to store most of our goods. We would take most of the kitchen equipment, personal items but no furniture. We made enquiries about schooling for the children, about accommodation and what equipment we should take with us.
As CSIRO was no less a bureaucracy than the Public Service the pathway to acceptance was strewn with problems. From Section Head to Officer-in-Charge to Chief of Division to Executive each step involved delays. In 1966, leaving CSIRO for long periods was regarded with some disfavour, possibly because of a possible brain drain. It was a prized perquisite (even though it was to the benefit of CSIRO for personnel to have such an experience. This type of absence was perhaps less of a problem because it did not tap into the small budget allocated to overseas trips. Anyway it was April before I received permission from CSIRO to be absent for a year and we still had to wait for definite word from FAO. A lot of work had to be done just on the expectation of going, without the guarantee that it would happen. When FAO finally contacted us it was in the form of a cablegram. This itself implied urgency and after having waited nearly five months, I tore at the envelope feverishly. To my astonishment it told me that I was expected to report to FAO in Rome in 10 day’s time. We laughed hysterically. Although it was a profound relief after so much waiting to have confirmation, it was impossible to agree to the date. Immediately I had to request that the date be put back to allow about 6 weeks to complete arrangements. These covered getting medical advice and vaccinations, arranging education in Turkey , deciding on equipment, packing up household goods to be sent to Turkey, renting 10 Hone Avenue, shopping, changing business addresses, writing to friends and relatives about the move and arranging banking. Even so the rate of completing the arrangements had to be stepped up.
Around February Mitzi came down from Brisbane to spend some time with us. No doubt this was just before she was due to start at the Uni. We took her out to see the sights as often as we could. It was not easy combining outings for a visitor with the needs of the household, the schooling of the children and my work, and the added complexities of the proposed overseas trip and closing off avenues of research. However Mitzi seemed to enjoy it despite that around her life had to go on as usual or even faster.
It should be mentioned here that my Mother kept all our letters to her from the time we left Brisbane in the 50’s, through the 60’s and into the 70’s and even the early 80’s. From this valuable collection I have been able to record detail that almost certainly could not have been provided without them. A bonus for Marcia and me in going over these letters was the delightful surprise that there were a number of letters from Graham, Ainsley (aka Elisabeth) and Robyn amongst them. On reading them we appreciate how much pleasure these would have given Mother C. at the time.
Our parents decided that they should visit Sydney and combine it with a farewell to us as we were going away. A few days before our departure date Marcia and the children flew up to Sydney and stayed at the Hotel Metropole. Unfortunately I had to work right up to the day before our departure from Sydney so I flew up after work in time to join in a family farewell dinner. Next morning when we were just about due to go to the nearby terminal of Qantas, one of our children was missing. Great panic ensued with much rushing around trying with limited resources to cover all the twisting corridors of a large hotel. However one of us finally found the missing child who had taken the opportunity to visit the gift shop but had got lost in the labyrinth trying to return to our room. We whizzed around to Qantas where we found the airport bus for our aircraft had left. With very commendable speed Qantas hired two cars and we were sped to the airport at or above the speed limits, making it in time to hear a boarding call for the flight. There were the inevitable forms to be completed before we could leave, and with the final boarding call ringing in our ears we just made the flight. In the years to come we would have other close shaves but this one was memorable. Our farewells with our folk were somewhat rushed but did not mar our appreciation of their presence and the warmth of their farewell.
The aircraft was a Boeing 707 that was in those days the most up to date transport, pre-dating the Jumbo. No record seems to have been kept of the stops we made on the flight or how well we withstood the rigours of the flight that was much slower than it would be today. Marcia recalls that we landed in Darwin and Colombo before reaching Rome. We did have to go to Rome before Turkey, as the Headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) was situated there and new appointees had to attend briefing sessions. Hence I learned about the responsibilities of being in a foreign country, of being under the United Nations umbrella with some Diplomatic privileges, how the finances were worked and of the dire need to make reports to Head Office. For this purpose a portable typewriter was issued forthwith and carried the proviso that we practically had to guard it with our life.
We were put up in a pensione in the via Cavour and I made my way to the FAO headquarters which was near the ancient hippodrome, in the via Della Terme di Caracalla. The atmosphere of this part of Rome was something to savour. Roman remains lined the route to FAO and the Colosseum in all of its glory was nearby.
Marcia and the children spent time walking around the many streets in the vicinity of via Cavour about which I cannot report. M. says there was a favourite Ristorante where the waiter took a shine to the family and presented M. with a dish, which only recently she passed on to one of them. We took a Pan Am flight to Turkey and at Yesilkoy airport we were met by Stableforth himself in the Fairlane station wagon that I later came to know so well as it was our transport daily to work. We drove from the airport all the way to Pendik, taking in the walled city of Istanbul and the vehicular ferry over the renowned Bosphorus with its long history. Mosques thrust their minarets into the sky, higher than all other buildings. In fact we learned that no building was permitted to be higher than the mosques. We pulled up at the Dr. Erdun’s Tesisleri right on the water, with its own beach (plage). A bunch of Caucasians later straggled up and were introduced. It appeared that these were some of the other workers at the lab, who had been forced to walk to the motel from the lab to get their lift in the Fairlane back to Bebek. It was not a good introduction to them as they were put out by the use of the car for the so and so Australian family when they wanted to get home.
We needed to decide whether to live somewhere near Pendik and the lab, or to live as some others did near Istanbul in a suburb known as Bebek. The advantages of living in Bebek included proximity to the Robert College, an American school to which the children would go, so the decision was straightforward. With some help from members of the staff in viewing flats, we finally settled on a large ground floor unit that happened to be next door to Stableforth’s unit. He and his wife also had a home somewhere near Pendik.
After finding an unfurnished flat the next step was to get beds and chairs and a table, refrigerator and some appliances. There were other “expatriates” known to Project staff who were able to advise and in some cases to sell equipment as they were leaving. Quite soon we had most of the essentials for living. Turkish striped sheets were used as curtains, the iron beds were made to size, so in our room we had one single 6-foot bed and the other was 7 feet long.
Settling in was harder for Marc. and the children than for me. Each morning I showered and dressed, breakfasted and was picked up by another Project member for the drive down to the ferry. All this was carried out without the need for speaking Turkish, although it was our intention to learn some of the language. The fares were paid with a coin or a token. We were able to relax for the journey across the Bosphorus and to the appropriate ferry stop at Kadikoy. The ferries were well built and well maintained and some were carried vehicles as well as passengers. One could have a drink of tea (chai) or dilute yoghurt called ayran. Long after we left Turkey a bridge was built over the Bosphorus somewhere near the Rumeli Hissar.
Most of the people one sees are men. Women tend to remain in the homes more, although young women often worked in the business part of the city, and they usually dressed in western clothes. In the suburbs or the countryside, the women work in fields while the men discuss “matters of state” grouped together in the tearooms.
Many ferries ply their trade on the Bosphorus and there is a constant cacophony from the blowing of ship’s horns. The old city of Istanbul is very picturesque as seen from the distance of the waterway. It is constantly fascinating presenting differently in different lights. Further from the city, the newer areas that can be seen on the banks are nearly all medium- rise apartments. There is no land to speak of that is not built upon and parks are very rare. To the westerner there is a definite ambience of the East aroma included. Wile building and houses and other structures may be modelled on western ones, these do not appear totally western. You know you are not in a western city.
At this stage in later 1966, the work is going very well. I have isolated many strains of what appear to be several different mycoplasmas from diseased sheep and goats selected by Bill Watson the English Veterinarian with whom I work. We look forward to identifying these organisms and testing their pathogenicity. Bill is very competent and we work with two Turkish veterinarians whom we are committed to train in research methods. They are Fahri Arisoy and Oguz Erdag, and we find them very cooperative.
So far, when moving amongst the people, we have come to appreciate their good qualities. There is no overt friendliness neither is there any hostility. (An occasional older fellow witll spit in front of us as he approaches and it is hard to tell whether this is a natural need or a gesture of distaste for the westerner). Another possibility is that the common habit of chewing betel nut was responsible as it is said to encourage excess salivation. The faces of passers by usually are impassive. Shopkeepers can be very helpful. They almost always offer tea before settling in for a session of negotiating. If one is leaving and is uncertain where the next stop is, a boy will often be allocated to walk us to that shop. Incidentally the tea is always black, as milk is not generally available. Goat’s milk is more readily available than that from cows, but now some of this has changed with the advent of more tourists. Marcia shops at Taxim or Bebek and seems to get on with a minimum of the language and a lot of pointing. It would be difficult to write a thumbnail sketch of Turkey, or of Istanbul or of the culture. We are able to observe, but cannot communicate adequately nor read the papers so we do not know what Turks are thinking. There is a small paper in English and of course some citizens as well as expatriates can speak English and do pass on quite a bit about the culture.
Chapter 20
This was a memorable year for me, being the year in which I had my first work-oriented overseas visit. As will unfold, this experience greatly helped in my later career. I had been some 15 years in the scientific work force, over ten of which were with CSIRO. I had been working on contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and the pleuropneumonia group of organisms (PPLO) containing the microbiological agent causing this disease (later named the Mycoplasma group and later again the Mollicutes). There were Institutes in other countries that were carrying out research on these organisms. There was no one else in Australia working on mycoplasmas. It was understandable that I wanted very much to visit those Institutes to compare notes and meet the workers whose papers I continued to read. I had been expecting for some time to be permitted to visit these laboratories, as I felt it was about time for my turn. Those in charge, especially the Chief, Dr. T.S. Gregory, were slow to recommend officers for such "trips" and the Executive did not move without a recommendation. There were some Divisions of CSIRO in which all Research staff could look forward to a visit every six years or so, and others in which staff had to wait twice as long. Funding was the main problem, I believe, but for other reasons, including political ones, priorities were set by the Executive among Divisions and of course there were many demands on available resources in the expensive business that was and still is CSIRO. Apart from having to be next in line in the Division to be recommended for an overseas visit some sort of reassurance was sought that the successful candidate would stay on in the Division on return (and presumably perform even better than before).
Thanks to Dick Hudson and Jim Whittem I was finally recommended to go and a lengthy, busy round of laboratory visits was planned together with a fixed period working at a laboratory on one specific project! This additional requirement was some bureaucrat’s idea for inclusion in all trips. It could be a good plan in some circumstances but as it happened it did not work out well for me. Right at the planning stage I could see that the trip was going to be hard work. Weekends were not allocated for rest; all travel was arranged to fall on those days where possible. In the weeks before leaving I wrote letters over TSG's signature to the various workers I was planning to visit to arrange convenient dates. Then it all had to be brought together into a feasible agenda. All was ready by early March and on Sunday the 7th March I finally farewelled family, Dick Hudson and his wife Margaret and Frank Yeats too, as I recall, at Melbourne airport on a 727 flight to Sydney. Left Sydney at noon on a Boeing 707 (BA 701). First stop was Darwin where the overseas terminal was a joke-- virtually just tin sheds. Singapore however had manicured grass stretching from landing strip and taxiways to the well-constructed terminal buildings. Next stops were Calcutta and then Karachi, both presenting in steamy heat. The tarmac was fenced off with cyclone wire through which peered hundreds of dark-skinned local inhabitants. Late as it was even children were there, presumably pressing for a sight of those lucky enough to arrive in the large aircraft, the affluent overseas travellers.
The next stop was Beirut with a magnificent terminal, lots of police and efficient, attractive ground hostesses. Here I was to make a stopover, staying at the Hotel Biarritz. The unfavourable impression of this place and surroundings gained at 4 a.m. when very tired was happily replaced by the improved appearance visible by the light of a bright cool day.
The street signs were in French and Arabic and most of the taxis were Mercedes. I travelled in one to the Near East Animal Health Institute where Dr. Henry Chu works when in Lebanon.
Snow was visible on inland mountains but the deep blue sea and white sands by the shore were inviting enough for swimmers. After the visit, I took a bus tour to Byblos with its old Roman and Phoenician ruins, 45 minutes hectic driving away from Beirut.
The next day I was up at 1.15 am to continue the flight to the UK. At the airport I noticed a woman who had lost her luggage. Another woman, resplendent in a vicuna coat was helping her. I also offered helpful advice, despite my inexperience of overseas travel. I met the husband as he returned to the group after buying a bottle of bourbon. Later I sat with these two in the aircraft, and they turned out to be ex-Australians. He was a consultant urologist and they lived in posh Cadogan Square in London, from where he commuted to Guy's Hospital. They said “Guy’s” in hushed tones indicating the respect in which it is apparently held. (Especially if that is where you earn a fabulous income). However I will say that in spite of their obvious social position they were ready with invitations to dine with them in London. We flew to Rome and were over the Alps at dawn. What a wonderful sight that was!
There was fog over London, so my first sight of London was of the Post Office tower rising above the level of the fog. After some time circling we found a gap and landed. It was cold, about –20 C, and one of my early memories was of the snowflakes on the deep blue, velvety surface of a London Bobby's helmet. The Australian Scientific Liaison Office was in Africa House in Kingsway, and that is where I headed. Formalities over I lunched in a nearby English pub with Arch Vasey who was formerly at our laboratory. Later I was able to ring Bill Snowdon who was at Pirbright in the early stages of his virology career. We arranged to meet.
Next I went by taxi to the Tavistock Hotel where I collapsed on to the bed for 15 hours' sleep. Next morning the opportunity came for a stroll around near the hotel and I was delighted to see the Old Curiosity Shop and Lincoln's Inn Fields. Later on I took the train to Cambridge where I was to work for the next few weeks.
The work done during my stay is recorded in a report that may be inserted into the appendix of this story. Out of work hours I was fortunate to be taken to various notable sights around Cambridge. In the Elizabethan town of Lavenham Dr. Henry Chu took me to lunch. This was at the Swan Hotel where we ate roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, feeling that this was the genuine article. Another interesting sight was the Norman Abbey at Bury St Edmonds. No doubt I observed many activities and mannerisms in these initial encounters with the English as one does when first in a foreign environment. At the moment all I can recall is the difficulty in following the thought processes of Henry Chu, whose Asian mind had me grasping wildly at times for the logic in a sequence of comments. One trivial observation that interested me was that no one in the laboratories used loose-leaf sheets held in binders as we do. All seemed to prefer to use bound notebooks. Is this true for all of England?
Chu was very thoughtful. Although Audrey Newnham had lent me a bicycle to get to work, Chu left me his car when he went off to Lebanon. He kept unusual hours sometimes going to work at 3 a.m., and could do with about 3 hours’ sleep without showing effects of sleep loss.
On 20/3/65 I went to London with Audrey Newnham and caught a train to Woking to be with Bill and Nola Snowdon who were currently at Pirbright. We drove to Stonehenge in temperatures of 40 to 50oF and I stayed with them overnight. Next day we had an hilarious trip to Windsor Castle. On the ramparts we were overlooking Runnymede, I believe, and the wind was freezing. This was the site of the signing of Magna Carta, Later we went through London, past many of the well known buildings that I was seeing for the first time, including No. 10 Downing St., Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament and Westminster Cathedral. It was an interesting and a fun time.
The University is the mainstay of the town of Cambridge, and is beautifully set close to the river Cam. The area around the river is referred to as the “backs” and in spring is a riot of colour from flowering bulbs. There is an atmosphere in Cambridge that is hard to define, but it was responsible for the feeling I got that the very walls oozed learning. Does a long period of occupation give a room or building an atmosphere, apart from carbon dioxide, that is?
Despite the individualism of people practising science one felt that they were all committed to the great goal of knowledge. As a matter of fact, a few years later Graham saw Cambridge and was heard to say that he "felt he could really study here in Cambridge". However those with whom I came in contact were doing work that I felt was of no higher standard than was being done at home. Granted there were new techniques and the knowledge of the literature was more up to date and thus ahead of Australia, but the differences could be accounted for by the proximity of many laboratories in UK and Europe and the constant exchange of personnel among these laboratories. I can only apply these remarks to the School of Veterinary Science.
My letters to Marcia and family show that in Cambridge there was quite a lot of social activity and happily I was included in many gatherings. Here I mixed with work colleagues but also with a range of well-educated interesting people from different disciplines. Our children will remember Dr. Chu in Lebanon who was one of them. Some Australians were amongst them, notably Ron Wells, Stirling Hogarth-Scott and Dr. Carne. The letters detail almost every move I made and it would be tiresome to provide it all here. Social activity was quite frequent, gatherings being sometimes at people's houses or rooms, otherwise at public restaurants, Institute rooms and so on, just as would occur here with some groups of people. It was within the halls that the full feeling of tradition was experienced, which made these venues special. Externally there was flagged paving and old stone walls with huge doors that would keep out an army, and inside the high ceilings lay on panelled walls decorated with paintings of past incumbents. The rubbed woodwork on banisters and pews, together with the worn steps tell of the real age of these buildings and speak of the vast numbers of students through the ages who trod these ways.
One episode that was of much greater value than it promised was my attendance at a Teachers and Research Workers Conference at Scarborough. One of the technical assistants, Muriel Boldero was keen for me to go and she had a hidden agenda. She would drive me up, but she would then be able to spend time with her relatives who lived nearby. As it turned out I was able to visit Harrogate where the grave of my brother Dick is, as well as that of another crew member, Syd Merrin from the Toowoomba area. Further to this I was able to get to South Shields from where the Cottew family came to Australia. I met a Mr. Hardy who had been a chauffeur to a Miss Jenny Cottew for many years. There had been three unmarried sisters living there. I found the little church where there was a family "vault", and the tablets on the outside named those interred there. The details will be found amongst the genealogy files rather than in this manuscript.
Easter occurred during the working visit to Cambridge, and I was encouraged to take advantage of the cessation of work for a few days to get to France and Switzerland, for a brief visit. Although just a 4-day glimpse of 2 countries, these days were magical. In Paris the Hotel Claridge in the Champs Elysee was old and comfortable. It was centrally situated not far from the Tuileries, and of course the Louvre. Where could one have stayed that was half as interesting and famous as the Champs Elysee? At Easter, allegedly, Parisiens flee the city. Tourists flock in. It seems to be particularly busy this year I am told. Groups of schoolchildren accompanied by an adult, probably from the teaching staff, are noticeable everywhere in the city. There is so much to see that is available on foot, particularly if the foot in question is healthy. In Australia a 50 minute flight takes one to just another Australian town. In Europe one takes a similar flight and arrives in a totally different culture. At night on arrival it was especially welcoming as the Arc de Triomph was lit up, so too were the street and the Tuilleries. The morning after arriving I was introduced to the Continental breakfast, with croissant, roll and pastry with butter and jam, and strong coffee. A coach trip took me to Napoleon's tomb, the Seine, the Louvre, Pigalle, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge and other sights. I went to a cafe that I had been to once before. I was attended to by the same young waitress who knew that I was English speaking. She said, "How do you like Paris?” Later she said sadly, "You haven't found a girl yet?” I said it all depended on whether you were looking for one, and she replied "Ah, you must be here on business". I went to the Louvre again and enjoyed it once more. I also went to a maritime museum that was full of interest.
Following this I flew to Zurich where I stayed at the Hotel Carlton Elite with which I was most impressed. I was puzzled however by a contraption in the bathroom. The bath, shower, toilet and hand basin were all customary appliances, but this other sort of bowl with a plug did not seem to have an easily recognisable purpose. I ended up doing my washing in it--after all it had a plug and two taps. Only much later did someone explain to me what a bidet was used for.
Apart from walking around Zurich and enjoying the sights and the beautifully displayed goods in the shops, I took a coach tour that took me through villages, countryside and arrived at Lucerne, so prettily set on the lake, with such interesting bridges and towers. I carried back such great sights in my mind to Cambridge, that even though I had to resume work, I felt that I had profited well from the few days that I had been away.
A visit to Moredun gave me glimpses of Edinburgh and I enjoyed a short drive into the countryside. The Scots were so proud of their country that it did not take much to get them out and about in it. I also visited Lasswade and Edinburgh Hospital, then back to England to see Dr DG ff Edward and Ron Leach in Kent, and the Central Veterinary Laboratory at Weybrdge. Here I should insert the final paragraph of my Report. “This was my first opportunity to visit overseas workers and the experience was very worthwhile. It was unfortunate that the time spent within the Veterinary School at Cambridge was not more rewarding, but the virtual dissolution of the section was unexpected. In contrast, I gained much from visiting other laboratories and talking with experienced worker in the Mycoplasma field. Many of these became friends and we made contact often over the years.”
The working period at Cambridge came to an end and I set off for the rest of the world! Copenhagen was first on the list. As well as visiting mycoplasma workers here I contacted Torquil Haas and his wife, Aase, who is Inga Whittlestone’s sister. They were most hospitable and offered a meal and a trial of the plum wine that was stored in carboys downstairs. They took me to the Round Tower, where a Czar of Russia had driven a coach and four up a spiral ramp that wound up to the top. Presumably it was meant for pedestrians only. We saw the statue of the mermaid that seems to be the icon of the city. A young friend Jorgen Unschied who took me to the Tivoli Gardens relieved the Haas family. Now well known to tourists, I had never heard of it at that stage. The park was brilliantly lit, with floodlights on trees and fountains, while at various venues around the gardens, orchestras; actors and singers all performed to the delight of the many strollers in the area.
I stayed in the Hotel Osterport that was built like a railway carriage about 200 yards long. My room was small and had no facility for washing. When I donned a gown and stepped outside, I found that I was visible to anyone in the whole length of the corridor. Further, I seemed to provoke giggles in a couple of chambermaids in the passage. Was this my appearance, was I not expected to wash in the daytime, or was I overdressed? Quien sabe?
I took the train to Aarhus, passing through Odense, the home of Hans Christian Anderson. Some English speaking Danes in the carriage pointed out items of interest. We also boarded a modern ferry for part of the trip. In Aarhus, I stayed in a Hotel at the quayside, Hotel Ritz. Here many ferries leave for nearby Sweden. For the first time I met Eyvind Freundt the main mycoplasmologist here, with a pioneer’s reputation. I did not know then, but I would see him quite a lot over the next 30 years, and even spend time in his laboratory on another occasion. Marcia and I also came here on our 1976 trip. After talking shop in the day, I was invited to a party. Unwittingly downing the 3 “innocuous” drinks, I found the night getting increasingly hazy and realised that the drinks were very potent. It was their equivalent of schnapps or water of life, “Aqua vite”. My letter to Marcia later in the night amazingly detailed the dishes served in the meal, although I have always thought that dinner passed me by somewhat, while in a less than conscious state. The flight back to Copenhagen was at medium height so I was able to see the type of countryside. It was green and flat and interspersed with brown fields, and views of the sea.
I visited two Dr Linds at work and was invited to dinner. They lived in an apartment and had no children. Entree consisted of 6 or 7 long stalks of asparagus with bread rolls, main course was served in a huge pot and was very fluid, but containing strips of chicken-apparently it was coq au vin, but I did not know that. There were no vegetables, but the third course was a salad mostly consisting of lettuce leaves and pepper. What intrigued me greatly was their accepted method of getting down to the “last drop” by breaking off pieces of roll and mopping up the fluid with this. Coffee followed the salad.
The next stop was Amsterdam aboard a Caravelle jet. The Apollo Hotel was very modern and spacious. From my window I looked over many canals and buildings. I could also see the two front-desk clerks during slack periods, racing out the back where they had fishing rods attached to the railing overhanging the canal. I avoided fish for dinner, but it was delightful anyway. I have just realised why my letters contained the descriptions of good food at this time. It was because I had been existing for the best part of three months on cheap cafe meals in England, and the change to good Hotel food was worthy of mention. The entree was new herring with chopped onion followed with a beautifully tender 1 inch steak, green beans, and croquettes of potato with attached flakes (looking like Lux but probably thin almond slices) and red pepper with baby corn. All this was on a bed of mashed potato marked as with a trowel on mortar by a brickie, a herring bone pattern. The steak was also on a bed but this time it looked like another piece of meat with breadcrumbs. I desired this too, but it was not served nor was the bed of potato. As was often done in the continental hotels, a table was drawn up beside yours, and a spirit lamp was lit under a hot plate. All the subsequent activity of serving was carried out on that table, until the dish was ready for the client. A portion of everything was held in reserve in a dish on the hot plate, to be offered later.
I visited Dr Charlotte Ruys who was interested in human mycoplasmas, and she and her assistants were quite delightful to be with, so friendly, sincere and unaffected. She dropped me at Amstel station, where I caught the train to Utrecht. Here I visited the Tropical Medicine Institute mainly because Hudson had suggested seeing an old colleague, Dr Wilson, who was no help with mycoplasmas. I met a Dutch mycoplasmologist who was rather taciturn, although years later I had more to do with her and she was quite pleasant. On returning to the Hotel in Amsterdam, I was intrigued to find in my room a card with goodnight in 9 languages and a little block of chocolate with it.
From Amsterdam the route to Montreal took us over Greenland and we saw many icebergs despite being so high up. It was the first time I had recognised icebergs and judging by the interest caused when I announced it to those around me in the plane, not many others had seen them either. Soon most of the passengers were over one side of the plane and the cabin staff might have begun to think they had a problem on their hands. In Montreal the Hotel was not well situated for walks so I rang an engineer whom I had met on a tour in Paris. Briefly, he picked me up at the Hotel and devoted much of the day to taking me around. We went to McGill University and the proposed 1967 site for the Expo, where the Metro was being planned. The reason for his being in Paris was to investigate the Paris Metro. St Joseph’s Oratory, the city buildings and even a walk up Mont Royale were also on the agenda. Walking up the Mount with a suit on, I became fully aware of the heat and humidity that Montreal can turn on for summer. It was hard to believe that this was Canada, as I had carried the images of cool lakes, with conifers in the background, and handsome colourfully dressed Mounted Police talking to beautiful girls outside log cabins with light snow on the ground. My friend Guy Masse invited me to dinner, and then explained that his wife was a teacher, and he did not want to burden her with preparation of dinner especially as she did not speak English, so we ate out. He introduced me to a national dish, canard a l’orange, which was delightful, and of course is now not uncommon here.
Next day I flew to Ottawa, prior to visiting an Institute in Hull. Ottawa was dignified as befits a capital city, but was also, dingy and disappointing. There were many imposing buildings like the US Capitols and some had verdigris on their copper domes, which had been a feature in Copenhagen. After the continent and UK, the huge sedan cars were ungainly, and, as they seemed to be driven by heavy-footed people especially taking off at the lights, they were very noisy. At Ottawa airport, there was time for a haircut and a wander through a small collection of aircraft including a Nieuwport Scout from WW1 and a Spitfire Mk 9 !
I flew from here to Syracuse in a Convair over, as I recall, the Fingerlake district from which comes the supply of humidity for New York State and other areas. From Syracuse to Ithaca an Air Taxi completed the journey, flying over wooded and farmed land. The houses in Ithaca were straight out of the Saturday Evening Post. There were wide curved streets, fringed with many trees, setting off the homes that were built in what we think of as quaint styles. There were Cape Cods, Old Dutch and occasional ranch style homes. Skip Carmichael looked after me showing me round the University that must be one of the prettiest campuses in the world. I stayed at a Motel in the town, but on another occasion bedded down in the Statler that was part of the University in the Faculty dealing with Hospitality. At Cornell I met Professor Asdell briefly and he gave me the address of his daughter Mary whom we had befriended when she had worked with Eric French in the early 60’s.
On to Newark and Washington, glimpsing the tall buildings of Manhattan in the background through the haze of pollution. In Washington I was able to replenish the money supply, and to accept an invitation to see something of the sights with Mary. We drove to Mt Vernon to see the home of President Washington on the Potomac River. Again, time and the association with History especially the Civil War have lent an atmosphere to the house and grounds that made it an attractive venue. The next day I went to Bethesda, and met several mycoplasma greats for the first time including Joe Tully, Mike Barile, Norm Somerson, Chanock and a lass, Helen Smith, who later worked at CSL.
After leaving Washington I flew to Des Moines via Chicago (O’Hare) and went by Greyhound bus to Ames, Iowa. Here I experienced the high security of the National Animal Disease Laboratory, met Phil O’Berry, and others whose names escape me. At lunchtime I was taken to a meeting of the Kiwanis Club where I enjoyed a social event with about 50 young members. Phil had recently had Alan Pearce through and I was amused to learn that Alan had given Phil (apparently in all seriousness) the little gold kangaroo on a card, given to all passengers on Qantas at the time. At the Iowa State University, Dick Ross showed me around. It may be of interest that my experiences of Greyhound buses differed markedly from their appearance in the glamorous advertisements in glossy magazines. Unlike the handsome and well dressed patrons seen in these, my fellow travellers were nearly all unshaven, dirty, poorly dressed, and generally in the category of low-life.
I had some time in Denver, where I was able to meet Arthur Frazer for the first time and his wife Katherine, and her children Cynthia and Steven. We went to Red Rock Canyon with its natural amphitheatre, and had a picnic in the mountains beside a running stream with a beaver dam in it. The bush in these mountains was delightful. Denver is well set for access to the Rocky Mountains as we learned on a much later visit to Art. I enjoyed this very pleasant break before going on to Davis for some more interviews.
In Davis Henry Adler hosted my visit. He had been in our laboratory for nearly a year, earlier on. Most of the people I met were in the Avian Medicine group, but Don Jasper who was a mastitis expert was also interested in Mycoplasmas. Michael Studdert was doing a PhD in some section but was introduced, as he was a fellow Australian. Probably because the end of the trip was in sight, there are no letters to detail what I did in Davis, and as I have been back there on more than one occasion, I am not sure what took place on this particular visit.
In San Francisco I was able to go out to the Lafayette district and meet the Rosstons for the first time. They were due to leave for England the next day, and that is why, I guess, I found them absorbed in their own thoughts. If it had not been for the young girl (probably Jeannie) who showed some interest while we were sunning ourselves by the pool, and asked some questions, I need not have been there at all. Our later meetings with Ed, Maxine, Ed Jnr, Dick, Ellen and Jeannie have all been so pleasant that something had to be wrong on this day.
The remainder of 1965 was something of an anticlimax after the wonderful experience of working overseas and the excitement of meeting others working in the same general field of microbiology. That is not to say that I did not greet the family with great enthusiasm on my return after the longest absence they and I had so far endured.
Thanks to Dick Hudson and Jim Whittem I was finally recommended to go and a lengthy, busy round of laboratory visits was planned together with a fixed period working at a laboratory on one specific project! This additional requirement was some bureaucrat’s idea for inclusion in all trips. It could be a good plan in some circumstances but as it happened it did not work out well for me. Right at the planning stage I could see that the trip was going to be hard work. Weekends were not allocated for rest; all travel was arranged to fall on those days where possible. In the weeks before leaving I wrote letters over TSG's signature to the various workers I was planning to visit to arrange convenient dates. Then it all had to be brought together into a feasible agenda. All was ready by early March and on Sunday the 7th March I finally farewelled family, Dick Hudson and his wife Margaret and Frank Yeats too, as I recall, at Melbourne airport on a 727 flight to Sydney. Left Sydney at noon on a Boeing 707 (BA 701). First stop was Darwin where the overseas terminal was a joke-- virtually just tin sheds. Singapore however had manicured grass stretching from landing strip and taxiways to the well-constructed terminal buildings. Next stops were Calcutta and then Karachi, both presenting in steamy heat. The tarmac was fenced off with cyclone wire through which peered hundreds of dark-skinned local inhabitants. Late as it was even children were there, presumably pressing for a sight of those lucky enough to arrive in the large aircraft, the affluent overseas travellers.
The next stop was Beirut with a magnificent terminal, lots of police and efficient, attractive ground hostesses. Here I was to make a stopover, staying at the Hotel Biarritz. The unfavourable impression of this place and surroundings gained at 4 a.m. when very tired was happily replaced by the improved appearance visible by the light of a bright cool day.
The street signs were in French and Arabic and most of the taxis were Mercedes. I travelled in one to the Near East Animal Health Institute where Dr. Henry Chu works when in Lebanon.
Snow was visible on inland mountains but the deep blue sea and white sands by the shore were inviting enough for swimmers. After the visit, I took a bus tour to Byblos with its old Roman and Phoenician ruins, 45 minutes hectic driving away from Beirut.
The next day I was up at 1.15 am to continue the flight to the UK. At the airport I noticed a woman who had lost her luggage. Another woman, resplendent in a vicuna coat was helping her. I also offered helpful advice, despite my inexperience of overseas travel. I met the husband as he returned to the group after buying a bottle of bourbon. Later I sat with these two in the aircraft, and they turned out to be ex-Australians. He was a consultant urologist and they lived in posh Cadogan Square in London, from where he commuted to Guy's Hospital. They said “Guy’s” in hushed tones indicating the respect in which it is apparently held. (Especially if that is where you earn a fabulous income). However I will say that in spite of their obvious social position they were ready with invitations to dine with them in London. We flew to Rome and were over the Alps at dawn. What a wonderful sight that was!
There was fog over London, so my first sight of London was of the Post Office tower rising above the level of the fog. After some time circling we found a gap and landed. It was cold, about –20 C, and one of my early memories was of the snowflakes on the deep blue, velvety surface of a London Bobby's helmet. The Australian Scientific Liaison Office was in Africa House in Kingsway, and that is where I headed. Formalities over I lunched in a nearby English pub with Arch Vasey who was formerly at our laboratory. Later I was able to ring Bill Snowdon who was at Pirbright in the early stages of his virology career. We arranged to meet.
Next I went by taxi to the Tavistock Hotel where I collapsed on to the bed for 15 hours' sleep. Next morning the opportunity came for a stroll around near the hotel and I was delighted to see the Old Curiosity Shop and Lincoln's Inn Fields. Later on I took the train to Cambridge where I was to work for the next few weeks.
The work done during my stay is recorded in a report that may be inserted into the appendix of this story. Out of work hours I was fortunate to be taken to various notable sights around Cambridge. In the Elizabethan town of Lavenham Dr. Henry Chu took me to lunch. This was at the Swan Hotel where we ate roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, feeling that this was the genuine article. Another interesting sight was the Norman Abbey at Bury St Edmonds. No doubt I observed many activities and mannerisms in these initial encounters with the English as one does when first in a foreign environment. At the moment all I can recall is the difficulty in following the thought processes of Henry Chu, whose Asian mind had me grasping wildly at times for the logic in a sequence of comments. One trivial observation that interested me was that no one in the laboratories used loose-leaf sheets held in binders as we do. All seemed to prefer to use bound notebooks. Is this true for all of England?
Chu was very thoughtful. Although Audrey Newnham had lent me a bicycle to get to work, Chu left me his car when he went off to Lebanon. He kept unusual hours sometimes going to work at 3 a.m., and could do with about 3 hours’ sleep without showing effects of sleep loss.
On 20/3/65 I went to London with Audrey Newnham and caught a train to Woking to be with Bill and Nola Snowdon who were currently at Pirbright. We drove to Stonehenge in temperatures of 40 to 50oF and I stayed with them overnight. Next day we had an hilarious trip to Windsor Castle. On the ramparts we were overlooking Runnymede, I believe, and the wind was freezing. This was the site of the signing of Magna Carta, Later we went through London, past many of the well known buildings that I was seeing for the first time, including No. 10 Downing St., Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament and Westminster Cathedral. It was an interesting and a fun time.
The University is the mainstay of the town of Cambridge, and is beautifully set close to the river Cam. The area around the river is referred to as the “backs” and in spring is a riot of colour from flowering bulbs. There is an atmosphere in Cambridge that is hard to define, but it was responsible for the feeling I got that the very walls oozed learning. Does a long period of occupation give a room or building an atmosphere, apart from carbon dioxide, that is?
Despite the individualism of people practising science one felt that they were all committed to the great goal of knowledge. As a matter of fact, a few years later Graham saw Cambridge and was heard to say that he "felt he could really study here in Cambridge". However those with whom I came in contact were doing work that I felt was of no higher standard than was being done at home. Granted there were new techniques and the knowledge of the literature was more up to date and thus ahead of Australia, but the differences could be accounted for by the proximity of many laboratories in UK and Europe and the constant exchange of personnel among these laboratories. I can only apply these remarks to the School of Veterinary Science.
My letters to Marcia and family show that in Cambridge there was quite a lot of social activity and happily I was included in many gatherings. Here I mixed with work colleagues but also with a range of well-educated interesting people from different disciplines. Our children will remember Dr. Chu in Lebanon who was one of them. Some Australians were amongst them, notably Ron Wells, Stirling Hogarth-Scott and Dr. Carne. The letters detail almost every move I made and it would be tiresome to provide it all here. Social activity was quite frequent, gatherings being sometimes at people's houses or rooms, otherwise at public restaurants, Institute rooms and so on, just as would occur here with some groups of people. It was within the halls that the full feeling of tradition was experienced, which made these venues special. Externally there was flagged paving and old stone walls with huge doors that would keep out an army, and inside the high ceilings lay on panelled walls decorated with paintings of past incumbents. The rubbed woodwork on banisters and pews, together with the worn steps tell of the real age of these buildings and speak of the vast numbers of students through the ages who trod these ways.
One episode that was of much greater value than it promised was my attendance at a Teachers and Research Workers Conference at Scarborough. One of the technical assistants, Muriel Boldero was keen for me to go and she had a hidden agenda. She would drive me up, but she would then be able to spend time with her relatives who lived nearby. As it turned out I was able to visit Harrogate where the grave of my brother Dick is, as well as that of another crew member, Syd Merrin from the Toowoomba area. Further to this I was able to get to South Shields from where the Cottew family came to Australia. I met a Mr. Hardy who had been a chauffeur to a Miss Jenny Cottew for many years. There had been three unmarried sisters living there. I found the little church where there was a family "vault", and the tablets on the outside named those interred there. The details will be found amongst the genealogy files rather than in this manuscript.
Easter occurred during the working visit to Cambridge, and I was encouraged to take advantage of the cessation of work for a few days to get to France and Switzerland, for a brief visit. Although just a 4-day glimpse of 2 countries, these days were magical. In Paris the Hotel Claridge in the Champs Elysee was old and comfortable. It was centrally situated not far from the Tuileries, and of course the Louvre. Where could one have stayed that was half as interesting and famous as the Champs Elysee? At Easter, allegedly, Parisiens flee the city. Tourists flock in. It seems to be particularly busy this year I am told. Groups of schoolchildren accompanied by an adult, probably from the teaching staff, are noticeable everywhere in the city. There is so much to see that is available on foot, particularly if the foot in question is healthy. In Australia a 50 minute flight takes one to just another Australian town. In Europe one takes a similar flight and arrives in a totally different culture. At night on arrival it was especially welcoming as the Arc de Triomph was lit up, so too were the street and the Tuilleries. The morning after arriving I was introduced to the Continental breakfast, with croissant, roll and pastry with butter and jam, and strong coffee. A coach trip took me to Napoleon's tomb, the Seine, the Louvre, Pigalle, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge and other sights. I went to a cafe that I had been to once before. I was attended to by the same young waitress who knew that I was English speaking. She said, "How do you like Paris?” Later she said sadly, "You haven't found a girl yet?” I said it all depended on whether you were looking for one, and she replied "Ah, you must be here on business". I went to the Louvre again and enjoyed it once more. I also went to a maritime museum that was full of interest.
Following this I flew to Zurich where I stayed at the Hotel Carlton Elite with which I was most impressed. I was puzzled however by a contraption in the bathroom. The bath, shower, toilet and hand basin were all customary appliances, but this other sort of bowl with a plug did not seem to have an easily recognisable purpose. I ended up doing my washing in it--after all it had a plug and two taps. Only much later did someone explain to me what a bidet was used for.
Apart from walking around Zurich and enjoying the sights and the beautifully displayed goods in the shops, I took a coach tour that took me through villages, countryside and arrived at Lucerne, so prettily set on the lake, with such interesting bridges and towers. I carried back such great sights in my mind to Cambridge, that even though I had to resume work, I felt that I had profited well from the few days that I had been away.
A visit to Moredun gave me glimpses of Edinburgh and I enjoyed a short drive into the countryside. The Scots were so proud of their country that it did not take much to get them out and about in it. I also visited Lasswade and Edinburgh Hospital, then back to England to see Dr DG ff Edward and Ron Leach in Kent, and the Central Veterinary Laboratory at Weybrdge. Here I should insert the final paragraph of my Report. “This was my first opportunity to visit overseas workers and the experience was very worthwhile. It was unfortunate that the time spent within the Veterinary School at Cambridge was not more rewarding, but the virtual dissolution of the section was unexpected. In contrast, I gained much from visiting other laboratories and talking with experienced worker in the Mycoplasma field. Many of these became friends and we made contact often over the years.”
The working period at Cambridge came to an end and I set off for the rest of the world! Copenhagen was first on the list. As well as visiting mycoplasma workers here I contacted Torquil Haas and his wife, Aase, who is Inga Whittlestone’s sister. They were most hospitable and offered a meal and a trial of the plum wine that was stored in carboys downstairs. They took me to the Round Tower, where a Czar of Russia had driven a coach and four up a spiral ramp that wound up to the top. Presumably it was meant for pedestrians only. We saw the statue of the mermaid that seems to be the icon of the city. A young friend Jorgen Unschied who took me to the Tivoli Gardens relieved the Haas family. Now well known to tourists, I had never heard of it at that stage. The park was brilliantly lit, with floodlights on trees and fountains, while at various venues around the gardens, orchestras; actors and singers all performed to the delight of the many strollers in the area.
I stayed in the Hotel Osterport that was built like a railway carriage about 200 yards long. My room was small and had no facility for washing. When I donned a gown and stepped outside, I found that I was visible to anyone in the whole length of the corridor. Further, I seemed to provoke giggles in a couple of chambermaids in the passage. Was this my appearance, was I not expected to wash in the daytime, or was I overdressed? Quien sabe?
I took the train to Aarhus, passing through Odense, the home of Hans Christian Anderson. Some English speaking Danes in the carriage pointed out items of interest. We also boarded a modern ferry for part of the trip. In Aarhus, I stayed in a Hotel at the quayside, Hotel Ritz. Here many ferries leave for nearby Sweden. For the first time I met Eyvind Freundt the main mycoplasmologist here, with a pioneer’s reputation. I did not know then, but I would see him quite a lot over the next 30 years, and even spend time in his laboratory on another occasion. Marcia and I also came here on our 1976 trip. After talking shop in the day, I was invited to a party. Unwittingly downing the 3 “innocuous” drinks, I found the night getting increasingly hazy and realised that the drinks were very potent. It was their equivalent of schnapps or water of life, “Aqua vite”. My letter to Marcia later in the night amazingly detailed the dishes served in the meal, although I have always thought that dinner passed me by somewhat, while in a less than conscious state. The flight back to Copenhagen was at medium height so I was able to see the type of countryside. It was green and flat and interspersed with brown fields, and views of the sea.
I visited two Dr Linds at work and was invited to dinner. They lived in an apartment and had no children. Entree consisted of 6 or 7 long stalks of asparagus with bread rolls, main course was served in a huge pot and was very fluid, but containing strips of chicken-apparently it was coq au vin, but I did not know that. There were no vegetables, but the third course was a salad mostly consisting of lettuce leaves and pepper. What intrigued me greatly was their accepted method of getting down to the “last drop” by breaking off pieces of roll and mopping up the fluid with this. Coffee followed the salad.
The next stop was Amsterdam aboard a Caravelle jet. The Apollo Hotel was very modern and spacious. From my window I looked over many canals and buildings. I could also see the two front-desk clerks during slack periods, racing out the back where they had fishing rods attached to the railing overhanging the canal. I avoided fish for dinner, but it was delightful anyway. I have just realised why my letters contained the descriptions of good food at this time. It was because I had been existing for the best part of three months on cheap cafe meals in England, and the change to good Hotel food was worthy of mention. The entree was new herring with chopped onion followed with a beautifully tender 1 inch steak, green beans, and croquettes of potato with attached flakes (looking like Lux but probably thin almond slices) and red pepper with baby corn. All this was on a bed of mashed potato marked as with a trowel on mortar by a brickie, a herring bone pattern. The steak was also on a bed but this time it looked like another piece of meat with breadcrumbs. I desired this too, but it was not served nor was the bed of potato. As was often done in the continental hotels, a table was drawn up beside yours, and a spirit lamp was lit under a hot plate. All the subsequent activity of serving was carried out on that table, until the dish was ready for the client. A portion of everything was held in reserve in a dish on the hot plate, to be offered later.
I visited Dr Charlotte Ruys who was interested in human mycoplasmas, and she and her assistants were quite delightful to be with, so friendly, sincere and unaffected. She dropped me at Amstel station, where I caught the train to Utrecht. Here I visited the Tropical Medicine Institute mainly because Hudson had suggested seeing an old colleague, Dr Wilson, who was no help with mycoplasmas. I met a Dutch mycoplasmologist who was rather taciturn, although years later I had more to do with her and she was quite pleasant. On returning to the Hotel in Amsterdam, I was intrigued to find in my room a card with goodnight in 9 languages and a little block of chocolate with it.
From Amsterdam the route to Montreal took us over Greenland and we saw many icebergs despite being so high up. It was the first time I had recognised icebergs and judging by the interest caused when I announced it to those around me in the plane, not many others had seen them either. Soon most of the passengers were over one side of the plane and the cabin staff might have begun to think they had a problem on their hands. In Montreal the Hotel was not well situated for walks so I rang an engineer whom I had met on a tour in Paris. Briefly, he picked me up at the Hotel and devoted much of the day to taking me around. We went to McGill University and the proposed 1967 site for the Expo, where the Metro was being planned. The reason for his being in Paris was to investigate the Paris Metro. St Joseph’s Oratory, the city buildings and even a walk up Mont Royale were also on the agenda. Walking up the Mount with a suit on, I became fully aware of the heat and humidity that Montreal can turn on for summer. It was hard to believe that this was Canada, as I had carried the images of cool lakes, with conifers in the background, and handsome colourfully dressed Mounted Police talking to beautiful girls outside log cabins with light snow on the ground. My friend Guy Masse invited me to dinner, and then explained that his wife was a teacher, and he did not want to burden her with preparation of dinner especially as she did not speak English, so we ate out. He introduced me to a national dish, canard a l’orange, which was delightful, and of course is now not uncommon here.
Next day I flew to Ottawa, prior to visiting an Institute in Hull. Ottawa was dignified as befits a capital city, but was also, dingy and disappointing. There were many imposing buildings like the US Capitols and some had verdigris on their copper domes, which had been a feature in Copenhagen. After the continent and UK, the huge sedan cars were ungainly, and, as they seemed to be driven by heavy-footed people especially taking off at the lights, they were very noisy. At Ottawa airport, there was time for a haircut and a wander through a small collection of aircraft including a Nieuwport Scout from WW1 and a Spitfire Mk 9 !
I flew from here to Syracuse in a Convair over, as I recall, the Fingerlake district from which comes the supply of humidity for New York State and other areas. From Syracuse to Ithaca an Air Taxi completed the journey, flying over wooded and farmed land. The houses in Ithaca were straight out of the Saturday Evening Post. There were wide curved streets, fringed with many trees, setting off the homes that were built in what we think of as quaint styles. There were Cape Cods, Old Dutch and occasional ranch style homes. Skip Carmichael looked after me showing me round the University that must be one of the prettiest campuses in the world. I stayed at a Motel in the town, but on another occasion bedded down in the Statler that was part of the University in the Faculty dealing with Hospitality. At Cornell I met Professor Asdell briefly and he gave me the address of his daughter Mary whom we had befriended when she had worked with Eric French in the early 60’s.
On to Newark and Washington, glimpsing the tall buildings of Manhattan in the background through the haze of pollution. In Washington I was able to replenish the money supply, and to accept an invitation to see something of the sights with Mary. We drove to Mt Vernon to see the home of President Washington on the Potomac River. Again, time and the association with History especially the Civil War have lent an atmosphere to the house and grounds that made it an attractive venue. The next day I went to Bethesda, and met several mycoplasma greats for the first time including Joe Tully, Mike Barile, Norm Somerson, Chanock and a lass, Helen Smith, who later worked at CSL.
After leaving Washington I flew to Des Moines via Chicago (O’Hare) and went by Greyhound bus to Ames, Iowa. Here I experienced the high security of the National Animal Disease Laboratory, met Phil O’Berry, and others whose names escape me. At lunchtime I was taken to a meeting of the Kiwanis Club where I enjoyed a social event with about 50 young members. Phil had recently had Alan Pearce through and I was amused to learn that Alan had given Phil (apparently in all seriousness) the little gold kangaroo on a card, given to all passengers on Qantas at the time. At the Iowa State University, Dick Ross showed me around. It may be of interest that my experiences of Greyhound buses differed markedly from their appearance in the glamorous advertisements in glossy magazines. Unlike the handsome and well dressed patrons seen in these, my fellow travellers were nearly all unshaven, dirty, poorly dressed, and generally in the category of low-life.
I had some time in Denver, where I was able to meet Arthur Frazer for the first time and his wife Katherine, and her children Cynthia and Steven. We went to Red Rock Canyon with its natural amphitheatre, and had a picnic in the mountains beside a running stream with a beaver dam in it. The bush in these mountains was delightful. Denver is well set for access to the Rocky Mountains as we learned on a much later visit to Art. I enjoyed this very pleasant break before going on to Davis for some more interviews.
In Davis Henry Adler hosted my visit. He had been in our laboratory for nearly a year, earlier on. Most of the people I met were in the Avian Medicine group, but Don Jasper who was a mastitis expert was also interested in Mycoplasmas. Michael Studdert was doing a PhD in some section but was introduced, as he was a fellow Australian. Probably because the end of the trip was in sight, there are no letters to detail what I did in Davis, and as I have been back there on more than one occasion, I am not sure what took place on this particular visit.
In San Francisco I was able to go out to the Lafayette district and meet the Rosstons for the first time. They were due to leave for England the next day, and that is why, I guess, I found them absorbed in their own thoughts. If it had not been for the young girl (probably Jeannie) who showed some interest while we were sunning ourselves by the pool, and asked some questions, I need not have been there at all. Our later meetings with Ed, Maxine, Ed Jnr, Dick, Ellen and Jeannie have all been so pleasant that something had to be wrong on this day.
The remainder of 1965 was something of an anticlimax after the wonderful experience of working overseas and the excitement of meeting others working in the same general field of microbiology. That is not to say that I did not greet the family with great enthusiasm on my return after the longest absence they and I had so far endured.
Chapter 19
A note in the diary on January 2 indicates that I was busy writing a paper on the Haemagglutination (HA) Test for Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP). The technique behind the test was based on my finding that polysaccharide from supernatants of cultures would attach to sheep red cells. When the so-called "sensitised cells" were placed in contact with antibody specific for the CBPP organism the cells immediately clumped. The clumps were so large that they were readily visible to the naked eye. Serum lacking the specific antibody failed to produce clumping. Later on further modifications to this reaction resulted in another new test that was also applied to brucellosis by Plackett.
New Year was welcomed in at Cousin Eva Shovelton's home at 11 Glen Drive, Eaglemont. Eva is the daughter of James, Dad's oldest brother, and thus she was Eva Selkirk Cottew, before marrying Harry Shovelton the founder of Gum Leaf Paper Products. Present were Marcia, Graham, Ainsley, Robyn and myself, along with Mitzi (Campbell-Brown) Smith who was with us at the time on holiday.
Soon after Mitzi's departure on 4th January we started preparing for our own trip to Brisbane. Temperatures were about 980 F in the garage. Left on 8th January at 9.15 PM and arrived at Coonabarabran at 2pm next day. The journey of a little over 600 miles took 17 hours, but the car was not particularly fast, even with the pedal flat on the floor. Also much of the trip was at night when more care needs to be taken. We stayed at the Poplars Motel for that night before moving on to Brisbane at 7.15 am, arriving at 8.30 pm.
The 17-hour trip to Coonabarabran was fairly tiring for a single driver and now we look back and wonder how we did it. The authorities today frown on excessively long stints of driving as fatigue is now recognised as a major cause of accident.
Such rapid trips interstate were a mixture of pleasure and pain. Five people in a small car with luggage was not a happy situation. It was usually in summer holidays that we drove from Melbourne to Brisbane. At this time it was usually dry and hot and there was little relief from the heat, as the cars were not air-conditioned. On one occasion memorable for Marcia, she nursed a very small Robyn on her lap for the whole 1100 miles. Graham and Ainsley were pretty good considering that car travel for such a long time was rather boring for them. Added to that Arny suffered from travel sickness. Occasional squabbles punctuated the pleasant silence. Territory in the car was carefully guarded.
Returning to the theme of pleasure and pain, Marcia and I loved the driving as se saw beauty in the countryside with trees farms and animals in varying light and shade and colour. The towns, the gardens and the people all made for interesting viewing. I believe the children were better off for the experience of seeing our vast country in this way.
Here could be an appropriate place to revive an incident that occurred on one trip. With no air-conditioning in the Ford Prefect or the Volkswagen Beetle, cool water to drink became a necessity. We took a leaf out of the books of the country folk and used a canvas water bag to cool the water. Slung on the front bumper, the rapid evaporation as we travelled cooled the water well. The dust on the outside did not interfere with the potability of the water. There was some canvas taste but as the children usually had cordial with the water this did not seem to matter. Now as mentioned before, Arny was inclined to feel unwell. To combat this we tried various ways to get her to take tablets to quell the nausea. She steadfastly refused to take them. She was of course quite young at this stage. Our next door neighbour, Ian Ellis, recommended that we put the tablet, crushed, in with a powdered orange fizzy drink called Heinzade. That was fine, and Ainsley drank it. This continued until the time that Graham noticed there was a difference in the appearance between his glass of orange juice (Heinzade) and that of Ainsley's. Quicker than a speeding bullet he drew attention to the difference, saying, "What has Ainsley got- I want some of that! As soon as Arny heard that she stopped drinking. Our ploy was foiled. That is the trouble with having intelligent children.
The 11th January was Mum's 76th birthday. Brisbane had temperatures of 80-900 F and 60% humidity and we spent the day at Payne St, Torwood with Marcia's parents.
We saw the tennis at Milton, watching Roy Emerson play and remembering that I played with him in our tennis club at Dutton Park, run by Nowell Taylor.
When we arrived back after this holiday, summer had already finished in Melbourne and we were into coat and jumper weather.
One day around this time Robyn made a farm fence with blocks, asked us all to admire it, and then packed all the blocks beautifully in the box. Rob when just three was putting her own tooth paste on to the toothbrush and when I came in to check she said "It was a bit messy so I cleaned it under the tap" which of course just washed all the toothpaste off. Rob informed me that Ainsley's school is just over there (School Road) and "Day's" school is in Holland Road. She sings Baa Baa Black Sheep, Waltzing Matilda and London's Burning.
In August we were working with a test for bovine tuberculosis, examining antibody in blood of cattle vaccinated with BCG. At this stage we decided to seek bloods from natural cases to see whether a detectable amount is present in active and recovered cases.
A night at Graham's High School showed us the quality of the education and we were somewhat comforted by that. We were keenly sorry that we were unable to afford to send him to Caulfield or Carey Grammar as we had hoped.
Marcia's mother has just written 26/9/64 to inform us of a house available at Miami at 20 pounds a week, which is about the cost of rentals at beach resorts here.
I am painting the 8-drawer chests bought unpainted for Rob and Arny at this time. It would be wrong to dwell on the parlous state of our finances at this time of our lives, but it would be foolish to let any reader consider that we were in any way well off. Indeed it was not until long after the children had left home, and my status at work had improved that we had "something behind us".
I noticed a comment in the diary of February 1964 that read as follows- " …this evening was a happy one until the cheque book came out to dispose of $170 (85 pounds) worth of accumulated bills. Fortunately Marcia and the Woman's Weekly had retired together at 9.30 to the bedroom, while out here the tension mounted. When the task was done, the bank balance was also nearly done! This reminds me of one time when we were visiting Cousin Eva, who could be described as being rich. The topic of bank balances came up and she said to the assembled company "I like to keep my balance in double figures!” I agreed, as only that day my balance had reached eleven pounds, but Eva added to her comment, "in thousands!”
The Volkswagen was on its last legs, requiring expensive parts that were hard to get, when the garage offered me a price for it in bits on the floor. We agonised over putting it together as is or having some parts replaced or selling it in parts. We needed the car but could not afford a new one and did not trust the second hand ones. Eva, like a visiting angel somehow divined our problems and offered to help us to buy a new car. We were tremendously grateful to her for this. Of course she also was grateful for our visits and some of the small jobs she used to allocate to me on occasions. We also entertained Eva frequently to both dinners and afternoon teas. She enjoyed the interaction with the family and felt a part of it. She was very fond of and interested in the children. Her own contact with daughter Jean and Eddy and their children was not always happy or very frequent.
On November 27 I took delivery of the new Holden EH model 179 motor of colour Barwon Blue and Fowler's ivory. After the dear old VW whose departure was followed with sad eyes, the new car is a dream. It is in size relative to the VW like a bus, with a quiet and powerful motor. Rob says it is "Fantastic", Graham is in his 7th heaven while Ainsley is somewhat non-commital possibly because of her tendency to travel sickness, but probably very happy. The diary describes our profound gratitude for being able to purchase the car and just how well it drives compared with our previous cars, which were all small. Retrospectively, the house to which we were heading at the end of the year was the A frame at Miami, and there is a photo somewhere of us, the car and Elaine and family.
Instead of saying we are going to Miami, Rob announced that with "My Father is taking us in the car to Mi-mi-ow (pronounced mee-mee- oww) just like a cat. Rob at three is delightful. She is sensible, full of fun yet considerate, thoughtful, polite, helpful and loving to us and to A & G. As often happened, tonight I was taken by the hand to assist with toilet, teeth and changing. It was all done stepwise with no fuss, but plenty of method. Looking for sleeping clothes in the drawers of the new chest Rob said, "It might be here- oh, no, not there!” "A blue jumper to keep me warm". Words do not do justice to the expression on the face. At another time, Rob said when her jacket was on inside out that it was "inside ways".
Grah was working out the wheat on a chessboard problem. In this he was showing at a fairly early age the promise of interest in mathematics that later led him to take maths at Monash University where he excelled in all subjects, gaining his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. It was fairly natural that he would later pursue communication and computer associated work in adulthood. I think now that the puzzle referred to was a classic. One grain of wheat is placed on one square of a chessboard. On the next square twice that number of grains were placed. Twice that number were placed on the third square and so on. It may be hard to believe but by the time one reached the 32nd square, one would need grain in the billions to place on the square.
Arny was doing money sum practice. She was conscientious in her schoolwork, and did well both at school and at University. Besides her scholastic ability Ainsley soon showed leadership. In final year she was voted into the position of Captain of the School at Strathcona. This was a popular choice of teachers and pupils alike. She gained a scholarship/cadetship that permitted her to attend Melbourne University, but had to commit herself to teaching with the Department of Education for some years. Ainsley took this on so that we would not be paying for her attendance. After gaining her Bachelor of Arts she studied for a further year to obtain an Honours Degree, followed by a Diploma of Education.
Robyn followed Arny at Strathcona. She coped well with the studies at secondary school and opted to study at RMIT (the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, in the Faculty of Architecture, a course of Interior Design for four years. She became conversant with principles of design and the techniques of building construction.
In addition to their scholastic prowess they individually learned and displayed characteristics of thought, problem solving, self discipline and management skills. I hope to devote more space to aspects of their development with Marcia's help later on in this work.
New Year was welcomed in at Cousin Eva Shovelton's home at 11 Glen Drive, Eaglemont. Eva is the daughter of James, Dad's oldest brother, and thus she was Eva Selkirk Cottew, before marrying Harry Shovelton the founder of Gum Leaf Paper Products. Present were Marcia, Graham, Ainsley, Robyn and myself, along with Mitzi (Campbell-Brown) Smith who was with us at the time on holiday.
Soon after Mitzi's departure on 4th January we started preparing for our own trip to Brisbane. Temperatures were about 980 F in the garage. Left on 8th January at 9.15 PM and arrived at Coonabarabran at 2pm next day. The journey of a little over 600 miles took 17 hours, but the car was not particularly fast, even with the pedal flat on the floor. Also much of the trip was at night when more care needs to be taken. We stayed at the Poplars Motel for that night before moving on to Brisbane at 7.15 am, arriving at 8.30 pm.
The 17-hour trip to Coonabarabran was fairly tiring for a single driver and now we look back and wonder how we did it. The authorities today frown on excessively long stints of driving as fatigue is now recognised as a major cause of accident.
Such rapid trips interstate were a mixture of pleasure and pain. Five people in a small car with luggage was not a happy situation. It was usually in summer holidays that we drove from Melbourne to Brisbane. At this time it was usually dry and hot and there was little relief from the heat, as the cars were not air-conditioned. On one occasion memorable for Marcia, she nursed a very small Robyn on her lap for the whole 1100 miles. Graham and Ainsley were pretty good considering that car travel for such a long time was rather boring for them. Added to that Arny suffered from travel sickness. Occasional squabbles punctuated the pleasant silence. Territory in the car was carefully guarded.
Returning to the theme of pleasure and pain, Marcia and I loved the driving as se saw beauty in the countryside with trees farms and animals in varying light and shade and colour. The towns, the gardens and the people all made for interesting viewing. I believe the children were better off for the experience of seeing our vast country in this way.
Here could be an appropriate place to revive an incident that occurred on one trip. With no air-conditioning in the Ford Prefect or the Volkswagen Beetle, cool water to drink became a necessity. We took a leaf out of the books of the country folk and used a canvas water bag to cool the water. Slung on the front bumper, the rapid evaporation as we travelled cooled the water well. The dust on the outside did not interfere with the potability of the water. There was some canvas taste but as the children usually had cordial with the water this did not seem to matter. Now as mentioned before, Arny was inclined to feel unwell. To combat this we tried various ways to get her to take tablets to quell the nausea. She steadfastly refused to take them. She was of course quite young at this stage. Our next door neighbour, Ian Ellis, recommended that we put the tablet, crushed, in with a powdered orange fizzy drink called Heinzade. That was fine, and Ainsley drank it. This continued until the time that Graham noticed there was a difference in the appearance between his glass of orange juice (Heinzade) and that of Ainsley's. Quicker than a speeding bullet he drew attention to the difference, saying, "What has Ainsley got- I want some of that! As soon as Arny heard that she stopped drinking. Our ploy was foiled. That is the trouble with having intelligent children.
The 11th January was Mum's 76th birthday. Brisbane had temperatures of 80-900 F and 60% humidity and we spent the day at Payne St, Torwood with Marcia's parents.
We saw the tennis at Milton, watching Roy Emerson play and remembering that I played with him in our tennis club at Dutton Park, run by Nowell Taylor.
When we arrived back after this holiday, summer had already finished in Melbourne and we were into coat and jumper weather.
One day around this time Robyn made a farm fence with blocks, asked us all to admire it, and then packed all the blocks beautifully in the box. Rob when just three was putting her own tooth paste on to the toothbrush and when I came in to check she said "It was a bit messy so I cleaned it under the tap" which of course just washed all the toothpaste off. Rob informed me that Ainsley's school is just over there (School Road) and "Day's" school is in Holland Road. She sings Baa Baa Black Sheep, Waltzing Matilda and London's Burning.
In August we were working with a test for bovine tuberculosis, examining antibody in blood of cattle vaccinated with BCG. At this stage we decided to seek bloods from natural cases to see whether a detectable amount is present in active and recovered cases.
A night at Graham's High School showed us the quality of the education and we were somewhat comforted by that. We were keenly sorry that we were unable to afford to send him to Caulfield or Carey Grammar as we had hoped.
Marcia's mother has just written 26/9/64 to inform us of a house available at Miami at 20 pounds a week, which is about the cost of rentals at beach resorts here.
I am painting the 8-drawer chests bought unpainted for Rob and Arny at this time. It would be wrong to dwell on the parlous state of our finances at this time of our lives, but it would be foolish to let any reader consider that we were in any way well off. Indeed it was not until long after the children had left home, and my status at work had improved that we had "something behind us".
I noticed a comment in the diary of February 1964 that read as follows- " …this evening was a happy one until the cheque book came out to dispose of $170 (85 pounds) worth of accumulated bills. Fortunately Marcia and the Woman's Weekly had retired together at 9.30 to the bedroom, while out here the tension mounted. When the task was done, the bank balance was also nearly done! This reminds me of one time when we were visiting Cousin Eva, who could be described as being rich. The topic of bank balances came up and she said to the assembled company "I like to keep my balance in double figures!” I agreed, as only that day my balance had reached eleven pounds, but Eva added to her comment, "in thousands!”
The Volkswagen was on its last legs, requiring expensive parts that were hard to get, when the garage offered me a price for it in bits on the floor. We agonised over putting it together as is or having some parts replaced or selling it in parts. We needed the car but could not afford a new one and did not trust the second hand ones. Eva, like a visiting angel somehow divined our problems and offered to help us to buy a new car. We were tremendously grateful to her for this. Of course she also was grateful for our visits and some of the small jobs she used to allocate to me on occasions. We also entertained Eva frequently to both dinners and afternoon teas. She enjoyed the interaction with the family and felt a part of it. She was very fond of and interested in the children. Her own contact with daughter Jean and Eddy and their children was not always happy or very frequent.
On November 27 I took delivery of the new Holden EH model 179 motor of colour Barwon Blue and Fowler's ivory. After the dear old VW whose departure was followed with sad eyes, the new car is a dream. It is in size relative to the VW like a bus, with a quiet and powerful motor. Rob says it is "Fantastic", Graham is in his 7th heaven while Ainsley is somewhat non-commital possibly because of her tendency to travel sickness, but probably very happy. The diary describes our profound gratitude for being able to purchase the car and just how well it drives compared with our previous cars, which were all small. Retrospectively, the house to which we were heading at the end of the year was the A frame at Miami, and there is a photo somewhere of us, the car and Elaine and family.
Instead of saying we are going to Miami, Rob announced that with "My Father is taking us in the car to Mi-mi-ow (pronounced mee-mee- oww) just like a cat. Rob at three is delightful. She is sensible, full of fun yet considerate, thoughtful, polite, helpful and loving to us and to A & G. As often happened, tonight I was taken by the hand to assist with toilet, teeth and changing. It was all done stepwise with no fuss, but plenty of method. Looking for sleeping clothes in the drawers of the new chest Rob said, "It might be here- oh, no, not there!” "A blue jumper to keep me warm". Words do not do justice to the expression on the face. At another time, Rob said when her jacket was on inside out that it was "inside ways".
Grah was working out the wheat on a chessboard problem. In this he was showing at a fairly early age the promise of interest in mathematics that later led him to take maths at Monash University where he excelled in all subjects, gaining his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. It was fairly natural that he would later pursue communication and computer associated work in adulthood. I think now that the puzzle referred to was a classic. One grain of wheat is placed on one square of a chessboard. On the next square twice that number of grains were placed. Twice that number were placed on the third square and so on. It may be hard to believe but by the time one reached the 32nd square, one would need grain in the billions to place on the square.
Arny was doing money sum practice. She was conscientious in her schoolwork, and did well both at school and at University. Besides her scholastic ability Ainsley soon showed leadership. In final year she was voted into the position of Captain of the School at Strathcona. This was a popular choice of teachers and pupils alike. She gained a scholarship/cadetship that permitted her to attend Melbourne University, but had to commit herself to teaching with the Department of Education for some years. Ainsley took this on so that we would not be paying for her attendance. After gaining her Bachelor of Arts she studied for a further year to obtain an Honours Degree, followed by a Diploma of Education.
Robyn followed Arny at Strathcona. She coped well with the studies at secondary school and opted to study at RMIT (the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, in the Faculty of Architecture, a course of Interior Design for four years. She became conversant with principles of design and the techniques of building construction.
In addition to their scholastic prowess they individually learned and displayed characteristics of thought, problem solving, self discipline and management skills. I hope to devote more space to aspects of their development with Marcia's help later on in this work.
Chapter 18
The decision to leave Brisbane for Melbourne was a difficult one. Marcia was born and bred in Brisbane and had been there ever since except for a period of one year working in Sydney. All her family and friends were in Brisbane. Although born in Southport, I had lived in Fiji, Sydney and Adelaide and spent time in Melbourne as well, and had survived, hence was not so concerned about the climate. Of the housing situation we knew nothing. On the positive side, I considered the move should enable me to work more in research than I had been able to at Yeerongpilly, and there should be a career structure that proceeded up without having to wait for "dead men's shoes" as I would at the Animal Health Station. Probably one of the important considerations that turned out differently from expectation was that I would be working under one of the greats in Australian veterinary science, Dr. Arthur Turner. In summary, as far as the work was concerned, moving to CSIRO seemed to be all "plus" but as far as the family was concerned the move was of uncertain benefit.
We were very sad to leave our families. Dad and Mum had left Adelaide, which they liked, to be with us and any grandchildren that might eventuate. They had settled near us in a good house. Sadly it was in a very poor situation and they probably would have lived elsewhere had it not been for that proximity. I always felt sad about this although Mum lived on in the house even after Dad died and long after we left. Fortunately Norm eventually found a unit at Clayfield for her that was nearer to him and Gwen. This suited Mum very much as it was near transport and even though she was growing old; she was active and went to town quite often.
Similarly, leaving the Mansons was a blow especially for Marcia. She had decided to delay leaving until I had found some accommodation before coming with the children, Graham 3 years and 4 months and Ainsley 4 months. Sadly Marc was suffering from a physical problem that with hindsight was probably hepatitis. The move did not help this condition, and I feel she has suffered subsequently from moving before she was quite healthy. You could say that for Marc almost everything about the move was almost a disaster but she put a brave face on it all and she always has, and was very loyal.
The little house that Jim Clarey had built just for us at 44 Rhyndarra St., Yeronga was hard to leave, and indeed we have often driven there especially during visits to see it once again, because it was so meaningful for us. It suited the Mansons to move into the house as they were between houses at the time, and this softened the blow of leaving. Eventually they would sell it for us.
Farewells at work by staff were very touching and made us both feel that they had accepted us very well during our period of 6 years there. We made some lifetime friends there,
In early October 1955 I left for Melbourne by air. If I may digress here, there was a rule in the Public Service and CSIRO that when an employee entered CSIRO there must be continuous employment, that is he should leave his job one day and on the next day begin at the new job, with no gap in between. This was to preserve superannuation benefits and long service leave in particular. The employer being the government, ie. a group of bureaucrats, such rules had to be carried out to the letter. Today I venture to say the attitude would be more flexible, no doubt as a consequence of the executives themselves being much less rigid when it came to their own requirements.
I took a room at the Royal Hotel at Parkville, quite close to the Animal Health Research Lab in Park Drive. I had no special comments on the accommodation but I was amused by the washing facilities. After washing a load, I had to peg it out on lines on the roof of the 2-storey building. The clothes stood out at right angles in the stiff breeze. October in Melbourne is windy. In fact not long after arriving some fine grit was blown into my eye and could not be persuaded to come out. A visit to an eye specialist fixed it, however. He was a Tom Spring, a relative of Denver Spring who was a neighbour of ours at Templestowe. It was my first visit to an "eye man". He moved rapidly between 2 or even 3 rooms with patients, attending quickly and letting nurses take care of any less skilful tasks. I am sure he was making a fortune. On my way back to Parkville in a taxi, I remarked on my eye problem and the driver said-"Its that time of the year when we get those equilateral gales". So I guess instead of, say, the vernal "equinox" he would put the vernal "equilat"! Getting back to the washing, or what was left of it, my singlets had mostly disappeared into the gardens of nearby Parkville houses, but I salvaged some shirts and underwear, and didn't use the roof again for drying.
I had the address of someone at Balwyn and went to look over his house with a view to renting it. The house was not suitable, although handy to transport, but the owner told me of a development at far away Blackburn of three bedroom houses built by a L. Wall. Actually it was at South Blackburn, on the very fringe of suburban development in that direction at that time. To shorten a long story we followed this up and eventually bought the brand new 10 Hone Avenue house for about 4500 pounds. This was made possible by a mortgage plus the sale of 44 Rhyndarra St. While we awaited completion of the house we rented another house from a Mr Bishop in Wanbrow Ave, North Balwyn. I travelled to Parkville by bus along Belmore Rd to the Harp Hotel, and then by tram to the city and tram to Flemington Rd and Park Drive. Later I had rides from John Bingley who lived close by. We moved into the 10 Hone Avenue house just on Christmas with very high temperatures, and something wrong with the refrigerator. This was a blow to us, as we needed to keep the milk for baby Ainsley. There were no screens on the windows and the summer blowflies visited in numbers.
Many vicissitudes followed in that house although we stayed there for 14 years, which now seems unbelievable.
After some time we were able to pick up a car, a Ford Prefect, at Melford, courtesy of Papa Manson and probably the sale of the Flying Standard that we had owned in Brisbane. We were now mobile in our own right. Not long after we had become established Eva Shovelton who was a first cousin of mine, contacted us. She was the daughter of Dad's eldest brother, James. I do not believe they ever met, as James had left home before Dad was born, and he was not very welcome to return, apparently. He was referred to as the "black sheep" of the family. Eva had seen a photo of Marcia and Graham in the Women’s Weekly taken on the patio at Rhyndarra St., with caption identifying them and indicating that they were moving to Melbourne. The same photos were used in the Victorian issue. We saw a lot of Eva over the years, and she was kind to us in many ways. She was fond of the children, and found ready ears for her travel stories of which she had a library full. I am sorry I did record the pieces of genealogy that she told us, but it was not always clear just whom she really meant when she said, "I can see him coming down the road", or, "I was only a little girl when I last saw him". The "him" could have been James, her father or, James's father or his grandfather all of whom were in Melbourne at some time. Actually the information gained from Eva gave us the realisation that after all we were not always a Brisbane family, but had our origins in Victoria. In fact, most of Dad’s siblings were born in Victoria, and only Reg and Dad were born in Brisbane. Eva was not the only relative to overuse pronouns, we knew at least one other, and it was hilarious trying to figure just who was the subject of the story every time we visited. We also met a relative of the Cribbs, one Edith Green, who lived in one of the streets in Canterbury parallel to Monomeath. Edith was a pleasant spinster who lived with a companion, and we spent some time visiting her in these early years. It was an area full of large homes and larger gardens. It is interesting that long after, one of us, namely Ainsley, would live in that area. We became friendly with a couple who lived in Holland Road about a mile away from Hone Avenue, Peter and Joan Cooper. Whether this came about because of Brian Coulls who lived near them and was friendly with them, I cannot remember. Brian had been in my year at Adelaide Uni, and we had played golf and tennis together during those years. Getting back to Peter and Joan, we stayed friendly, and have visited them on return trips to Melbourne. Peter had done some training under Uncle Jack Manson in the Bank of New South Wales, and Joan had been very friendly with Valerie Black in Perth, a girl whose father once worked with Dad in the Cable company, and whom we met in Sydney at a boarding house, and both Dick and I believed we were in love with her. We were about 7 and 9 at the time.
The year that followed was Melbourne Olympic Year, 1956. This and following years became indelibly etched on Marcia's mind. The daily grind, apart from shopping, consisted of the walk to deliver one child to kindergarten and return pushing the other. This was repeated in reverse later in the day. This involved a round trip of 2 miles each time making a total of 4 miles for the day. This was day in, day out. When Graham was ready for school, Ainsley was ready for kinder. Later, Robyn's attendance had to be considered. I would prefer Marc to write about her days, but the paper may not be sufficiently flame proof to stand up to it. All joking aside, Marc did a sterling job with little complaint, and yet her tasks were many and not easy. Youth was on her side, but when one sees the mother of today with their cars calling at kinder or school, one realises how much easier it is for them.
The early years at work were a challenge. It was interesting, even exciting for me, but not quite what I had expected. I had pictured working alongside the great, getting advice, tips, philosophy, stories of the great, and the usual encouragement! Almost none of this occurred, and I was expected to be able to work it all out myself, once being admonished by "You are a Research Officer, you work it out". This was alien to me. At Yeerongpilly those in charge encouraged the young, and there was a more companionable atmosphere. I struggled with the Parkville attitude for years before the mentors changed for the better. I felt the need for increased qualifications, so I worked towards a Master's degree. Fortunately after some problem with the powers that be I was able to use the work I was doing as the material for the thesis. Had I not been able to, there would have been no Master's degree, as those up above would not have allowed me the time or materials to do work outside CSIRO requirements. Part of the trouble was the large gap in age between those in charge (Gregory, Bull and Turner) and the few of my age, together with their possession of Veterinary rather than Science degrees. The attitude of older veterinarians to degrees in Science gradually improved over the years.
The Adelaide Master's degree consisted of an exam on a large reading course and a thesis describing original work. This meant that while the children were young I spent much time at home on the reading of books for the set course as well as the journals for my own research. I also spent time on collating the results of research, and very little time helping Marcia. I do not think I realised when I took on the MSc, how much strain this would be for Marcia. Even though the extra degree helped me in some ways, it did not move me up the pay scales any faster, and as a family we did not see the benefits of all the extra work. It is greatly to Marcia’s credit that she does not bring up this subject.
Today’s graduates are expected to have done a Ph.D. before attempting to get a job in research. Presumably those who marry during the three years that are usually involved could go through the same troubled times.
Number 10 Hone Avenue is situated on the south western corner of Hone Avenue and School St. There may be a change of name required for the latter as there is no longer a school at the end of the street. It was a point in favour of buying the house that Graham and Ainsley would be able to walk safely and easily to school. Many other residents of the street had young families. The roads were unsealed and had no gutters, other than those formed by running water. One of the activities that brought together many of the residents was the need to get the gutters made and the road sealed. We formed working bees and dug gutters and under the eye of Frank Barnes (engineer) drained the bottom of the slope. A committee was formed to approach the council to request the road to be made. This was a “private road” and although the cost of roadmaking would be subsidised, there was a charge on each occupant for this. At 450 pounds this was quite hefty considering that represented about half the average wage in the street per annum. Fortunately it could be paid off in instalments, and it was a time of full employment.
For some time after obtaining a car we parked it inside the front yard where double gates had been provided and there was room for it on the lawn in an area set aside for a carport. However as the winters came, there were some disadvantages. Frosty nights left ice all over the car which had to be removed before going to work. The cold engine was also hard to start and excessive use of the battery tended to run it down quickly. Rain, too, provided hazards. I can recall going through the first steps of ice removal and engine start, only to find the ground was too soft for the tyres to grip and hence it was necessary to push the car backwards out into the street. Even the street became a trap. Once I was pushing someone else’s car down the hill to start it only to find my gum boot firmly gripped by the mud and my leg walking out of it onto the road and into the mud. We could hardly wait for the road to be made.
Describing the effects of mud leads me back to the sanitary provisions, unbelievable as it is today. Adequate sewerage or septic was not available to us in the early days and we had an outside toilet or EC (earth closet). There was no path from the back steps out to the toilet and I now cringe as I picture poor Mama Manson on a wet winter morning trying to keep balance on the entirely inadequate duckboards laid down to facilitate a dry trip to the loo. She and others could easily have lost balance and ended a great friendship. As time went on we installed septic which was satisfactory, and at the time of the roadmaking the sewerage was put on, to our sighs of relief at finally getting the major infrastructure in place.
Reverting to the car being parked in the open in the front yard, we saw the need for a garage. One girl at work was Margot Bundy whose father was a builder. We employed him to build us a garage in the back yard and provide a gap in the fence for access. He put up the frame, window, doors and roof and showed me how to do the weatherboard cladding. As it happened, Dad and Mum came down from Brisbane at this stage and Dad helped me to apply all the cladding and to paint the whole structure. As a matter of fact I enjoyed this because we had so few opportunities to do such things together. The necessary money for the garage was about 110 pounds. I did not have that much so had to borrow. As it happened, just prior to this our organisation CSIRO had started a Credit Society to provide loans (and allow for investments) in such situations. I joined and my membership number is 74, showing how timely it was for us. Nowadays the membership would be in the tens of thousands. Although we had a dirt floor in the garage for quite some time, it was an absolute pleasure to get into a dry car in mid-winter and have it start at the first turn. Also, of course, the paint was protected from the strong summer sun, which tended to oxidise the paint and produce a chalky feeling. Today’s paints are more resistant to the sun.
This long period from 1955 to 1965 saw the growing up of the first two children and the addition of our third, Robyn. Graham was three years and six months old and Ainsley 6 months old when we moved into 10 Hone Avenue from Wanbrow Ave., North Balwyn. When we left the house they were 14 years older. Through the period there were other children in the street to play with and Marcia encouraged them to come to our house. Our place was fenced and had no pool (few did in those days) so the children were safe without constant supervision that was useful when Robyn was young and required much attention. Their activities consisted of the usual games and use of prams and dolls, pedal cars, tricycles and the ultimate a bicycle. Oddly neither of the girls seemed to desire a bike, and anyway in those days and in those economic times a bike usually did not come before about 13 years of age. In a very praiseworthy effort Graham took on a job to buy his bike. It was second hand from Bob Campbell-Brown.
Having other children in to play meant that garden and toys suffered more wear and tear they would have, if reserved for our own use. Constant biscuit baking and cordial supplies were also necessary. The lad opposite had an unfortunate ability to render unserviceable at least one toy per visit. Perhaps he was blessed with an enquiring mind. His sister, too, normally docile and pleasant occasionally performed nearly as well as her brother. In our garden I had planted a Washington Navel orange tree. This tree was nurtured over several years in which flowers came, but sadly fruit did not set. One year, one orange formed. What joy! It was encouraged to grow to maturity without a blemish on its beautiful orange skin. We planned to share the orange, when absolutely ripe, among the family, an event to look forward to. One evening when clearing up from the results of various activities, I saw on the ground some orange peel. I was irritated that someone could be so untidy, and put it in the bin. Imagine when a little later I glanced at the orange tree and failed to see our orange. I found out that this little /#@((!@#$ blank blank had taken and eaten our only orange, and without even feeling guilty enough to hide the peel. The tree never did produce another orange.
Our back garden retained several apple trees from the original orchard but it was hard to recover any without codling moth. We planted a cherry that did not bear fruit and a triple grafted apple that did. There was a nectarine grafted on to a peach, but despite our care the crops did not repay us. The soil was deep and black and grew vegetables and flowers well and Marcia did a lot in the garden when she had time.
As an exercise in “handymanship” I built a brick incinerator. At this time we could burn off flammable material in our own yards. It functioned well and looked the part for some years. It did not, however, withstand the fires built in it by the cleaning firm who rented the house when we were in Turkey. It must have been really hot at times, as cracks had appeared not only in the mortar but also in the bricks themselves. Also in the backyard was a strip of concrete that kept the firewood dry and formed the base of a compost heap, to which I constantly attended. For some reason I like to meddle with compost, with its dark, earthy, damp and coherent feeling. It just seems to be so highly nutritious that the plants will leap out of the ground as you apply it.
I put up two posts to support a horizontal bar in the backyard to encourage gymnastic ability in the children, but it wasn’t used much. Trevor Whalley demonstrated elementary gym work on it for Graham’s benefit but suffered for several days afterwards.
In the community of South Blackburn there was a move to have a church. A strong attendance at an Anglican Church was still possible then and we attended as a family. Subsidiary organisations were formed to attract children, CEBS for boys and some other for girls. Graham attended CEBS and got some benefits from it. I think there were camps and gymnastics and other organised games that otherwise he may not have known. The leader was well oriented towards youth work.
At one time a person well placed in the church hierarchy, especially in Missions, was to make an official visit and for some reason we were told off to entertain him to dinner. At an appropriate time before the visit, I explained to Gra and Arny the need to behave well during the dinner and to mind the manners. Ainsley asked me when he was coming, and when I replied “in ten days time”, she said, “Oh good! We have 10 more days to eat rudely in.”
Tennis and cricket appealed to me from an early age and I practised both so much that I had attained sufficient proficiency when in the senior years at TSS to be accepted into top teams in these sports. At university I did not play in competition tennis, but played a lot of singles on days off with classmates. At weekends I played very pleasant social tennis at the home of the Hughes in Adelaide. When I got to Brisbane, the pattern was even better. Social tennis with Marg and Joan Anderson was on most weekends, and when it dropped away, I played in the A Grade Hardcourt Competitions with the Argyll team run by Nowell Taylor, who was also a neighbour later when we moved to Rhyndarra St. Thus it was not unexpected that I would seek to continue with some sport in Melbourne and tennis was the most convenient. Three neighbours, Alan Bennett, Rick Mollison and Rob Westle joined me in playing on Saturday mornings at a court belonging to Westles parents. Later on I joined a group that included parents of a fellow student of Ainsley’s at Strathcona. I played with these folk at a number of different venues; finally at the Presbyterian Ladies College (PLC) courts by virtue of Ian Polmear’s place on a parent’s committee.
For quite a while Peter Cooper and I took off each Saturday morning to play golf, usually at the 9-hole course at Doncaster. Sometimes it was so foggy that the green was not visible from the tee, even though it was a relatively short hole. We also played at other public courses, but the activity stopped when we went overseas in 1966-67.
Apart from sport, church, gardening, shopping and chores, our entertainment was made up of visits to friends, pictures at the “drive in” and going for drives in the country.
The drive in theatres was in many suburbs and catered mostly for families, although courting couples enjoyed them too. The children could watch or curl up and sleep, but in any event were suitable confined, while adults took in the entertainment. It was fairly painless gearing up to go, as one could stay in the car all the way to the viewing spot. However the inevitable Minties that we ate managed to spread their stickiness around the car and especially on the steering wheel to render driving unpleasant to say the least. On arrival home, sleepy children had to be carried all the way to the bed from the car, but were already prepared for bed.
Drives in the car to other parts of Victoria were great. We all enjoyed the motoring although Arny felt motion sickness more that the others. It was best to avoid very curvy roads as we realised when trying to negotiate the Acheron Way near Marysville. Victoria is closely settled and the old towns have some very substantial brick or stone buildings of perhaps 100 years old, dating back to the prosperous days of the gold rushes. It was enjoyable to visit such towns, to look around at the architecture and the gardens, and perhaps have some afternoon tea in the park, on a typical sunny Victorian day! Such activities tended to soothe away the frowns of the previous week in preparation for those of the coming week. These drives took us all over Victoria, particularly to places within the day’s journey from home, there and back. The only problem was that despite the great variety of places to visit, with the routes radiating like a wheel from the city, the first and last parts of the journey had to be the well travelled beginning and end, usually city to home.
These years 1955-1964 in particular were relatively hard. Such a lot fell on Marcia, at first with 2, then 3 children to care for. She had a constant battle with the bleak cold weather and suffered poor health. The children were constantly succumbing to colds in the winter, just from mixing with others who were infected. These infections placed a strain on the family situation. The timber house usually adjusted to the outside temperature so one needed to be near the source of any heat to keep warm. I have to thank the family, especially Marcia, for being so good in these early years, and later too of course. For me, apart from the concern about the family, there was a constant battle to get good original work done and maintain a rate of promotion that would bring in a salary that would relieve our debt. It was slow. For example, on the scale of Research Officer there were 13 annual steps before the next grade. I had joined the scale at step 2, leaving 11 years to reach the top. The annual increments that arrived were not substantial, being about two pounds a week. Dr Turner, my superior, retired about 1958 and there was no replacement until 1961. His departure did not affect me very much as he had offered me almost no help or advice in the whole time I had been there, contrary to my expectations, which were in line with usual practice. Dr Richard Hudson, an English veterinarian with much “hands on” experience in Africa was appointed to lead the section. He proved to be a just and wise leader, although he also held himself aloof from the staff to some extent. This attitude did improve somewhat with time. Jim Whittem became O-I-C, and these two appointments changed my life for the better. One of the most difficult aspects of working on an unusual area (and being the only one in Australia working on that area) was simply the isolation from others with the same interest and the difficulties surrounding transfer of information especially if you had not met the other workers. Some were reluctant to tell you of progress in case you gained an advantage over them. Often this attitude would evaporate once you had met and chatted with them.
We did play host to a number of visitors to our laboratory and Professor Henry Adler, who worked with M. gallisepticum and turkey sinusitis, came for a sabbatical for nearly a year. One worker came from Moredun where he worked with Stamp. Such visits were of value, but they also took up a lot of time at work and also part of our leisure time, as we felt it necessary to provide some hospitality just as they would have done in a reverse situation, and indeed we usually enjoyed doing so.
While this period at work was one of struggle and consolidation, at home it was the period of growth and development of those precious gifts, our children. (We did on some occasions, not value them so highly). Hindsight is well developed in the old because it is essentially looking back over the years of experience. Unfortunately it was not given to the parents of young children. This is one major fault in the design of humankind. By definition new parents start out with no experience in child rearing, unless they have been the elders of several siblings. Also each new book on the subject puts forward a variation on the theme which may be acceptable for some years or may quickly be superceded. Even though we tried our best we, like most parents, realise that we made mistakes. For this we are very sorry, and these often come back to haunt us. We have not been pardoned, except by seeing how well our children seem to have coped. We certainly gave them as much love as was available at the time, this being the rock, allegedly, on which good parenting was built.
Family gatherings such as birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day and so on are special days when the children are young. Their actions, responses to gifts or their attempts to follow the traditions of these days are all delightful to watch. The sayings of the young can be beautiful at any time, even though they may not reproduce well out of context. One sibling will had a special name for another, usually because the younger cannot pronounce the name of the older, but its time runs out and the name may be changed without notice. Because of the circumstances that led to my writing weekly to Mother when Rob was young, some of her pronouncements have been recorded. For example, when discussing the proposed trip to Miami in 1964, Rob at the age of 3 said, “My Father is taking me to Mee Meeoww.” She also had taken on a saying from Gra and could be heard muttering to herself, such things as “Flamin’ wops, my bike hurt me!”
We were very sad to leave our families. Dad and Mum had left Adelaide, which they liked, to be with us and any grandchildren that might eventuate. They had settled near us in a good house. Sadly it was in a very poor situation and they probably would have lived elsewhere had it not been for that proximity. I always felt sad about this although Mum lived on in the house even after Dad died and long after we left. Fortunately Norm eventually found a unit at Clayfield for her that was nearer to him and Gwen. This suited Mum very much as it was near transport and even though she was growing old; she was active and went to town quite often.
Similarly, leaving the Mansons was a blow especially for Marcia. She had decided to delay leaving until I had found some accommodation before coming with the children, Graham 3 years and 4 months and Ainsley 4 months. Sadly Marc was suffering from a physical problem that with hindsight was probably hepatitis. The move did not help this condition, and I feel she has suffered subsequently from moving before she was quite healthy. You could say that for Marc almost everything about the move was almost a disaster but she put a brave face on it all and she always has, and was very loyal.
The little house that Jim Clarey had built just for us at 44 Rhyndarra St., Yeronga was hard to leave, and indeed we have often driven there especially during visits to see it once again, because it was so meaningful for us. It suited the Mansons to move into the house as they were between houses at the time, and this softened the blow of leaving. Eventually they would sell it for us.
Farewells at work by staff were very touching and made us both feel that they had accepted us very well during our period of 6 years there. We made some lifetime friends there,
In early October 1955 I left for Melbourne by air. If I may digress here, there was a rule in the Public Service and CSIRO that when an employee entered CSIRO there must be continuous employment, that is he should leave his job one day and on the next day begin at the new job, with no gap in between. This was to preserve superannuation benefits and long service leave in particular. The employer being the government, ie. a group of bureaucrats, such rules had to be carried out to the letter. Today I venture to say the attitude would be more flexible, no doubt as a consequence of the executives themselves being much less rigid when it came to their own requirements.
I took a room at the Royal Hotel at Parkville, quite close to the Animal Health Research Lab in Park Drive. I had no special comments on the accommodation but I was amused by the washing facilities. After washing a load, I had to peg it out on lines on the roof of the 2-storey building. The clothes stood out at right angles in the stiff breeze. October in Melbourne is windy. In fact not long after arriving some fine grit was blown into my eye and could not be persuaded to come out. A visit to an eye specialist fixed it, however. He was a Tom Spring, a relative of Denver Spring who was a neighbour of ours at Templestowe. It was my first visit to an "eye man". He moved rapidly between 2 or even 3 rooms with patients, attending quickly and letting nurses take care of any less skilful tasks. I am sure he was making a fortune. On my way back to Parkville in a taxi, I remarked on my eye problem and the driver said-"Its that time of the year when we get those equilateral gales". So I guess instead of, say, the vernal "equinox" he would put the vernal "equilat"! Getting back to the washing, or what was left of it, my singlets had mostly disappeared into the gardens of nearby Parkville houses, but I salvaged some shirts and underwear, and didn't use the roof again for drying.
I had the address of someone at Balwyn and went to look over his house with a view to renting it. The house was not suitable, although handy to transport, but the owner told me of a development at far away Blackburn of three bedroom houses built by a L. Wall. Actually it was at South Blackburn, on the very fringe of suburban development in that direction at that time. To shorten a long story we followed this up and eventually bought the brand new 10 Hone Avenue house for about 4500 pounds. This was made possible by a mortgage plus the sale of 44 Rhyndarra St. While we awaited completion of the house we rented another house from a Mr Bishop in Wanbrow Ave, North Balwyn. I travelled to Parkville by bus along Belmore Rd to the Harp Hotel, and then by tram to the city and tram to Flemington Rd and Park Drive. Later I had rides from John Bingley who lived close by. We moved into the 10 Hone Avenue house just on Christmas with very high temperatures, and something wrong with the refrigerator. This was a blow to us, as we needed to keep the milk for baby Ainsley. There were no screens on the windows and the summer blowflies visited in numbers.
Many vicissitudes followed in that house although we stayed there for 14 years, which now seems unbelievable.
After some time we were able to pick up a car, a Ford Prefect, at Melford, courtesy of Papa Manson and probably the sale of the Flying Standard that we had owned in Brisbane. We were now mobile in our own right. Not long after we had become established Eva Shovelton who was a first cousin of mine, contacted us. She was the daughter of Dad's eldest brother, James. I do not believe they ever met, as James had left home before Dad was born, and he was not very welcome to return, apparently. He was referred to as the "black sheep" of the family. Eva had seen a photo of Marcia and Graham in the Women’s Weekly taken on the patio at Rhyndarra St., with caption identifying them and indicating that they were moving to Melbourne. The same photos were used in the Victorian issue. We saw a lot of Eva over the years, and she was kind to us in many ways. She was fond of the children, and found ready ears for her travel stories of which she had a library full. I am sorry I did record the pieces of genealogy that she told us, but it was not always clear just whom she really meant when she said, "I can see him coming down the road", or, "I was only a little girl when I last saw him". The "him" could have been James, her father or, James's father or his grandfather all of whom were in Melbourne at some time. Actually the information gained from Eva gave us the realisation that after all we were not always a Brisbane family, but had our origins in Victoria. In fact, most of Dad’s siblings were born in Victoria, and only Reg and Dad were born in Brisbane. Eva was not the only relative to overuse pronouns, we knew at least one other, and it was hilarious trying to figure just who was the subject of the story every time we visited. We also met a relative of the Cribbs, one Edith Green, who lived in one of the streets in Canterbury parallel to Monomeath. Edith was a pleasant spinster who lived with a companion, and we spent some time visiting her in these early years. It was an area full of large homes and larger gardens. It is interesting that long after, one of us, namely Ainsley, would live in that area. We became friendly with a couple who lived in Holland Road about a mile away from Hone Avenue, Peter and Joan Cooper. Whether this came about because of Brian Coulls who lived near them and was friendly with them, I cannot remember. Brian had been in my year at Adelaide Uni, and we had played golf and tennis together during those years. Getting back to Peter and Joan, we stayed friendly, and have visited them on return trips to Melbourne. Peter had done some training under Uncle Jack Manson in the Bank of New South Wales, and Joan had been very friendly with Valerie Black in Perth, a girl whose father once worked with Dad in the Cable company, and whom we met in Sydney at a boarding house, and both Dick and I believed we were in love with her. We were about 7 and 9 at the time.
The year that followed was Melbourne Olympic Year, 1956. This and following years became indelibly etched on Marcia's mind. The daily grind, apart from shopping, consisted of the walk to deliver one child to kindergarten and return pushing the other. This was repeated in reverse later in the day. This involved a round trip of 2 miles each time making a total of 4 miles for the day. This was day in, day out. When Graham was ready for school, Ainsley was ready for kinder. Later, Robyn's attendance had to be considered. I would prefer Marc to write about her days, but the paper may not be sufficiently flame proof to stand up to it. All joking aside, Marc did a sterling job with little complaint, and yet her tasks were many and not easy. Youth was on her side, but when one sees the mother of today with their cars calling at kinder or school, one realises how much easier it is for them.
The early years at work were a challenge. It was interesting, even exciting for me, but not quite what I had expected. I had pictured working alongside the great, getting advice, tips, philosophy, stories of the great, and the usual encouragement! Almost none of this occurred, and I was expected to be able to work it all out myself, once being admonished by "You are a Research Officer, you work it out". This was alien to me. At Yeerongpilly those in charge encouraged the young, and there was a more companionable atmosphere. I struggled with the Parkville attitude for years before the mentors changed for the better. I felt the need for increased qualifications, so I worked towards a Master's degree. Fortunately after some problem with the powers that be I was able to use the work I was doing as the material for the thesis. Had I not been able to, there would have been no Master's degree, as those up above would not have allowed me the time or materials to do work outside CSIRO requirements. Part of the trouble was the large gap in age between those in charge (Gregory, Bull and Turner) and the few of my age, together with their possession of Veterinary rather than Science degrees. The attitude of older veterinarians to degrees in Science gradually improved over the years.
The Adelaide Master's degree consisted of an exam on a large reading course and a thesis describing original work. This meant that while the children were young I spent much time at home on the reading of books for the set course as well as the journals for my own research. I also spent time on collating the results of research, and very little time helping Marcia. I do not think I realised when I took on the MSc, how much strain this would be for Marcia. Even though the extra degree helped me in some ways, it did not move me up the pay scales any faster, and as a family we did not see the benefits of all the extra work. It is greatly to Marcia’s credit that she does not bring up this subject.
Today’s graduates are expected to have done a Ph.D. before attempting to get a job in research. Presumably those who marry during the three years that are usually involved could go through the same troubled times.
Number 10 Hone Avenue is situated on the south western corner of Hone Avenue and School St. There may be a change of name required for the latter as there is no longer a school at the end of the street. It was a point in favour of buying the house that Graham and Ainsley would be able to walk safely and easily to school. Many other residents of the street had young families. The roads were unsealed and had no gutters, other than those formed by running water. One of the activities that brought together many of the residents was the need to get the gutters made and the road sealed. We formed working bees and dug gutters and under the eye of Frank Barnes (engineer) drained the bottom of the slope. A committee was formed to approach the council to request the road to be made. This was a “private road” and although the cost of roadmaking would be subsidised, there was a charge on each occupant for this. At 450 pounds this was quite hefty considering that represented about half the average wage in the street per annum. Fortunately it could be paid off in instalments, and it was a time of full employment.
For some time after obtaining a car we parked it inside the front yard where double gates had been provided and there was room for it on the lawn in an area set aside for a carport. However as the winters came, there were some disadvantages. Frosty nights left ice all over the car which had to be removed before going to work. The cold engine was also hard to start and excessive use of the battery tended to run it down quickly. Rain, too, provided hazards. I can recall going through the first steps of ice removal and engine start, only to find the ground was too soft for the tyres to grip and hence it was necessary to push the car backwards out into the street. Even the street became a trap. Once I was pushing someone else’s car down the hill to start it only to find my gum boot firmly gripped by the mud and my leg walking out of it onto the road and into the mud. We could hardly wait for the road to be made.
Describing the effects of mud leads me back to the sanitary provisions, unbelievable as it is today. Adequate sewerage or septic was not available to us in the early days and we had an outside toilet or EC (earth closet). There was no path from the back steps out to the toilet and I now cringe as I picture poor Mama Manson on a wet winter morning trying to keep balance on the entirely inadequate duckboards laid down to facilitate a dry trip to the loo. She and others could easily have lost balance and ended a great friendship. As time went on we installed septic which was satisfactory, and at the time of the roadmaking the sewerage was put on, to our sighs of relief at finally getting the major infrastructure in place.
Reverting to the car being parked in the open in the front yard, we saw the need for a garage. One girl at work was Margot Bundy whose father was a builder. We employed him to build us a garage in the back yard and provide a gap in the fence for access. He put up the frame, window, doors and roof and showed me how to do the weatherboard cladding. As it happened, Dad and Mum came down from Brisbane at this stage and Dad helped me to apply all the cladding and to paint the whole structure. As a matter of fact I enjoyed this because we had so few opportunities to do such things together. The necessary money for the garage was about 110 pounds. I did not have that much so had to borrow. As it happened, just prior to this our organisation CSIRO had started a Credit Society to provide loans (and allow for investments) in such situations. I joined and my membership number is 74, showing how timely it was for us. Nowadays the membership would be in the tens of thousands. Although we had a dirt floor in the garage for quite some time, it was an absolute pleasure to get into a dry car in mid-winter and have it start at the first turn. Also, of course, the paint was protected from the strong summer sun, which tended to oxidise the paint and produce a chalky feeling. Today’s paints are more resistant to the sun.
This long period from 1955 to 1965 saw the growing up of the first two children and the addition of our third, Robyn. Graham was three years and six months old and Ainsley 6 months old when we moved into 10 Hone Avenue from Wanbrow Ave., North Balwyn. When we left the house they were 14 years older. Through the period there were other children in the street to play with and Marcia encouraged them to come to our house. Our place was fenced and had no pool (few did in those days) so the children were safe without constant supervision that was useful when Robyn was young and required much attention. Their activities consisted of the usual games and use of prams and dolls, pedal cars, tricycles and the ultimate a bicycle. Oddly neither of the girls seemed to desire a bike, and anyway in those days and in those economic times a bike usually did not come before about 13 years of age. In a very praiseworthy effort Graham took on a job to buy his bike. It was second hand from Bob Campbell-Brown.
Having other children in to play meant that garden and toys suffered more wear and tear they would have, if reserved for our own use. Constant biscuit baking and cordial supplies were also necessary. The lad opposite had an unfortunate ability to render unserviceable at least one toy per visit. Perhaps he was blessed with an enquiring mind. His sister, too, normally docile and pleasant occasionally performed nearly as well as her brother. In our garden I had planted a Washington Navel orange tree. This tree was nurtured over several years in which flowers came, but sadly fruit did not set. One year, one orange formed. What joy! It was encouraged to grow to maturity without a blemish on its beautiful orange skin. We planned to share the orange, when absolutely ripe, among the family, an event to look forward to. One evening when clearing up from the results of various activities, I saw on the ground some orange peel. I was irritated that someone could be so untidy, and put it in the bin. Imagine when a little later I glanced at the orange tree and failed to see our orange. I found out that this little /#@((!@#$ blank blank had taken and eaten our only orange, and without even feeling guilty enough to hide the peel. The tree never did produce another orange.
Our back garden retained several apple trees from the original orchard but it was hard to recover any without codling moth. We planted a cherry that did not bear fruit and a triple grafted apple that did. There was a nectarine grafted on to a peach, but despite our care the crops did not repay us. The soil was deep and black and grew vegetables and flowers well and Marcia did a lot in the garden when she had time.
As an exercise in “handymanship” I built a brick incinerator. At this time we could burn off flammable material in our own yards. It functioned well and looked the part for some years. It did not, however, withstand the fires built in it by the cleaning firm who rented the house when we were in Turkey. It must have been really hot at times, as cracks had appeared not only in the mortar but also in the bricks themselves. Also in the backyard was a strip of concrete that kept the firewood dry and formed the base of a compost heap, to which I constantly attended. For some reason I like to meddle with compost, with its dark, earthy, damp and coherent feeling. It just seems to be so highly nutritious that the plants will leap out of the ground as you apply it.
I put up two posts to support a horizontal bar in the backyard to encourage gymnastic ability in the children, but it wasn’t used much. Trevor Whalley demonstrated elementary gym work on it for Graham’s benefit but suffered for several days afterwards.
In the community of South Blackburn there was a move to have a church. A strong attendance at an Anglican Church was still possible then and we attended as a family. Subsidiary organisations were formed to attract children, CEBS for boys and some other for girls. Graham attended CEBS and got some benefits from it. I think there were camps and gymnastics and other organised games that otherwise he may not have known. The leader was well oriented towards youth work.
At one time a person well placed in the church hierarchy, especially in Missions, was to make an official visit and for some reason we were told off to entertain him to dinner. At an appropriate time before the visit, I explained to Gra and Arny the need to behave well during the dinner and to mind the manners. Ainsley asked me when he was coming, and when I replied “in ten days time”, she said, “Oh good! We have 10 more days to eat rudely in.”
Tennis and cricket appealed to me from an early age and I practised both so much that I had attained sufficient proficiency when in the senior years at TSS to be accepted into top teams in these sports. At university I did not play in competition tennis, but played a lot of singles on days off with classmates. At weekends I played very pleasant social tennis at the home of the Hughes in Adelaide. When I got to Brisbane, the pattern was even better. Social tennis with Marg and Joan Anderson was on most weekends, and when it dropped away, I played in the A Grade Hardcourt Competitions with the Argyll team run by Nowell Taylor, who was also a neighbour later when we moved to Rhyndarra St. Thus it was not unexpected that I would seek to continue with some sport in Melbourne and tennis was the most convenient. Three neighbours, Alan Bennett, Rick Mollison and Rob Westle joined me in playing on Saturday mornings at a court belonging to Westles parents. Later on I joined a group that included parents of a fellow student of Ainsley’s at Strathcona. I played with these folk at a number of different venues; finally at the Presbyterian Ladies College (PLC) courts by virtue of Ian Polmear’s place on a parent’s committee.
For quite a while Peter Cooper and I took off each Saturday morning to play golf, usually at the 9-hole course at Doncaster. Sometimes it was so foggy that the green was not visible from the tee, even though it was a relatively short hole. We also played at other public courses, but the activity stopped when we went overseas in 1966-67.
Apart from sport, church, gardening, shopping and chores, our entertainment was made up of visits to friends, pictures at the “drive in” and going for drives in the country.
The drive in theatres was in many suburbs and catered mostly for families, although courting couples enjoyed them too. The children could watch or curl up and sleep, but in any event were suitable confined, while adults took in the entertainment. It was fairly painless gearing up to go, as one could stay in the car all the way to the viewing spot. However the inevitable Minties that we ate managed to spread their stickiness around the car and especially on the steering wheel to render driving unpleasant to say the least. On arrival home, sleepy children had to be carried all the way to the bed from the car, but were already prepared for bed.
Drives in the car to other parts of Victoria were great. We all enjoyed the motoring although Arny felt motion sickness more that the others. It was best to avoid very curvy roads as we realised when trying to negotiate the Acheron Way near Marysville. Victoria is closely settled and the old towns have some very substantial brick or stone buildings of perhaps 100 years old, dating back to the prosperous days of the gold rushes. It was enjoyable to visit such towns, to look around at the architecture and the gardens, and perhaps have some afternoon tea in the park, on a typical sunny Victorian day! Such activities tended to soothe away the frowns of the previous week in preparation for those of the coming week. These drives took us all over Victoria, particularly to places within the day’s journey from home, there and back. The only problem was that despite the great variety of places to visit, with the routes radiating like a wheel from the city, the first and last parts of the journey had to be the well travelled beginning and end, usually city to home.
These years 1955-1964 in particular were relatively hard. Such a lot fell on Marcia, at first with 2, then 3 children to care for. She had a constant battle with the bleak cold weather and suffered poor health. The children were constantly succumbing to colds in the winter, just from mixing with others who were infected. These infections placed a strain on the family situation. The timber house usually adjusted to the outside temperature so one needed to be near the source of any heat to keep warm. I have to thank the family, especially Marcia, for being so good in these early years, and later too of course. For me, apart from the concern about the family, there was a constant battle to get good original work done and maintain a rate of promotion that would bring in a salary that would relieve our debt. It was slow. For example, on the scale of Research Officer there were 13 annual steps before the next grade. I had joined the scale at step 2, leaving 11 years to reach the top. The annual increments that arrived were not substantial, being about two pounds a week. Dr Turner, my superior, retired about 1958 and there was no replacement until 1961. His departure did not affect me very much as he had offered me almost no help or advice in the whole time I had been there, contrary to my expectations, which were in line with usual practice. Dr Richard Hudson, an English veterinarian with much “hands on” experience in Africa was appointed to lead the section. He proved to be a just and wise leader, although he also held himself aloof from the staff to some extent. This attitude did improve somewhat with time. Jim Whittem became O-I-C, and these two appointments changed my life for the better. One of the most difficult aspects of working on an unusual area (and being the only one in Australia working on that area) was simply the isolation from others with the same interest and the difficulties surrounding transfer of information especially if you had not met the other workers. Some were reluctant to tell you of progress in case you gained an advantage over them. Often this attitude would evaporate once you had met and chatted with them.
We did play host to a number of visitors to our laboratory and Professor Henry Adler, who worked with M. gallisepticum and turkey sinusitis, came for a sabbatical for nearly a year. One worker came from Moredun where he worked with Stamp. Such visits were of value, but they also took up a lot of time at work and also part of our leisure time, as we felt it necessary to provide some hospitality just as they would have done in a reverse situation, and indeed we usually enjoyed doing so.
While this period at work was one of struggle and consolidation, at home it was the period of growth and development of those precious gifts, our children. (We did on some occasions, not value them so highly). Hindsight is well developed in the old because it is essentially looking back over the years of experience. Unfortunately it was not given to the parents of young children. This is one major fault in the design of humankind. By definition new parents start out with no experience in child rearing, unless they have been the elders of several siblings. Also each new book on the subject puts forward a variation on the theme which may be acceptable for some years or may quickly be superceded. Even though we tried our best we, like most parents, realise that we made mistakes. For this we are very sorry, and these often come back to haunt us. We have not been pardoned, except by seeing how well our children seem to have coped. We certainly gave them as much love as was available at the time, this being the rock, allegedly, on which good parenting was built.
Family gatherings such as birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day and so on are special days when the children are young. Their actions, responses to gifts or their attempts to follow the traditions of these days are all delightful to watch. The sayings of the young can be beautiful at any time, even though they may not reproduce well out of context. One sibling will had a special name for another, usually because the younger cannot pronounce the name of the older, but its time runs out and the name may be changed without notice. Because of the circumstances that led to my writing weekly to Mother when Rob was young, some of her pronouncements have been recorded. For example, when discussing the proposed trip to Miami in 1964, Rob at the age of 3 said, “My Father is taking me to Mee Meeoww.” She also had taken on a saying from Gra and could be heard muttering to herself, such things as “Flamin’ wops, my bike hurt me!”
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