The inside walls of our old house on Misery were made of wattle and daub. That's wattle sticks covered with clay. We used to whitewash them now and again to keep them clean. The floors were bare boards, no estapol or polish or anything. We had roo skin rugs here and there. But it was still bloody cold in the wintertime. The house on Misery only had three rooms. The kitchen, Mum and Dad's bedroom, and the only other room was the dining, lounge, and everything else. There was just the one armchair in the lounge room and Mum or Dad used to sit in that. Us kids sat on the floor or at the table. I reckon we were lucky, though. We had everything we needed. We had enough to eat, even if it was just a fried scone for dinner. We had clothes to wear, even if they were patched and worn. We were happy and we were healthy and we had each other, and that's all we really needed. It doesn't do you any harm to go without. It makes you appreicate the important things. I reckon I had the best upbringing any kid could have. And I'm grateful.
I remember when I was a kid on Misery, Dad was away a lot of the time, shearing or rabbiting. He'd only come home once a week or fortnight. With Dad being away so much I was running the bloody farm by the time I was ten. Doing the ploughing, milking the cows, looking after the poddy calves, fencing, breaking in horses, carting water, chopping firewood and all the other jobs that had to be done. Mum had a lot of work to do, too. I can't recall her ever sitting down doing nothing. Me eldest sister, Marie, was making the bread for the family when she was only seven or eight. It was a hard life but a good one. Life on the farm is what you make it, and we made it fun. I was always doing something stupid but it didn't matter as long as you got a laugh out of it. We used to have great fun. Mum would always read us Cowboy Charlie comics of a night. Or we'd play hide and seek, but there weren't many places to hide cos the house wasn't real big. We'd play cards as well. We never had a bed time. We could please our bloody selves when we went to bed. The little fellas went to bed when they got tired and we went to bed whenever we wanted to. Mum and Dad didn't give a bugger as long as we were up at daylight the next morning. Sometimes we'd sit up playing cards till all hours. No wonder I've got trouble sleeping now. We always had to do what we were told but I don't remember ever being told to go to bed. |
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May 2016
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