Jackie And I
Without Prejudice
Joyce was the first sister but she didn't live with us and was much older, 2 or 3 years older than Ian, she became very glamorous, a cabaret singer, like my Dad. She lived in Scotland then, when Jackie and I were little. My Mum and Dad wanted her with us, my Dad's daughter from a previous marriage, but Grandma Bruckshaw didn't want her to go, she had been looking after her a while then. But we knew all about her and accepted the fact, gladly, the more the merrier in my family. Next came Jackie, Jacqueline Anne, and me Janette Lucille, 4 years later,then 14 years later a surprise to everyone, Helen Lorraine.
But Jackie and I were always the two only sisters while we were growing up. I was already going out on the town just about when Helen was born. And she was a tiny Flower Girl of 15 months when Jackie got married. So it was just Jac and I. She was 9 when I started school and was Miss Bossy Britches, big time. She saw me as a whingeing annoying little dweeb and even though I didn't want to go, my parents insisted she take me everywhere. Her friends and her way in front of me and me saying,
"Wait up", running after them as fast as my little legs would carry me. Jackie, annoyed at having to wait for me.
We didn't get along well. Jackie was the dutiful daughter and I was the shy awkward one. We clashed non stop and I preferred the boys company, they weren't always criticizing me. We did share some things though. Our love of books, as soon as Jackie would finish one, I would pick it up. What Katy Did, Little Women, What Katy Did Next, Enid Blyton with her stories of girls in boarding schools, midnight feasts of pork pies and sugary crusty krullers. We joined in the hockey games in our minds, Jolly sticks and all that and we would walk around in costume sometimes, reciting poetry. In strange accents, scottish mostly.
Jackie hated school and I loved it. I could read and write before I went and sailed through everything, maths, english, history, athletics, swimming,music. Everything was a challenge a had to be conquered. And I had to be best. Jackie too, she had to be best. She was groomed to be the Singer and had the most powerful voice you ever heard. I was terrible at singing so I was the "Writer" of stories, mimicking Jamie who had gone before me. But I was a better speller.
Jackie would take me to nursery school from the Hostel, walking and stumbling over rocks on the railway line, a terrifying place to cross. And I would cry the whole way, Jackie pulling at my hand and urging me on. I hated Nursery School, I hated being away from my Mum, I must have been three. Jackie was always in a hurry to drop me off and get to her school and I would stand at the fence and cry when she left. George was there too but he was a horror. Hyperactive and rude and much to my parents chagrin, he was kicked out of Nursery School.
I was another problem in that I would be quietly stubborn, refusing to use a potty, dumb baby thing, I was used to a toilet and My Mum had to there and sort it out. I couldn't have milk either as I hated it, so was allowed orange juice, instead. My parents were helicopter parents before the term was even discovered.They wanted to know everything about our lives. They made us pick up books before we could walk, had long and lengthy discussions with us about the War, good times, bad times, they told us of our Scottish and British heritage. How Grandma Bruckshaw was a McKenzie from the McKenzie CLAN. We thrilled to this and Dad fell in love with the tune a "Scottish Soldier" by Andy Stewart. Our little Scottish hearts beat with pride to the strains of the lament. And hearts soared when we heard the skirl of the bagpipes, picturing big men in kilts marching in to battle from a Scottish Hill.
And we always sang, like the Von Trapp family we were, drying dishes and singing, cleaning the house and singing. Driving in the car, singing. I never realised that not every family does this, till I was much older. But we would be warbling away to "Mares eat Oats", Gilly Gilly by the Sea, You are My Sunshine, Cavalry. Jackie and I practicing in our shared room of gun metal gray walls. Dad had some left from the Panel shop at the time and used a spray gun and Did the walls. Awful result and Jackie and I were stuck with it. We danced in our room too. Crash Craddock and Chubby Checker first, then Elvis, more Elvis and then Elvis explosion by Jackie and she also loved Cliff Richard.
We went to see Elvis in Blue Hawaii, 15 times, and I could have told you every line of dialogue for years after. She caught me once dancing around in Mum's room (Not allowed) in front of the dressing table mirror using a hairbrush for a microphone, bopping to Acapulco By Elvis. She shrieked with laughter, baitch, and ran to tell the whole family, as I said, baitch. We are still like it now as adults, always looking for that music, the music we share as a canvas or tableau behind our lives. Music dominated our lives and we were never sick of it, ever. Dad was a legend to us the way he could make a guitar weep, his voice strong and musical. I still love the green Green Grass of home the way my Dad sang it. He rehearsed every Sunday without fail, wherever we lived.
He was a perfectionist when it came to music and it wasn't long before Jackie started playing bass guitar, not a popular instrument for women, in those days. And all of a sudden she was "Little Miss Dynamite", mimicking songs by Helen Shapiro and Brenda Lee and she was fabulous, really fabulous. We were delighted for her ( as academically she was no good, hahahaha--sorry little joke there Jac, ) I just remember we all wanted the same book once, I think a library book of George's, that I had "pinched" out of his room. The battle for ownership between George, Jackie and I got ugly, all of us fierce. Mum and Dad, with the wisdom of Solomon, gave it to me. reasoning I would read it in no time and then the others could have it.
We were always competing at something as all siblings do. Even now when we get together, we play games and the brothers will not give an inch. Standing at the table going "Cheat, Cheat" if I do better than them. When we were kids we played Monopoly, Meccano, cards, swam, ran and drove our parents mad. Jackie left school at 14 after kicking her Maths teacher in the shin. My parents were shocked but she was allowed to leave school early and go to work. She started going out this suddenly glamorous sister of mine. I was so jealous of her pretty "Stage Frocks" and heels. When she really first started singing professionally was when we were living on the Gold Coast. Dad had the Music Shop then and had started jamming with The Maori Hi Five at their restaurant. Jackie soon joined him playing bass to his 3 tier 24 string Hawaiian guitar.
There's photos of Jackie belting out a song and Dad in the background from The Ellenis Days, she's sixteen, you'd never believe it.
Joyce was the first sister but she didn't live with us and was much older, 2 or 3 years older than Ian, she became very glamorous, a cabaret singer, like my Dad. She lived in Scotland then, when Jackie and I were little. My Mum and Dad wanted her with us, my Dad's daughter from a previous marriage, but Grandma Bruckshaw didn't want her to go, she had been looking after her a while then. But we knew all about her and accepted the fact, gladly, the more the merrier in my family. Next came Jackie, Jacqueline Anne, and me Janette Lucille, 4 years later,then 14 years later a surprise to everyone, Helen Lorraine.
But Jackie and I were always the two only sisters while we were growing up. I was already going out on the town just about when Helen was born. And she was a tiny Flower Girl of 15 months when Jackie got married. So it was just Jac and I. She was 9 when I started school and was Miss Bossy Britches, big time. She saw me as a whingeing annoying little dweeb and even though I didn't want to go, my parents insisted she take me everywhere. Her friends and her way in front of me and me saying,
"Wait up", running after them as fast as my little legs would carry me. Jackie, annoyed at having to wait for me.
We didn't get along well. Jackie was the dutiful daughter and I was the shy awkward one. We clashed non stop and I preferred the boys company, they weren't always criticizing me. We did share some things though. Our love of books, as soon as Jackie would finish one, I would pick it up. What Katy Did, Little Women, What Katy Did Next, Enid Blyton with her stories of girls in boarding schools, midnight feasts of pork pies and sugary crusty krullers. We joined in the hockey games in our minds, Jolly sticks and all that and we would walk around in costume sometimes, reciting poetry. In strange accents, scottish mostly.
Jackie hated school and I loved it. I could read and write before I went and sailed through everything, maths, english, history, athletics, swimming,music. Everything was a challenge a had to be conquered. And I had to be best. Jackie too, she had to be best. She was groomed to be the Singer and had the most powerful voice you ever heard. I was terrible at singing so I was the "Writer" of stories, mimicking Jamie who had gone before me. But I was a better speller.
Jackie would take me to nursery school from the Hostel, walking and stumbling over rocks on the railway line, a terrifying place to cross. And I would cry the whole way, Jackie pulling at my hand and urging me on. I hated Nursery School, I hated being away from my Mum, I must have been three. Jackie was always in a hurry to drop me off and get to her school and I would stand at the fence and cry when she left. George was there too but he was a horror. Hyperactive and rude and much to my parents chagrin, he was kicked out of Nursery School.
I was another problem in that I would be quietly stubborn, refusing to use a potty, dumb baby thing, I was used to a toilet and My Mum had to there and sort it out. I couldn't have milk either as I hated it, so was allowed orange juice, instead. My parents were helicopter parents before the term was even discovered.They wanted to know everything about our lives. They made us pick up books before we could walk, had long and lengthy discussions with us about the War, good times, bad times, they told us of our Scottish and British heritage. How Grandma Bruckshaw was a McKenzie from the McKenzie CLAN. We thrilled to this and Dad fell in love with the tune a "Scottish Soldier" by Andy Stewart. Our little Scottish hearts beat with pride to the strains of the lament. And hearts soared when we heard the skirl of the bagpipes, picturing big men in kilts marching in to battle from a Scottish Hill.
And we always sang, like the Von Trapp family we were, drying dishes and singing, cleaning the house and singing. Driving in the car, singing. I never realised that not every family does this, till I was much older. But we would be warbling away to "Mares eat Oats", Gilly Gilly by the Sea, You are My Sunshine, Cavalry. Jackie and I practicing in our shared room of gun metal gray walls. Dad had some left from the Panel shop at the time and used a spray gun and Did the walls. Awful result and Jackie and I were stuck with it. We danced in our room too. Crash Craddock and Chubby Checker first, then Elvis, more Elvis and then Elvis explosion by Jackie and she also loved Cliff Richard.
We went to see Elvis in Blue Hawaii, 15 times, and I could have told you every line of dialogue for years after. She caught me once dancing around in Mum's room (Not allowed) in front of the dressing table mirror using a hairbrush for a microphone, bopping to Acapulco By Elvis. She shrieked with laughter, baitch, and ran to tell the whole family, as I said, baitch. We are still like it now as adults, always looking for that music, the music we share as a canvas or tableau behind our lives. Music dominated our lives and we were never sick of it, ever. Dad was a legend to us the way he could make a guitar weep, his voice strong and musical. I still love the green Green Grass of home the way my Dad sang it. He rehearsed every Sunday without fail, wherever we lived.
He was a perfectionist when it came to music and it wasn't long before Jackie started playing bass guitar, not a popular instrument for women, in those days. And all of a sudden she was "Little Miss Dynamite", mimicking songs by Helen Shapiro and Brenda Lee and she was fabulous, really fabulous. We were delighted for her ( as academically she was no good, hahahaha--sorry little joke there Jac, ) I just remember we all wanted the same book once, I think a library book of George's, that I had "pinched" out of his room. The battle for ownership between George, Jackie and I got ugly, all of us fierce. Mum and Dad, with the wisdom of Solomon, gave it to me. reasoning I would read it in no time and then the others could have it.
We were always competing at something as all siblings do. Even now when we get together, we play games and the brothers will not give an inch. Standing at the table going "Cheat, Cheat" if I do better than them. When we were kids we played Monopoly, Meccano, cards, swam, ran and drove our parents mad. Jackie left school at 14 after kicking her Maths teacher in the shin. My parents were shocked but she was allowed to leave school early and go to work. She started going out this suddenly glamorous sister of mine. I was so jealous of her pretty "Stage Frocks" and heels. When she really first started singing professionally was when we were living on the Gold Coast. Dad had the Music Shop then and had started jamming with The Maori Hi Five at their restaurant. Jackie soon joined him playing bass to his 3 tier 24 string Hawaiian guitar.
There's photos of Jackie belting out a song and Dad in the background from The Ellenis Days, she's sixteen, you'd never believe it.
