Gone Fishing
Without Prejudice
I have "Gone Fishing" for the Winter. I love that sign hung on a door, "Gone Fishing" it evokes the human need for freshness for lightness for fun and doing nothing much that we all have to heed sometimes.
I have gone North for the Winter, to the sun and sea and fresh air, warmth too. I note every day the weather in Melbourne and am delighted I am here in good weather and the feeling of "wellness" that Queensland gives me.
This week my older Sister is at Camp Eden and my younger brother went last week. I am so glad my family seek "wellness" as I do. If my Mum, Natalie and Dad, Ernest were here which sadly they are not how proud of all of us they would be. An immigrant family that embarked from Scotland and made good. They would be ecstatic.
I am a writer at last, My younger Sister a senior Nurse, older sisiter wealthy and comfortable as are my younger and older brothers and they all live here in Queensland. Ormeau Hills and Redcliffe, Caboolture and my oldest brother lives on a property near Darwin and is retired and successful and happy too. My Mother especially would be proud as she was convinced we were all fantastic and was not scared to say so.
She was the mover and the shaker in the Family and Dad was the happy go lucky funny one. I am not sure who made the final decision to emigrate to Australia after the second world war, in the 50's but we arrived the 14th December 1954 and I would have turned 2 in the September of that year. Number five in an eventual number of 7. We were taught to be elitist and proud of our Scottish and Yorkshire backgrounds.
We were taught bravery and to always have a stiff upper lip like all good little British children. We were not allowed to sook or cry or whinge and not to talk at the table. We had to ask to be excused from the table at all times. No conversation at the table either as all good children were to be seen and not heard. My parents were quite religious in a Presbyterian way and that evolved from the quite strict Scottish upbringing of my Father. His Father a brutal man who had once been a wrestler.
My Dad viewed his upbringing as too strict and brutal so he vowed as a young man to not hit his children or to disrespect them and in that way he was a great Dad. I hardly ever knew my Father to lose his temper but my Mum would. She once clouted him with a hair brush and tipped a bucket of rubbish over him, threw dinner plates at him, full of food. He would just laugh and duck. He adored his Nat. She was snobby and uppity and could devastate others with her wit and tongue. She was what we liked to call a Tartar. And she was a "Genius"
She dressed immaculately with hat and gloves and proper English dresses and suits. She always went to Church with hat and gloves as did my sister and I. And handbag so we could put in them our little coloured stamps with bible phrases on them. We sang at home my Sis and I as we washed dishes and tidied. Songs of praise, Calvary and Onward Christian Soldiers. My oldest brother was a Sunday School teacher and Dad was an Elder in the church in Port Augusta.
We always went for drives after Sunday School as The Sabbath was a day of no work, just enjoyment, spent leisurely, driving in the hot surrounds of Port Augusta. we went to Whyalla and sat on the grass as concerts on the band stand went on. We went crabbing at beaches of mud and ran in parks and wastelands. We were growing up and Mum and Dad wanted us to enjoy every moment of childhood. They also wanted us to excel at everything and encouraged us in sport.
We all swam by the time we were very young. And competed in squads, especially the relay as a Family. Dad would train us and he always carried his stop watch with him and made us better our times, time after time, day after day. At 8 I could swim a mile in the Olympic pool as could all my other sibs. The water at times freezing but in we would go,
I felt like sometimes we needed to chip the ice of the surface of the water. And when the coach at times called out.
"How many laps Bruckshaw? " at me I would always lie and say it was more than what it was.
"23", I would sing out and it was probably 10. But eventually a mile was easy as were the tests we had to do for Lifesaving exams. We also had to do calisthenics in the mid of Winter when the pool was shut. All of us dressed in our warm white tracksuits that Dad had bought us in Sydney. He had one too and for some strange reason he wore a Pith Helmet in the car, he said it was for "pithing" in.
He had a panel beating business, was a Mason, and also entertained, sang and played instruments, mainly guitar, acoustic and Hawaiian. Mum ran a cafe and expected us to help out in the businesses. My oldest brother helped in the Panel Beating business and we all helped out in the cafe with preparation and serving. We were never idle for very long. My parents liked their kids to be busy and there were no excuses when it came to schoolwork.
We read encyclopedias like they were normal fiction books, had to read religious books and dictionaries as well. We were taught to have manners and be polite in conversation and to be interested in what other people were doing. We were shown how to behave and followed. We were not to hang a round with ruffians and we always had each other as company. We became a force to be reckoned with where ever we went. In swimming, in academia, in talent.
We had to be well rounded individuals and competitive, always competitive. I was allowed to get away with murder as I excelled at school and my parents greatly admired that. I was handed my older siblings reading books and told to read them first as I could read like an adult and would be finished quickly. What took the others days would take me minutes and I could speed read by the time I was 6. I was also the "Voice" at all the schools I went to. Reading to others from the age of 6 also.
To be continued .........................
Love Janette
I have "Gone Fishing" for the Winter. I love that sign hung on a door, "Gone Fishing" it evokes the human need for freshness for lightness for fun and doing nothing much that we all have to heed sometimes.
I have gone North for the Winter, to the sun and sea and fresh air, warmth too. I note every day the weather in Melbourne and am delighted I am here in good weather and the feeling of "wellness" that Queensland gives me.
This week my older Sister is at Camp Eden and my younger brother went last week. I am so glad my family seek "wellness" as I do. If my Mum, Natalie and Dad, Ernest were here which sadly they are not how proud of all of us they would be. An immigrant family that embarked from Scotland and made good. They would be ecstatic.
I am a writer at last, My younger Sister a senior Nurse, older sisiter wealthy and comfortable as are my younger and older brothers and they all live here in Queensland. Ormeau Hills and Redcliffe, Caboolture and my oldest brother lives on a property near Darwin and is retired and successful and happy too. My Mother especially would be proud as she was convinced we were all fantastic and was not scared to say so.
She was the mover and the shaker in the Family and Dad was the happy go lucky funny one. I am not sure who made the final decision to emigrate to Australia after the second world war, in the 50's but we arrived the 14th December 1954 and I would have turned 2 in the September of that year. Number five in an eventual number of 7. We were taught to be elitist and proud of our Scottish and Yorkshire backgrounds.
We were taught bravery and to always have a stiff upper lip like all good little British children. We were not allowed to sook or cry or whinge and not to talk at the table. We had to ask to be excused from the table at all times. No conversation at the table either as all good children were to be seen and not heard. My parents were quite religious in a Presbyterian way and that evolved from the quite strict Scottish upbringing of my Father. His Father a brutal man who had once been a wrestler.
My Dad viewed his upbringing as too strict and brutal so he vowed as a young man to not hit his children or to disrespect them and in that way he was a great Dad. I hardly ever knew my Father to lose his temper but my Mum would. She once clouted him with a hair brush and tipped a bucket of rubbish over him, threw dinner plates at him, full of food. He would just laugh and duck. He adored his Nat. She was snobby and uppity and could devastate others with her wit and tongue. She was what we liked to call a Tartar. And she was a "Genius"
She dressed immaculately with hat and gloves and proper English dresses and suits. She always went to Church with hat and gloves as did my sister and I. And handbag so we could put in them our little coloured stamps with bible phrases on them. We sang at home my Sis and I as we washed dishes and tidied. Songs of praise, Calvary and Onward Christian Soldiers. My oldest brother was a Sunday School teacher and Dad was an Elder in the church in Port Augusta.
We always went for drives after Sunday School as The Sabbath was a day of no work, just enjoyment, spent leisurely, driving in the hot surrounds of Port Augusta. we went to Whyalla and sat on the grass as concerts on the band stand went on. We went crabbing at beaches of mud and ran in parks and wastelands. We were growing up and Mum and Dad wanted us to enjoy every moment of childhood. They also wanted us to excel at everything and encouraged us in sport.
We all swam by the time we were very young. And competed in squads, especially the relay as a Family. Dad would train us and he always carried his stop watch with him and made us better our times, time after time, day after day. At 8 I could swim a mile in the Olympic pool as could all my other sibs. The water at times freezing but in we would go,
I felt like sometimes we needed to chip the ice of the surface of the water. And when the coach at times called out.
"How many laps Bruckshaw? " at me I would always lie and say it was more than what it was.
"23", I would sing out and it was probably 10. But eventually a mile was easy as were the tests we had to do for Lifesaving exams. We also had to do calisthenics in the mid of Winter when the pool was shut. All of us dressed in our warm white tracksuits that Dad had bought us in Sydney. He had one too and for some strange reason he wore a Pith Helmet in the car, he said it was for "pithing" in.
He had a panel beating business, was a Mason, and also entertained, sang and played instruments, mainly guitar, acoustic and Hawaiian. Mum ran a cafe and expected us to help out in the businesses. My oldest brother helped in the Panel Beating business and we all helped out in the cafe with preparation and serving. We were never idle for very long. My parents liked their kids to be busy and there were no excuses when it came to schoolwork.
We read encyclopedias like they were normal fiction books, had to read religious books and dictionaries as well. We were taught to have manners and be polite in conversation and to be interested in what other people were doing. We were shown how to behave and followed. We were not to hang a round with ruffians and we always had each other as company. We became a force to be reckoned with where ever we went. In swimming, in academia, in talent.
We had to be well rounded individuals and competitive, always competitive. I was allowed to get away with murder as I excelled at school and my parents greatly admired that. I was handed my older siblings reading books and told to read them first as I could read like an adult and would be finished quickly. What took the others days would take me minutes and I could speed read by the time I was 6. I was also the "Voice" at all the schools I went to. Reading to others from the age of 6 also.
To be continued .........................
Love Janette
