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[Page 43]
oh it was alright and I was only there a few weeks and my birthday came up on the 29th April 1920. So I am now 9 years old and my stepmother gave me a party and invited all the other cousins as she had 4 sisters.
Aunty Kate she had 2 children, Aunty Mable she had 6 children and Aunty Florrie she had 3 children and of course Aunty Ida, she had 4 in the end. Anyway it was a lovely party and when they all went home I was looking at all my presents and I went to my stepmother and said, "please can I call you mum, I would like to, your very nice to me", and she said she would like that, well that made my father very happy too.
So I am eventually sent to Sunday School (the Methodist) at Rozelle and I enjoyed that, as I used to go to Sunday School at North Sydney, that was Methodist too. Everything is going along fine and we are all getting on and on school holidays I never did go to the Young's as Essie family all used to meet and we would all go to the zoo, Balmoral, or a day at the Botanical Gardens and we children got on very well and enjoyed ourselves, and sometimes we would be taken to the National Park and Dad and Uncle Bill would hire a rowing boat and take us all for rides. Well now I think I have said enough of that, but Hilton Armour and his sister Betty Ottway who are married now and we 3 all still keep in touch.
Well I am still going to Rozelle school and getting to be another year older, and dad is working on the Water Board, and every now and again, not very much, he takes me to see Aunty Nell and Uncle Charlie. Now one day at school the headmistress came to me and said there is a lady out there who says she is your mother and would like to see you, "come with me" she said, off I go with the headmistress, and yes it was my mother. So the headmistress said you can speak with Edith for half and hour as it is lesson time and then you must go Mrs Taylor and Edith must come to my office before she goes back to class. Well my mother told me that she knew where I was and next time she came she would come in the lunch hour, well O.K. So I went to see the headmistress and she said you must tell your father what happened today, and if it is alright for her to come and see you. Well dad said "yes" because he had to allow her to see me at least once a month. So I told the headmistress what dad said, and I heard dad telling Essie all about it, well she said (in their conversation) " we won't be here much longer will we ?" as the house in Campsie is almost ready. So the next time my mother came it was only a few weeks and she took me to a lunch shop or tearooms they were called in those days and told me to put my lunch in a bin. I don't ever remember being in a tea shop before, but I liked it, so back to school after lunch.
In a few more weeks it was my 10th birthday and mother came to see me and took me out to lunch again and we went into a shoe shop and she bought me a pair of white shoes and a pair of black patent leather, and she noticed that I had chewed the elastic on my hat so she bought some elastic for me too. She said goodbye and said she would see me soon. Well when I went home and told Essie what I had (we had a fuel stove at Rozelle) so she opened the lid and made me throw the elastic in and I said the shoes too, no she said you can keep them. So I was waiting for dad to come home from work and when I told him there was the biggest argument I have ever heard, and dad was wild and in his temper pushed a whole lot of fruit