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[Page 51]
she was at high school, Eadie was at Earlwood School, and there was Ray and Dick when they were not away shearing, and there was Archibald who was married with 2 little girls Marie and Lorraine. They lived in Marrickville with Ann's mother Mrs Jacobs and Arch was a moulder.
Christmas came and we all had a very lovely Christmas at Earlwood. After the celebrations were over and we had some free days, we went to North Sydney and Ray met the Young family and they said to him "you take great care of that girl, she is just like one of the family as we had her from 18 months old till she was almost 9, so she is more or less our baby". They were lovely people the whole family.
The next person Ray had to meet was my grandmother, so we went to see her one night for dinner as I am back at work now and with the shearing getting very hard to get Ray was not working. Well we arrived at gran's and Ray got the shock of his life when he saw her, when she opened the front door she filled the doorway up, as the saying goes she was as broad as she was high, only 4 foot something, she was only up to my shoulders. But she was a dear lady, and she told Ray quite a bit of my parents and said she wished they had never broke up. Now your the one she said to Ray. "You see and look after her and don't you give her a hard time or you will have to answer to me". It came time for us to go and gran told Ray she liked what she has seen and not to let her first impressions fail her impressions. So Ray asked me after the meeting with gran, "now what about your mother?" I said "forget it, she has never really worried herself over me, so I am not worried over her. We have to make our own life". Then I said to him "we will have to get married very soon, we can not put it off any longer". So when we got back to Aunty Pegs that night I told her and she understood, so the next weekend when I went to Earlwood Ray's mother had made all the arrangements with the family for me to go to their place and live.
The next thing Ray and I were married in the Methodist Church Vestuary at Marrickville with Dick Menzies as one witness and Ray's mother the other witness. My father and stepmother would not come, all dad said to me was I wanted you to be dressed as a bride and have a lovely church wedding, so you have hurt me once again. I said to him we will be alright and I will be a good wife and mother. So now I am Mrs Raymond Wood, and we had a little flat in Marrickville but this was not for long as the Great Depression hit Australia.
Although I was still working for E.M.M. Co. out at Zetland, Ray could not get work and now Dick could not get work either, so there bank balances were going down, so they applied for welfare. The next one to be affected in the family was olive, the hat trade faded very quickly, and she was put off from David Jones, but she was lucky in a way as she seemed to get enough work to do at home. Then the next one to get put off work was Jessie, she too was able to get work to do at home with her a dressmaker, then Albert is put off. He bought a couple of machines from David Jones and he thought he too may be able to do some work at home. Now Lillian was working at the office at David Jones and only being a junior she was kept on. It came time for me to leave work so I was busy making my babies clothes, knitting etc. and Ray and I