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[Page 53]
told Ray it was lucky that he asked him as it was all going out to the tip, well then we would not have got it as we had no conveyance. That same man came out one Sunday with his wife and they were amazed at what we had done. I would have loved to have had photos of it all but we had no money for such luxuries. I don't know those people's names, but they saw that we were sitting on apple cases for chairs and our table was made from some of the floor boards. But it was clean and we had it comfortable.
Well a big truck pulled up one day and this couple had all kinds of things on it, old chairs, a small table and some material for curtains. Oh it was wonderful, and he told Ray that he had made arrangements for him to go and see the man working on the tram lines next week and take a kerosene tin and he would give him some tar to coat the corn bag linning and when it would be dry to white wash it with calsomine and to put jelly fish in it to make it stick.
Well this is all going on and one night I felt so very tired, I said I must go to bed, well it was 11.00p.m. and I woke up and said to Ray, you best if you can get Arch to go with you and see if you can get a car as the baby is coming. I said please hurry the water has broken and get Anne to see to Merle please. Well he went and they carried me over as I could not walk, the road was known as "Lovers Lane" and there were 2 boys and 2 girls in the car and they were very concerned. They wanted to know where we were going, I said to Kogarah Hospital, it was not very far from there and when we arrived they said they would wait and find out what it is, a boy or girl, so off we go. Ray and Arch still carrying me and I said I hope its born after midnight as today is St Patricks day. Anyway baby was born 2 minutes after midnight, 18 March 1932. Another little girl and my husband said if it was not a boy we would adopt a boy and I of course disagreed on that one. I wanted her called Beryl Jean and when Ray went to register the birth it was Beryl June. I might add they did not have time to get me into the labour ward, she was born on the bed as soon as the two men put me down.
I got on very well and came home 10 days later and Ray had done more work to our home. We were on the dole, but not for very long as in those days the men had to do 2 or 3 days a week on the roads which they called relief work and that way they got a little more than the dole ticket was worth, and every fortnight I had to go to the Town Hall at Rockdale and receive a special food relief ticket because of the young children. Well at first I used to put Beryl in a leather suitcase which we had for her bed, and prop the lid open, it was good really as the lid used to shade her from the sun. Then Ray made her a cot out of 2 apple cases and 4 table legs from the tip and Nanna Wood gave me some material to line it with to prevent splinters This was very good, as the cot Dad made for Merle was big enough for us to use as a Wardrobe with a curtain down the front. We did not have very many clothes in those days, but we got along fine. One day Uncle Albert came out to see us and he being out of work too, he said this is real good, can I come and live with you till I work something out, and of course Ray said yes. So when he went home he told his mother and she said you best take that old sofa out of the garage to sleep on. Well it was not long and Albert was with us, and when the fisherman were pulling their nets in, gosh we got some good fish, prawns,that they did not want, also crabs. Well this was great as we cooked them in the boiler that Nanna gave us