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[Page 67]
her their names and without any warning she picked Betty and (she is 10 now) said "come. I will take you to the shop with me", so off she went and I watched them go down the street and kept watching for them coming back. Now I thought she was going down to buy sweets or something for them all or icecream (but no) she only bought Betty one. Well when she came in I said to her:- "if this is what you are going to do you need not bother as you are not going to make fish of one and flesh of the other. I won't have it". So she did stay till Ray came in for tea and luckily it was a cold day and I had a big stew on for tea that night and I would have had a pudding, but I can not remember what, well the time came for Dear Nan as we called her after all that for her to go home and I asked Ray to take her to the bus and he said take her yourself. So I did, but did I have a piece of him when I came back. I have no idea what I said but it was quite a lot.
Well now enough of all that, well by now Merle decided to go and help these people out in the Real Estate shop at Burwood and would you believe when she told me she was taking money to the bank I was so worried about her, but she enjoyed it while she was there. Well Merle is now 15 years 1945. Well they have all had their birthdays now for 1945. Beryl is 13 years. Albert 12 years, Betty 10 years, John 8 years, Margaret 5 years and the baby Yvonne is now 3 years and Christmas all being over once again, school holidays over and Margaret starts school. So now we have one left school. 5 at school Clempton Park. I am now helping Uncle Albert again now with Rugs and all the gear as he is not very well but very able to do the work. Ray was back with Rugs etc. at the Dog tracks, and Merle started work at Will's Tobacco factory for a while and after that she got a job at the woollen mills in Marrickville. Things did not go so well to start with and Ray started up an egg and butter run. It did not last long. I am not sure but he got on to the Canterbury Council somehow. Well that was regular money coming in and believe it or not no drinking and one could set the clock on him coming in at 5p.m. We had this Rugby car and John would say car, car and that is what he called his father for quite some time.
Well I reckon by now we have gone through another year and the children are another year older and their father joined the Buffalo Lodge which was known as the Drunks Lodge. But he did not attend it very much and he joined the Masonic Lodge, he liked it very much and used to attend his meetings regularly. I joined the Ladies Order of the Eastern Star, and Merle and Beryl were in Rainbow. (I guess I was Lodge happy as my Dad was an Orangeman and had gone right through to the last degree and he would not go to Ireland to take it, so I was in the Juveniles Orange Lodge and joined the Ladies at I8 years, but when I married I resigned).
Now Ray had some dog medicines that he used to take to the tracks and sell also and when the Plumpton was on at Rooty Hill he asked Merle if she would make him a black and white sign to take with him. They were B.I.O. dog medicine so she was very good at this. So she made it for him and I used to knit the red and white collars for the dogs to race in. Also doing some work on the rugs not much though as we were notified that the home at Earlwood was up for sale, and we were very sorry about that as we all had plenty of room and the girls had their friends and of course Merles friend Margaret Thomson had a young brother named Jimmy and he and Yvonne were real little lovers. They used to play together so much and they