The picture to the left is Oneroa Beach on Waiheke Island, with the Pohutakawa in bloom. Those days in 1943 it would have been so peaceful. Today people commute to Auckland by fast ferry.
They honeymooned on Waiheke Island at Oneroa in the home of Mr & Mrs Bryant. They would later become her
brother Ellis,
parent inlaws. Her brother married their daughter
Shirley
in April 1945. Mum and Dad lived with his
Aunty Ella and Uncle Jack Wilkinson
until they moved in to their place at 7 Ash St Avondale, this was before
Judith was born in Dec 1944.
About 1954 mum went back into the work force.
Kevin the youngest son was only 2 years old.
The photo to the right is of Kevin taken in 1953 when we where living Avondale.
She worked at Corma Mills not far from the Harp of Erin in Mt Roskill. They made socks, shoes, undergarments and clothing. They had a creche for married woman who had children, and of course another incentive was staff transport. Mum was picked up at the bottom of Waitangi road at 7.30am each morning and dropped back about 5pm. Sometimes we would walk down with her in the morning, watch her and Kevin go off in the back of the truck which was disigned for carrying passengers, then in the evening we would wait for them to come home. She also worked at Arthur Lydiard's. Arthur would go on to coach Peter Snell and Murray Halberg at the Olympics. Mum new him from the days at Bridgens, and he had a factory in Penrose making shoes including running shoes. Our parents moved to Hilton place in Glen Innes about 1960, where mum had a job at a cosmetic firm where she stayed till they moved up to Whenuapai and lived in Hobsonville Rd.
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Mum never did get a drivers licence, and had to rely on Dad or the buses, she walk a lot to and from work. If mum wanted to go somewhere and Dad didn't, she never went. I suppose that is why she could never get over to see her parents or her brothers family as much as she wanted. It was nearly 3 hours return on the buses to Blockhouse Bay and Mt Albert, where he parents and brother lived. She had no phone so contact was not easy. She did not have a fridge or a washing machine till they moved to Hilton place. I can now understand why she would shop regularly as with no Fridge things would go off quite quickly. Even in the
Waitangi Rd house in Onehunga mum would do the washing in the copper, I think there was a fridge just before we left for Glen Innes.
As kids we cut up the wood for the copper and mum use to boil up the water and had a big wooden paddle to stir the clothes. She would spend all morning on Saturday washing, as she worked Monday to Friday. Her hands where always rough and quite red sometimes. She would spend ages ironing, and she ironed everything, including our underwear. She worked hard with limited resorces to keep us clean, clothed and fed.
After football with legs really dirty she would stand me in the old concrete tub half fill with cold water, and with sunlight soap and a corse scrubbing brush would scrub my legs till they where clean. it still hurts to think about it.
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She use to like travelling, but not as much as dad. She was more into visiting relations and friends than looking at the county side. She loved a good laugh, and loved to see musicals at the movies.
The photo to the left is Grandma Ethel Hoskins mums mother taken about 1917, she would have been 19 years old.
Mum fancied blokes like Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, Gregory Peck. She use to like the beach but couldn't swim, which was amazing as her mother was in her younger day a swimming instructor. She use to sit in the waves letting them lap around her. She was involved with Judith with her Tap Dancing, and took a lot of pride in what Judith achieved. She was always told Judy to smile when dancing so the judges could see that she was not only dancing but was enjoying what she was doing.
Mum didn't have a telephone until they moved to Glen Innes, she cultivated a telephone voice, with a plum in her mouth, she would answer the phone, until she new who it was, then return to normal voice if it was one of us or family calling. Whenever she went to see her mother she would always get her to read the tea cup leaves for her. Grandma also read the cards, not Tarot but an ordinary pack of playing cards. Grandma and mum would have their heads together working what the cards and the leaves where up to. Mum was Church of England and brought up quite strict in that religion, though she never really pushed it on to us kids. She also had a bit of a temper and could fly off the handle quite quickly, she was also good at playing one person against the other.
She like a flutter on the Golden Kiwi and when that stopped, Lotto, which she would buy each week. She also had a scratch and win card in her purse at any given time. When dad died she use to go to housie quite a bit and use to enjoy the company of the people down at the local church at Te Atatu. She moved to live with Judith & Alec when dad died, where she also took up indoor bowls, and would not hesitate to walk the mile each way nearly every day, even when she had a walker for balance. She use to like flying down to Christchurch every year to stay with us. She sure got around a lot in her later years, Australia twice, once with Kevin and his first wife Pam, and then with dads brother
Jack and his wife Olive for their grandsons 21st in Brisbane.
She had her fair share of illness, and was in hospital though, Hysterectomy, Cancer, varicose veins, diabetes, glaucoma. She use to say that when she took all her pills she would rattle. She also had selective hearing, which sometimes frustrate us. Mum was active right up to about a fortnight before she died.
Wayne Woods her eldest Grandchild had invited her down to stay at his place in Hamilton, and it was there she had a major heart attack and died instantly on the 15th January 2004.
We brought her back to Auckland where she was buried with dad in the RSA plot at Waikumete cemetery.
She was Mum to us kids, Ethel to her parents, Et to dad, she had 14 Grandchildren, 11 Great Grandchildren. She was 83 years old and the last of her generation in New Zealand and England.
The above photo is a week before mum died, she has in her lap Haydon Kinzett her new Greatgrandson of 1 week old.
We loved you mum.
Rest in Peace Mum.
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