My Grandfather wrote his autobiography when I was 18, He bought a portable typewriter for me to type it up for copies for our family members. This was in 1968. The paper is disintegrating and the print fading. During Covid I made the decision to retype it and add more detail of dates, places and people. Photographs were found and Ancestry.com helped me create the family tree. Life went back to normality and progress halted. My New Year resolution is to complete it by April, however I have allowed myself to be sidetracked. A more attainable goal of a book for Ben and Nora of their Australian Heritage. I had been thinking about it for months and just after Christmas, it suddenly gelled as to how to tell the story. Three pages now done.
It's now Monday 4am
I had all but finished this post before I turned out my light around tenish, last night. On opening this draft just now, all I was met with was the above paragraph and endless goggleygook of letters and numbers. Thinking I had been scammed in some way, I deleted the nonsense and then checked my other drafts. Same thing! I then headed to my blog posts and was relieved to see that they were intact. What an earth was going on? Thankfully I managed to tap a symbol that returned my draft to normality. It seems I had tapped a symbol last night, turning the page from 'compose view' to HTML view. UGH! 😖😖, but sooo relieved.
So here I go again..........
The initial look of the book.
At this point I wanted to add images of how every day life was then to now. I only had several images of Grandad. One in his horse and sulky, the home he built and another with his football team. I went looking through this wonderful keepsake to see if I could find relevant images.
A couple of hours later, I escaped from a wonderful trip down Memory Lane with several images that I was happy with, but also the following, that I felt were worth sharing here.
No 1 - May Gibbs, a fierecely determined woman, was Australia's first full time, professionally trained children's book author and illustrator. This illustration caught my eye. A gumleaf used as a facemask! I had only thought of facemasks as a 'thing' with covid.
Another senior moment! I've somehow turned on Google search and haven't the time to discover how to remove it so bear with me on this one.
No 2 - Three thousand lights are switched on in Sydney's Town Hall via Marconi's radio signal in Italy. The first event over such a long distance. Even today I find it gob smacking amazing.
No 3 - The unimaginable hardship of immigrants travelling to Australia.
No 4 - the roughness of daily living for many.
No 5 - the loyalty to the Mother Country during two world wars.
No 6 - education
No 7 - Australia's economy was founded on 'riding the sheep's back'. Merino sheep arrived as early as
1778 and soon became the life force of the Australian economy, a state that lasted for many, many years of exporting wool overseas.
No 8 - transport
Other random images of a time so different to now.
I think this image referred to the earlier washing scene.
I can relate to much of this having been born in the fifties and living on a farm. No electricity, woodstove, outdoor drop toilet, our first car, riding a horse to school in year one [before the Government paid for families to take week about to deliver all the children along the creek to school - at least 15 in one car!], dirt roads, basic food, radio, very few books to read, slate to write on at school, no entertainment. Mum lighting the boiler to wash the clothes and on occasion she had to take them to the creek to wash. Such nostalgia. I wonder if our children will look back on their youth with a similar nostalgia of that time in their lives.
I would love to read your comment.
