I discovered this book from a post by the author on Neighbourly recently and bought it on-line from Amazon Australia.
It's quite a good read about growing up in Christchurch in the late 1950s and 1960s. Many of the memories that Cheryl Nicol writes about are similar to mine:
- Her father's shed that contained just about everything you might need.
- Family holidays in a packed car and caravan.
- School milk.
- Family visitors.
- Single channel television.
- etc.
Nicol was born in 1955 only 3 years later than me and Richard so her experiences are not that much different to ours.
It's a view of New Zealand that is long gone. Times were tough but there was more community spirit in those days and people just got on with life - the No. 8 wire mentality.
14 comments:
What a silly piece of false nostalgia. Life was never better than in the fifties and sixties for kids. We used real toys, or imaginary ones. We played outside. My mother didn't have to work. A university education was a pitance, at least to us kids because our parents had to support us at home.
OK. I take it that you've read the book then.
Glad I got that of my chest!
"Glad I got that off my chest!"
Really? Does that mean that you've kept (on your chest) the more sensible things?
I must agree with Robert a little here. Overall I don't remember the 50s and 60s being bad.
You never say you agree with Curmudgeon "just a little"!
I'll have to think about that.
Well, Sue wasn't an expert on the violin in the 60s. She could have been because she didn't play it then too.
Maybe you have a natural human inclination to support a person who agrees with your beliefs regardless of the proof to the contra?
I didn't say that the 1950s and 1960s in New Zealand were bad.
I said that times were tough - meaning for those working class people who never had much, like the woman who wrote the book.
I also said that there was great community spirit back then which, by and large isn't there nowadays.
I think that both of you should brush up on your comprehension skills. Just because you didn't make the P classes at school is no excuse. You just have to put a bit more effort in.
Sheesh!
I was asked to be in 3P but I told them I preferred 3G.
In sixth form 1972 I got a D for english, D for biology, C+ Mathematics, E for accountancy, C for History. Yet for some strange reason in 1973 I was judged academically qualified to matriculate at any university in New Zealand in all the same subjects. Though I was also first in the instrumental section in Form I 1967 at MARIST BROTHERS SCHOOL THORNDON. Signed Br Kenneth.
That's a revelation.
I would not have thought you'd got such a high mark in English.
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