Looking back at changes over the last half century – Part 1

As I look back over fifty plus years living in New Zealand the dominant theme of my memories is the changes I have faced and coped with. This must be the situation of so many New Zealanders that I have decided to share some of these memories with readers of NZine. Maybe you will add your memories or your views on what I have said in the Backchat at the end of the article.

The corner store Dunedin was the setting for the first few years I remember.

One of my strongest early memories is the old corner store with its wooden floor, wooden bench and tins full of packets of biscuits. These were behind the counter as it was personal service – not self-service.

The corner shop was more than a dairy. It was a grocery store as there were no supermarkets at this time. The first store I particularly remember was Mr and Mrs Nicolson’s store at St Clair. The owners of these stores knew everybody – the families and their ways. They were like a flowing book of local knowledge. At the local shopping centre there was also a chemist and a milk bar. To complete the local picture there was a local policeman who also knew everybody.

Evocative smells There was a special smell in these stores – a mixture of old wood, bread, spices, flour, and lollies. This smell becomes firmly entrenched in your senses for the rest of your life. You can still find a shop with this smell in Central Otago or on the West Coast, and as you walk in all the memories of your childhood flood back instantly.

It’s a bit like the smell of the Winter Show in Dunedin – the smell of candyfloss and popcorn, delicious handmade products which incidentally tasted totally different from the candyfloss and popcorn of today.

From St Clair we moved to North East Valley and there was a corner store there too.

Primary school years My memory of North East Valley School is of strict teachers and cold rooms in an old building.

Intermediates had been established by the fifties and I went to Dunedin North Intermediate. This was quite a modern school. At school we used to side with a few mates around the school yards and have a few punch-ups or fights after school, but they weren’t like the gang-related fights of today. We fought with our fists, not knives. Everything today has been based on technology. The kids of today go to the movies, watch videos, and play video games where it’s "Bang, chop, pow, stag, shoot, kill", which reflects into their behaviour today.

There was no television until 1960. I remember going to the movies at Cargills Corner. We’d go along on a Saturday morning and be there at ten o’clock and see perhaps Episode 2 of "The Lone Ranger Strikes Again". The next week we’d be back for Episode 3. These episodes would be before interval and followed by a main film such as "Tarzan".

Ice cream boys came around at interval and walked up and down the aisles selling popcorn and ice creams.

Pocket money We had jobs that we were expected to do. I came up through a very strict regime of activities that I had to do to earn my pocket money, such as mowing lawns, picking fruit, feeding the hens, podding peas, top and tailing gooseberries, and collecting pine cones. We also asked friends and neighbours if we could do jobs for them. The people in the community mostly knew each other and trusted us to be honest.

Food My grandmother used to live with us and a special memory is of the griddle scones she used to make on the old coal range and serve with fresh raspberry jam. I can smell them as I talk about them.

Wet days On wet days I remember times when we were all inside. The fire would be lit, the radio going, my mother doing the ironing, the coal range going in the kitchen, and I would be doing one of my jobs. Again there is an evocative smell – freshly ironed sheets and clothes.

The Savoy A special treat was to be taken to the Savoy for afternoon tea. I remember the smell of leather from the leather upholstered seats in the alcoves, and the huge carved bear that served as an umbrella stand – important in a town which has quite a lot of wet weather. The sandwiches, scones and cakes were served by the waitress in a tiered silver cake stand.

The RSA The Returned Service Association provided what seemed to me to be wonderful meals. The atmosphere was full of steam, there were crowds of people, the tables were covered with white tablecloths, and there was a buzz of conversation. You could choose among nourishing and delicious casseroles, roasts, real gravy with the meat, carrots and parsnips mashed together, lemon meringue pie, queen pudding and apple sponge. Tea was served in a teapot for each group. There was no coffee and we had never heard of cappuccinos.

Travel My father, like everybody else, had a job. We used to travel regularly to Christchurch where my parents had friends. We went by train or flew up on the old DC3. When we travelled by train we ate unforgettable McGregors Pies in Palmerston South. (They are still made today.) I have vivid memories of travelling by tram in Christchurch and enjoying the escalator at Millers and the DIC.

People took time to talk to you, in a friendly style that is different from today.

Maturing years with no sex education Looking back I feel that from the time we went to Intermediate we began to lose our innocence. Our bodies began to change and the boys began to talk about sex. I had no sex education at home or at school.

Move to Christchurch and Christchurch Boys’ High School CBHS had a strict regime with a lot of caning. I had left my friends in Dunedin, and I wasn’t happy there. After three years I went to Auckland to get a job in advertising, as a display artist. Some years later I would return to the field of advertising – in radio.

Changes everywhere My early years had been totally different from the life of today’s young people, but I had security at home. As I look back over my years at work one word keeps recurring – CHANGE, – and frequent change demands the ability to cope with constant adjustment.

Getting a job was so different from today. If you didn’t like your job you could leave one morning, and by the next afternoon you would have another job. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I worked in an advertising business, in engineering, and as a high country musterer, a painter – Jack of all trades, Master of none.

Selling – a job as a rep I found what I had been looking for when I was appointed as a sales rep covering the whole of the South Island – one of the youngest in the country. I was hardly ever home. I was away from Monday to Friday four weeks out of five. It was before the development of motels, in the last years when sales reps stayed in hotels with white tablecloths and silver service. The hotels had names like The Masonic, The Central, The City or The Grand. Soon after that the reps decided that they preferred the privacy offered by the motels.

Life on the road There was a lot of camaraderie among the reps on the road in those years when we stayed in hotels. After work we had to write up our reports and orders and get them in that evening’s mail. Then the reps congregated in the house bar which remained open after the Public Bar had to close at 6 p.m after "the six o’clock swill". This meant that we knew almost all the reps on the road.

No faxes, cellphones or email We were left to make many decisions without reference to the office back in the city. With no faxes, cellphones or email we were left to think for ourselves. Toll calls were so expensive that people hesitated to use them.

New challenges and new enterprises lay ahead in this world of change.

Watch for Part 2 next week.