Welcome Home!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 67, 4 October 1940, Page 34

Welcome Home!

The recent marriage of the Woolworth heiress to film star Cary Grant recalls this story of the new Mrs. Grant. When she arrived in New York from London the boat was met by a crowd of workers from Woolworth’s bearing placards on which was printed: "Babs, we live on 15 dollars, 60 cents a week. Could you?" The comment of the then Countess Reventlow was short-and to the point: "Welcome home-I don’t think!"

Teachers’ Training College thirty years ago I was advised to proceed to a railway station on the Otago Central line to open and take charge of the new sole teacher school. I arrived at the dreary little settlement to find that the school wasn’t there. Orders had been given that a room of a too-large school in a _ neighbouring township should be removed to the railway settlement. The schoolroom had therefore been placed on a horse-drawn sledge, towed a little way, and then abandoned because of the depth of mud and slush on the road. The contractor had calmly unyoked his horses and gone off to his home miles away, presumably to wait till the road dried out. The school commissioner hired another and bigger team and the schoolroom at length arrived at the creek two miles from its destination. Actually it got halfway across the creek, then swollen to a small river. There it stuck for a further three days in full view of the country hotel where I had got board. Education Board carpenters and painters were also waiting the school’s arrival. It was a relief when after five weeks of waiting I was able to organise the classés. " Roughest of the Rough " By request of the parents I remained on at the school for two years, and in that time saw many strange things. The country hotel was the roughest of the rough. It had no water laid on-not. in the kitchen which was minus the usual sink. There was no bathroom and no bath. An antiquated well just outside the kitchen door was supposed to be used for pumping water, but it was much. easier to scoop buckets in the little ‘stony-bedded creek that ran across the backyard from the swamp.’ The well was rat-infested, anyway. I have seen the hotel staff and others about gathered round the kitchen windows to watch a fight between a cat and a rat, the stage being the well-cover. Belle the Cook Belle was the hotel cook. She was an enormously fat and greasy womanvery jolly. when things suited her, but vitriolic when they didn’t. When a visiting football team was entertained to _dinner, Belle would get flustered over the dishing-up. To begin with, each separate basin of vegetables, and ‘sweets, such as custards and stewed fruits had its own spoon. Soon Belle would have. the spoons mixed up. In the end she would be ladling everything out with her hands. When remonstrated with she would declare " What the eye don’t see the heart don’t "grieve." At the Dance The first dance ever given in the new settlement was to be held in the new school. Belle looked forward to the S HORTLY after I came out of

event. She decided to wear "me white," but it lacked a belt. A hawker happened to turn up in time and Belle tried on all his belts but none would meet anywhere. " You’ve got to find something," said Belle. "Me body and skirt don’t meet." The hawker suggested a sash and Belle bought a pale blue silk suitable for a child. Stockings came next. Black openwork or black lace stockings were in the fashion but as Belle was XXXOS there was no hope there. The hawker obligingly found a stretchy white cotton pair that did nicely. Dancing slippers were easy because "the boss" bought a new pair of pumps, and Belle appropriated the old ones. The boss remarked waggishly, "Belle will be belle of the ball, you'll see, in my number nines."

Belle’s Successors Belle was succeeded by Katie. The contrast was ludicrous. Katie was tall, lean, and melancholy. She had taken the place because her "boy" was on a Carpentering job at the next siding. They made an odd pair. He was rosy-cheeked and cherubic and not quite up to Katie’s shoulder. When he went on to another job Katie followed in his wake. Then the agency sent a "lady cook," the well-educated and accomplished daughter of a supposedly wealthy city publican. When he died there was no money and his daughter turned to cooking. She was really very good and very clean and seemed quite happy at the hotel. She was a splendid horsewoman and rode at all the shows about on mounts provided by enthusiastic admirers. After I left she married a well-to-do farmer, The hotel had only four bedrooms, Mine, the only single one, was unfortunately opposite the bar slide. In those days of 10 p.m. closing an all-night session was not uncommon. The door had a crack running from top to bottom. When the light was on anyone outside could get a good view. I used to undress in the dark till I had the gumption to put a strip of sticking-plaster over the crack, Hawkers I found it a nuisance to have numerous hawkers pull up on the vacant ground outside my window, but they were a boon to the country people. They carried a great assortment of wares and were reasonable enough in price. The Scotsman, Andrew Soutar, was well-known as a wealthy man who made hawking a sort of hobby. Known all over Central Otago was Ahadbox Malloch, the Hindu. Farm lads and others used to tease him to see him gnash his teeth in rage. One night after I had gone to bed I heard a racket outside and guessed that it was "the gang " throwing stones on the closed van in which the Hindu slept among his wares, ‘The goaded hawker opened a half-door and shot off his gun. It was loaded with powder only, but the boys got a fright. So did I who expected to hear of a gruesome murder in the morning. Ben, the Syrian, was a gentle soul. He used to bring his shy 18-year-old son into the dining-room in the evenings and sit there in preference to joining the noisy element in bar and smokeroom. He would talk of his gentle wife, Mary, who had died in far-off Syria before he came to New Zealand. He had not been long in this country and said he could not get used to our food. He longed for tempting dishes of eggfruit stuffed with olives, tomatoes with rice, nut-filled pastry and bread flavoured with sesame seeds, instead of uninteresting "meat all the time."