H0283 Nancy Thelma WILLS

Interviewer: Warrick McCALLUM

Date: October 2002

Abstracter: Maree Haggerty

TRACK 1

00.0 Introduction. Nancy lives in Napier Street, Riverton. She was born in 1931, at Riverton, daughter of Fred and Marjorie Smith from ROUNDHILL. She married Angus Wills, and they had four children: Murray, Kay (Tilly), Linda and Yvonne.

00.33 Nancy’s mother died, leaving three children. Sid at 1 years old, Nancy at 2 ½ and Kathleen at 4 years old. The children went to live with their Aunty and Uncle and Grandmother HOGG in OREPUKI. Her grandmother was a total cripple. The Aunty and Uncle had three children of their own, around the 12, 14 and 16 age. Nancy started school at OREPUKI, where she went for 6 months. She would go across what they called ‘the lane’, which now has a street name. She remembers her first day of school and meeting a girl with the same last name, which is probably why she remembers her.

01.45 Nancy’s father went to the NEVIS working in the gold mine after her mother’s passing. He would come home once a month to see the children. At the time Sid was starting to see Uncle Michael as a father figure. This broke her dad’s heart, so he brought them home to ROUNDHILL to live. Nancy then went to the school at ROUNDHILL for about 6 months. At that time there were about 14 children. She remembers the morning the ROUNDHILL pub burnt down. Explains.

02.44 The ROUNDHILL School had one teacher, Mr Aberdeen. He used to be the Social Credit ‘man’ up at BALCLUTHA or DUNEDIN. Recalls a story about an incident he had with a student, explains.

04.04 Nancy’s father brought the children up, on his own, fine. He had his own goldmine, he was self-employed. He would bike to work every morning at 8.00am. He never owned a car until recent years, and never drove it. He would take Sid with him every day as Sid wasn’t five at the time. He would come home at dinner time and put the meat on for tea. Then when the children got home from school, they would get tea ready. At the start, they travelled to school on the grocer bus to COLAC SCHOOL. When it burnt down, and during its rebuild they went to big hall where 2-3 classes had been setup. The rest of the children went to the Presbyterian Church.

05.04 They coped without having a mother. They would make their own sandwiches every morning. They were syrup sandwiches which were awful. They would try and trade with the other children for something like a corned beef sandwich. She recalls one family whose father was elderly and on the pension. They would come to school with gingerbread. She would trade the syrup sandwich for a piece of gingerbread. She had a good teacher, JIM LECKIE who led the COMMONWEALTH GAMES in 1952. He was over six feet tall and was a champion hammer thrower. He did have a ‘good strap’. Reflects on one time at school, where you normally weren’t allowed to talk, and Nancy did. Explained the consequence for this. Mr Leckie did teach them all the Māori names for the native trees. This served Nancy well in a test at high school in RIVERTON as she knew how to spell them all, this was the only thing she was good at high school.

07.14 Nancy’s job after school, at night, was to wash the separator, and Kath’s was to get the tea. On a Sunday Nancy’s dad would boil the copper and do the washing. Kath had to scrub the kitchen cupboards. Nancy reflects that her dad loved the scrubbing bush and the sand soap. Nancy’s job was to scrub the linoleum in the bedrooms, they didn’t have carpets. She thought she would be cunning and just wipe with a wet cloth under the beds where it didn’t get dirty, but her dad knew by the colour that she hadn’t done this properly. He made her do it again. They had a white pine table and doorstep. Every time they had a meal the table was scrubbed with the sand soap. He was spotlessly clean; her sister is the same. She is more ‘easy osey’. Her father taught them how to darn, he’d been taught by his mother who was a midwife and he’d have to keep house.

08.50 They had a vegetable garden. They would often have blancmange, a pudding, sometimes they would have gooseberries in this, but always cream. Blancmange is like custard powder but made out of cornflour. It had some vanilla essence with it to give it flavour, they were good at making it. During the war as part of the rations, you would get a couple of tins of fruits for each family at Christmas. This would be the only time they had this. Sometimes on a Sunday they would get jelly for tea. They knew how to make this. The instructions said to put it in a cool place to set. Nancy is unsure why, but they would climb up on ladder and put it on the washhouse roof, which had the jelly in the sun (laughs). She remembers the jelly was made in the moulds and looking pretty when emptied out. They always had plenty of cream, from the cows her dad owned. They had 14 at one time, getting up to 22. Sid needed to get out of bed to help milk. They were milked by hand, with the cream being separated. They needed to lug the cream can down to where they caught the bus for school. During the war her dad would make butter two to three times a week, he made beautiful butter. It was illegal to sell it. The grocer always wanted it and local families. It was 1 in 6 or 1 shilling, a pound.

11.08 Nancy’s reflects that during the war, they had the trenches out the back of the school, they zig-zagged by a row of trees. A whistle was blown, and all the children had to make their way to the trenches. COLAC SCHOOL, at the time didn’t have a school bell. The teacher would open a window and use a flange off a 27-inch pipe which he hit with a big poker instead. Every day at about 11.30am, when he did this, seagulls would come, they knew it was getting close the children’s lunch break. He’d throw the flange out the window to hunt them, and the seagulls suffered a few injuries. In the summer the children would have two swims, in the sea, one in the morning and one before home time. Nancy enjoyed this.

12.36 Nancy’s shares that all three of the children could sing. Mr Leckie who was a great one for music, taught them how to harmonise. They would get off the school bus and do this all the way home at the top of their voices, they loved this. Mr Leckie taught just about every kid in the school how to play the violin and banjo. A couple had banjo mandolins, but everyone had a violin. Mr Leckie’s brother, Doug, brought a beautiful violin back from Italy, from his time at the war. The children were allowed to play this occasionally. Kathleen and Nancy played at a concert in OREPUKI once. They harmonised ‘Moonlight and Roses’. Stella Pearce played the piano and Mr Leckie was the third harmoniser. Another time, when on holiday, Kathleen and Nancy sang ‘Silent Night’ over 4ZB in DUNEDIN. She thinks it was for ‘Uncle Peter’s’ program.

14.04 Nancy’s father, his brother and his cousin were at the pub one night, after a few drinks they must have thought it was a good idea to go to the hall to enlist (in the war). It was a different story in the morning. They went up to TRENTHAM, and on their final leave, they were going by train from COLAC. They called into the pub at COLAC, the hotel manager gave them each a champagne cork to take with them. Nancy’s dad had the cork in his kit right with him until he got ‘degassed’. He was awarded the military medal; he took a German soldier who was the holder of an iron cross. There was a knife, fork and spoon all folded together in one, and a lovely photo of the man’s wife and family. These didn’t end up coming back ‘here’ explains. Also explains an alteration at the RSA in Riverton regarding his medal.

17.02 Nancy’s father got sick every winter, Kathleen would stay home and look after him. He would sometimes go to his brother’s for a holiday in MORTON MAINS until he ‘picked up’. Nancy believes this was due to looking after the children on his own, milking and working. When he was at the war, he befriended an English Sargent. When Nancy’s father was going on leave, he gave him the address of his niece. She wasn’t there, but he met her mother. She either read his tea leaves or cards, and everything she said, came true, including being left the ROUNDHILL PUB, HALL and BILLARD ROOM. Explains.

18.31 Nancy mentions her father’s book, its shows he just made a living from the Goldmining. He was a hoarder. He always had money in the drawer, to help when he got sick as there was no financial help back then. He could have possibly got a Soldier’s pension but never applied for this until he was well into his 80s. Explains an incident involving Sid while chopping wood, when dad was at work. Dr Trotter arrived to help, stitching Sid’s hand.

20.21 Nancy’s remembers a Post Office at ROUNDHILL, she doesn’t remember a Grocery Shop. The mail would come to the Post Office until it closed. They would then get the paper ‘The Daily News’ that came out from INVERCARGILL in a maroon car with gold lettering on it. After that stopped, they would get the paper off the H&H Bus, WALT RODERICK was the paperboy. Shares a story about herself and Walt smoking a pipe, explains.

21.56 From COLAC SCHOOL, Nancy then went to RIVERTON High School. Many recommended that Nancy become a teacher, like her mother. She was good at arithmetic only. She was told to become a teacher she needed to learn French. After a couple of years of that she decided she had a greater interest in the dance on a Saturday night. She learnt to play the piano by watching the schoolteacher’s daughter play, she’d watch her left hand. She had a natural ear for music. Sid was the same. Explains. She still has the two old violins from COLAC, one was a home made one from HARRY ROBERTS at ROUNDHILL. Nancy’s was made out of ‘tot’ [totara]. Talks about her own children and grandchildren in relation to musical instruments. Reflects on a couple of instances of her misbehaving and punishments when young. Explains. Reflects on story of her father when growing up and relating punishment. Explains

28.48 Nancy used to play BASKETBALL at COLAC, represented WAIAU and WESTERN. She loved basketball, was a rough player and practiced by playing against the men on a Tuesday and Thursday night. Tournaments were held at all over the region, RIVERTON, NIGHTCAPS. They then played AMERICAN BASKETBALL. She used to play against Angus, this is how they got to know each other. Explains that they went to a dance and their relationship started.

30.31 The butcher used to call into ROUNDHILL in later years. The McDOUGALL'S BAKERY used to come up once or twice a week. The children never got cake, they would pinch money out of the small change bowl and go out and stop the driver, Mr ALEC NICOL, he had one eye (nick name, ‘one eyed gunner’). One would buy a Belgium biscuit for example, just one piece of cake each. Nancy talks about before they got bread from the grocer in COLAC, they used to get bread from the mailman LES JOHNSON. Explains. Talks about getting meat from TWEEDIE’S, it was brought up to COLAC on the school bus. The mail from the COLAC Post Office was sent down to the school by the Post Mistress.

32.28 Nancy talks about a time her father had a pocket watch that was getting fixed by a Mr ROMANO, the Watchmaker in INVERCARGILL. It arrived back in the mail. Sid took the watch with him to feed the cows. Explains.

33.14 When growing up they did have electricity. They had ‘the best of’ furniture, which was all oak. This probably came from the money made by her mother from being a schoolteacher. They had a porcelain bath and hand basin which no one else had. In OREPUKI they had bathed in a big tub that was outside and the copper was boiled. In COLAC, they didn’t have hot and cold water, they had to boil the copper for the once-a-week bath. She remembers washing her face with the big bar of laundry soap. Getting a cake of lux soap for Christmas was marvellous, she remembers the scent.

34.20 If they wanted to go to TUATAPERE SPORTS they had to walk all the way to WAIKATUA and catch the train. If they wanted to go to a dance they had to walk or bike. She remembers her dad was a great dancer, he loved dancing. She reflects that her dad never went anywhere when the children were little, he stayed with them all the time, his kids were his life. One time he did go to a boxing match. They did have a housekeeper stay at that time, she didn’t stay long, she was elderly.

35.12 The distance between ROUNDHILL to COLAC BAY is about 4 miles. They biked everywhere, dances, to PAHIA, basketball at OREPUKI, down to RIVERTON and COLAC.

35.12 Reflects on when Sid was still going to school, he would go on weekends to FRED MASON’S every Saturday to be with Fred on the farm which he loved. Fred liked Country and Western pictures which the children took advantage of to get a ride into OREPUKI to go to the movies. When Nancy started going with Angus, they went to every picture that was on. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights, the never missed a picture in RIVERTON. She remembers Mrs O’Neil being on the ticket counter. They saw THE CRUEL SEA, ‘I don’t know how many times.’

36.40 When Nancy was 20, they got engaged. When Nancy was 21, she went to the WHITBY SANATORIUM for three months as a patient due as she had TB [tuberculosis]. It was a ‘shadow’ TB, she was lucky. She remembers VIOLET WHITE being there as well, and Eric Eade’s wife Molly, there were a lot of Southland people up at WHITBY. She then worked until it was time to come home. Nancy and Angus got married in March after having been engaged for 14 months. They had their honeymoon up through Central, up to before OAMARU, turned around and came back.

37.50 Nancy reflects that she lived in the same house in ROUNDHILL for 68 years. They had lived in the “wee goldmine house” for a while after they got married. Her father lived in ROUNDHILL for the “best part of 90”. Talks about others that had lived there for a long time as well, Jim Anderson lived into his 90s, Jack Harte into his 80s’. Joke was Nancy didn’t want to leave ROUNDHILL as everyone lived a long life there.

38.56 Nancy’s father inherited the ROUNDHILL PUB (Hotel, Billiard Room and Hall), from an uncle who had never married. This also included a small farm. He sold the hall as there was a 300-pound overdraft which needed to be paid. She remembers the hall had carbide lights and that she went to ‘JERRY THE TALKING DOLL’ by GEORGE GILCHRIST the VENTRILOQUIST, which scared her. She wasn’t sure if perhaps she thought it was real she remembers going to her dad for comfort. That story was about the only thing she can remember around the ROUNDHILL HALL.

40.15 Reflects on her father having lived in ROUNDHILL all of this life. That it was an interesting life with the Chinaman. Explains. She remembers the ‘swaggers’, explains.

Interviewer pauses to turn the tape around; the interview does not resume.

END OF INTERVIEW