Two years old.
This photo taken on my second birthday is from my Crichton D’Ora photograph album. Although my hair was naturally curly I remember my mother wrapping long strips of old sheets around my hair at night to make the long curls even curlier. She also did all the smocking on my dress which she had made herself. I do remember going to the photo studio over the years but probably not this early.
Crichton D’Ora Photographic Studio was at 338 Karangahape Rd, upstairs. I went there to have my photo taken regularly up until I was 21 so I know they were in business from at least 1940 to 1961. They were a very popular photographic studio and I’m sure most of Auckland in those days have an album of theirs. I think mine must have been one of the earlier ones because after searching for them in Google I found there isn’t much information on them at all and the Photographer’s Database on the Auckland Library website has them listed as in business from at least 1943.
They were associated with Thea of the Auckland 1ZB Radio Station (Thea’s Sunbeams) at the time and she was the inaugurator of The Milestone Sessions.
The Milestone Album is dedicated to Thea’s memory so perhaps she had retired or died by then. I found her name mentioned in the newspapers regularly up until 1939 but nothing after that.
Apart from WWII nothing much worth mentioning happened in 1942 it seems. On the 12 June the first five ships of American troops from the 38th US Army Division land in Auckland & the filming of "Casablanca" with Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, is finished. Peter Fraser was our Prime Minister. The Top Song from Oct 1942 to Jan 1943 was Bing Crosby’s White Christmas. The ‘Zoot Suit’ was back in fashion and it became more acceptable for women to wear pants as they entered the workforce, and also for the first time, bathing suits for women came in two pieces as opposed to the more conservative one-piece suit. My sister, Karin Laraine, was born on 20 August.
With baby sister Karin, Dad and my mother’s parents, at Browns Bay.
And how about these classic Kiwi slang words from the 1940s:-
hangava, bobbydazzler, dag, pearler, stunner, ripsnorter, corker, jake, bonzer, rube, grouce, stinker, rumpty, dinkydie, wonky, batty, barmey, dotty, looney, dippy, skite, sheila, chutty.
