1946-1948

Taken in May 1947 so I was 6½ and looking quite grown up.

There’s nothing much to report memorywise I’m afraid so I’ll just post a few photos, if I can find any, not many cameras were found in homes in those days.

The journalling reads:-

Although I was born during the second World War we three girls were always beautifully dressed. Mum made all of our clothes, including the hand stitched smocking, out of whatever material she could get hold of.  She hand knitted baby clothes and all of our woollen garments. We never seemed to be without a ribbon in our hair. We didn’t own a camera in those days but  there were photographers in the streets, parks & the Zoo, so I have lots of photos when I’m all dressed up but not a lot of candid shots.

29 Jan 1948 – the youngest and last addition to our family was born today, Sandra Mary Eleanor, the most gorgeous baby I had ever seen. I remember being woken up very early this morning with someone knocking on my bedroom window very loudly! It turned out to be our doctor come to tell us she’d been born and he couldn’t raise anyone when he knocked on the door! No telephone in our house as yet. Karin and I used to argue all the time about whose turn it was to feed her!

Journalling on this one reads:-

I didn’t get my first real doll until I was 7 years old. She came all the way from England after the war when my mother’s sister & her family came back to NZ after being stuck in England when war broke out. I loved my dolly dearly but oh boy did I covet that beautiful outfit my cousin’s doll had on! My sister sitting between us is holding my youngest sister who was 8 weeks old. March 1948.

Although the ball-point pen had been invented in 1938 I do remember still using nib pens & ink right upto at least 1948 at school, a bit like this one but not quite as flash! I also remember when we started to use ballpoint pens I was quite disgusted you couldn’t rub out your mistakes like you could with pencil! I’m sure I had my hair dipped in the inkwell more than once too….

Despite the fact that the long-playing record had a history that went back to the 1920s it wasn’t until 1947 they were finally perfected.

In 1947, Columbia (which did not have its own record player manufacturing facility) kept the LP a secret while they made a deal with the Philco Radio Company in Philadelphia to manufacture the new players necessary for the success of their new type of record. They saw that it was pointless to attempt to market the LP without a good collection of recordings so they assembled a library of recordings in the new format before releasing it to the public. Although all types of music were released as LPs, they were especially ideal for longer pieces of music, such as symphonies or operas.

Ours was similar to this one although Dad had built it in so it looked different, we weren’t to get it until I was a teenager so more of that later.

One last photo, not a good one, quite blurred but it is a candid one that I said I didn’t have many of, taken one day with our visiting cousins in our backyard, in front of our old Continental Beacon car. Starting at the front: my sister Karin, Bill, Me, Winsome, Bubbles & Marae. You can see the passionfruit vine climbing up the shed in the background, every summer it would cover the roof and be full of yummy purple fruit and the taste of summer, one of those tastes or smells that instantly reminds you of something in your past.

Events of 1947-1948:-
Still governed by the Labour Party with Peter Fraser Prime Minister.
6 Feb: First annual Waitangi Day ceremony held at Waitangi.
6 Mar: The NZ Symphony Orchestra perform for the first time.
18 Nov: 41 people die in the Ballantyne's department store fire.
Top Song 1947: Near You by Francis Craig.
Top Song 1948: Twelfth Street Rag by Pee Wee Hunt.
Now is the Hour by Bing Crosby was #3.
Best Picture 1947: Gentleman's Agreement
Best Picture 1948: Hamlet

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