REMEMBERING THE STORIES OF OLD

It's been a huge week..... very busy at work (more of that later)  loss and sadness as three people lovely people in our lives passed away this week, and the funeral of Steve's Nanna on Friday.  This post is about Steve's Nanna and remembering the stories of old.   This beautiful woman was 98, and their is 98 years of history gone now... During her life she saw many many changes and she documented many of them.  Steve's uncle Bert put this story together from conversations he had had with his Mum over the years, and it was inserted into her order of service at her funeral.    I want to document and remember this story because it now forms part of a heritage and history of my own family and my children's family.  This story is part of their roots.  Nanna Latham was an amazing woman.... her life was not easy.... but she approached everything in her life with the same drive and tenacity that saw her through the difficult years, and there was always a welcoming smile upon her face, and you could count on enjoying a jolly good laugh with her.   You will be missed Nanna, but you have left a wonderful example for your family to follow.   The following Story of Nanna's life is a record that I don't want my family  to loose or forget. 

Our Nanna

The Life of Mary (May) Latham

She was born in Maryborough (Qld) on 9^th August to James and Ann Mary Aisthorpe and was christened Mary.  But her mother was also known as Mary, so her father started calling her May and that name stayed with her the rest of her life.   At the time they live at Blackmount, about 3 kilometres north of Tiaro and where her father, who had recently immigrated from England with her two older brothers, Harold and Jim, worked for the Railway Department.  Two years later her younger sister, Eva was born.  She and her brothers and sister used to walk to school at Tiaro in the morning and catch the train home in the afternoon.  One afternoon, she and her sister Eva were fishing on the banks of Chinaman Creek when she slipped and fell in.  The water was deep and she could not swim.  Fortunately she was able to grab hold of a fallen tree trunk and Eva came to her rescue and pulled her out.  She recalled this as being a very frightening experience. 

When she left school, she worked as a domestic for the Presbyterian minster’s family and later at the hotel at Gunalda, where she met Arthur Bertram Latham, who was known as Bert, and worked on road construction at the time.  She later married him and lived firstly at Kenilworth and then at Elimba near the Glass House Mountains in a shack made from ormaroid, a reinforced light cardboard impregnated with tar to make it water-proof.  It was in a camp area comprised mainly of tents.  One day a large goanna made a nuisance of itself by raiding the food supplies, so she got her husband’s .22 rifle and killed it, first shot.  The Annie Oakley of Queensland, perhaps???? At the camp site there was only drinking water in a small tank:  for laundry and bathing, she had to carry water every day from a nearby water-hole.  Life was not easy for her during the Depression Years of the mid 1930’s.

At the time, timber was required for building the Hornibrook Highway between Sandgate and Redcliffe and the construction company had a sawmill at Conondale.  Husband Bert bought a timber truck and they moved to live in a shed on a farmer’s property about 1 ½ miles from the sawmill.  Late one night her husband had not arrived home from work.  She was worried, so she put her 2 sons in the old pram and set off with a hurricane lamp towards the sawmill... But the light spooked a herd of cattle, which crowded around her.  As she told the story, she was terrified she was going to be knocked down and trampled to death.  Just then a pair of headlights came down the road and the cattle moved away;  it was her husband’s truck.  There had been a breakdown at the mill which had to be fixed that night ready for the next day’s work. 

After this event, husband Bert felled a couple of trees for himself, had them milled at the sawmill and she helped him to build a two roomed shack on the opposite side of the creek which ran past the sawmill.  Once again the only water they had she carried from the creek each day. 

It was lonely living in the bush with no one around for miles and miles so she would often go with her husband to work and, after he felled trees, she would take the bark off with an adze.  In some areas it was not possible to get the truck to the logs so they bought a bullock team to pull the logs to the truck.  And, or course, she learnt to drive the bullocks but she said that she never learnt the colourful language of a bullock driver. 

Washing days were a little different, too.  Clothes were boiled in kerosene tins over an open fire in the yard but she had to sit and keep watch or the cows would come and drink the soapy water.  Ironing was done with a kerosene iron and she had to learn to dismantle and reassemble it because it needed cleaning quite often. 

In the first 6 years of marriage she had three sons, Bert jnr, Mervyn and Melville.  However, there was no schooling in the area so she and the family moved to Bundaberg in 1938 and, by a strange co-incidence, rented a house next door to where her parents and sister Eva were living.  Husband Bert worked on a road gang for 12 months, was unemployed for a time and then got a job in the foundry at Qunaba Sugar Mill.

Money was scarce during this period.  She had been given a second- hand sewing machine, so she learnt to sew and helped out by making school uniforms for her sons and dresses for herself. 

The Second World War had broken out and her husband got a job working for the Americans in Bundaberg and later in Brisbane.  However, because the two eldest boys were at school, she stayed in Bundaberg.  But she did her bit by joining the WATS (Women’s Auxiliary Transport Service) looking after vehicles, although she did not learn to drive any of them. 

At the end of the war, Bert returned and started his own business “Farm Engineering Service” installing irrigation systems for can farmers and milking machines.  In 1948 her youngest son John was born.  Tragically, in October 1950 her husband was killed in a work accident.  To pay the rent, she went to work at the Bundaberg Fish Board sorting prawns.  About this time her sister Eva who was a golfer, said to her, “Why don’t you come and have a game”.  She did and liked it so much that after a couple of games, she joined the Bundaberg Golf Club in August 1951, which started a life long association with the sport. 

By this time, she and Eva had become quite competent as dressmakers and were earning some extra money making clothes for others and school uniforms.  Then she and Eva went into business together in the “Diane Salon” in Barolin Street, Bundaberg, opposite the Post Office, selling maternity wear and babies’ clothes, some of which they made.    Just when things seemed like they were running smoothly, the owner of the two houses where she and her mother and Eva lived, sold them and they had to move, but not immediately.  It was difficult to find other rental accommodation.  A golfing friend lent her some money as a deposit and she had a carpenter build her house for the sum of two thousand eight hundred pounds. ($5600 in today’s currency) at 44 Skying Street, East Bundaberg, on a block of land her husband bought before he died, intending to build a work shed.  She and her sons and her mother and Eva all moved into it in 1954, but to save money, the house had not been painted nor where they any cupboards in the kitchen.  So now, she learnt to paint and, with son Bert and Eva, she painted the house inside and out.  Next she went to TAFE College and learnt woodwork and built in the kitchen cupboards herself.  She had a car but nowhere to house it, so she bought some timber and corrugated iron and built a garage.  Some years later, she built a store room on the side of the garage.  And over the years, she built many smaller items of furniture for the house and repainted the house herself twice. 

When her husband died, as part of the proceeds of the sale of his business, she received a big 1934 Vauxhall sedan in which son Bert used to driver her around.  But she was too independent for that to continue, so she learnt to drive and became quite good at it.  If the battery was flat, the car could be started with a crank handle and she even learnt to do that.  Her second car was an FJ Holden, but she didn’t go cursing up and down the main street on a Saturday night. 

However, one Saturday night when she and her mother were at the movies, the car was stolen from outside the theatre and someone else went hooning all the way to Miriam Vale, where he was caught.  She got the car back none the worse for the episode.  When the Diane Salon business was doing well, she bought a brand new 1960 Holden Special sedan which she had for 42 years.  But on 20^th July 2002, someone stole it from her garage at home.   She did not see that one again.  She then purchased a Nissan Pintara sedan and she liked it better -  it had power steering and an automatic gearbox.    She kept driving until she was 94 years of age. 

Like everything else she did,, when she started playing golf she had to do it properly, so she took lessons and became quite good at it.  In fact, she got her handicap down to 9.  She played in quite a few tournaments away from her home club – The Bundaberg Golf Club, where she won many championships. 

Associates Champion                                         1966, 1967, 1971, 1977.

Associates Foursome champion                         1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1975.

Mixed foursome champion                                 1962, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978.

She held the ladies course record in                    1968 and 1979

And had a hole-in-one in                                     1965

In 2005 when she was 91, she said her golf playing was de-clining a bit, so she bought herself a new set of golf clubs and – would you believe it – her game improved straight away.  She played golf and drover herself to the course until she was 94 years of age. 

In 1956 she was elected to the Associates Committee and worked tirelessly for the Club for approximately 40 continuous years.  During this time she was Associates Presidents from 1962 to 1970 and Associates Captain from 1978 to 1981.  In 2001, she was presented with a Certificate for her 50 years membership and for all the work she had done for the  golf club she was made a life Member.  In all her membership spanned 61 years. 

She is survived by 3 of her 4 children (John died in 2005) 12 of her 13 grandchildren (Geoffrey died in 2001) and 23 great grand-children.