Gallery Samples Stories of our Ancestors | Page 32

Ruby tells of her Mother Ida spending a lot of time alone with the children on the farm. Jack
would have been working in town or adventuring somewhere perhaps and would ride to the
farm on weekends. The time Ruby speaks of was before she started school. The fact of Ruby
going to school is in itself a leap forward as the family is now taking education into their frame
of reference.
In one particular year there’d been a good wheat crop and after a grea t deal of work the bales
of wheat lay neatly stacked, dry and yellow, waiting to be sold or bargained for. (I wonder what
they paid their labourers?!)
Ida knew there was something nasty brewing as she noticed the men talking amongst
themselves and sizing her up. After all, what did a woman know about this ‘man’s world’? It
would be simple enough to cheat her without her even knowing what was happening: Poor
simple woman!
Ida kept pace with the selling, watching carefully, her eyes on the farmer about to remove more
bales than he had paid for. She called loudly to him, STOP! Undaunted, he ventured to argue
with this ‘simple’ woman who without further ado lifted her petticoats and climbed to the
topmost bale: “If you take these bales” she announced sitting firmly atop, arms crossed in
defiance, “you take me as well!!”
The farmer knew he was defeated and recoiled, much to the laughter of the surrounding
farmers, and he walked shamefacedly away.
Let no man (or child!) come between Ida and her strong will!
How Ruby felt the wrath of her Mother’s strong will in later years.
But for now all is well and Ruby continues her story:
‘I want to tell you about the Tiekiedraai. The last one we ever had or attended was on New
Year’s Eve 1914 in Riebeek East: I was 6 years old. South Africa would now be involved in the
First World War and it was to be a last happy gathering before our world would change
forever.
“Let’s have The Party at Ma’s place” said the farmers and family. Ida used to be referred to as
Ma then and she was always welcoming.’
(In view of what happened to Ida later, remember that she had ‘only’ three children then and
she had servants from the farm to help with them and the housework. This was likely to have
been a happy time for her, as it seems the farm was quite successful and there was enough
money. So she had a job to do running the farm and she is likely to have felt quite successful and rightly so. I am doing my best not to deliberately ‘psychologise’ some of these ancestors,
but I can’t help attempting to understand their development as told through their stories. You
don’t have to take this as THE truth, only one POSSIBLE truth)
Now, going back to Ruby’s dictation; she was talking about the Tiekiedraai to be held at ‘Ma’s
place:
‘Firstly, the big front room had to be readied. Most of the furniture, including the enormous and
heavy dining room table was removed to the stoep which like most farm houses had a wide
veranda all around it. The walls had to be whitewashed. Then as it was a very special occasion
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