Gallery Samples Stories of our Ancestors | Page 36

he had really, really come from the frozen North. In his hands he held the reins he used for
his Reindeers and as he moved the little bells jingled and jangled and sent shivers of
delighted excitement up and down our spines. As he walked he laughed with a great Ho!
Ho! Ho! And we were thrilled, or scared depending on our age. One by one, our names were
called and Father Christmas himself, handed out our gifts. Mine was a HUGE, net stocking,
24 inches long, choc-a-bloc full of toys. I drew in that special ‘Christmas Smell’ that only
those early Christmas stockings had. It was a smell of magic and I haven’t smelt it for a very
long time.
‘Then our Special Visitor had to leave to carry on his Christmas deliveries around the
world. But before we could feel sadness at his leaving another treat was announced. We
were going for a special motor ride – all very wonderful for us. With another burst of wild
excitement from all of us we trooped out to the front of the Hall to await this fresh
adventure. Then an amazing vehicle chugged around the corner and into the portico of the
Town Hall. It was a new and wonderful contraption called a Char-a-bang: Large and high it
had tiers of seats and a canopy to keep off the sun or rain. The scariest part was being lifted
high into the interior but after that it was all fun! We were driven up Church Street, along
Chapel Street, then down Longmarket Street, high above the people, waving and cheering
and we felt like Royalty. Oh how we wished that ride would never end! ’
(In some ways, Ruby, it hasn’t ended as it lived on in you for all the rest of your life and now we
are re-living it in your memories)
In the meantime Jack, now playing his part in the Great War, was sent to German East Africa
where he contracted malaria. Still very ill, he was discharged and sent home.
And although he was plagued by recurring malaria ever after, he still managed to get Ida
pregnant again and again: Douglas born in 1918, and Vera born in 1920. But they hadn’t
finished yet. There were still more to come; Milton in 1926 and Stella in 1929 by which time
Ruby was 21 years old.
It seems that Jack went back to some building work. I recall him painting a house when I was a
child and doing some elaborate and fashionable brush work. I don’t know what the other
family members did now that they were in Pietermaritzburg.
There was a story told by Ruby about Jack ‘helping’ with nappy washing. When Ida was resting
with one of the new-borns she asked him to help by washing the latest load. He took the
offending nappies still in a bucket of water where they had been left soaking, to the wash line.
Then he stood at a safe distance stirring them with a long stick. When he considered the
stirring sufficiently done, he hauled each nappy out on the end of the stick and launched them,
one at a time, wet, dripping, and still dirty over the washing line.
As I write I find myself becoming more and more sympathetic towards Ida. Ida had worked
hard all her life not only domestically but she had run the farm. On her own she drove her trap
and children all over the country. She was obviously an intelligent but sadly uneducated
woman and that was the way things were. Although Jack was a dear and gentle man who loved
her, it was she who was the kingpin of the family and who took all the responsibility for their
welfare. Ida began to have migraine headaches which were extremely debilitating and an
agony for her to cope with. One can only assume that the stress of so many children and the
demands of babies compounded this condition. The result was that she, always short
tempered, became more and more angry and even cruel towards the older children.
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