Mum had waited in restaraunts for Rolf and Anna Fenner, as well as taking you girls when she cleaned houses in Maroubra, when we lived at French St in the house that had Egon and Inga and their son Ralph, next door.
Then we lived in the Housing Commision flat at Eastlakes, where Dianne cams home to after her birth in Crown St.
Barbara and Roy and their wee boy and a new baby lived next door to us. Mum and Barbara looked after each others children to be able to earn some much needed money when working. One of those jobs was Mum selling Avon in the private flats in that area.
We were not that well off, but surprising how cooperative people in the same boat could enhance earnings by doing menial work.
It wasn't long after all of this that we bought the old wreck of a place at Queen St and in 1970, I got the dream job that I couldn't believe, Teaching Boilermaking in Sydney Tech College. This later lead to my election to Cessnock Council as Alderman, as well as Deputy Mayor.
All during this time, Mum and I, thanks to our revered leader, Gough Whitlam, led to us working class kids ( and you girls) to graduate from Uni. I then spent some 6 yrs as Principal et al. Mum also broke sexist barriers by taking on her roles in Non sexist ed and Drug ed as well as Consultant to the Australian National Gender Equity Project and for the National HealthCurriculum in Girls Education and also for Gender Equity
Nb this will give Mum a chance to blow her own trumpet by correcting my memory mistakes
Anyway, suffice it to say that I am very proud of this wee Armadale(Scotland) lassie in travelling the world on these massively important consultancies Mum can elaborate on all of this, so ask her!!
And be proud of a mum like I was, of your Mum and the Mum I had in keeping our families afloat in financially straightened times.
Luvs ma gurls
Faithir Ellis
No comments:
Post a Comment