Recently we had the pleasure of sitting down with one of our clients of more than 10 years, Pat. She spoke to us about memories of her youth, Covid restrictions and what advice she has for the younger generation today.
You can watch the video below, or scroll down to read through the transcript of our interview.
Tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m known as Pat, and I grew up at Kogarah Bay.
I’ve got two daughters and each one of them has got two boys and a girl, and one of them has got seven grandchildren, and the other one has only got one grandchild. When we lived at Kogarah Bay and afterwards we moved down to Blakehurst, actually, and we had access to the water down there when I was going to high school. And when we came home from that, then we used to go out front and catch crabs or when the prawns were on, we used to catch prawns out the back, and it was just really terrific. And then as a teenager, during the war time, we had a motor boat and you were given one gallon of petrol a month.
And with that gallon of petrol, we used to motor up to East Hills up the Georges River, and at East Hills there was a dance hall. You’d pay two shillings and you’d get out and dance the afternoon. Because you had to be back before dark, so you had to leave in time to motor back down. But the gallon of petrol did go a long way.
How have you been keeping busy during Covid?
I haven’t been to the shop since March and my two daughters get all the messages and things for me. It would be good to go to the shops. But it’s just out of question at the moment. I’ve been to a couple of committee meetings for war widows up at the RSL. And I’ve been to the doctor a few times for check up and that. And other than that, I’ve just been finishing up rugs, crocheting rugs, and making rugs, and sewing rugs and spending a lot of time on that. Plus I traced the family tree, and that takes up a lot of time on the computer. I haven’t had time to be bored, really.
Can you tell us about your husband, Jack?
Well I didn’t meet Jack until after the war was over, and I met him at a dance in Hurstville and he was working on the afternoon shift at the railway at Everleigh workshops. And I worked in the office at the workshops and I passed him every afternoon for about a month after I knew him before I noticed that he was coming to work as I was going home. And when I said to him at the dance, I said, “You never told me you worked on the railway.” He said, “Well, you never asked.” So I don’t know what else you need to know about that, because we just made 50 years before he passed away.
What advice do you have for the younger generation of today?
I think that you just got to keep an open mind and keep learning. Every day, if you open your mind, you can learn something. Even if it’s only something really trivial. You don’t have to take it on board, you just have to know that you’ve heard it or something like that, which is… Something down the track, you might think, “I’ve heard that before,” and then you can maybe connect it to something. Who knows?
You can also check out Pat’s thoughts on our services here.
