My father’s stories and my own
My father Cliff wrote about life as an immigrant Kiwi working man and WW2 soldier.
Would our forebears be proud of us?
Why the wheels fell off a bright kid, what got me on the road again, and why I headed off in unexpected directions.
Enterprising, energetic, but with no sense of career — why not build a boat and go sailing?
People & places I admire — plenty more to come.
There are real people everywhere. Skip the boring bits, and add a comment if you like.
It’s not that I don’t have opinions.
Longer Reads
Brian Donovan — profile of an artist, dreamer and boat designer
The hospital — 19-yo, untrained, angst-ridden medical orderly learns to care
Wind of Dreams — a happy London childhood in the 1920s and ’30s
Days of the Kauri Bushman — life and times in the pre-WW1 Northland bush
Beth — a country girl growing up in 1930s Northland, New Zealand.
Battle of Cassino — father and son in Italy, 1994
Summer of ’65 — audio actually, me reading my teenage diary
What does he mean, “real people”?
Finding your way round
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The site consists of several series of linked pages, each with its own table of contents and navigation. If a cross-link leads you somewhere interesting in a different thread, I hope you enjoy the detour! If you lose your place, you can get back to the Home screen from the top of every page, so it’s easy to dive back in.
I don’t feel qualified in a literary sense to comment but having lived on the fringes of your stories has, for me, been a marvellous journey too. With only instinct as my companion, you are truly a worthy successor to ‘Cliff Baugh.’ I enjoyed many aspects of his writing in particular the way his experiences reinforced those of my father’s childhood. Your writing exceeds Cliff’s in your ability to stand to one side so as to comment on your internal experiences, your thoughts and emotions.
Your instincts appear to be a fertile guide, your writing is entertaining, the pace has a natural flow encourages curiosity and a desire to read on. I crave for considerably more detail where memories enable you to dig deeper. The reason, your thoughts, attitudes and reflections have sense of universality amongst those of us who lived lives in part parallel to yours.
The overall scope of the narrative is remarkable in that it sets out to incorporate more than sixty years. The account is successful in its current form but for me it cries out for more depth here and there as your memory allows or interest kindled.
Post school you begin to delve more deeply into your thoughts and feelings and the complexity of your relationships with others and to the connections with associates. I was more drawn into your world as the writing becomes more personal and opinionated.
Your self deprecating humour is well established and might take a lighter role of the narrative.
I am in no position to comment on the nature and form of this narrative but for my own part I want my work to live within the overall context of the work of those I admire such as McCahon and the photographers: Saul Leiter, Ernst Haas, William Eggleston or Jeff Wall.
At some point, not sure when, you might seek an input from a more knowledgable literary person such as Graeme or Ray to comment on the structure and form of the narrative, that does not mean that you have to take any notice of them.
I am impressed by the successful manner in which you have begun such a demanding task, At times I found myself chocking back my own feelings as I revisited large and small parts of my own life through your words. Predictably this related specifically to shared experience of Northland College.
OTHER POSSIBILITIES
CHILDHOOD
Morning milking – standing in warm cow pats
fog, mist – the vapour from the breath of cows
Cats and rats, working farm dogs
Wet Gum boots
Swimming in a creek
dangerous or humorous incidents
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Getting to school, walk, horse, bus or parents
calf clubs
School routines
incidents in detail
Strapping kids
NORTHLAND COLLEGE
Cadets both at school and in the Papakura camp
The idiosyncrasies, strengths of teachers, Ernie Moss, Rowland Matley, Ken Leigh, Paul Holmes, Sax, Eddie Bergen, Matron Faugie, Matron Lange, Ballantine.
Hostel pranks – dorm raids etc Louis Penny farting, his piano playing and his running style
The Pacific Island Scholarship boys – Julian Dashwood, Tem Vaitaru,
Hi Ken you’re too kind, thank you, in particular for suggesting I have literary pretensions! I’ll be happy if I can write entertainingly about days gone by, which is where ours are headed. Regrettably. I hope to fill in some of the gaps you mention over time.
Hi Ian,
I don’t know if you remember, we met in Birmingham, at an exhibition. My wfe, I think is a cousin of yours, with her family coming from Blackrod, Lancashire.
I could put some details on a spread sheet, and you could enlarge your family knowledge.
Hi Bernard, Heather and I have fond memories of our forays to Birmingham and the NEC for Queensberry. You’ll see that apart from my father’s stories, this site is very much in its early days. I’ve written quite a bit about our travels around the world, not all of it published here yet, but haven’t made it to the British parts yet!
Thanks for making contact on ancestry.com.