INTERVIEW WITH IRENE LOVE born 1914 IN SYDNEY died January, 2004 and daughter HAZEL born 1933.
INTERVIEW DATE: June 1st, 1999

Irene Love moved from the city to live at 'Elmgrove' after she married.
When interviewed she was only recently home from hospital and although she was happy to be interviewed she tired easily. However, her eldest daughter, Hazel, who was looking after her while she recovered had many memories of her early life growing up at 'Elmgrove', a property outside Towamba on the Pericoe Road. Where Irene faltered, Hazel was able to prompt and fill in the details.

KATE. SO, YOU LIVED AT 'ELMGROVE'?
IRENE. Yes.
KATE. YOUR HUSBAND'S FAMILY, WHO WERE THEY?
HAZEL. Tom was Dad's father.
KATE. TOM LOVE, AND YOUR FATHER'S NAME WAS....
HAZEL. See, Grandfather came out from England. Grandma and Grandfather........ Grandma was a Harris and she used to tell me stories about coming out from England on the boat. She was only, she thinks about four, with the family. The Harris'. They settled down at Kiah. I think Grandfather came out too.
IRENE. Yes.
KATE. SO GRANDFATHER WAS TOM LOVE AND DO YOU KNOW WHO HIS WIFE WAS?
HAZEL. Yes. That's Lucy. That's my grandmother, Lucy Harris and Tom Love was my grandfather.
KATE. NOW, TOM'S CHILDREN.....
HAZEL. One was our father and his name was Jim...James.
KATE. AND YOUR MAIDEN NAME WAS....
IRENE. Sidebottom.
KATE. WHAT I'M INTERESTED IN IS YOUR EARLY LIFE. WHAT YOU DID OUT THERE AND WHO WERE THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU. MAINLY THE WOMEN, WHAT THEY HAD TO DO.
HAZEL. Well, I can remember Mum washing with just the old copper set on an open fire in the back yard. Clothes lines were just the ones with the forked stick holding the line up. And if there wasn't enough room the clothes went on the fence. Then we eventually got that washing machine, Mum? (laughter)
KATE. WHEN WAS THAT?
IRENE. Oh dear, don't ask me now!
HAZEL. It was a Breville. It was a hand operated one. It was a tub and it had a great steel rod and you just put a thing.....and dipped it and this was the agitator and of course it was a job for us kids, to stand there pumping it up and down.
IRENE. The best thing I ever bought. Especially when you are milking cows twice a day.
KATE. WERE YOU MILKING COWS TWICE A DAY?
IRENE. My word!
KATE. HOW MANY COWS DID YOU MILK?
IRENE. One hundred and sixteen. That's with four milkers.
KATE. ALL BY HAND?
IRENE. Yes. Everything was done by hand.
HAZEL. We used to get lots of bush fires. It's a very bush fire prone area further out. They used to take the cattle out to the bush. That was my uncle and my father.
KATE. WHO WAS YOUR UNCLE?
HAZEL. Edward Love. Thomas Edward Love. He was the eldest one of the family.
KATE. SO THOMAS AND JIM WERE BROTHERS.
IRENE. Yes.
HAZEL. Both eldest and second youngest of the family. He was a cripple (Edward) and he always lived with us. The bush fires....do you remember them Mum?
IRENE. I remember them, yes.
KATE. WAS THAT '38 OR '39 FIRES?
IRENE. '38.
HAZEL. I was only five then. It must be the '52 fires I remember.
KATE. CAN I ASK YOU, MRS. LOVE, WHAT YEAR YOU WERE BORN?
IRENE. 1914. At Wallsend in Sydney.
KATE. AND WHAT YEAR WAS YOUR HUSBAND BORN?
IRENE. 1912.
KATE. AND HE WAS BORN AT PERICOE?
IRENE. Towamba.
KATE. AT 'ELMGROVE'?
IRENE. I don't know.
HAZEL. The 'Elmgrove' house wasn't always there.
IRENE. It was down in the gully.
HAZEL. You know where the house is now, well it used to be down where the big dam is now. That's where the original house was. There was a little flat and some old pine trees and fruit trees.
IRENE. Lionel (Love) was born down the old house.
HAZEL. No. Lionel wasn't born when Grandfather died......was he?
IRENE. Yes. He was thirteen months old.
HAZEL. They were at 'Elmgrove' when Grandfather died. He fell down the steps and died.
KATE. I WAS TALKING TO WILLIE WENTWORTH WHO LIVES THERE NOW. ('Elmgrove')
IRENE. Yes. He bought it off me.
KATE. AND HE SAID THE OLDER PART OF THE HOUSE WAS BUILT IN ABOUT 1880.
IRENE. The old part of the house came from the old house that was down in the gully.
KATE. THE LONG PART?
IRENE. Yes. All the top part was new. (The north side) And the long part, that come from down the gully.
KATE. SO YOU KILLED YOUR OWN MEAT........
IRENE. Oh, yes. Made your own butter, baked your own bread. No running to the shop and getting it.
KATE. SO WHEN DID YOU FIRST GO TO 'ELMGROVE'? WAS IT AFTER YOU MARRIED?
IRENE. I was there a couple of years before.
KATE. SO WHAT WERE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF THE PLACE. DID YOU THINK YOU HAD COME TO THE END OF NOWHERE?
IRENE. No, no. It was quite nice. You meet people and you get along.
HAZEL. The thing is too.......years ago there was always so many people worked there. So there was always on the property, people around. The house was full. Things were done different to what they are now. I can remember that long building, the old part, that used to be one room, except the kitchen, the rest.......we used to call the ballroom. That's where we used to have parties. There was only a piano in there and a fire place. And some seats, I think. Thelda Hartneady, later Thelda McLeod she was, used to come out and play the piano and everyone would come and you'd dance ...... I can remember that. That sort of thing all went on.
IRENE. We used to have a lot like that.
HAZEL. You never sort of felt lonely.
KATE. SO YOU HAD OTHER PEOPLE ON THE PROPERTY TO HELP YOU MILK AND DO OTHER JOBS?
IRENE. Oh, yes.
KATE. WERE YOUR COWS JUST COWS OR WERE THEY A PARTICULAR BREED?
IRENE. All Jersey.
KATE. AND YOUR CREAM WENT TO WHERE?
IRENE. Pambula Butter Factory. You used to hump it down the road and put it on the truck.
HAZEL. I think the cream lorry used to come three days a week.
KATE. I WAS TALKING TO ENIE LOVE AND SHE TOLD ME ABOUT THE CORN HUSK MATTRESSES. DID YOU HAVE THOSE TOO?
IRENE. Yes. The husks of corn. We'd get out and pull the corn. We worked hard.
KATE. YOU SAVED THE HUSKS OF THE CORN. WERE THE HUSKS COMBED OUT?
IRENE. Some of it was fringy looking.
KATE. YOU PUT IT IN AS IT CAME OFF THE CORN.
IRENE. I can tell you, it wasn't very easy work.
HAZEL. You see, nobody thought of it as being hard.
IRENE. You knew no better. You knew it had to be done. I'd come out of the milking yard and get stuck into the washing and wash all the day.
KATE. SO YOU'D GET UP IN THE MORNING......
IRENE. Have a cup of tea and off out to the yard.
KATE. YOU'D MILK.....
IRENE. And then you'd do your own work then.
KATE. WOULD YOU HAVE TO SEPARATE THE MILK?
IRENE. No. The men would separate.
KATE. THEN YOU'D START YOUR OWN WORK?
IRENE. We'd start my day. There'd be washing, cleaning up, cooking food...
KATE. HOW MANY WOULD YOU HAVE COOKED FOR?
IRENE. The family and probably two or three men. Sometimes only one man. All depended on what there was to be done.
KATE. HOW MANY CHILDREN DO YOU HAVE?
IRENE. Five.
KATE. SO THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD HELP TO YOU THEN.
IRENE. Yes......sometimes they were a nuisance. Hazel was the biggest help.
HAZEL. Oh, thank you very much!
IRENE. The boys were too young.
HAZEL. Wayne was only, what, eight when Dad died.
IRENE. Seven.
KATE. SO YOU ARE THE ELDEST, HAZEL?
HAZEL. Yes.
KATE. SO WHO WERE THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU, OUT AT PERICOE?
IRENE. The McPauls, the Lucas', they lived behind us. The Brownlies ....
KATE. WHERE DID THEY LIVE?
IRENE. Do you know where the Pericoe hall was? Well there was a house just opposite that. They were there. Oscar Love used to live out there.
KATE. WHAT PROPERTY WAS HE ON?
IRENE. 'Hillview'.
KATE. THAT WAS WHERE RAMSEYS WERE AND SCHUMANNS ARE NOW?
IRENE. Yes. Souths were down that way too.
HAZEL. I can remember the dances in the Pericoe hall.
IRENE. Oh, yes. We used to have dances in the Pericoe hall. Beautiful functions there.
KATE. SO YOUR MUSICIANS WERE LOCALS?
IRENE. People who wanted to play.
HAZEL. Thelda Hartneady, from where you live. (previously Hartneady's store) .
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER HARTNEADY'S STORE?
IRENE. Oh, yes.
KATE. CAN YOU GIVE ME AN IDEA OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE INSIDE?
IRENE. I can remember it being there but we were four mile out from them.
HAZEL. It was just an old time store, you know.
IRENE. It wasn't open long, it closed about the forties.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER THE BUTCHER COMING TO TOWN, AND THE BAKER.. WERE YOU HAPPY TO GET MEAT AND BREAD OFF THEM INSTEAD OF MAKING YOUR OWN?
IRENE. Oh, yes. We used to have our bread sent out from Eden, what we didn't make. But I remember the butchers coming out there.
KATE. WHO WAS THE BUTCHER?
IRENE. Mr. Brown. George Brown.
HAZEL. We used to have a.....well, I suppose you'd call him quaint now but we didn't think so at the time..... a hawker, we used to call them, with his covered-in wagon. George Tradd. And Georgie used to go around all the farm houses and he'd sleep in his wagon. He'd have each side filled with stuff. Lots of pictures and things hanging up. He'd sleep on the floor but he would stop two or three nights all around us. He'd go across to Aunty Hazel's and he'd stop there a couple of nights and sleep in his van and he'd sell, oh, everything. It was a real adventure when Georgie came around.
KATE. WHO WAS AUNTY HAZEL?
HAZEL. That was Mrs.Tasker, she's passed away. That was Dad's sister.
KATE. WHERE DID SHE LIVE OUT THERE?
HAZEL. Out on the Burragate Road. And his other sister lived on the next farm. I forget what they called it. Where Aunty Lizzy and Uncle Alf used to live.
IRENE. I can't remember.
HAZEL. But Aunt Hazel lived on 'Lyndhurst' and Aunty Lizzy lived next door. They married two brothers and then Aunty Hazel eventually bought 'Jerusalem'. They lived up there, then they came to Eden to live.
KATE. ITS INTERESTING THAT A LOT OF NAMES ON THE PROPERTIES HAVE CHANGED.
IRENE. That's right!
KATE. SOMEONE'S TALKING ABOUT 'JERUSALEM' AND YOU WONDER WHERE THAT IS.
IRENE. 'Jerusalem' used to be Binnie's once.
KATE. AND 'DUNBLANE' AND 'LIDDESDALE'. THAT'S 'BY JINGO' NOW.
HAZEL. Sister Binnie lived in Towamba up near the wine shop. (Dalton's place)
IRENE. Yes. Up along the river there. She used to give music lessons.
KATE. HAVE YOU GOT ANY STORIES ABOUT THE PLONK SHOP?
IRENE. (laughter) I don't know. I never used to go there. I know a lot of fools who used to
go there.
KATE. WERE LADIES ALLOWED TO GO THERE?
IRENE. Yes. They let women go there.
HAZEL. At one stage they had a dining room that used to operate there.
IRENE. They used to serve meals there.
KATE. WHO HAD IT THEN? MRS.GAIT?
IRENE. Mrs.Parker. And then her son took it over then. But they just lived in it.
HAZEL. Ruby Roberts used to help her in there when they had cricket matches. After they'd been into bat they'd go into the plonk shop.
IRENE. Sometimes they wouldn't come out!
HAZEL. It was always very sociable. (laughter)
KATE. IT'S AN ISOLATED AREA BUT ITS VERY INTERESTING. IT WAS A HARD LIFE. VERY BASIC LIVING.
IRENE. Oh, it's a good life, now, for them. There's electricity, they've got everything! I wish we'd had it!
KATE. I WAS TALKING TO CLIVE CLEMENTS AND HE SAID HIS FATHER FOUGHT REALLY HARD WITH A FEW OTHER PEOPLE TO GET THE ELECTRICITY TO COME TO THEIR PLACE. AND I HAD ASSUMED IT CAME FROM THE COAST TO TOWAMBA BUT HE SAID IT DIDN'T. IT CAME FROM WYNDHAM. SO, IT CAME TO TOWAMBA BUT IT DIDN'T COME TO HIS PLACE UNTIL THREE YEARS LATER!
IRENE. I'll tell you it was a long time before we got it out at Pericoe.
KATE. WHAT YEAR WOULD YOU HAVE GOT IT OUT THERE?
IRENE. Probably in the early '60's. Bill Gunn from Bombala did the wiring.
KATE. AS LATE AS THE 60's!
HAZEL. Prior to that, Dad had a generator and prior to that we just had candles and kerosene fridges.
IRENE. I often wonder now, how we used to see with them.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER THE BILLIARD ROOM, IN BARNEY STREET?
IRENE. Teddy Butcher got that going.
HAZEL. That was a goer for a long time.
IRENE. Oh, yes.
KATE. SO DID LADIES PLAY BILLIARDS? OR WAS THAT STRICTLY A MEN'S GAME?
IRENE. Mainly men. I don't remember women playing. We were too busy.
KATE. DID THE KIDS GO OUT TRAPPING RABBITS?
IRENE. Yes, Yes. We all got some rabbits. I used to trap a few myself. When I had time.
KATE. SO YOU'D STEW THEM UP.....
IRENE. No. The rabbit man used to come around and buy them. He come around once or twice a week when ever .......like he had his run to do.
KATE. SO WHERE DID HE TAKE THEM? TO THE CANNING FACTORY?
IRENE. No. They used to ship them to Melbourne.
KATE. WHAT DID THEY DO WITH THEM THERE?
IRENE. They were shipped to France.
KATE. FRANCE! AS FROZEN?
IRENE. Yes. You'd skin them and clean them and you'd put them on a big long pole and then they'd hang them up in the truck and take them away.
KATE. DID THEY TAKE THE SKIN TOO?
IRENE. No. You'd sell the skin separate. You'd peg the skins out, let them dry and then the man would come around and buy them. Oh, everybody was kept busy. Everybody knew what they had to do. Up to the war they only trapped for skins. After the war they took the meat as well.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER WHO THE SKIN BUYERS WERE?
IRENE. Yes. There was Billy Stone and then Littley took over. They're the only two I can remember. Vic Littley. Oh, it was a big day when the skin buyers come. He'd bring the kids a bag of lollies.
KATE. DID THEY TAKE FOX SKINS TOO?
IRENE. Yes. They'd buy everything. Yes. There were only the two. You'd look forward to them coming.
KATE. DO YOU REMEMBER MUCH ABOUT THE BULLOCK DRIVERS AND THE TEAMS?
IRENE. Well, Uncle Edward had a bullock team. He used to take the wool to Eden to the wharf on a dray.
HAZEL. He was Dad's eldest brother, the one who I said lived with us. He'd take the wool from 'Elmgrove' to the wharf in Eden.
IRENE. And he used to do a lot of work down the other way, towards Bombala too.
HAZEL. I can remember him yoking up the bullocks.
IRENE. Oh, yes. You'd think he was going to the other side of the world.
HAZEL. He had them all named. A lot of our provisions.........well, Grandma used to order from Smiths in Sydney and they'd come down on the steamer.
IRENE. They'd come by steamer and they'd (bullock teams) bring them out.
HAZEL. Sometimes we'd go and meet it too. All the tea and sugar and flour stuff.....Ira Parker had the post office. You'd get a telephone call from Ira saying, 'The steamer's just left Bermagui', or just past Tathra so you know what time to head down to get the things off the steamer and head back home again.
KATE. IT WOULD BE LIKE CHRISTMAS. WOULD YOU ORDER CLOTHES THROUGH THE CATALOGUES?
IRENE. Oh, yes. Wynn's catalogue. And Anthony Hordons.
HAZEL. Oh, dear, oh, dear. It was like kids looking in a toy catalogue.
IRENE. Kids wouldn't put up with it now. (laughter)
HAZEL. The tea used to come in the big wooden chests. The sugar in the sugar bags.
KATE. DID YOU MAKE USE OF THE FLOUR BAGS?
IRENE. Oh, yes. Tea towels and sheets. All depends how many bags you had.
HAZEL. How about petticoats? I remember wearing petticoats made out of them. (laughter)
IRENE. It was good stuff. You had trouble getting the writing off them. 'Plain Flour' in red letters. (laughter) We'd lay them on the grass outside in the sun and leave them there for a week.
KATE. DIDN'T YOU USE BLEACH?
IRENE. No. I never used bleach in my life until I came to Eden to live. We'd get unbleached sheets and spread them on the ground and leave them there three or four days and they'd come nice and white.
KATE. WOULD THEY HAVE BEEN JUST THE CALICO ONES.
IRENE. Yes. The ones with all the black spots in them, see. They'd say get the unbleached ones, they're the warmest. I never knew anything else.
KATE. WHAT DID YOU USE FOR YOUR WASHING SOAP?
IRENE. Little cakes of 'Dad'. Little tiny cakes, there were six in a packet.
KATE. WHAT WERE THEY CALLED.......'DAD'?
IRENE. Yes. 'Dad'. And washing soda.
KATE. 'DAD'! DAD DIDN'T DO THE WASHING! IT SHOULD'VE BEEN CALLED 'MUM'. (laughter)
IRENE. No. It was called 'Dad'. They were just little blocks about as long as your finger.
KATE. WAS IT LIKE A CAKE OF SOAP?
IRENE. When you crumbled it up it was like powder.
KATE. SO YOU CRUMBLED IT UP AND PUT IT IN YOUR WASHING TUB.
IRENE. Yes. It was just like powder.
HAZEL. They used to make their own soap too. Yes. My aunties used to make their own soap.
KATE. HOW WOULD YOU DO THAT?
IRENE. Oh, lard. I've still got recipes laying around somewhere.
HAZEL. I can still remember them making it. If you wanted it perfumed you'd put a bit of scent in it.
IRENE. It's marvellous if you're out in the bush and you're stuck, it's marvellous what you do. But we seemed to have plenty. We never went short.
KATE. SO YOU WOULD HAVE EATEN WELL?
IRENE. Oh, my word! Plenty of vegetables and lettuce........
KATE. YOU WOULD HAVE HAD YOUR OWN VEGIE GARDEN.
IRENE. Oh, yes. And not a little one either. It was a great big one.
HAZEL. Dad nearly always had a garden with things coming along, in rotation.
IRENE. We had potatoes and onions. We had everything like that. Nothing short at all. It was a matter of, I think, we had too much. Our meat safe, that old bag thing we had, used to be up on top. You had to put it up on something, on a big box. Put the water in at the top and let the water drip down.
HAZEL. My father was a great one, he used to come to town, have a few beers and meet up with somebody......we used to call them tramps. After the depression people were moving around. And he'd bring them home. They would live at home and work and be kept and paid and things like that and one old chap was Tommy Rag.......
KATE. WHAT WAS HIS NAME?
HAZEL. Thomas Ragg. Double g.
IRENE. I remember him.
HAZEL. He was an Englishman and he was gorgeous, he was only about this high, (four feet) and he was just tramping around the country and he lived out at 'Elmgrove' for years. But he was very handy. He built all the tank stands and put drains in and all that type of thing. And he came up with this bright idea. In this cement tank stand, he made a door but prior to that, he boxed it, I suppose you'd call it, and he made this big space inside this big tank stand and put a little door on the outside. We used to keep our milk and pies in there. It was lovely and cold in there. I suppose the tank stands might be gone by now. But they were there for years and years. And he used to write his name in things. You'd see T. Ragg written on something.
IRENE. Yes, it was good.
HAZEL. There were numerous people who worked on 'Elmgrove' that were tramps. Dad used to bring them home from town because they had nowhere to go.
KATE. DID YOU EVER HAVE ANY PROBLEM WITH THOSE PEOPLE?
IRENE. No. They weren't like they are today.
KATE. YES. IT'S SO DIFFERENT TODAY.
HAZEL. Even after we went to Wyndham to live.....I left school in Wyndham ........you'd still have some of them....we'd call them tramps but I suppose they were only hitchhikers. They'd knock on your door and they'd say, 'Can I dig your garden for you Misses, for a feed?' Well you'd usually give them something and they'd go on. Never any problem. That's all they wanted was something to eat. And we had a dairy there and I can remember one bloke, he stopped down under the willow tree for a long time. He used to come up and get a little bit of milk every day. No problem at all.
KATE. SO YOU WOULD HAVE SEEN A LOT OF CHANGES OUT THERE?
IRENE. Oh, yes. A good deal.
KATE. ALEXANDERS, WERE THEY OUT THERE WHEN YOU WERE?
IRENE. Yes. I just can't place old Mr.Alexander.
KATE. WAS THAT ALF?
HAZEL. Oh, I can remember him.
KATE. WHAT DID HE LOOK LIKE?
HAZEL. Well, to me, as a kid, he was a big man and he had a pot belly but it probably wasn't much. You know what it's like when you're a child. Everything seems larger than it was.
IRENE. Alexander's was a very flash place. All the big people went there you know, and they entertained.
KATE. THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN....
IRENE. The Society........(laughter) See, there was Joy, she was a sister, a double certificate sister, a theatre sister or something. She was well up and she'd come home and all the big fellers would come with her. Oh, yes. Alexanders had the name.
KATE. I SEE. SO THEY'D LET YOU KNOW.
IRENE. Yes. (laughter)
KATE. WHO WAS THE NEXT DOWN THE LADDER?
IRENE. Not us! I wouldn't know. They lived a different life to what the poor old dairy man lived. They always had somebody share-farming for them. They didn't do the work, somebody else did it for them. They paid them. But the poor old dairy man, if he wanted a good time, he had to work for a long time before.
KATE. I SUPPOSE IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU A LOT OF HOURS NOT ONLY TO MILK BUT THEN MORE TO SEPARATE THE MILK.
IRENE. Yes, well the men used to do that. But I'd be back in the house by half past ten, eleven o'clock in the morning and go back at three o'clock in the afternoon to do it again. When we got machines, it was different but we wasn't there long enough for that. We ever only sent the cream. We'd feed the pigs on the milk or other animals.
KATE. WHAT COVERINGS DID YOU HAVE ON THE FLOOR IN THE HOUSE?
IRENE. We had lino in the kitchen, dining room, the lounge room, we had carpets in there and lino and lino all through the bedrooms with little mats on them. We were comfortable.
KATE. AND THE DAIRY, WAS IT CEMENT FLOOR AND STAINLESS STEEL PIPES....
IRENE. Our dairy, you'd come to the first place up near the milking yard, it was just a shed and you had the big thing to put the vat on top to put the milk in and it come down into the separator. Then you had a bench along where you'd wash up. Turn your cans upside down, then there's a little veranda on the side, you'd do the same out there (wash up) it would have to be done properly.
KATE. WERE THEY STAINLESS STEEL THEN?
IRENE. The milking vats were and the separator but that was all. We had a big stainless steel vat, they used to call it. I used to scrub it and scald it. And that sat up so much higher than the separator and the milk came through the pipes into that and it would take you all day to clean it properly. The men did that unless they were going to a sale or something, I did it.
KATE. DID THEY HAVE A SHOW AT BURRAGATE?
IRENE. Oh, yes. I can remember taking the kids up there to something. I know....three or four different times. I don't know whether it was a show or sports. They had football up there, the tennis.
KATE. DID YOU USE ST.PAULS CHURCH AT TOWAMBA?
IRENE. Yes. All my kids were christened in Towamba church.
KATE. SO ALL RELIGIONS USED IT WHEN YOU WERE HERE?
IRENE. Oh, yes. They all went to church.
KATE. I SUPPOSE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A SOCIAL EVENT.
IRENE. Well, it was an outing, put it that way. It was only once a month. Wasn't many times we missed it.
KATE. DID THE CATHOLICS USE THAT CHURCH TOO?
IRENE. No. I think they held it in someone's place, the Catholic church. No, they never used that church. It was only the Church of England that used that church to my knowledge.
KATE. DID YOU MAKE YOUR OWN CLOTHES?
IRENE. Yes. A lot of them. The kid's clothes. And a lot of stuff we bought too. We had nothing flash but when we went out we were tidy and that was it. The kids were all tidy. That's all you needed to worry about.
KATE. AND WHEN YOU MADE YOUR BREAD WHAT YEAST DID YOU USE.
IRENE. Compressed yeast. I made it.
KATE. WHEN YOU WERE MAKING ALL THE BREAD YOU NEEDED DID YOU MAKE IT THREE DAYS EACH WEEK OR.....
IRENE. You made ten loaves at a time about every second day.
KATE. YOU HAD ALL THOSE EXTRA PEOPLE.
IRENE. You'd make more if you needed it. Or you might think, I've got enough there I'll just get a couple of loaves out with the mail tonight. Not very often that happened. I've made bread since I've been here! I get a mad fad sometimes, you know.
KATE. WHO WAS YOUR MAIL MAN?
IRENE. Arthur Love.
KATE. WHERE DID HE FIT IN THEN?
IRENE. He married a Brownlie from up Pericoe, opposite the hall, where we told you the Brownlies lived.
KATE. WHO WAS ARTHUR'S FAMILY? WAS HE A COUSIN OF YOUR HUSBAND'S?
IRENE. I can't remember. They were tangled up somehow.
KATE. SO DID ALBIE LOVE COME IN WITH THE RUN AFTERWARDS?
IRENE. Yes. Albie sort of..........Liz Love, that's Enie's (Love) mother, she more or less reared him. He was like a son to them.
KATE. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN THINK OF?
IRENE. No. I've been trying to think. My memory is gone. I know my memory had gone lately. There's a lot of things I want to think of but I can't.

AND THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS.


LOVE

Thomas Love married Lucy Harris
Children of Thomas and Lucy Love:
Thomas Edward, James (Jimmy),
Lizzie, Hazel, William, Oscar, Lionel.

Jimmy Love married Irene Sidebottom
Children of Jimmy and Irene Love:
Hazel, Kathleen, Doreen,
Barry, Wayne.