Claire fell heavily, all the breath knocked from her body.
Her head slammed into the ground with a sickening thud.
Pain. Nausea. Darkness.
‘Are you all right?’ The voice belonged to a young male.
‘Jem?’ Claire mumbled. She opened her eyes. The light was blinding. Pain shot through her temple. She touched her head with her fingertips. It felt warm and sticky.
‘Are you badly hurt?’ asked the voice again. ‘Can you hear me?’
A face peered down at her from above. It was a boy about her own age, with brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a bike helmet.
Claire sat up gingerly. She looked around, expecting to see the circus lot, with its burning tent and caravans. Instead, it was daylight in the busy street near her home, in front of her usual bus stop. She breathed in deeply.
The boy was holding a bicycle. He had a nasty graze down his left leg. Claire’s bag was lying in the gutter. A crowd of passers-by had gathered around, looking concerned. A flood of euphoria surged through her when she realised where she was.
Claire beamed up at the boy leaning over her. ‘No, I’m fine,’ she cried. ‘I’m perfectly, wonderfully fine.’
The boy frowned. ‘I think you hit your head rather hard.’
‘Yes,’ said Claire, ‘but it’s nothing. I’ll be all right now.’
The boy took his helmet off and wiped his forehead. ‘Sorry I hit you, but you seemed to just jump out in front of me. I didn’t have time to swerve.’
‘It was my fault. I was distracted and didn’t see you,’ Claire explained. ‘My name is Claire Stanton.’
‘I’m Tom Macintosh.’
Tom helped her up and she sat on the kerb. A woman standing nearby rang the ambulance. Claire found her handbag, lifted out her battered, faithful old phone and rang her mother. She felt like she was holding a lifeline in her hands.
‘Mum? Mum?’ Claire cried.
‘Claire. Is everything all right?’
Tears welled up when she heard her mother’s beautiful, familiar voice again. ‘I’m okay, Mum, but there’s been a slight accident. I was hit by a bike. They’ve called an ambulance.’
Claire could hear the panic in her mother’s voice as she demanded to know details. ‘I’m on my way, darling,’ her mother promised.
A few minutes later an ambulance arrived and the officers asked both Claire and Tom their names and addresses, and examined their injuries.
Tom was treated by the medics, who cleaned and bandaged his leg. Claire had the cut on her forehead daubed with antiseptic. Despite her protestations that she was perfectly fine, the medics insisted on taking both her and Tom to hospital in the back of the ambulance, and the two patients chatted along the way.
Tom had seen Claire too late, braked too suddenly, and was flung over the handlebars as he hit her. Luckily, he was wearing a helmet. Claire explained her grandmother’s illness and confessed to being distracted and worried. It turned out that Tom lived just a couple of streets away from her. He seemed like a friendly boy.
Both of Claire’s parents met her in the emergency ward, and she flung herself into her mother’s and then her father’s arms.
‘I missed you so much,’ she sobbed. Her parents exchanged worried glances.
‘Are you all right, Claire?’ asked her father gently.
‘I just want to go home.’
The doctor examined Claire, dressed her forehead and pronounced her bruised and battered but otherwise well. Tom was in the cubicle next door. She saw his parents arrive, looking anxious.
‘I just want to say goodbye to Tom,’ Claire said. ‘The accident wasn’t his fault – it was totally mine – and I think he was hurt quite badly.’
Claire popped her head around the curtain. Tom was lying on the bed, looking pale and tired. His parents were sitting beside him.
‘Sorry again about running out in front of you,’ Claire apologised with a shy smile. ‘I hope you’re feeling better soon.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ said Tom with a grin. ‘A few grazes won’t slow me down. Maybe I can pop around to your house and see you in a few days – see how you’re coming along?’
‘That would be nice,’ Claire said.
Claire’s parents took her back home and tucked her into bed, where she snuggled into her fresh, clean sheets, under her turquoise doona. She looked around her beautiful, familiar room and felt a wave of happiness and relief wash over her. She was really, truly home.
On Tuesday after school, Claire went to visit Nanna in hospital. Mum had explained that the doctors thought that her confusion and hallucinations had been caused by a nasty infection. Nanna had been on strong doses of antibiotics for the past couple of days and was much more lucid, although still a little woozy.
Claire walked in carrying a large bunch of flowers. Nanna opened her eyes and smiled. Claire stooped to kiss her on the cheek.
‘Hello, my darling,’ said Nanna. ‘What beautiful agapanthus. Can you set them on the shelf?’
Claire placed the flowers on display and took a seat beside the hospital bed as the two exchanged pleasantries. When they had both assured the other that they were perfectly well, Claire slipped the star brooch out of her pocket and put it in her grandmother’s hands.
‘I found this in Grandpa’s box,’ Claire explained.
Nanna took the old brooch and turned it over in her hands. She sighed, a look of misty remembrance in her eyes.
‘I can still recall the day I gave this to your grandfather,’ Nanna said. ‘He always treasured this funny old piece of costume jewellery.’
‘I know. Will you tell me more about it, Nanna?’ asked Claire. ‘About the circus? You mentioned it while you were sick.’
Nanna gave her a sharp look. ‘I blurted that out, did I? Well, when I was a girl, I was a circus performer. I was known as Princess Rosina of Romani.’
Claire nodded. Nanna went on to talk about some of the adventures she’d had in the circus, most of which Claire knew but was happy to hear again.
‘But why didn’t you ever tell us about this, Nanna?’ Claire asked.
Nanna smiled a mischievous smile. Claire could see a flash of the old Rosina. ‘In those days, to be with the circus was not at all respectable. Kit’s father was horrified that he would even think of associating with people from the circus. It was easier not to talk about it. It was a bit like knowing that your ancestors were convicts. In those days, absolutely no one would admit such a connection.’
‘Sounds like Kit’s dad was a bit of a tyrant,’ Claire replied, remembering Mr Hunter and his conservative views.
‘No, not really,’ Nanna said. ‘Once you knew him, he was a real sweetie – although he was an old-fashioned gentleman with quaint ideas about gentility.’
Claire smiled.
‘When I married Kit –’ Nanna paused, as though the memories were too difficult, and then continued. ‘When I married Kit, I had become Vivien Blake – a movie actress, someone respectable and glamorous. Then I became Vivien Hunter, loving wife and mother, a stalwart of Sydney’s well-to-do society.’ Claire patted her grandmother’s hand. ‘But all that time, I never forgot Princess Rosina. You know, there is an old circus saying, “Once you have sawdust in your shoes, you can never get it out.”’
Claire wondered if her time in the circus counted as getting sawdust in her shoes. Well, she definitely knew it was something she would never, ever forget.
‘What happened after the circus fire?’ asked Claire.
‘The fire,’ said Nanna, remembering further back. ‘The Big Top was completely destroyed, along with many of the props and equipment. In those days, the canvas tents were waterproofed with paraffin wax dissolved in kerosene. When the fires started, we had no way of stopping it – the whole tent was gone in just a few minutes.’
‘Did y
ou find out how the fire started?’ asked Claire.
‘Who knows? A cigarette butt, an electrical short, a disgruntled employee? But the consequences were devastating. Sterling Brothers Circus broke up after that.’ Nanna sighed. ‘The circus was already struggling because of the Depression. Many of the performers and animals ended up in different, bigger circuses. It broke my heart to say goodbye to some of the animals I had worked with for years.’
Claire took Nanna’s hand, which was trembling on top of the bedcover. ‘Like Elsie and Empress?’ she asked.
Nanna frowned, giving Claire a quizzical look. ‘How do you know about them?’
‘You talked all about them,’ explained Claire hurriedly. ‘And about the horses . . .’
‘Oh, my horses,’ Nanna sighed. ‘I was worried that the other circuses might not love them and look after them the way we had. We knew that not all circuses treated their animals and people well. I kept my monkey, Lula, though. She was like my baby, and I could never have been parted from her.’
‘Were the elephants hurt during the fire, when they escaped?’ Claire asked.
‘No. Luckily there were no injuries or deaths from the fire,’ Nanna assured her. ‘There was just a friend – a dear friend – who disappeared. There was no body, so I think she found her way home. I’ve thought of her often over the years.’
Nanna took a hard look at Claire again. Claire smiled broadly.
‘Actually, when you were born, your mother named you for my sister who died, but also for my old friend,’ Nanna confessed. ‘Claire has always been one of my favourite names.’
‘I didn’t know until this week that you had a sister called Claire.’
‘Sometimes it is too painful to talk of the past, and sometimes no one now really wants to hear about it. We all struggled during the Depression, and most of us wanted to forget those tough times. It was such a long time ago.’
‘I’m glad I know about it,’ said Claire. ‘I love learning about your circus past. You’ve had an amazing life.’
Nanna took Claire’s hand and squeezed it in return. ‘As will you, my darling,’ she assured her. ‘But enough talk of what happened so many years ago. How was your day today?’
‘It was good,’ said Claire, settling back in her chair. ‘I had my audition for the ballet concert. I took your advice . . .’
Nanna looked puzzled.
‘You said to stand tall, shoulders back, dazzling smile and pretend I was someone else – like Giselle,’ Claire reminded her. ‘I pretended I was a bareback circus dancer. I worked on my dance over the weekend and practised and practised. When I did it today, my teacher said it was the best performance I had ever done. In fact, she has asked me to perform a solo in the concert – my first one.’
Nanna smiled with delight. ‘So you aren’t going to quit your dancing?’
Claire grinned. ‘No, it’s fun. It makes me happy.’
‘Well done, darling. Congratulations.’ Nanna lay back against the pillows. ‘All your hard work paid off.’
‘I think it was more than hard work,’ said Claire. ‘I changed my whole point of view. I decided if I had to do it, it was worth doing well. It’s easy to be ordinary. I decided I wanted to be extraordinary. I decided I wanted to be extraordinary like my grandmother – Princess Rosina of Romani.’
The Great Depression: Fast Facts
The Great Depression was an economic disaster that began with the stock market collapse on Wall Street, New York, on 29 October 1929. It lasted for several years and was a time of extreme hardship for many Australians as commodity prices fell, businesses closed, jobs were lost and people struggled to survive. Australia was one of the worst affected countries in the world with the second-highest level of debt and the second-highest level of unemployment after Germany, because of its mountain of debt and reliance on wool and wheat exports.
In Australia in the Depression:
•Unemployment reached its peak in mid-1932 when nearly thirty per cent of people were unemployed. The effect was devastating. Without a steady income, many people lost their homes.
•In Sydney during 1932, about 5000 families were evicted from their homes.
•Hundreds of thousands of people were unemployed for an average of five years.
•About 30,000 men went ‘on the wallaby track’, as swagmen, walking hundreds of miles or ‘riding the rattler’ (hitching rides on freight trains) in search of odd jobs. Many of these men left their families in the cities.
•Approximately 40,000 people were homeless, living in shanty shelters or tents on public land, in caves or under bridges – without heating, electricity, running water or sanitation. Many others squatted in abandoned buildings or moved in to live with relatives.
•About 60,000 people depended on the sustenance or ‘susso’ payment, which was paid either as basic food rations or, later on, as vouchers that could be swapped for food. This payment did not cover rent, bills or clothing. It was only for people who were completely destitute, with no savings or assets, and was barely enough to keep families from starving.
•Many people survived by queuing for food at soup kitchens or by living on bread and dripping. The inadequate nutrition led to widespread disease such as scurvy, dysentery, lice and scabies.
•Working-class children generally left school at twelve or thirteen to find work.
•Many children were abandoned in orphanages, sent to live with relatives who could afford to feed them or were given away. Some parents starved themselves to make sure their children had enough to eat.
•Jobs were easier to find for younger people and women because they were paid a lower wage, but many youths lost their jobs as soon as they turned twenty-one, when their wages became higher.
•In 1931 the basic wage was about four pounds per week, or 208 pounds per year, although a shop girl might only earn about twenty-three pounds per year.
•People learned to do without and had to use their ingenuity and creativity to survive by making everyday items, repairing things instead of replacing them and looking after each other.
•Life in the cities was tougher than in the country, where there was more food.
•Australia was one of the last countries to recover from the Depression. By 1939 unemployment had dropped to about ten per cent.
•In the 1930s there were about thirty circuses travelling and performing throughout Australia. These ranged from small, family, horse-and-wagon circuses to large circus trains. Some of the famous Australian circus families include Ashton, St Leon, Sole Bros, Perry Bros, Wirth Bros, Lennon and Holden. Modern circuses include many performers who trace their circus lineage back six or seven generations, or about 160 years.
•For many years, circuses had exotic performing animals, such as lions, tigers, elephants and monkeys. Nowadays, most circuses no longer have wild animal acts. This is because public opinion has changed, as many people believe that keeping wild animals and training them to perform for entertainment is cruel and unnatural. While the members of the Sterling Brothers Circus loved their animals and tried to treat them well, not all circuses did, and there were many instances of animal cruelty.
•Some of the characters and actions in this story are based on real people, such as Colonel Eric Campbell, the leader of the New Guard, and Sir Francis de Groot, who slashed the ribbon to prevent Premier Jack Lang from officially opening the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There really were plots to kidnap the Premier and overthrow the democratically elected Labor government. On 13 May 1932, several hundred members of the New Guard threatened to stage a coup d’état if Premier Lang did not resign. The threatened civil war did not eventuate, as Jack Lang was dismissed by the Governor Sir Philip Game, one hour before the deadline.
•Another true story is that of Lennie Gwyther, the nine-year-old boy who rode by himself more than 1450 kilometres on his pony, Ginger Mick, t
o attend the opening of the Harbour Bridge. Lennie rode from Leongatha in Gippsland, Victoria, to Sydney and back – a journey of about three months – which made him famous.
•Phar Lap the ‘Wonder Horse’ was a champion racehorse who was the pride of the nation during the Great Depression. At the height of his career, he won thirty-two out of thirty-five races, including the Melbourne Cup. Gangsters tried to kill the chestnut thoroughbred before the Melbourne Cup in 1930. In 1932 Phar Lap won the Agua Caliente Handicap, the richest horserace in North America, in record time. A couple of weeks later on 5 April 1932, Phar Lap died in mysterious circumstances amid widespread speculation that the horse had been poisoned. Recent forensic analysis has shown that Phar Lap had ingested a massive dose of arsenic hours before his death. The autopsy revealed that Phar Lap’s heart was nearly twice the size of a normal horse’s heart.
Recipe for Depression cake
Ingredients
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or bacon grease
2 cups raisins
2 cups hot water (or hot coffee)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Shredded apple or nuts can be added if desired.
Directions
Combine the brown sugar, vegetable oil, raisins and hot water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil for five minutes, then set aside to cool.
The Sequin Star Page 22