Dear Fran, Love Dulcie
Page 16
Still I couldn’t kill them so I rear them, and those that I can’t find good homes for I keep to run about the garden. My garden looks a wreck just now, although last week I did a bit of work in it and planted sweet peas, pansies, larkspurs, cosmos, dianthus and red salvia.
In the vegetable garden I planted turnips, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and corn. (Yummy I love corn!) Love the lot really, people, animals, flowers, plants of all kinds. Len always says that my heart rules my head!
How is your little cat, Fran? He reminds me of one we had, Ginger. He died of old age (10 years) some years ago. The pictures you sent of yours are really nice. He is delightful.
Well, Fran, the light is getting the best of me so I think I’ll go to bed.
Do write soon and all my love and best wishes,
Dulcie
6th May 1975
Dear Fran,
Just a note to thank you for the birthday greetings. Catching up to 40 now! Good news on my birthday. Terry has been transferred to the Livingstone Shire Council (our own Shire) so he lives at home again and rides his bike to and from Yeppoon each day. As he is too young for a driver’s licence, he has been granted a provisional licence, just to ride from home to work and back.
His bike carries larger plates with P on them and he must be off the road between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am. He is very pleased to be able to transport himself.
Well, Fran, Dad is calling to take me to town so I must hurry.
Best wishes and love,
Dulcie
29th May 1975
Dear Fran,
Today is a disgusting day, cloudy, bleak and cold. Southern states weather that doesn’t belong here. I hope it clears off to where it belongs tomorrow.
Today is also Len’s birthday. He will be home tomorrow night so I have a cake, etc. waiting for him. Terry is still riding off to work every morning.
Just a thought Fran, what time does work start in USA? Terry leaves here at 6:30 am but work doesn’t start until 7:00 am. He finishes at 4:00 pm. Naturally one can’t travel in working time so he must leave home in time to be at the job at 7 am. He enjoys his work.
I’ve a heavy cold at the moment. It must be bugging me a bit because I find I’m rather hot-tempered. The Holden needs engine repairs and, although I have the engine out where I can get at it, I’ve become annoyed at it for the last 2 days. So I walked off and left it!
The Australian Government has brought in a National Health Scheme. It starts on July 1st. Previously we had a choice of paying doctors and hospital fees or taking out health insurance which cost us $130 per year for man and wife (children over 16 are $65 each extra).
The new scheme means free doctors, consultations and hospital fees, provided one is satisfied with a public ward. This means there are large wards full of people (men, women and children are separated of course) with every type of illness. There is quite a divided opinion on the matter.
As yet we don’t know if those who can afford it, and wish to, can carry on with insurance for private treatment. Or if we must all accept the National Health Scheme. It is a very good idea for it means anyone, no matter how poor, can now afford medical treatment and hospitalisation. A great amount of people will now be relieved of suffering and early death.
Still there should be provision made for people to keep insurance for private treatment, if they desire it, as public wards are not always easy to adjust to. With beds spaced 3 feet [91 cm] apart and some snoring, coughing, talking etc. all night, rest would not be easy.
I killed 3 wethers yesterday. I wish I could send you some meat but, like sending sugar, it is impossible. We have been hit with a type of duty or tariff on sending foodstuffs overseas. On 48 pounds [22 kg] of sugar, the duty is $4.80 and the postage $9.20. Plus the sugar cost of $5. This brings the package to $19 for 48 pounds of sugar. Nearly 40 cents per pound [1 pound = 0.45 kg].
What is the world coming to when we can’t send food to people? Guess the manufacturers’ agents have everything tied up to make a fortune for themselves. Last week I bought 10 ounces of MJB coffee, imported from the USA. The cost was $2.87. I shall certainly be making it last.
Among the vegetables I swapped with the neighbours yesterday, for meat, were beautiful big, crisp, green cucumbers. So this morning I pickled some and from the other vegetables, cauliflower, beans, carrots, etc. I made jars of mixed pickles and relish. The rest I put into the freezer. The perfect day to work in the kitchen! So lovely and warm in here.
My mum has a new kitten. Her old cat died last year. It was ancient and she was very upset over its death. Dad gave her time to get over it a little and bought her a little silver Persian, the same as the old cat. Mum named him Peter (funny name for a cat) and thinks the world of him. I tell her he is not as beautiful as Sugarplum, just to get her biting!
How is your little cat, Fran? His picture always reminds me of the old cat I had before Sugarplum. He was a marmalade cat I named Ginger. Such a friendly old cat. He loved everyone and even strangers could pick him up and he would purr in delight.
But Sugarplum is a one-person cat. I can do anything with him but he bites (never scratches) other people, even Len and Terry, if they put a hand on him. I think I told you before that he is just a wild cat. Terry found him as a kitten after a bush fire. His eyes weren’t even open and I had to keep him alive by feeding him with a medicine dropper.
Now he is such a jealous old fellow and still very much a wild cat. He weighs 31 pounds [14 kg], much more than a domesticated cat, and has teeth as long as a dog’s. In fact he is bigger than Augy (my dog). His favourite place is on the doorstep and he growls just like a dog at anyone who calls. Should they touch him or me he sinks his teeth into their legs.
Len never liked him because he always glares at Len through slit eyes if he sits near me and has often bitten him. Still Len admits the old devil is a good watchdog (or cat?) so both of them have called a truce and keep their distance. All our friends know him now and don’t have any trouble with him providing they do not stand or sit near my chair in the kitchen or lounge. Still, although I love the old devil, I’d like a friendly old cat like Ginger again.
Well, Fran, apart from my old animals, I don’t have much to write about. It’s just that I hope a few pages of nothing and a couple of pictures every couple of weeks have helped you overcome the depression you were going through a few weeks ago. Do you feel better now, Fran? I do hope so.
Your boys, like Terry, are grown up now and yet they are so precious aren’t they? Rick looks so handsome. Is he as serious as the picture shows? No, Fran, Terry doesn’t miss school. He loves his work and the bike he bought with the money that he had earned. The whole price of $1200 he worked for and saved (he had to as one must be 21 here to buy on-time payment) and is so proud that it was his effort and not his parents who paid for it.
Terry said to tell Rick his Dodge sounds great and wishes they could swap rides. By now I guess Mark has his licence and I trust he drives carefully. We have seen some TV reports of USA and the traffic is really thick so I understand motorbikes would not be the best thing to drive there.
USA has a pretty fast speed limit compared to us. Maybe this is the cause of so many road deaths, Fran? Still, at a limit of 50 mph [80 kph] on the highways we average about 223 road deaths per year in Queensland and that is too many.
When you consider the population of Australia is 14 million people, and 1204 of them were killed on the roads last year, that’s a lot of people.
The law here, Fran, regarding a driver’s licence is, if a person lives more than 5 miles [8 km] from a town (or city) hall centre, they can obtain a licence at 18 years of age. If their residence is less than 5 miles from the centre they must be 19 years of age.
If under the age of 18, but over 16, and more than 5 miles distant, they can obtain a P plate permit to drive to work only. (This doesn’t give them the right to drive for pleasure or to school, etc.) If they are less than 5 miles then they have to walk or ri
de a push bike until they are 19. Saves a lot of young lives I think.
Yes Fran, my baby wallabies survived and are now hopping around the garden with the others. A Brisbane zoo took 4 of the grown up ones last week. The agent called and we crated them in dark cages and they were transported by plane to Brisbane. I hope they are happy there.
Well, Fran, I must be going to do some more work. Hope you and family are well.
Love,
Dulcie
27th August 1975
Dear Fran,
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve “talked on paper” as my little niece calls it. You have appeared to be so much happier in your last couple of letters, telling us about Rick’s car, etc.
It’s wonderful to see you involved with the boys and Dick again, maybe you always were, but I just missed any mention of them in your letters and thought you were feeling left out and depressed. I guess there’s always so much we would like to write about but can never think of at the time.
The present economic state of our countries doesn’t help us to be cheerful does it? Unemployment is the highest ever, higher than what was called the Great Depression in the 1930s. One person in every 15 is out of work in Australia now.
The primary producers receive so little for their produce that it is not worth carting to market and the townspeople are almost starving. It’s so terrible to see people without food when we have it going to waste in the country area. But if I get a semi-trailer to take a load of cattle to the market it costs $11.20 per head and when they are sold we get $5 per head so it just doesn’t pay to take foodstuffs to market.
Many people out of work in the towns cannot pay rent or board and are being evicted into the streets. Country people are fortunate, I suppose, in that they at least own their land and homes. And since we have no town electricity supply, or water, or garbage rates, we can get by. We can eat our produce and go without power and use a horse if we have no money to buy fuel.
Terry is out of work and home. Len so far still has his job. Terry gets unemployment relief payments of $36 per week as all unemployed people do. Having our own beef and orchard, and neighbours to swap with for vegetables, along with worn out machinery and cars and a half-built house, we are not mortgaged or in debt. Haven’t got much but we will survive
Some of Terry’s mates are out of work, with motorbikes to pay off on their unemployment payments. Their parents can’t afford to keep them and if they have to pay rent or board they can’t meet their bike payments.
We have an old house on our property, it is a big, 60 feet by 53 feet [18 x 16 metres], with verandas all round. It’s old, cold and we have been using it to store old garbage, etc. But the boys needed a home so we spent last week cleaning it out, putting a new chimney on the stove and donated our spare Christmas fridge. We got some new mattresses for the old beds and scrubbed out the old cupboards and the boys settled in happily 2 weeks ago.
Strangely enough there’s no power plant (they use a kerosene lamp) which means no TV, etc. and the stove is an old type that burns wood and smokes like mad and the fridge (like ours) runs on kerosene. Still they are happy to have a rent-free roof over their heads and they only have to buy kerosene and food.
Terry, of course, lives at home but the houses are only ¼ mile [402 metres] apart so they visit and the other boys are so helpful. They help me with anything I want and I can have plenty of rest because they are learning fast how to kill and skin and cut up a beast.
They are such happy kids, honest, sober and willing to work, but can’t get jobs. At least they are safe and cosy and don’t have to wander about the towns.
Terry and his mates talked me into buying a motorbike, a small one, 200cc. They told me it would be more economical than the car and faster then a horse but they didn’t tell me about riding it! My bones must be made of rubber, Fran, the falls I’ve had! Riding along cattle pads and into washouts. Oh! Up a steep hill, miss the gears, stall, fall over again! Must be a good bike, nothing has broken yet!
It certainly is cheaper to run than the car, etc. and faster than a horse but oh! my skinned and bruised body. Guess I’ll just stick with it till I master it. My parents say it is more expensive to them because they worry about me riding it. They phone home after I’ve left their house to see if I made it! They didn’t do this when I rode a horse over.
Anyway, next time I write, I might be a champion bike rider (Ha Ha).
Lots of love, Fran,
Dulcie
15th December 1975
Dear Fran,
Not far to Christmas now and Len will be home in just one week’s time, hopefully for good, but I really don’t think so. Through a lot of political wrangling and eventually with the Queen’s assent, Federal Parliament was dissolved and the people went to the polls yesterday for the third time in three years.
Now the new Prime Minister [Malcolm Fraser] has announced it will take three years to correct Australia’s economy. So I guess Len will still be going away to work after Christmas. Suppose it’s not bad really, at least he has a job when thousands of others are out of work.
Terry is still out of work and draws unemployment ($36 per week).
PS Terry asks how much it is in the USA.
Thankfully, we are not in debt and can grow enough to keep alive, along with Terry’s mates who are here and not in debt either. They are good kids, take work when they can find it and come back here to the old house when they are off work.
They are all having Christmas day with us and have already helped me to kill a pig and smoke-cure it. They killed and dressed the fowls and turkeys yesterday and have them all wrapped in the freezer. What wonderful young people! Usually I do this myself but now I’m becoming lazy!
They all rode off on their motorbikes tonight to attend a young friend’s wedding. Gosh! They looked so different. Instead of leather jackets, etc, neat suits and tie!
One of the windmills broke on Sunday and the cattle were out of water today in that paddock. The boys helped me rig an emergency pump on the bore today and wanted to watch it tonight, instead of going to the wedding, but I couldn’t allow that. So off they went and here am I writing this in the truck while I watch the pump and engine.
Really, I suppose I like it! May seem strange to you, Fran, when you live in a city full of people, and love it, but I like this. Faint moonlight, night bird calls, soft cattle calls, and just the pump engine beat. It’s really nice to sit here and watch the cattle, horses and wild animals come to water.
I wish young Rick and his girl every happiness, Fran, but they are so young, aren’t they? My married life has been happy but if I had my life over, I would never marry at 17 again. Perhaps it’s just longing for something we have never had and would not like when we got it. But still, hard to say, they may live happily ever after, like Cinderella. I do hope so.
I’m glad Mark is going on to school. Terry is not sorry he quit, neither are his friends. The only reason they could give was that they were sick of the routine and study (sorry the light is poor Fran) and being treated as a child by the tutors and having no freedom to live their own life.
Have things altered so much since our days at school, Fran? Were we so stupid that we took whatever was doled out to us? And are we any worse or better off than the young people of today? Wonder if our grandmothers had this to think about?
Hope your parcel arrives in time for Christmas, Fran. I do hope you all have the very best Christmas and the happiest of New Years.
Have a good time, Fran. I will have to close before my battery gets too low.
Merry Christmas and love from,
Dulcie
Friday 13th February 1976 (My lucky day!)
Dear Fran,
What a day to write a letter. Maybe the post office will catch fire or something. Your package arrived, Fran, and as usual Terry tried all the eats first! My choice is the lovely box with the coins. Terry got fussy and wouldn’t wear the white hat (he only wears his old cowboy hat) so Len happily
went off with it. Guess he looks a picture, driving a dirty greasy old grader along the road with a white hat on! Thank you so much for everything, Fran.
The American Recipe book has some rather unusual dishes. One I tried, Pot Roast Brisket. We all voted it delicious. Strange that in Australia brisket has always been used for dog food with the occasional bit being corned. Our dogs didn’t get the last lot from the beast we killed. Just shows how wasteful we are with meat out here. Even though prices in the shops are high, no one tries to use the “off-cuts”.
One thing has us puzzled Fran, what is a Dutch oven? [Cast-iron cooking pot with tight-fitting lid.]
The coins are really a treasure. Did I ever tell you Len and I have been collecting coins since we were kids? We have most Australian coins since 1913 (a few older and some overseas ones). The only US ones are from you.
The little booklets (Ford Times) are interesting and I’ve just been reading about the Everglades.
This is exactly like our coastal area. We go there in the FWD [four-wheel drive] and then crawl on our hands and knees through yucky thick muck and dig out big crabs. Most weigh about 6 pounds [3 kg] and are really nice.
Sometimes we carry a net (the new monofilament net is very light compared to the old linen one) and drag for fish and prawns. Do you call them shrimps?
But we can’t drive the last mile or so and the net and other gear gets heavy. There’s mossies [mosquitos] and sandflies by the million but no crocs [crocodiles] to eat us. Only sharks and the deadly stone fish. Plus multitudes of snakes that all crawl off in a hurry, thank goodness.
Terry and I took our motorbikes up in the back of the FWD last Sunday and we rode the bikes the last bit. We caught 28 crabs and 500 pounds [227 kg] of mullet (fish), about 4 pounds [2 kg] each. Then we couldn’t carry it all back in one trip so we had to ride to and fro in the mud, getting it all back to the Land Rover. The freezers are all stocked up with delicious seafood but gosh, we earned it, especially me. I kept falling over in the mud and couldn’t hold the bike up. Must be a good bike to put up with me. Funny thing, it always starts, even after it’s been on its ribs in the mud.