JOAN SMITH nee ELLSON - 1926 -
Childhood and adolescence in the depression years were difficult. In a period of so much suffering for everyone, children were very often repressed and played a minor role. Rules were strict; Children were to be seen and not heard, children must not answer back, children must be obedient at all times - the list goes on. Girls had to help their mother in every way possible in the house; washing the dishes, doing the cleaning, washing the clothes in the "copper", (a large round bowl with a wooden stick to stir the clothes) and looking after the younger children. Although boys were never expected to do any work inside the house, not even to make their beds, they were expected to help their father in the garden, and do external chores, which the girls were never allowed to do.
The dress code for girls was very strict; they always wore hats, gloves, suspender belts and stockings, and wore low waisted dresses that reached below their knees.
Girls were not allowed to associate with boys at all; and as they got older were allowed out only with their girlfriends in the afternoons. Like her mother before her, my grandmother avoided this problem by whispering to the boys in church when the priests and nuns were taking communion, and meeting them on Saturday afternoon at 'the pictures'. There weren't any co-educational schools that my grandmother was aware of. She can recall no real reason for this segregation other than the fact that boys were boys and girls were girls and they simply should not mix.
Girls were expected to attend school, then find a job and marry, after which time they would give up their job and spend their lives raising children and looking after their house and husband. My grandmother attended St Charles Catholic Girls' School until she was 15, and then spent another year within the school doing a special 'commerce' course, where she learnt shorthand and typing skills. It was not until she joined the workforce at the age of 17 that she began to associate with the opposite sex; and even then it was only at dances and other such rare social functions. This rule was the same for boys.
Boys were expected to finish high school and begin an apprenticeship. Often, as in the case of my grandmother's brother, he learnt his father's trade.
Parents also discouraged their girls from talking to the undesirable common girls, the girls who talked to boys in public, not in secret. These girls had something of a "reputation" and parents did not want their "innocent" girls to associate with these "risqué" ones.
The Catholic school children were not permitted to associate with the public school children either. The latter didn't have a uniform, and were also considered "common". There was a feud between the Catholic school students and those from the public school. My grandmother can remember yelling to passing students: "Catholics, Catholics ring the bell, while the public march to hell".
Reading was a popular pastime. Girls would read books such as Girls Annuals, Little Women and stories by Enid Blyton. Books by traditional authors, like Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters, were considered appropriate, as were non-fiction books on subjects such as history. Novels were definitely prohibited. Reading for boys was along the same lines as that for girls.
There was not much censorship of reading for children, as objectionable books were simply not available.
Reading was censored for young adults. When my grandmother was 17, her mother used to by a magazine called "True Love Stories", a book of clean but sensational romances, such as: "My Husband fell in Love with my Best Friend". These magazines were prohibited to my grandmother, who would hide them under her bed and read them when her mother went out.
Reading magazines, or indeed any information about the Facts of Life, was withheld from youth. When my grandmother first got her period she thought she was going to die, for her mother hadn't, and never did, explain it to her. When she was pregnant and went to hospital, she had no idea how the baby was going to get out; she thought they would have to cut her open. It was not until the following generation that unwilling mothers began to tell their daughters about such matters.
My grandmother's family was not directly affected by World War II. Her father was too old and her brother too young to enlist, however several young men she knew joined the army, and she was courted by an American Soldier for a short time. The local girls preferred the American soldiers to the local boys because they seemed to have a never ending supply of silk stockings and chocolates. Her family played a part in the war effort; her father was a night warden, who walked around the neighbourhood at night making sure that everyone had their blackouts on their windows, and that no light was showing that could possibly indicate settlement to enemy planes.
Both my grandmothers' children were born at hospital and delivered by a doctor. Twice a week she would take the baby down to the local baby health care centre in a big cane pram.
The baby centres were very fashionable, as they had developed into quite an important social outing. The mothers knew each other, and they would dress their babies up and then spend the morning chatting, gossiping and secretly comparing their children.
My grandmother raised her children herself. She was home all the time, and took care of them. The man of the house, who was seen as the head of the household, the breadwinner, did nothing to contribute to the raising of the children, as his job was to earn money and look after the garden and car.
