Hazel Gertrude Chapman (Bridgeman)

Memories of Hazel Gertrude Bridgeman Chapman DOB 29 May 2005 My first memory was of my paternal grandmother Bridgeman in the candle light, taking me out of a huge double bed in my voluminous pink nighty and putting me on a chamber pot, at two years of age, in Baroota, South Australia. This would have been about the time that Lilian May was born, May 3rd, 1907. Grandma Mary Ann Teakle Bridgeman, Little Grandma, was so quietly spoken and patient. The bed had frilly curtains around the top and sides. Grandma generally came to stay when another baby was due in the family. Baroota central was a small location of a few buildings by the railway track, near Pt Pirie. Dad had a butcher’s shop in Hawker for a while but it was before I came along. Because Jean and Viv contracted scarlet fever, no customers would come to the shop so they had to sell up and move on to Baroota. Dad also found some opal stone in Coober Pedy at one time. I had a turquoise specimen made into a nice ring. My first memory of disgrace was having taken a pretty ball from a street stall at Victor Harbour and I brought it home with me. Mother sent me to bed without my tea. I was so ashamed I crawled under the bed. My father came in later with some food and coaxed me out. Jean was sent back to the shop with the ball. Victor Harbour is a seaside holiday town on the peninsula. But when I was about four years old I fell from Dad's dray (wagon) and broke my arm at Yankalilla. Jean said the rest of the children were envious when Hazel received a stick of confectionery from the doctor who came in his horse and dray to set her arm in plaster. We had that family photograph taken with Allen and I sitting dressed up on the horse, Violet, in the shafts with Jean, Vivian, Lillian and Keith in the cart. Keith is wearing a hat. It is the only photo we have of him. At the same place I remember walking along a track with others and a friend had to piggyback me most of the way as I was unwell. I had to take a big spoonful of castor oil with the help of my poor father showing me how nice it was (fraud). We always had to swallow castor oil if we were a bit off colour. Another first memory of smell was of pepper and first memory of sound was the tinkling of spoons in teacups when we lived in the Yankalilla farm house and visited some place adults were eating and cups of tea were being consumed. The house had slate floors and a slate roof. At this time Mother had a girl to help her with all us little kids. We went on some quite exciting buggy trips to the beach. At another time when Mum was away and so wasn't at the table, it must have been at breakfast time, I felt an oat shell in my mouth from the porridge and spat it out on the floor. Dad was horrified and ordered me to pick it up! Can you imagine me groping for, and even finding under the table this small bit?? At Yankalilla we lived in a big stone house, with steps leading from the kitchen to the parlour. Brother Allen and I were mates (good friends) . Allen and I set light to the bedroom curtains to see if they would burn. We put a lighted candle under them. We were three and four years old at the time. Father climbed up and I recall him pulling the blazing curtains down. We stood aghast at the disturbance we had created. Yankalilla was near a beach. One time we went to the beach in a flat trolley drawn by our horses. To make the ride comfortable for Grandma Smart a rocking chair was tied on, which didn’t prove to be a very good idea as the trolley created sufficient rocking! Our parents never swam so as children all we did was paddle in the sea. Another time Allen and I took a horse chain from Father's cart and lost it in a running creek near the house. We lay on our stomachs looking for that chain but I fell head first in the water! I scrambled out with the weight of a heavy wet velvet dress and Allen helped me. I boohooed all the way home. On April Fools’ Day at Yankalilla I remember grandmother Smart shouting to father to come quickly as one of our buggy ponies had tried to swallow an apple and the apple was stuck in Nim’s (Nimrod) throat! Father scrambled out of bed. “April fool!” she cried. Great hilarity ensued. I had a pretty straw hat with blue ribbons and forget-me-nots round it. I was on Glenelg jetty and the hat blew into the sea. Someone in a boat retrieved it for me but I don’t think that the hat was at its best after that. I don’t know how I was allowed to wear the hat at the beach. There must have been some of the relations staying down with us and we went to Genelg for a bit of sea breeze. I guess I was five or six then. When I was about five my first responsibility was cleaning the Sunday boots and shoes. I don't know what kind of job I made of it. Most likely someone put finishing touches later. One time I wanted to help dry the dishes and so grabbed a handful of cutlery with Mother intervening to insist I dry “one at a time”. I’ve often thought since, one should allow children to find these things out for themselves, not always being instructed by adults. Twice I remember feeling humiliated, when I was about four or five years old. We were all home from school because of a school wog. An older part-cousin was staying with us,at Magill, SA and she decided she would teach us. I wasn’t having any of that and wouldn't attend but Dad practically carried me to the class. I was mad at Netta and Dad. The first school I attended was Magill Primary. Allen and I were in the same room. Our teacher was Miss Fairweather. Mr Murphy was the headmaster. He always seemed to be rushing about. He had a reddish face and a close, ginger beard and wore brown clothes. I don't think that he appealed to me but I liked our teacher, Janet Frost who lived somewhere near where we did. She stands out in my memory because Jean had dark hair whereas Janet had long fair hair and spoke with a nice, English accent. She was our first meeting with the poms, not that they were known with that handle in those days, though. Janet was a very nice girl as far as I know. Jean was invited to a twins’ birthday party at Magill: Dolly and Milly Wadmore. I went, also. I suppose I was invited. Anyway, I was very taken with someone playing the piano while we ate. And there were two Wadmore boys who were much older. I thought that they were wonderful. I always wanted a really big brother. While we lived at Magill, a suburb of Adelaide, there were bazaars. I guess that they were church affairs. Anyway, I was made a fairy at the fairy well to turn the handle to bring up the toys, or such, standing on something high, dressed as a fairy. I was so proud of my lovely dress, white shoes and new socks. Lady Way or maybe Lady Good opened this fete and I was the one to take a bouquet of flowers to this lady. She then took me around to choose a doll which I must have done because I had a beautiful doll given me. This doll was so lovely that it was kept in a glass case at home. I used to look at it and carry it sometimes. Anyway, one time when Mary was sick, poor Mum didn’t know how to please her so she asked if Mary could hold the doll. She did, but not for long. It landed on the floor with a smashed porcelain face, etc. Mary must have been ten months old at the time. When we lived at Magill we used to get ice creams from the icecream man who came around in a pretty cart and rang a bell to let us know he was there. I guess he had a horse. The lights on the street were lit by gas. We often went to watch the lamplighter as he lit the street lights. He'd stretch up to light the lamp with a long holder of some sort. A Mrs Dalby lived next door to us. I think that she thought that she was “somebody”. How she came to take me to the zoo with her family, I don’t know, or who went, but I do remember that when we reached home again Mrs D noticed that I had a hole in the heel of my sock. She told me that if she had known about the hole in my sock she wouldn't have taken me! I don't think Mum would have sent me with a hole, anyway. Mrs D’s daughter, Maude Dalby, used to be taken to the theatre, I think, as she used to come decked out in some finery letting us know she was “going out”. I wonder what she did in later life. When living in Magill our little brother, Keith, died from a bout of pneumonia. He was about eighteen months old. At the time I hadn’t known he was ill. Mum used to keep lots of happenings “away from the children”. I suppose I knew about him being unwell. It must have been hard for Mum, though. I remember a neighbour picking me up to see “my little brother in the coffin” He was surrounded by flowers. Now I can never smell freesias without that memory haunting me. I suppose I was five years old. These days a child of five years wouldn't know all about such things. In those days children were usually seen and not heard-definitely! When at Orient Rd, Magill, (or was it Corrington St?) we used to attend the Baptist church and Sunday School, although we were Methodists. I liked going to church, to get dressed up, mainly, and gazing at the coloured windows and red curtaining around the pulpit. We'd sit in church for a while before going to another room for Sunday School. We got pretty tickets and sang “Hear the Pennies Dropping” as we trooped around dropping copper coins into the box. I was fascinated with the rise and fall of the bust of the woman who sat next to us in church. She must have been a big woman. I can see her bust now! I think the Dalby family took me to see my first pantomime, Red Riding Hood, and thought that I'd like to try acting. We used to visit, on the other side of town, Grandma Smart's cousin, Tommy Roberts, and family who lived at “Mile End”. I used to walk in my sleep. I remember waking up sitting on a box with something around me, in the kitchen. Allen used to have nightmares. I don’t know what caused them, perhaps after going to the zoo because there wasn't tv or anything like that to scare him. Allen also suffered from croup. Mum and dad made a sheet tent and put a steaming kettle of water near to help relieve him. Dad would get into the tent with Allen to comfort him. Mary used to have convulsions. Mum must have had a time of it with her kids’ problems. Father had been away