The following was written by Nora for Les McLeay who has written and
published a history of the McLeay family in New Zealand
The following was written by Nora for Les McLeay who has written
and published a history of the McLeay family in New Zealand. Mum contributed
this and a piece on her father for the book.
Nora Elizabeth McLeay
By Nora Frost
I was born on 25th July 1918 to James
Findlay and Amy Swale (nee Wyeth) McLeay. We lived in Christchurch whereas the
rest of the McLeay and Wyeth families had stayed in the deep south.
On 18th November 1920 my sister
Lucy was born. She was a delightful little fairy with Golden curls and looked
very frail whereas I was solid and more placid Our childhoods were entwined as
my mother always insisted Lucy went everywhere with me except when we went
south every two years.
On most of these occasions I
would be left at Gore with Aunty Pat and Uncle Bert. When I was 4 and a half I
was left there for 6 months and went to school over the paddocks. Aunty Pat was
always very close to me as was Uncle Bert. I don't know where Mum and Lu spent
those 6 months but I guess back in Christchurch. Lu was Mum's pride and joy.
At the age of five and a half I
started school, it was there that I met Joan Suckling - the youngest of 9. Her
brothers were great teases calling Lu and I Nora Bone and Loose Elastic.
Suckling’s was a great place to play as Mr S who was in a shoe company used to
bring home wooden cases with which we made houses. They had a beautiful cherry
tree and we would be under it when the cherries were ripe and eat the
windfalls. We really ran wild over there - making mud pies with Mrs S's cake
tins and putting them under the house to cook; playing in the Nursery where the
boys slept, and mucking up the beds. I guess Mrs S was working, as she was a
schoolteacher.
It was Essie Suckling who asked
Mum if she could take Lu and I to Sunday School and so began a long association
with the church. One that was to influence all our lives. Lucy and I were both
painfully shy because we had not mixed with other children in our early days.
These were the days of the Depression but we were very lucky as Dad always managed
to keep his job. One family down our street lived on parsnips for a week, as
that was all they had in the garden.
Mum had a great friend called
Cissy Lindsay who came to our place on Wednesdays and Sundays. She absolutely
adored Lu but it is Joan Suckling who remembers her most fondly as she worked
in a sweet shop in Christchurch and at Easter would provide us with lovely
Easter eggs - Joan included. Joan told me some years ago that they were the
only Easter Eggs she ever got. Joan has reminded me of the Easter Cissy hid the
eggs all nesting in brown paper nests in the garden and we had a treasure hunt.
At the time of preparing to go
south when I was 8 I burnt my right arm. We had been to a party at Mark's - the
rich people two doors away. They owned an Ice box that was replaced regularly
and a Pianola. At the party we were all given celluloid dolls. Mum was very
busy getting ready to go south and I wanted her to take the dent out of my
doll. She said she must go to the outside toilet first. I had seen her taking
the celluloid doll to the gas ring to take the dents out but I didn't realise
she had the steaming kettle on it. I lit the gas and proceeded to do the job
myself - The doll caught fire and stuck to my hand I did not want to set the
house on fire so rushed outside with my hand blazing. I can remember Lu and mum
screaming but I did not feel a thing. Mum called for Mrs Philpot - the most
compassionate lady in the district (except where her husband was concerned) She
put me to bed and sent for the doctor a very unusual move in our day. Of course
the holiday to had to be delayed until I was better.
Mum got Cissy who belonged to St
John Ambulance to come to stay with us to nurse me, Cissy was not a
compassionate nurse. She was tough with me. She had to heat wax on the range
and pour it over my arm about twice daily - a method used in the war. When I
was well enough to travel we went south. I was left in Gore. Poor Aunty Pat
could not dress my arm but Uncle Bert did it with much love.
I think it was about this time
they asked to adopt me because Aunty Pat had not produced, due to a very
serious operation in Christchurch a few years before but Mum would not let me
go. From the age of 12 I looked after Mum - going to get her library books and
messages after school. I did not realise at the time how competitive I was at
school I met an old school mate in the supermarket. He stopped me and said how
I had upset him every Friday by beating him at arithmetic. I was a real swot
who had to be top whereas our Lu was a natural. She had great talent in singing
and art. In those days we were both very interested in Sunday school. Lucy was
very frustrated, as Mum could not afford speech lessons. At about 15 we started
teaching Sunday school. I taught the infants, they were delightful. Lucy tired
of Sunday school quiet early in the piece and moved on to Bible Class. When I
started Avonside High School I got my first bike. That meant I could go to town
and pay Mums bills. Mum sacrificed a lot for us to go to Avonside in return I
cared for her. She was a glorious singer but never had a piano. She sang all
day anything from Opera to Modern songs. She had 5 medals for singing. I am
sure with the opportunity Lu could have been just as good.
At 15 I started going out with
boys as we used to go to Cottrell's Store just around the corner, every
Saturday Night. Ruth Cottrell was older and I was allowed to go out under her
wing. She had two brothers Basil and Frank in addition to a handicapped older
brother Wally. We formed a club and started having outings. One night it was a
mystery trip to Cave Rock in Sumner. We passed objects around that had to be
identified - one a fowl’s foot but when they passed us a raw sausage or a
string of them I threw them to the winds; no one else had a chance to touch
them.
Our trips south had stopped at
this time as Granny Wyeth had died on her 72nd birthday, 9th Aug. I
was 11. Grandfather died 4 months later. He starved himself to death.
At 16 I left Avonside Mum did not
own a coat, but she had visitors galore to stay. One of our visitors was to be
the delight of our life - Mabel Phillips whose husband was the Station Master
at Arthur’s Pass came for two months and produced a beautiful baby girl called
Brenda.
Charlie and Mabel
played a very large part in our lives. That Christmas they had Lu
and I for 6 weeks during the school holidays. It was the holiday of my life. I
well remember the Rata and the Glaciers. With two boys who knew the area well
we explored the glaciers. This was my last holidays as the following Christmas
I was looking for a job.
I got a temporary job for two
months at the Fruit and Vegetable Markets. Even though I had my Chamber of
Commerce Bookkeeping and Shorthand theory for 2 months I simply could not get a
job. My speed on typing and shorthand were never great although I went to
Digby's at night
Church took up a lot of our time;
in those days it was a privilege to teach. Peter Witty, the curate at Holy
Trinity had stiff rules. If we did not attend 8 o'clock Church or Teachers
Class on Tuesday nights, then we were not allowed to teach. It was a tough but
a good grounding.
Eventually I found a job at a
small Insurance Office, just the Manager and me. I did all the books, Typing,
and managed the Office. I was there for 15 months. During those 15 months my
passion for ballroom dancing blossomed. I was not allowed to go to the public
dances - just church ones. Jean and I biked far and wide to go to Dances.
Avonside, Opawa, where we stayed with Essie Chant. During this time I made
friends with some girls who worked along the corridor. They were Roman Catholic
so I could go to their dances as well. After 15 months when I had to have a
raise the Insurance Company asked me to find another job. They gave me a very
good reference but could not afford to pay more.
I found my next job, very
quickly. It was with HG Livingstone and Co, Estate Agents and Antique
Auctioneers. I was employed as a typist and Rent collector. Rule Livingstone
was the Accountant. Working at Livingstones was great fun we had all kinds of
auctions including chocolate biscuit auctions. David Livingstone, who was
training to be a Doctor, was a frequent visitor and when we had our first
refrigerator for sale he licked the icebox and got his tongue stuck, he lost
the skin off his tongue.
I met Lloyd just before I turned
20 when he came to Avonside as a Sunday school teacher. He was painfully shy we
were friends for about 8 months before we started going out together. Rule and
HG Livingstone were both in the Territorials in the Canterbury Mounted Rifles
Cavalry Division; they encouraged Lloyd to enlist, which he did. The three of
them were in camp when War was declared and were all to overseas with the first
echelon however Lloyd wasn't 21 so he didn't go and nor did HG. Shortly after
this Lloyd was invalided out of the Territorials when his feet gave way.
When Rule went in 1939 I was put
in charge of the office and took on the accounting work, an office junior
employed to help. In 1940 HG went to Palmerston North as an Officer at the
Officers Training Camp. This left the only male in the office an alcoholic
auctioneer. Another Auctioneer was employed but could not be in charge over
Gunny so I was put in charge. At this time Mrs Livingstone was diagnosed as
having cancer and it fell to me to look after her as well. This often involved
staying at Livingstones looking after Mrs L outside office hours and running
the firm during the day.
On 8 December 1942 Lloyd and I
got married. Lloyd was in Inangahua at the time but the Railway had agreed to
transfer him to Amberley when we married. I continued to work in town arriving
by train at 10 am each morning and leaving at 4 pm each night. This lasted for
four months until Lloyd slipped while shunting and invalided to an inside job.
I had the brainwave that Lloyd should do his accountancy which would mean
attendance at Christchurch Tech for some papers so we had to move to
Christchurch rather than Reefton as had been the suggestion.
We were very lucky to get sent to
Woolston as the Station Master’s house was vacant which meant we lived
relatively close to the station, it was in 1946, while we were at Woolston that
Anthony was born. During our time at Woolston the Station burnt down set alight
by vandals.
After 6 years in Woolston Lloyd
was transferred to Lyttelton as Station Clerk, quite a happy time until the
Watersider’s strike in 1951. Lloyd was offered the position of Station Master
Culverden if we could do our own packing and be ready to shift in 3 days - we
were ready and we did shift to Culverden on the Monday.
We were in Culverden for two
years and lived in the Railway House - House No 1 Culverden. The house was set
in a large paddock of long grass and surrounded by very large trees - a
constant fire risk in summer. When Anthony was four and a half the headmaster
approached us to let him start school with the headmaster’s daughter who was
the same age. Wayne our second son was born in 1952. In Culverden there was no
Sunday school so we rang the bell every Sunday morning instead. Once again the
Station burnt down. When the District Manager came to inspect the damage he
took me aside and suggested I was holding Lloyd back and stopping him from
using his accountancy. I told him that Lloyd didn't want to go to the brick
building in Wellington which he saw as going back to school and have to put up
his hand to go to the toilet. It was agreed that we would go to Dunedin instead
where Lloyd would be an Audit inspector.
In Dunedin Lloyd travelled about
60% of the time but was home at weekends. It was while we were in Dunedin Gary
was born at St Margaret's Hospital with 5 students and No doctor in attendance.
Gary had nearly been born at home but his size 9 lbs 11 oz had precluded that.
It was in Dunedin that we learnt how bad a next-door neighbour could be. Not
realising that she was a compulsive liar we initially believed many of her
stories. But the Toomer family the neighbours on the other side of her made up
for it. On one occasion she had burnt off some grass and set the very large
hedge between us alight, in those days we didn't have a telephone so I went in
to use her phone. I had dialled 111 and was speaking to the Fire Brigade when
she came running in shouting "it’s getting away.” The Fire Brigade sent
three engines to a fire that Mr Toomer had put out with our garden hose by the
time they arrived.
In Dunedin we both got back into
Sunday School teaching at the local church. With Lloyd away so much the strain
of three children was not easy so we agreed to go to Wellington.
It was shortly after we arrived
in Wellington that I found out I was over 4 months gone with our forth baby
Graeme. Whereas Mum had come down to Dunedin for 4 months when Gary was born to
help she refused to come to Wellington saying that Lloyd Frost could look after
his own kids, so Lloyd took his annual leave. Mum’s sister Essie was living in
Upper Hutt and she helped a great deal, looking after the older ones while
Lloyd came down to the hospital. Graeme was 5 months when Mum finally came
north and was disgusted with herself for staying away from "this
delightful little bundle" for so long.
Although Lloyd didn't have to
travel to the same extent he was still away for a very long day leaving at 7.15
am and not getting home until 6.15 at night, and once he started working as a
computer programmer, at times much later.
When Graeme was 2 years old I
started teaching Sunday school again and joined St John Ambulance to get out of
the house. St John Ambulance in Upper Hutt was rather slow while they covered
sports and the races they didn't have the involvement with the ambulance. With
Upper Hutt St Johns I sat my advanced home nursing and advanced first aid. I
became very involved in Cottle Kindergarten fundraising and was Treasurer of
the Management Committee. Fundraising for the new kindergarten took up a lot of
our time in those days. Some years later I asked the boys if they had begrudged
the time Lloyd and I had put into Cottle Kindergarten but they pointed out that
they had been involved as well and thoroughly enjoyed it. The fundraising
covered the cost of the kindergarten with £900 left over towards the running
costs so we certainly had worked hard.
After Cottle Kindergarten Lloyd
and Anthony started raising money for the St John Ambulance hall. Lloyd became
senior Bible class teacher and by this time we were already junior Sunday
school combined supervisors. The Cottle block at this time had a huge number of
children so both the Sunday school and Bible class were well attended. Lloyd
and Anthony arranged dances to give the Bible class young people something to
do on a Saturday night and later on we ran a youth festival as part of the
hundred years celebration for the local church. I really blotted my copybook
that night. Gary and Graeme had been with a baby sitter all day and at 10pm I
went to get them. A large group of youths, who hadn't had tickets to get in,
played chicken with me as I tried to leave. Being nervous about going back I
rang the police from the baby sitters. I got thoroughly hauled over the coals
when it was discovered all the troublemakers were police cadets. At the next
vestry meeting we were not thanked for running a very successful youth
festival, but censored for having called the police to a church dance.
At this time we were also
involved in raising money for a new church hall, so life in Upper Hutt was a
very busy succession of fund raising ventures.
In 1960 we got our first car, a
Ford Prefect in which we travelled many miles over the lower part of the North
Island. Anthony, Lloyd and I all got our drivers licence. Just before we left
Upper Hutt, we sold the Prefect for a Ford Consul that remained in the family
for many, many years.
In 1963 we transferred to
Christchurch where Lloyd was District Accountant. This was to prove to be one
of the happiest times of our lives. The boys were seven to seventeen when we
went back to Christchurch. The transfer to Christchurch meant the end of twenty-five
years of Sunday school teaching for both Lloyd and I.
Shortly after we arrived in
Christchurch, Lloyd developed severe dermatitis on his hands and had to be
brought home at lunchtime every day to soak his hands in Condes Crystals. At
work the office girls took turns at working at an extra desk in his office so
that they were available to do any writing that he needed doing.
St John Ambulance in Christchurch
was very stimulating and involved not only the normal sporting events and race
meetings but also work on the ambulance. One of my favourites was doing duty at
the ice-skating two or three times a week during the school holidays. With the
large number of accidents, one particular day we had to call the ambulance
three times, this was a very worthwhile duty. I also thoroughly enjoyed helping
with the cadet competitions and had started working one day a week on the
ambulance when Gary developed rheumatic fever and for four months was not
allowed to walk at all. This meant that when there was only Gary and I at home
I had to piggyback him to the bathroom. Gary's illness was mainly over the
school holidays so not a lot of school was missed but he did manage to read
from cover to cover the major part of the Britannica Encyclopaedia. He was very
lucky that he suffered no heart damage and after a few years was able to go
back to competitive sport.
We were eight years in
Christchurch the later part of which I worked for Red Cross meals-on-wheels and
was a meat cook on Mondays. We used to prepare over two hundred meals and I
recall one week helping prepare fourteen sacks of cauliflowers for the meals.
In 1969 we returned to Wellington
and I insisted that we bought a house in the same area as we had lived before
and where we knew a number of people. On Lloyd's fiftieth birthday he had
suffered a heart attack, the first of four over the next fifteen years. In
Upper Hutt I rejoined St Johns ambulance, but missed the level of involvement I
had had in Christchurch. When Graeme was in the sixth form I became quite
involved in Heretaunga College and was treasurer of the Home and School for
that year.
For most part of the last ten
years my major task was nursing Lloyd through his polymyositis, a degenerative
muscular disease that affected his entire body over time.
My four sons are all grown up and
spread throughout New Zealand, Australia and South East Asia. I have eleven
grandchildren and one great grand daughter.
