Jokes and Pranks of the Thomas Wyeth Family
A series of anecdotes on the actions of the
Thomas Wyeth Children prepared by Doris Wyeth given to me by Peggy Napier.
At Rosebank, friends were always welcome, on a
Sunday Mick and Sib Welch were often there also Ted Petersen and Roy
Tankersley, Norm came later, Dad enjoyed joining in with them playing Quoits,
there was rounders for the younger members.
The day before, Alice and Beaut had had a big
cook up for Sunday Nights tea. The cream
puffs and cream horns were lavishly filled with cream and locked away in a
cupboard for safety. Alas, it was not
Mother Hubbard who went to the cupboard, but Charley and Archie who had found
the key. Some fireworks when found out.
After tea the girls would peep round the corner
to see if all was clear, before going up the path to the Privy under the
trees. That same Privy came in for some
trouble, it was wired back to a tree to stop it tipping over the bank, when Dad
found it was getting a lean on he discovered the boys had cut the wire.
On town days Mum and Dad would set off with
Topsey in the Trap to do the shopping, Topsey was always left at Pinny's
Stables and given her feed of chaff.
When it was time to go home she was shaking her head and stampeding, Tom
Curtis had to hold on to her tightly until all were seated, then when Dad took
up the reins she bounded out the doorway and away. Imagine speeding in those days.
There was a time when a Mr Kjistrup was staying
there while doing some alterations to the house; he was given a sack stretcher
to sleep on up stairs. One night there
was a bump and a thump, poor Jimmy had gone through to the floor, Norm and Tom
had cut the sack.
In the good old days it was the thing to go to
town on a Saturday night, Norm and Tom with Sib Welch used to spend a lot of
time behind Ted Welch's Blacksmith Shop.
Were they looking at Horse Shoes?
At one a friend Bess Mitchell was staying there
on a holiday, she enjoyed joking with them.
She took up a bet with Tom that she would know what time he came home
that night. Tom was creeping up the
stairs thinking he was doing nicely when he knocked over a box of Clair's
marbles, put there in readiness, the marbles made a good clatter as they rolled
down the stairs. Dad arrived on the scene to see what all the rumpus was about
and Bess won her bet.
Bess washed out a nighty and hung it on the
Line; Archie thinking it was to good a shot to miss took a pot shot at it. Unfortunately the range was a bit short and
the night was peppered with shot holes.
Then there was the story of old
"Skitters", she was no lady, she was much better as a plasterer. When Degs was bringing in the cows for
milking, coming up the bank he was hanging on to old Skitter's tail. He arrived home with a different coloured
shirt, presumably green.
Pandemonium in the cow yard!! Who tied the cow’s tails together?
Trouble during School Days
Miss Keen the teacher, was boarding at McLeod’s,
going to school she had to cross over a creek on a plank among some flax
bushes. One afternoon as she was going
home across the plank she tripped on two blades of flax tied together. And so Miss Keen ended up in the flax
bushes. It seems that Charlie knew
something about that, though no doubt Archie and Doug McLeod weren't far
away. Poor old Len Campbell who was
always in trouble with the teacher got the blame and the punishment. The culprits kept silent.
On one occasion when Doris was staying with
Beaut, they were mounted on Jack and Topsey and were going to see June who
lived further up the road, with strict instructions to be careful. On the way back it was suggested by one who
was a good rider that they take the longer way round. After a good canter down the road, "no
ones fault," Jack was hard to hold, they were met by Mum who ticked Beaut
off for careering down the road like a mad thing, Mum had been out getting in
the washing and had seen it all.
While staying with Doris, they had a lot of fun
at the show riding on the merry-go-round and ocean wave, in the evening they
were all invited by Tom to go and see the buck jumping. All went well until she arrived home and was
told off by Al for doing such a thing and being seen at buck jumping. Though Beaut was not all together the one to
blame.
In later days
One boxing day at Al's in Carterton, the young
fry had their fun, they put Uncle Arch's panama hat up on the chimney pot,
after being told to take it down they set a cracker alight under it. Not a very popular action, Owen, Noel, and
Cyril would have had a finger in that pie.
Does Owen remember, while staying at Uncle
Arch's, shooting the hens with an airgun, the white fowls had red spots on
their necks, Erl might know a bit about that, for he sure was looking on. The airgun disappeared.
Would Ron know anything about selling his pet
Lamb to Leo? Leo was very pleased, until
he went out to get his Lamb, but found that the Lamb was dead. "Brotherly Love."
Two cousins of the family, showed wisdom in
their young days, on the day of the farm sale, Geoff and Rona hid their ponies
under the trees. When the horses came up
for sale the ponies were missing, it was just too bad having them sold.
When Bill Wyeth from down south came up on
holiday he was met by Uncle Sandy McLeod with his car, on the way home they ran
into a nor westerly, Bill put up his umbrella for shelter, but Uncle Sandy
said, "it's no good Bill you'll have to put it down.' They were making no
progress against the wind; she was not a six cylinder.
