Socks overkill on ‘fresh’ day
IMUST have been the only person in Dunedin yesterday who decided to wear socks over their shoes for the walk down the hill.
Even while being overtaken on Stuart St by 95yearolds in jandals, I was trying to convince myself patches of the footpath were actually icy and, oh, better be careful on that bit.
Anyway, I’m reviewing the threshold for action so there’s no more ‘‘oversock overkill’’, to give it a natty name.
Trouble is, from my place you can’t tell if the roads and pavements are icy. I got caught out a few times last year and that was an even worse sight for the public of Dunedin, as I crawled backwards down the hill on all fours.
And I’m explaining yesterday away as an official dry run, if I can keep a straight face.
Anyway, we have to remember it’s not cold but ‘‘fresh’’.
A media release landed on Tuesday from Venture Southland about a lowemission biomass boiler the McCallums Group has installed.
The release starts: ‘‘Despite the fresh temperatures this morning it’s good to know that Southland businesses will be keeping warm . . . ’’
See, there’s that word again. Won’t anyone south of the Waitaki River admit it gets cold occasionally?
TV memories
The WWT office is receiving some wonderful reminiscences of the early days of television, so thanks for those and please keep them coming.
Denis McCombe clearly remembers watching the Queen’s coronation on June 2, 1953, while living in Larne, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland.
‘‘Our local rector invited certain members of his congregation to the rectory to view the day’s proceedings and my father, being secretary of the select vestry, was one of those, together with my mother of course and myself. We crowded around a nottoobig blackandwhite TV and stayed there all day.
‘‘I have to admit the only interest really that it had for this 19yearold were the various military bands in evidence, particularly the bands of the Brigade of Guards. This interest has never left me.
‘‘I have no idea how the rector came to have a television when noone else in the congregation had one. Maybe a member of the congregation had a radio and television shop and was kind enough to lend one for the day? I don’t think in those days the rector would have been able to afford one!’’
Kay Howden of Gore’s earliest memory of TV comes from the early 1960s.
‘‘My music teacher, Belle Tyson, of Mosgiel, would let me come and watch Dr Kildare on her blackandwhite TV. She was one of the few people to have one.
‘‘I just loved that programme, being around 14 at the time.’’
Karen Love, of St Clair, shares her experiences of growing up in Wichita, Kansas, in the 1950s.
‘‘My family got our first TV set in 1956: it was a Crosley brand in a blonde cabinet with a 20inch screen. We thought we’d died and gone to heaven.
‘‘There were only three channels and we had local programmes from 8am to 6pm. From 6pm to 10pm we could access CBS and NBC; then, it was back to local programming until midnight when the US national anthem ended the day.
‘‘The highlight of the viewing day for my younger brother and me was a full halfhour of the Mickey Mouse Club when we got home from school.
‘‘Now, here’s the real treat — one day my dad brought home a ‘Color TV Kit’. It was a transparent plastic sheet that had a blue stripe across the top, that faded into a palepink centre panel, which then faded into a green stripe across the bottom. Yep — sky, skin and grass — we thought we were in hog heaven!
‘‘Our whole lives changed when TV arrived. We no longer ate our evening meal at the table — my folks now had their dinner on TV trays, while my brother and I sat on a quilt on the floor and shared a tray that was meant for a sick bed. Life would never be the same again.’’
Thanks for those special memories. More tomorrow.
Softball photos
Remember the photographs from Monday and the request from Graham Latta, who is writing a history of the Southland Softball Association, for some names?
John Elsom, of Wanaka, wrote to say he could shed some light on the identities of three of the Otago women’s team.
‘‘They are sisters, one of whom was my mother.
‘‘Starting from bottom front left, the sixth woman in is Joyce Calder, the next is Jess Calder (my mother) and the ninth in is Hazel Calder. They actually all started their lives in South Otago, around the OwakaMcLennanTahakopa area, as their father worked for the railways and moved around a bit.
‘‘Joyce went on to marry Harold Nelson, who won medals at the Empire Games for New Zealand as a middledistance runner, Jess married Keith Elsom and Hazel married Peter Garland.
‘‘Jess and Keith lived in Dunedin all their life and Joyce and Hazel settled in Nelson. There were nine Calder siblings — five brothers and four sisters. Unfortunately, only one of the siblings is still with us now — Coral, the youngest who resides in Richmond.’’
Andre Mabon called to say the player eighth from the left in the front row, wearing a watch, is Gwen Tobin. Gwen is now 92 and lives in a resthome in Dunedin.
Ken Duerden emailed to say the third from the left in the front is Edna George and the second from left in the back row is Lena McTaggart, nee Johnstone.
Thank you all. I’ve passed those names on to Graham.