[Youngest child‟s name deleted] was only two and a half.
So you've been on your own with all your children for a long time.
Mmm, long time, yes.
How old's [youngest child‟s name deleted] now?
She's 31. You see I went to work, because [husband‟s name deleted] worked shift and I worked at Hadley‟s. I went to [name of suburb deleted] and I went from one job to, from one hotel to the other one and asked for the job; and then I got one in [name of hotel deleted], in the house and I'd never done any beds proper but I tried, I said, all right I can do it and I done it quite well. And my girls when they were 13/14, I could get them in too to work on the weekends. And then in the evening I worked down at Sinbad's. You know [name deleted] the restaurant? On my day off I worked there too so the chef could be replaced and I could take the little one with me in the housemaid. First I was casual only so she brought me the toilet paper, she was really good and she slept in the staff room sometimes for a few hours you know. Because the crèche was very expensive and there was only one crèche in [street name deleted] Street and I couldn't deduct it from the tax; and at lunch time, sometimes they called me at lunchtime at Hadley‟s, there was a chef down at Sinbad's he drank too much. He mixed the orders off so they sent for me in my lunchtime and I went there and I helped him to cook, so.
So you worked for quite a few years then?
Yeah, yeah, then the social security came and she said why are you working and I couldn't deduct it from the tax, my child care, and so that's wrong because all the men who came for lunch to [name of restaurant deleted]‟s they could deduct their lunch from their salary and I tried to work here and I couldn't deduct and it was quite expensive in [street name deleted] Street. I could bring her only there at nine o'clock but I started early so I had to get someone there in the morning there to pick up. She came here and she was sitting there and she said you don't have to work so hard, you can still work but you get social security also. And [youngest‟s name deleted] was only a few years old and she said, Mum, why you have to go to work and then I said no. I was a bit overworked and so I thought, oh no, then I went but I always was working you know I never was full time.
So you then got benefits and you didn't have to work full time after that, because of the children?
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Because she said Mum, why you go to work always, when she come home from school and nobody was home. She didn't like that. With the other one I only worked at night-time. With the bigger one, so then the other children were all right. But she hasn't got any handicap; and the other one, they've all done very well. At school they never thought this was a single mother with children … they all went through matric. But not the oldest boy, he didn't finish it but he went to work because he was apprenticed with my husband and of course he didn't want to go with him, so he finished his
apprenticeship; he didn't finish it, but he went to work. I said to him why don't you go back to school. He said ah no. I said why it doesn't matter. We have a house I have to pay it for the house still. But then he went down to the Zinc Works and then he went [inaudible].
But we managed. I learned to drive. I couldn't drive. Of course I said I have to control all those children when they come all in their teenage years. So I still can't drive much but I made my licence and I sat next to the children to have to make their licence. So it was all right. But then I started to go to Europe and we saved up. The important thing is you have to keep together and the children none of them lost a point for the driving lessons or whatever. My biggest boy did when my husband wasn't here but all the other ones we didn't have any troubles really. We helped, except for little arguments that you always have.
But I went to Europe with [youngest‟s name deleted] and left them all at home. You wouldn't do that anymore; with teenage children you know. There wasn't a window broken. The car, they had my car. The car was in order when I came back. And I gave them the cheque to write out the instructions for everybody and my signature and they could take the money; and (eldest‟s name deleted] said, "Oh Mummy are you still there? I've saved already some money too.” They took over my job. They were good to work. And I was a good worker. I had a good resume so I could always bring the girls with me too. And they earned good money especially when it came to the long weekends. They got good pay.
So they were doing part time work while they were still at school?
Part time, yes; [eldest‟s name deleted] worked for nearly two years part time … and she was a very early one. She started school already when she wasn't five so she had a year to play with and she went back to matric. All three girls went to matric and then the boy came. Only [youngest‟s name deleted] didn't go to matric. She went to but then she got offered a job from [son-in-law‟s name deleted].
So [name deleted], he was her brother in law at that time?
Yes. And then I said you have to do something more so she went one year to technical college and she was quite good. And they had a work experience and the teacher said, for the university they said look send me some decent girl. The year before they must have sent them some, I don't know what it was ...
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So she sent [youngest‟s name deleted] there and that's where she met her boss; that was during the year and then end of the year in the newspaper was the ad and I said why don't you apply for that and she said, I won't get it, and I said, come on just try; and she said no and she didn't know the boss was there, the boss she already knew from before. And she got there and there were a few law students and she was in the last three or four and there was one finished law, all with a degree and everything, and she got the job because the man saw her and said you take that girl and she's still there now. She works at the uni and she didn't go to uni.
[Conversation about daughter deleted.]
I'm staying still in the same house. Nobody wants to buy it because there are a few handicaps. The toilet is outside and the bathroom and laundry are together and we haven't got a main bedroom, not big enough where you get into bed from both sides. Because we didn't want to take too much money out because we said we'd build on because my husband was a carpenter, so we always could build on but it never came to that. And now the house is big enough for myself, so I don't need a unit really [laughs]. Yeah. So it must have been a very long time that you actually moved into this house. We're talking about in the 1950's are we?
'59, [eldest‟s name deleted] was four and she was forty-four last week. That's how I know.
So first of all you bought this block of land?
No, we first rented the shack actually. And then this man got bankrupt and his house went for auction. We could have bought the house for the price what we bought the land, but so we bought the land with that little shack on it. And we lived there all eight people in that shack but all those people here around Springfield they lived like that and we had electricity here and water and years ago when the Polish people came here there was no water and no electricity and no roads made, nothing.
So a lot of Polish people were living around here in shacks?
Yes most, yes; that used to be a Polish too, because they came from Brighton. They didn't want to live in the camp anymore.
Oh the camp was at Brighton?
Yeah, and then the government shouldn't have given the land free for Polaks because there were no roads made.
So the government gave them the land?