The Eleventh Kitchen Tape

Recorded 4 May 2018

Greg’s Notes:  During this recording Trenna started to remember more details about her very early life as she cast her mind further and further back.  You can “hear” this is some of the sentences in this transcript. At the end she told me that it had felt like she had been talking for an hour, but in fact it was just 30 minutes (which was our usual target time). 

GM:  Today is Friday the 4th of May 2018 .  We’re with Trenna Mahney.

Tren, what’s your earliest memory, either from your own memories or from what people have told you, what can you tell us about your very early days. 

Early Memories

THM:  Well, I knew I lived in a house with my family.  Well, I say I lived in a house –  I do remember a house that was our house. 

I don’t remember my mum at all.   She just wasn’t there.   [GM: What Trenna means is that she has no recollection of her mother.]

I knew I was an orphan, and I knew I went from home to the Methodist home, which was called Mofflyn Homes. They were cottages that children went into [in East Victoria Park].  [GM:  Trenna was aware that between being in the family home, and going to Mofflyn Homes, she did have a period living with her Aunty Hilda].

I was very young, I don’t know how young. I lived my young childhood there, so I never really fully understood the concept of family. 

I knew I had sisters, I knew I had my dad, and that I had aunties, but only that I used to have aunties that were our real aunties, and then I just seem to have people who were called aunties, because…..I didn’t know why, but I just stopped seeing my real aunties. 

I didn’t question why.  I just knew that some people had lives that we’re like that.

I was like that – I didn’t have a mum, and I was living in a home, and I knew that homes weren’t thought of as very nice places – and I didn’t particularly like living in a home.

My older sisters say they sort of did, but I don’t know about my brother Colin. He has barely talked about his life at the home, but I do remember him being at our family house in Mount Hawthorn.

The Mount Hawthorn House

I do remember that he was the one at our home [at 125A Shakespeare Street, Mount Hawthorn] that I seem to have most to do with. 

He had a bedroom that was sort of outside on the back porch,  and every morning I would get up – I don’t know how I did this or how old I was – but I would run out to his bedroom and jump into bed with him, and I just loved that and I don’t know, you know, if I just went to sleep, or we mucked around or whatever, but I loved running out to his bedroom.  

I do remember that we had a bathroom inside, next to, or opposite, Mum and Dad’s bedroom, and I remember at least once I had a bath with Dad, because I do remember that, when you know, we had a bath together. I used to think it was funny that he was all hairy over his chest and it was always soft, and I remember rubbing his hair. 

I don’t remember any sort of play time really with the girls.  Nancy seems to think that she was probably always playing football, or playing with kids in the street or whatever, but I was probably just too young and whenever she talked about me she would always talk about that she had to do these jobs for me.

She was always responsible for me.  She had duties to do for me.  She had to look after me.  She had to do this and she seemed a bit resentful of just constantly having to look after me, but at times she sort of did it with pride that, you know, she was the one who looked after me and kept the family together. [GM: I think what Trenna is referring to here when talking about Nancy, is based on what Nancy related to her in future years.]

I do sort of remember my sister Barbie, as I used to call her, and I always thought that she was beautiful.  I do remember playing knucklebones, and pick-up-sticks with her, but I just don’t know how old I was when I did that or where I did that. 

So I have no [distinct] concept of life in the house. I do know that our dad bought us all records for Christmas one year when singles came out, and he had built a record player that was in the lounge room, and that we all got a record. 

Nancy got Elvis Presley, Barb got Hayley Mills, I think Colin got one by Slim Dusty, but I don’t know for sure that Colin got that, but I know I got a song called Puff the Magic Dragon. 

And I liked the song but I don’t think our dad ever knew what the words actually meant, however, he just thought it was a child’s song that had a nice tune and it would have been played a lot on the radio. 

I do remember Nancy playing a trick on me. I don’t know whether Colin was involved, but I do know that Nancy was involved, and I sort of think that Barb said “don’t, … don’t do it, it’s cruel”. 

They said that they could make Elvis sing like Hayley Mills, and Hayley Mills could sing like Elvis.  What they did was with the Elvis song they put it on 78 rpm which made it speed up, so that he had a high pitched voice, and I didn’t cotton on that it was fast, I just thought it was really funny, and how could they do it? 

And then they did Hayley Mills on slow speed [33 rpm] so that she had a really deep voice, but I didn’t like her version of being a man and I said I didn’t like it, and I think maybe that’s why Barb might have said something. 

She might not have said something, but I feel she did,  and I think that Nancy thought it was funny-as, and they kept on doing it over and over again, and I couldn’t understand what it was so I don’t think I showed too much brilliance at that age.

they would go riding down the hill, and I would keep saying “go faster!”

I presume I got that record probably not long before Dad died, but probably those songs were all ones that were Top of the Pops or whatever at the time so it would be easy to find out what year they came from.  [GM:  Puff the Magic Dragon was released in 1963, the same year Trenna’s Dad died.]

I do remember the neighbours who were to the left and up the hill from us. I think they were called the Borders, and I think there was just a man and a woman, and they were an old man and an old woman, and they always thought I was cute and lovely, and they would always talk to me, but be funny, and they kept on calling me Tenor [or Tenner]. 

I don’t know if that’s what I called myself initially when I first tried to say my name, but they used to say “Tenor” and I would say “my name is not Tenor, it’s Trenna!”  They would think that was really funny and say “are you sure? Are you sure it’s not Tenor?” and they would do that.

Early Signs of Derring-Do

The other thing I remember about our house is that we were on a hill and it was quite a long hill, and there was a boy from the street who was Colin’s friend – Rocky.  Rocky would come over to see him, and sometimes Colin wouldn’t want me hanging around.

But, I wanted to hang around.  So sometimes he would put me in the little trolley on the back of his bike and they would go riding down the hill, and I would keep saying “go faster!”. 

One day I went “faster” and Colin went fast and that little trolley got tipped over and I fell out onto the side of the road and got caught in the drain at the side of the road, and he and Rocky had to get me out and Rocky was really scared.

Colin wasn’t.  He just told me off and said “if you ever tell-on me you’ll never get to do it again, so you better keep your mouth shut!”  And I can remember being terrified of anyone finding out because I really didn’t want to not go with Colin down the hill on the bike.

He used to take me down to the local park where they played football, because he wanted to teach me how to play football.  There seemed to be other kids there, maybe it was Nancy, I don’t remember.

I just remember boys, and I would play and they would all laugh, and I think I was set up. I don’t know if it was by choice, or whether they set it up, because I could make it go further, and that was to kick the football with my knee, rather than my foot. 

Because I think the ball just fell off my foot, but with my knee I could make it go a bit high.  So I used to play footy with my knee and they all used to laugh, so I guess I was the butt of the joke, but I didn’t care because I was still playing footy with Colin.

So, the actual sort of setting of the house I vaguely know, but I really can’t recall any times in the house, like what you did with having breakfast, or whatever. 

I do remember I loved my tricycle and I rode it up and down.  I wanted to always go into the back shed where Dad was and I wasn’t allowed in there, and when I did go in there I got into trouble. 

But I don’t really remember anything except playing on the swing and playing with my tricycle.

I don’t remember people visiting, but apparently that all did happen.  But anyway, life for me changed when Mum died, as it did for everybody else, but I was unaware of the circumstances.

I just knew that I seemed to be at Auntie Hilda’s house a lot, and they lived in Edinburgh Street which was just a street back from us.  An easy walk to their place, but it was where Auntie Hilda and Uncle Burt and [my cousins] Kaye and Shirley lived.  

Shirley was beautiful and older, and she was lovely. Kaye I thought was a bit bossy, but I think I have muddled memories of their roles in my life, so whatever happened in that household could have involved my auntie or my nanna – because my nanna lived there too – or could be things my uncle did and my two cousins.

My cousins had a room together that adjoined the kitchen.  Auntie Hilda and Uncle Burt’s room was –  when you went into the house – you walked straight into the lounge room and their bedroom was to the left, behind the front door.

And then you walked through the lounge into the kitchen, and at the right hand side of the kitchen was Nanna’s bedroom. Nanna seemed to be in the bedroom a lot. 

I don’t remember seeing her very much in the house, but maybe she was, and maybe there were things she did that I think Auntie Hilda did. I don’t remember.  

As I said, Kaye and Shirley’s bedroom was attached to the kitchen and then you went out onto an enclosed back porch and to the left was a bathroom which to me seemed very large. 

It seemed to have a very large bath that was against the wall, but you seemed to have to go a long way to get to it, and opposite it was the toilet – I don’t know if I’m confused – and there was  a laundry there.  

Then there were steps down to the back garden which seemed to have a lot of garden and gates and things like that. 

He should have drunk it straight from the saucer if he wanted to drink it out of a saucer!

You walked down through a gate to get to the back area where the chooks were and more garden for a walk to the side where there was another gate which you could walk through to the next door neighbour’s.

And then you could walk around the side of the house which was all grass.  There was a lot of grass, and at the front of the house there were gardens with roses and a fence.

I don’t remember Uncle Burt’s car. He worked at The West Australian newspapers but I didn’t know that as a child.  I just knew he worked.

We would have breakfast in the morning together and he would have a cup of tea or coffee and he would always pour it into his saucer and slurp it from his saucer. I didn’t know why he did that but I didn’t like it. 

I didn’t think it was right that he should make so much noise, and why did he have it in a cup anyway?  He should have drunk it straight from the saucer if he wanted to drink it out of a saucer! 

Of course, he was probably in a hurry and needed to drink it as quickly as he could, so it cooled down in a saucer, but I wouldn’t have thought of that in those days. 

I remember the kitchen table for a lot of reasons, because Auntie Hilda always sat there, and of course that’s where we had our meals. 

And things were done at the table and it probably was where … one of the things I got were, sort of books – and I think this must have been later, when I might have stayed with them a couple of times after I had gone to the Mofflyn Homes and up until our dad died when I was six – so maybe these were times after I was a little bit grown up – because I do remember getting dresses that you could cut out of paper and you could make them stand up on dolls. 

I don’t really remember them well, but I do remember I was very bad at cutting out things.  I didn’t like scissors. 

But I loved it when Auntie Hilda would tell me to go through the button tin and get out all the buttons and put them in rows of the same buttons and I had to get all the buttons right, and I used to like that.  

The table had enough chairs for 6 people to sit at and if you sat looking at Nana’s room, behind you was a cupboard that had light coloured wooden louvers in it, and that’s where all the food was kept, and that’s where the cans of Quick and honey and all of that was kept! 

Uncle Burt

I know that Uncle Burt once a week used to bring everybody a treat home, and we would get something like a Violet Crumble bar or a Cherry Ripe.

It would be put on the table to have after we had eaten our dinner, and that was the night when he used to have that really nice smell that I liked, but I didn’t know what the smell was until many years later when I learnt that it was hops, or the smell of beer.  

He wasn’t a drinker but he never seemed to be doing stuff [unlike our dad who was always doing stuff]. He seemed to always be down with the chooks. 

I don’t really know what he did at home. I guess he mowed the lawn and I don’t know if he did the gardening, but I think the ladies always did the gardening in those days.  

Anyway, our cousin Shirl and cousin Kaye made me a tellie out of a tissue box. I initially thought it had been made with toilet paper to draw on, but it was paper that Uncle Burt brought home from the The West Australian, and the girls would cut it into strips of the right size, and they would glue it together, and they would come up with little storylines so that they could do little drawings on the paper. 

And then they would put knitting needles at the end of the paper so that you could roll it forwards and backwards, and the little characters they had drawn on the paper would move and I would be so overjoyed with that.  I thought they were magic! 

and they had a kitchen that had a stove in it, and an ironing board and all the things that a girl would want to have

I couldn’t understand it because I would stare and stare at the paper but they didn’t move, they were just there, but as soon as they did it, and they rolled it, they said it had to be on the telly and they would make me press the button – which they had put coloured buttons on the bottom of the tellie – and I would push the button for go, and they would roll the knitting needles the things would move, and I just was mesmerised by this, and I thought they were the clever ones in the family. 

I thought they were very lucky because they were good-looking, they had a beautiful doll’s house that you could see into.

It had all little dining room chairs and beautiful tables, and it was all pink and very pretty. 

In hindsight it was probably post the sort of things our dad would make, they might be a bit more chunky and made out of wood, and I probably wouldn’t appreciate them as much, because these were probably a bit more made out of plastic and they were very ornate with gold, and beautiful girls, and they had little dresses that they could wear, ‘cause they had cupboards, and they had a kitchen that had a stove in it, and an ironing board and all the things that a girl would want to have. 

And they also had a little [toy] farm. It had a white fence and it had all sorts of animals.  You could make the fence as big as you wanted, and you could have someone ride the horses and get the cows together, and I loved that too, because I thought that they had the beautiful dolls house which was always two stories and they had the farm so they must have been really rich.

It was when I was at Auntie Hilda’s at some point in that period – from when I was two, I guess, to when our dad died when I was six – that Auntie Hilda tried to teach me to tell the time, which I think I did learn from her. 

They had an old clock on the mantelpiece and I learnt from that. The girls had a cuckoo clock in their room and I loved that cuckoo clock and it made noise and chimed and it was beautiful.  But I don’t think I learnt to tell the time on that.

The girls used to play games with me in their room, and I sometimes think there were other people there, like I always think it was Barb but I think it must have been Nancy. 

It’s just that Nancy never can remember things that were done with me other than the times when she had to look after me.  So she never remembers fun times with me from that period, they were always sort of jobs she had to do in relationship with me.  

Whereas Barb can remember all the fun times we had playing knucklebones, and initially we did play knucklebones with the actual knuckles from the roast dinners, so we knew where the knuckles came from. 

It was really good when we got all our own coloured knucklebones and they were really great, and we had pick-up sticks.

Even though I was very short-sighted I was good at it, because I was really clever with knowing which one to move without moving the other ones. I don’t know how I was able to do it but I know I was good at pick-up sticks. I don’t know if they made it easy for me.

I also know there was another game, and again, this … these might have come later, but the game I really liked was a plastic little puzzle where you’ve got letters and only I think one or two areas with a blank space and you had to move the letters around, or numbers around, to get them in a sequence where they would either say a word or form number sequences and I know I was very good at that – and I loved any of those sort of things.

And that’s where I’ll leave it.  

I thought I did an hour! But, 30 minutes!

To go straight to the next Kitchen Tape, No. 12, click here.