Intro by Greg, Lyrics by Trenna
Trenna had quite a nice study desk when I first met her in 1987. It was very solid, and had one of those inlays on the desk top that look like green leather. It has three drawers on either side, and it is solid.
It was one she bought new, so it is no antique, but it is still a nice piece. It made it’s way … Read the rest ... “The Mill Point Road Song Lyrics”
Note: The recordings I refer to in this piece formed The Kitchen Tapes series. It starts HERE.
The ABC is Australia’s national media and broadcasting service. And on the ABC Radio National station on weekday mornings the Life Matters show has been running an interesting segment entitled Life in 500 Words.
I have listened to quite a few and there are some fascinating stories … Read the rest ... “Trenna’s iPad”
Trenna loved reading, and she loved writing. She also loved, a lot, but for many years this was very often unrequited.
She tells in the Kitchen Tapes, HERE, of the dozens of love poems and letters she wrote to Murray Malski.
Trenna also kept a notebook during her high school years and wrote poetry in it.
Whilst Trenna was alive I was … Read the rest ... “Angsty Teenage Poetry #1”
Mainly by Trenna, Brief Intro by Greg
This piece of writing by Trenna was on her laptop computer (not her iPad) and appears to have been commenced on 21 July 1997, and further work done on it in 1998.
It looks like she did most of the work, but never came back to it. The first part is very orderly and polished, the later part looks more … Read the rest ... “Meals at Craig House”
By Trenna’s sister Barbara, with an introduction from Greg
In 2018 Trenna asked her sister Barb to jot down her memories of Craig House. Barb is six years older than Trenna. It was at exactly the same time as Trenna and I were recording Trenna’s stories and I have no doubt it was as part of Trenna’s research in preparation for writing her own story.
Barb subsequently sent the notes that appear below, and when … Read the rest ... “Barb’s Craig House Memories”
Notes by Trenna, Intro by Greg
This is the first of a small number of these “Rough Notes” that I will be publishing from time to time.
As regular readers might expect they come from Trenna’s iPad. This document was headed “1970s” and it lists some key points and changes in Trenna’s life in the 1970s.
I think she has compiled it to remind herself of the interesting journey she has taken, but also to … Read the rest ... “Trenna’s Rough Notes on the 1970s”
[ GM: This was one of the longest recordings at 1 hour and 6 minutes. In it Trenna sounded less tired than she had in other recordings, especially in the ones that were to follow. To see why this one was a bit different I looked at Trenna’s diary for this date and was surprised to see that she was not at all well, and had not slept much the night … Read the rest ... “The Kitchen Tapes No. 19”
GM: Today is Friday the 7th of June, 2018, I’m with Trenna Mahney. Tren, tell me a bit about, you had been living at Craig House whilst you were at school until third year high school. What happened then?
THM: Well I was in 3rd year and Craig House was going to close in 1972. I don’t know why, we assumed they had run out of money.
The food had definitely become … Read the rest ... “The 18th of 24 Kitchen Tapes”
GM: OK. Today is Saturday, the 12th of May. We are with Trenna Mahney, talking about her memories of her childhood, at this stage.
Tren, there were a number of things we were just talking about before we started recording. They were things that happened mainly at your primary school.
Would you like to tell us some of those things?
THM: Before Helen came I was a pretty meke, … Read the rest ... “The Kitchen Tapes No. 14”
One of the heart warming aspects of putting this website together is to learn that there are a number of people who are reading everything that I put up. I’m also happy with the comments I am getting on individual posts.
One such person is Trenna’s only brother Colin Seckington, who for many years has lived in Europe. I received a message from him a couple of days ago, and I have … Read the rest ... ““Dead at 27 and Never To Marry””
GM: OK, today is Sunday 22nd of April, 2018. We are with Trenna Mahney. I think Tren you wanted to talk a bit more about the early years at Craig House.
THM: Right. I don’t really remember getting to Craig House. I knew I was getting excited to go to where my sisters and brother were, and when I got there I didn’t … Read the rest ... “The Kitchen Tapes No. 10”
GM: OK, today is Saturday, 21st of April, 2018 and I’m with Trenna Mahney. Tren, you were going to tell us a bit more about Craig House, I think?
THM: Alright. The main house – I was talking about the kitchen and the back enclosed… well, I guess, in a way it was a bit of a pantry, where it had the fruit cupboard, and all that.
That leads into … Read the rest ... “Number Nine, Number Nine…”
The popular-culturally literate among you will immediately be thinking “Being John Malkovich“.
What’s this got to do with Trenna?
Well….
I have decided that in most cases I’m NOT going to put the original sound recordings on this website – at least for now.
However, I thought I should put up at least one, to provide an idea of what the original … Read the rest ... “Floor 7 1/2”
GM: OK, today is the 19th of April 2018, with Trenna Mahney. Tren, can you tell me whatever you can think of about Craig House.
THM: Well, Craig House was quite posh in some ways. It was formal in that we had to dress for dinner each night.
In the large dining area there were three tables, one very big jarrah, which would have seated one at each end and … Read the rest ... “The Kitchen Tapes #7”
GM: This is a recording of Trenna Mahney made on the 12th of April, 2018. Tren, let’s talk about the time you lived down near the Old Mill.
THM: Alright, OK, well that was 1975. I was heading to being 17, 18. I had been living previously with some of the girls I had met from GFS. I eventually had to move because my friend Rose’s mum … Read the rest ... “The Third Kitchen Tape”
Trenna always liked to tell a story. She knew that her life story was interesting and that some people could find comfort in hearing how she coped with what life threw at her.
We had talked about it for a long time and in April 2018 Trenna asked if we could record her tales. We didn’t have a firm view on what we would do with them. A … Read the rest ... “The Kitchen Tapes”