The Kitchen Tapes No. 13

Recorded 7 May 2018

[ GM: Note before we start.  In these recordings of Trenna’s early years I can hear that she almost puts herself into a trance like state, as if she was channeling a very young, and a very different Trenna.  She gave this whole account speaking quite fast and with almost no breaks.]

[GM: In this recording, perhaps more than others Trenna has retold stories she has already covered (although there is also new material). Trenna and I often spoke of her experiences so she knows she is retelling a story, but she may not be aware whether we had previously recorded that particular story.]

GM:  Today is Monday the 7th of May 2018. We’re with Trenna Mahney. Tren, tell us of any more memories you’ve got of your time at Mofflyn.

THM:  Well, I guess these are all just little snapshots of things I recall.

Chicken Pox, and the Fire Brigade Not to the Rescue

I do recall I got chicken pox when I was there.  I was a really little toddler so it must have been not long after I got there when I was still at home [I hadn’t started kindy].

They were very itchy, and I have scars from where I used to scratch them, even today in my 60s. 

There was one day when I was at home, and I didn’t like it because everybody was at kindergarten, so the house was very quiet, and I was just at home by myself at the cottage.

I can remember I had little mittens made for me.  They were tied together.  Now, I recall that they were tired behind my back, but, my sister Nancy reckons that wasn’t the case.  She said they were tied together, but they were at the front.  And that they were little ribbons that we’re tied together so that I couldn’t scratch my face. 

But, I don’t know, I reckon that if they were in front of me I would have been able to do it.  Maybe that’s why I have got marks over the top of my eyebrows.  Scars, where I picked at my scabs.  

I remember the fire brigade came and the men were there, and they were talking to me, and they were really nice, and I kept on asking them to please untie my hands because they [the staff at the Home] had tied me up, and it wasn’t very nice. 

I know they didn’t think it was very nice either.  They had come to take … we had these big cylinders that used to be on the wall and I think they’re coming to take them away or maybe we didn’t have any and they put new ones there. [GM: Presumably fire extinguishers.]

I do remember the chicken pox and how itchy they were, and how I didn’t like having them. And how I didn’t think they were very nice for not undoing my hands.

Friends at Mofflyn

I do also remember that there were girls that I befriended.   I know one friend was Vanessa.  Later I learnt that she was the daughter of Nancy, who was the cook, or one of the cooks in the kitchen. 

I don’t recall knowing that then.  I just knew Vanessa was my friend, and so was Susie Ireland, but Susie Ireland had hearing problems. 

I think I was a bit jealous of her because I had bad eyesight, but we all had to be extra nice to Susie because she couldn’t hear.  But I didn’t think they had to be nice to me because I couldn’t see. 

So, I wasn’t very nice to poor Susie.   Down by what used to be tennis courts there was still a cyclone fenced off concrete area. 

The concrete was pretty much in decay, or bitumen, it was light-coloured stuff that was all cracked, and stuff like that, so I don’t think I ever saw anybody playing on it. 

By the sides there were lemon trees and various fruits, including tomatoes.  The tomatoes had grown really tall.  I probably thought it was just a tomato tree, but now I know that tomatoes wouldn’t be that tall a “tree”.  

The tomatoes had all gone rotten, and I used to convince the other kids to throw the tomatoes at Susie. When she wouldn’t answer us when we called out to her and she didn’t turn around we would throw the tomato to get her attention. I was very mean like that. 

I know that we used to love playing games around what we called the “Indian tent”, but it was actually the metal cover over the well.   We were told not to climb on it, but of course we did. 

We used to play Cowboys and Indians around it.   I remember being caught.  And if we got caught, and we’d done something naughty we had to line up to get the strap. 

For some reason or other I’d have to go and stand at the back.  I don’t know if it was because I couldn’t see, but I just went and stood at the back, and we would all get the strap.  

The other kids would cry and run off, and I would get it, and I used to think that they were pretty weak because it wasn’t even very hard.   In later years I’ve speculated, I don’t know if this is the truth of it, but in later years I’ve realised how many of those kids were Aboriginal kids [and were treated more harshly]. [GM: I understand from Nancy that her belief is that Trenna would have got off lightly because the Home was grateful to their father for all the volunteer work he did there.]

Sometimes we would get a man who would bring his little train set, which used to be kept at another home that was near us, Castledare.  He would bring it to Mofflyn Homes when we would have a special day. 

I don’t know, but there were more than just us people there.  There were other people who came. 

The train set would be set up in the area where the tennis courts used to be. We could sit on the train. 

One person could sit in each little carriage, and we would ride around on that, and that was good fun.  I know the boys in particular liked that.

I do know that opposite where my cottage was, I didn’t know it was my cottage, it was just a cottage, but my cottage was apparently called Wesley, but I didn’t know then that the cottages had names.

There were four of them, my sisters and brother would know their names.  [GM: I later asked Nancy, who said they were called Wesley, Meckering, Dowerin and Guild].

The Colourful Mums 

I just knew that in charge of the cottages there was a Mum White and a Mum Black and they were the mums in our house at various points in time. I don’t know which was which. 

I didn’t like her!

One was meant to be really nice, and one was meant to be too strict.  I thought there was a Mum Brown who was in the cottage where Colin was, but my sisters tell me there wasn’t a Mum Brown.  There was a Mum Cutts, and she was an old bag. 

She was in the cottage across the way from us.   There was a little wall there, with a garden on it. 

On our cottage, out the front of our cottage, or at the side of our cottage,  there was a little wall, and I loved playing there, because, when later I was given a walkie talkie doll, which was very expensive and very flash.  I think it was given to me by a Legartee from Craig House. I used to walk her, and she would talk. 

I could walk her along the wall, but it was the wall across the way, at Mum Cutts’ cottage where there was a garden next to it.  She used to tell us to get off the wall or she would give us the belt.  I didn’t like her! 

Eating Snails, and Other Amusements

I do remember when I was very young and I was playing with one of the boys, which may have been Graham – because according to my sister’s Graham was my boyfriend –  anyway, I do remember that there were lots of snails. 

He said that the French people ate snails, and he dared me to eat a snail. And I did.  I don’t remember if I took the shell off, or whether I just ate it. 

Apparently I used to put anything from the ground in my mouth when I was a little kid, and I used to eat lots of sand and who knows what else from the ground.  Maybe my body was lacking something?  

I know that at some point there were movies, maybe every week, they were shown, I think it was maybe at Mum Cutts’ cottage. 

Because initially we didn’t have TV, eventually we did get a TV I think – but I don’t really remember watching TV other than football so maybe we didn’t get TV – maybe it was just the football on the radio. 

Anyway, we used to go to see the movies, or at least I went sometimes, mainly the older kids went and they probably were all things about missionary work in Papua New Guinea and all of that sort of thing. 

Sometimes I think there might have been real movies, but I don’t know.   I know that my sisters did look forward to that.

There were also bookcases where we could get books from, to read, but that was all before my time because I was not old enough to read.

I have a memory, but I’ve been assured it’s not my memory, it’s my sister’s memory of getting in trouble because my job was to sweep the little corridor in the cottage, which was only very small.  It was outside the two bedrooms that we slept in, not in the main part of the house. 

I got into trouble and I got hit across the backside by, I guess it was Mum Black, because I think Mum White was the good mum. 

Anyway, I got hit across the backside for not sweeping up all the dirt properly.  But I couldn’t see, so I didn’t think that was fair. 

But Nancy says “no” that wasn’t me, it was Barb who got in trouble for not being able to do the sweeping properly, and Nancy stood up for Barb.  So that might be a memory I’ve just taken from them. 

I know that they used to do Christian Endeavour classes once a week, in the evening, at our cottage and they would stay up later.  I had to go to bed. 

But I always wanted to know what they would do, and I would sneak down the passageway and try and look through the door to see what they did, because I thought they might be doing something good, and I didn’t want to miss out. 

Then one day, the mum in charge of the cottage caught me and she said if I wanted to know what was going on so much I could go and stay, stand in the corner and put my face to the wall, and repeat prayers that I knew, and that she would give me to do. 

I found it very boring, and I think that stopped me from doing it again.  But I didn’t think it was fair that I couldn’t go. 

I don’t really remember the format of meals, but I believe they were in the cottages and the bigger girls used to bring them down. Nancy, not my sister, but the cook, evidently used to feel sorry for me because I was very skinny and she would quite often sneak me biscuits from the biscuit barrel. 

That was at “the main” and the main was the main building.  That’s where everything important happened. 

It was where the matron had her office.  I don’t remember that at all.  I don’t even really remember what the matron was like, but I do remember the kitchen.  

The Extended Family Contracts

I also know that that’s where the kindergarten was.  Because I went to Mofflyn Homes six months after mum died – so mum died in October 1959 – I stayed with Auntie Hilda and Shirley and Uncle Bert and Kaye and Nana at their house, which I really loved because I could do lots of things. 

The others went somewhere else. I don’t know, but I think Barb and Colin went to stay with Auntie Ali [Alice] until it was the Christmas holidays.  Then, when the Christmas holidays came I think the others were sent to stay with people who they didn’t know. 

Dad went to meet these people and he said they were nice families, and that they were having a good time. I didn’t go. 

I stayed with Auntie Hilda, but for some of that time Nancy stayed with Auntie Hilda too.  I think that was just after Mum died, but then again I don’t remember her being there, and I don’t know if she remembers being there.  [GM: I later asked Trenna’s sister, Nancy.  Nancy stayed at Hilda’s briefly after the death of their mother, but didn’t stay there on a regular basis after that.]  

Both Kaye and Shirley remember that someone was there and it was either Barb or Nancy.  [GM: This information comes from a meeting Trenna had with both of her cousins Shirley and Kaye, earlier in 2018 after not having seen them for approximately 50 years. Trenna and I initiated the meetings.] 

So I was really proud of my sister Barb for saving me because otherwise I would have dropped dead then! 

They do think it was Nancy, because I know that Barb didn’t like it at Auntie Ali’s because she had to go to the school that our cousin Suzanne went to, and maybe our cousin Raymond went there too, and they were Catholic. 

She didn’t like the Catholic school.  It was awful, and very strict, and did a lot of church stuff which she didn’t like. 

So apart from getting up to the naughty things like going over to play in the yellow sand pits next door, I think the highlight of the week for us was, I guess we got some sort of pocket money. 

I don’t know if Daddy would give it to us or where it came from, or if it was just the older kids who got it, but once a week we would cut across the bush near the driveway to take the shortcut.

That’s the way we also went to school.  There was a shop.  The Kent Street shop.   And we would get some lollies and that would be the highlight of the week. 

I would always get my favourite cough drop lolly, which was a big pinky coloured lolly that looked like a pill that you could suck on and it would last for ages.  

I remember once that my sister Barb saved me.  I was about to put my foot down on the pathway and she pulled me back,  and she said “careful, there’s a goanna” and I was about to put my foot on a bobtail goanna. 

I was terrified. 

They said if I put my foot on it, that it would grip my foot with it’s teeth and it wouldn’t let go, and it might take my foot off.  So I was really proud of my sister Barb for saving me because otherwise I would have dropped dead then! 

I think I’ve said everything about it that I can remember about school.  I don’t really remember Colin going and leaving because I really don’t remember seeing much of Colin when I was at Mofflyn Homes.

I know I went there about six months after Mum died, so that would have been April or something like that, in 1960.   I know that Dad lived until 1963, and that sometimes he would take us out for the weekend.  [GM: Colin has made a comment on this topic at the end of “11 – Trenna’s Favourite Number”, here.]

All that is blurred for me, because I think I just blurred much of my memory of life with Dad. 

I don’t remember when I went home with him or with someone else, but I think during that time I might have also stayed the night sometimes at Aunty Ali’s and sometimes at Auntie Hilda’s because there are things that I remember, that I probably wouldn’t remember if I was only 3.  

Like that Raymond didn’t like me staying in his bed and he would put drawing pins in the bed. 

I remember the time that Uncle Bert scared me.  He had chooks down the back of the house and he chopped off the head of a chook, and then let it go so that it ran around with its head off.  I was terrified. 

Raymond didn’t like me staying in his bed and he would put drawing pins in the bed

Cousin Shirley remembers that he loved doing that and that at the time she loved him doing that, and she thought it was really good fun, and funny. 

I also remember dressing up in Auntie Hilda’s light blue wedgie shoes that had gold etching on them, and I would walk around like a princess, and I wanted shoes like that when I grew up. 

I loved their doll’s house that they had, and their little farm I would play with.  There were games that I think I would have to have been a bit older than three to understand, so I must have stayed there on occasional days with them. 

I do remember that Auntie Hilda taught me to tell the time, and I remember that they had a television.  

I would run out with excitement to say “it’s Taffy time, it’s Taffy time!”, because I would watch, I guess, Children’s Channel 7. [GM: Taffy was a lion character – a man in a lion costume.  Channel 7 was the only commercial TV station in Perth at the time.  BTW, I too loved Taffy!] 

I don’t think I know the names of the shows I watched, except, I loved The Mickey Mouse Club.  When I was at Auntie Ali’s they bought me some Mickey Mouse ears.  I used to watch The Mickey Mouse Club show and I would sing the song, and I used to love that.  

I also loved the gong on top of their telly.   I was allowed to strike the gong for meals. 

I remember lying down on the carpet to watch telly, and they would say “you’re tired it’s time for bed”, and I would say “no I’m not” but then a minute or two later I would be asleep.

I remember Auntie Ali used to make the best savoury mince on toast for breakfast, and I loved it.  That’s the only meal I ever remember having at their house. 

I don’t really remember much about playing at Auntie Ali’s house.  They used to do what now you would call topiary, but I didn’t understand how their trees could grow in a round shape. 

The man next door had a sheep, and the sheep used to “do the gardening”, and I didn’t know what they meant, and they thought that was very funny. 

I know there was a house across the road, and we would go over and play at that house. It was a very grand house and it had a winding concrete or bitumen driveway that wound up to a big area where you could put your car. 

On the outside of the house they had these two big wooden doors that you could open up, and there would be a staircase, an old rickety staircase, and it would always be dark, and you could go down into a cellar, but we called it the dungeon.  

The house was on a hill, so it stood above the hill, and you could walk past on the footpath and their fence would be at shoulder height and the lawn would slope to the house.  I always wanted a house like that because it looked very grand. 

We used to always go and play there so I think a lot of the play time was done across the road.  I don’t remember their name but I know that Kaye told me there was something called “Gelcott”, or something. 

She worked there later, but that was up the road.  I know there was a big white house on the corner of the street which was double storey.  It was very grand for those days. 

I don’t know if it’s still there.  I’d have to have a drive there to see if it’s there.  I never went there. 

Actually getting to Craig House was after Dad had died.  I think I have already told you the story about being told that Dad had died. 

And then I had the lost time, I have no memory of getting out of grade one.  I do know I went and stayed with various people.  All sorts of people. 

The Reeds who I lied to, but there were other people. 

There was  Mrs Angrove who I met on the bus to Kalgoorlie. [GM: Or Kalgan, near Albany, as I have mentioned the other two times Trenna has mentioned this so far. See here.]

I later became friends with her when I was at Craig House.  She saw me in the butcher’s shop and recognised me.  I went and saw her home, which was nearby.

I think the first person I met from Craig House was Mr Harkness, he was called something like a Legatee.  He was the Legatee of Barb, Nance and Colin who had all been gone from Mofflyn for a long time. 

They wouldn’t let me go there because I was too young.  He came and visited me and I think I must have got the walkie talkie doll from him, but I don’t know for sure.  

But, I do know that he gave me a Fred Flintstone hanky because I told him The Flintstones was my favourite TV show, and I loved having that Fred Flintstone hanky so that I could pin it on my uniform when I went to school. 

I don’t know if I had to do that after grade one because I only remember grade one.   I also remember that I got some Chinese or Japanese silk pyjamas that were real silk. [See a photo here.]

They were white on the bottom and on the top they had what was called a Chinese collar .  The colour of the top was, I would learn later, a teal colour, which was a colour I really loved, and it had flowers on it, and it was beautiful, and, I really loved that. 

And I liked his place [his home] because it seemed to be a place that was fancy. 

I think what happened is I went to stay at Craig House to see how I would go.  I think it might have been on an ANZAC day,  then again, it might not have been, it might have been any day.

But I went and stayed and it was when there had been a fire.  Initially it’s when I thought I first went to live at Craig House.  There had been a fire and it had gone through from Matron’s fireplace in her sitting room through to the Blue Room, which was the biggest room for the girls. 

It had five beds in it, so all those girls had to sleep in the lounge room.  I remember I really loved it there, and I think I must have fitted in.  

The boys lived in the house next door.  There was a new boys’ quarters being built at the back.  The boys also slept in the annexe, but the overflow of boys slept in the house next door. 

I don’t know when the building for the boys was built at the back but it must have been in the early 60s, because I’m pretty sure it was there when I first lived there. 

The Sherbies Again

I had an eye operation in 1965 and my friend Irina from school came and brought a bag of sherbies for me, but because I was fasting the nurses said I couldn’t put it in my locker, that they would put it in the staff room where they would look after it for me until I was no longer fasting.

That was really nice of Irena because sherbies  were expensive, and it was a really big bag of sherbies. [GM: The Great Sherbies Heist is also covered here.]

I don’t recall anybody else coming to see me other than Irina and Auntie Hilda who had taken me there.  I don’t know whether she came to see me, or whether anybody else came to see me.

So I went to Craig House in July 1965. I don’t remember leaving the home [Mofflyn] but I know I don’t remember bringing any of my toys with me either, because I didn’t have toys. 

I know I had a toy piano that Daddy had given me, and also Barb had been given one, but there only seemed to be one piano at Craig House.  I did have my doll that Daddy had won me at a fair, or bought at a fair, when he took me out one day, that you could put on the bed and it was really beautiful. 

I had that at Craig House.  And that’s really all I remember about Mofflyn Homes, but I’m sure things will come back from time to time.

In later years we did visit Mofflyn Homes as adults, and I remember seeing the bell that used to be rung for dinner, which I used to think was huge, but was only as tall as I was. And that’s about it.

Sunday School

GM:  Tren, just before we do leave Mofflyn, can you tell me about the Sunday School and going into the city?

THM: Well, there used to be a bus, someone would drive a bus, and we had to go to church or Sunday School every week.   If you were old enough, and I don’t know how old that was, I don’t think you had to go to Sunday School, I think you went to Church.

The church was the Wesley Church in the middle of the city, on the corner of Hay Street and William Street.  It’s still there today.  

I would describe it as ornate balustrading all over the place, and staircases.  Large grand staircases

The Methodists owned property across the road and that’s where the smaller children went.  I don’t know if we went to the church first, and had to listen to all of that, but I think we just went straight to the Sunday School. 

All I remember about that is that there were lots of big rooms, and they were all dark, very little windows, and all made of wood. 

Now I would describe it as ornate balustrading all over the place, and staircases.  Large grand staircases.  We could just run wild in there until we got somewhere.

I suppose we had a Sunday School class. I don’t really remember that. 

I do remember that there was a stage, and we would sing on the stage.  I did have a terrible voice, and I think that’s why I was at the back, because I couldn’t sing. 

So, I think I thought, to pay them back because they said I couldn’t sing very well, I used to encourage the other kids who supposedly couldn’t sing very well just sing like, you know, the people in church. 

So that makes me think I might have gone to the church service, because I heard the old ladies sing.  And the old ladies sang funny, and I used to sing like them, so I would sing the hymns like [GM: Trenna proceeds to make a high pitched, unpleasant sounding noise.] and I would sing like that and all the kids would laugh, and we would get into trouble. 

I don’t know if we got caught in the end but anyway, that’s what we would do.  Then the bus would be there waiting for us and we would go home. 

Three Years of Kindergarten

The one thing I don’t think I said about kindergarten is that because I went to Mofflyn so young there was nothing to do with me during the day, so I went to kindergarten from soon after I arrived until the day I went to grade one in primary school. 

I didn’t want to do the stupid drawings and cut outs

So I think I had 3 years of kindergarten.  Maybe that’s why, in the end, I got naughty because I knew all the tricks. 

I knew what was going to happen and it all got a bit boring. I’d seen it all before.  I didn’t want to do the stupid drawings and cut outs. 

I know that at some point we all got a bottle of cool drink and one day, I don’t know if I just thought this was a funny trick and didn’t actually do it, or whether I did do it, but I remember that I went into the toilets with someone and told them to wee in the bottle because it would just look like lemonade, and then give it to somebody to drink. 

Now, there’s a thought in me that I would have done that because I could be quite naughty, but I don’t know.  But that’s what makes me think that there was a bit of a naughty side to me.  

There were times when I was, as a child in those days it was very acceptable, and I think it’s come back to some degree, to harness children and walk with them like they would walk with a dog. 

And you would walk with them so they wouldn’t run away. I had one of those harnesses, and it was tied around the Hills Hoist – wind up clothesline – and I would be made to stay out under where the washing dried. 

I don’t know if there was any washing on there, and I don’t know how long I sat out there, but I’m pretty sure I was sitting out there in the sun. 

I’m sure they wouldn’t have left me out there when it was very hot, but I do remember that they did that a few times.

And I think that’s about as much as I can remember without the memories really being my sisters’ memories, and not mine. 

[GM:  On the recording, after a few seconds, Trenna can be heard saying “I’ve got quite dizzy”.]