Long gloves. The photos showed long black kid leather gloves and that reminded me of my childhood and teenage years where gloves were part of our school uniform. My mother wore gloves every time she went to town – lacy knitted pearl linen in the summer and either kid or suede leather during the winter. We wore fawn gloves to school and prefects checked for gloves as we left school.

When my friends and I went to balls, we wore long white gloves – over our elbows, halfway up the upper arm if the dress was sleeveless or below elbow if the frock had short sleeves, and our partners also wore white gloves so as not to leave greasy hand marks when we danced, leaving 12 “ between us at all times.

False eyelashes. We often wore two pairs of these at a time in the Carnaby Street era, along with lashings of black eyeliner to achieve the ‘Twiggy’ look. I recall dancing ‘cheek to cheek’ with a man wearing a white tuxedo and being very embarrassed when my eyelashes stuck to his jacket lapel as the music ended.  He thought it was a spider and tried to brush the intruder off!

Classic Look. Both Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn knew that ‘less is more’ when it came to fashion in the 1950’s and Jackie Kennedy favoured the understated classic look which made everyone copy her in the ‘60’s – simple little straight dress, low heeled pumps, bouffant hairdo and a strand of pearls.

Trench Coats. These beige, bone or dove grey waterproof coats were not just worn by international espionage spies but also by those of us who wanted to capture that sophisticated look without all of the James Bond-type of gizmos that went with it. They also kept the rain off!

Aprons. As far as I am concerned, these never went out of fashion, but I am thrilled to see the girls in Desperate Housewives wearing some simply gorgeous aprons. My own collection stretches back to aprons from 1920 and each decade up to 2010 and include some pretty hand embroidered numbers.

What is your favourite classic fashion piece – a string of pearls, a little black dress or perhaps a pair of Levis, a white tee shirt and a pair of penny loafers? I’d love to hear your thoughts about new or old classic fashions.

As a small child, I always had an apron tied under my armpits to help Grannie with jobs such as rubbing butter into flour for scones, using a rotary eggbeater to whip up egg whites for a sponge cake or pavlova, and to help whip up the hot washing up water with a small square of yellow Velvet soap in a wire cage with a long handle.

When I started school, I was introduced to the pinafore or cross-over, which we wore every day over either my summer or winter uniforms. When the temperature rose to over 100 degrees F, a message from the Headmistress would boom through the loud speaker in each classroom, permitting us to remove our pinafores.

Grannie Wallace had a multitude of uses for her aprons, which she had usually made herself on her Singer treadle sewing machine, in her day to day life on a busy farm:

• The bottom was used as a handy pot holder to move hot pans in the oven, or to remove cakes from cake tins to place on the window sill to cool.
• From the chook yard, Grannie carefully carried the day’s freshly laid eggs and sometimes, half hatched eggs to fully hatch in the warming oven of the wood stove.
• When visitors arrived, it provided the ideal place for shy kids to hide behind, peeping out from the safety of the apron skirt.
• Gran often used her apron to staunch the flow of blood from a nose-bleed or an accident, or to wrap chipped ice in to ease a sprain.
• When the weather was cold, reversing her apron, she often wrapped it around her shoulders as she walked down to the milking shed, or pulled it over her head to keep the rain off.

I have many memories of my Gran wearing her apron, and when I speak to groups, I like to wear one of my collection of aprons from different decades from the 20^th century.

Who do you remember from your childhood regularly wearing an apron on a daily basis? Did she wear it every day or only while doing specific chores? Have you saved her aprons? Did you wear an apron at any stage of your life? Perhaps, if you are a man, you wore a leather tool apron? Perhaps you know of an aunt who wore a gauzy ‘cocktail’ apron when entertaining?

I’d love to hear your apron stories. Please post your family’s apron stories here.

The Australian women became hives of industry and formed small groups to knit woollen socks, gloves and scarves or to roll bandages made from clean linen. Others baked boiled fruitcakes, studded with Australian dried apricots, currants, raisins and sultanas, which could be wrapped in muslin and packed into an airtight tin. The other great standby for the women at home to bake and pack into tins were Anzac biscuits, made with butter, golden syrup and rolled oats and I still bake them today.

Why don’t you bake a batch on Anzac Day 2010 to mark the 95th landing of Australian troops at Gallipoli? Here’s my trusty recipe, passed down through several generations of my Dad’s family.

Anzac Biscuits
Makes about 25 biscuits and takes about 35 minutes to make and bake.

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup desiccated coconut
125 grm butter
2 tabsp golden syrup
1 tabsp water
½ teasp bicarb soda

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160degrees C (or 140 degrees C for a fan forced oven). Grease oven trays and line with baking paper.
2. Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut in a large bowl. Combine butter, syrup, and the water in a small saucepan, stir over a low heat until butter has melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in soda and stir into dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
3. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls: Place on oven trays about 5cms apart and flatten slightly. Bake for about 20 minutes and allow to cool on trays before storing in an airtight container.

Anzac biscuits are best enjoyed over a good cup of tea and a chat with family or friends.

Meryl Streep

Do you resist the commercialism of Mother’s Day? Does Mum really want a new electrical appliance or a hugely expensive meal, or would she prefer a sleep in? Would you prefer to give Mum a personal gift, the effects of which will resonate with your children’s children?

This year, why not give Mum a unique gift which will be treasured both now and in the future? Make a Memory Jar for her this year. The Memory Jar is a ‘more dash than cash’ concept in that the cost is very moderate but it has that ‘Wow’ impact.

This easy idea is: a) suitable for either children or adults, b) can be become an annual event, c) suits Mums of any age.

The steps are simple:

1. Select a suitable jar with a lid (it can be a simple jam jar or a ‘treasure’ found at the op shop). Make sure that the jar is clean and dry and that the lid fits.

2. Using a sheet of pretty writing paper, number down the left hand side of the page and either write or type your list of questions you’d like Mum to answer. Some examples could be:

Who was your first boyfriend?
What was your favourite TV show?
What did you think about Dad the first time you saw him?
What world event made the biggest impact on you?
Who was your childhood hero?

3. Carefully cut between each question, to collect a pile of narrow paper strips. You can now fold each question and pop it into the jar. I like to stick each question to a teabag or a wrapped sweet, which gives Mum more incentive to sit down as she reads your question.

4. Here’s a little poem you might like to decorate the jar with:

Preserve your memories – seal them up well.
What you forget, you can never retell.
But a journal that’s kept fresh on the shelf
Will help someone through rough times…Maybe even yourself.

5. Buy a small notebook and instruct Mum, each time she stops for morning tea, if she’d select a question, and answer it. Instruct her to stick the question to the top of each page and to write her answers below in the notebook.

6. Wrap the jar and notebook together and give your personal gift to Mum on Mother’s Day. At a later stage, you could type all of Mum’s Memory Jar answers on to acid proof paper to preserve them.

This simple idea could be used by all members within a family (I’d suggest each person uses a different coloured paper) and can be used year after year.

Another great idea for Mother’s Day to join her on the Mother’s Day Classic to raise vital funds for the prevention and cure for Breast Cancer. Register online at www.mothersdayclassic.org

In my childhood home, in Brisbane, there was a phone on the wall, in the hallway. It was made of shiny black Bakelite with the listening part up one end of the receiver and the part we spoke into at the other end. For some reason, I observed that everyone who spoke on the telephone raised their voices and shouted down the receiver and I gained the impression that the person receiving the call was deaf.

Old Fashioned Phone

When we moved to Adelaide, we didn’t have a phone of our own. Mum made all of her calls at work or we could walk down to the corner to use the public telephone. The scarlet phone boxes needed a combination of coins, which had to be inserted before you made your call and pressed button A. If your call was not answered, you pushed button B and your coins were refunded, and tumbled down a metallic chute.

At Grandma’s rural property, her phone was connected to a party line, and calls had to be made through the telephonist at the local phone exchange. Two sisters ran the exchange and both loved nothing more than to ‘listen in’ to people’s phone calls. Gran became tired of Mavis and Melba’s eavesdropping and gossip mongering and always commenced her phone call with a sharp blow into a shiny Boy Scout whistle which hung by the phone on an old piece of string.

The ‘Two M’s” as the telephonists were nicknamed soon learned not to listen in on Gran’s phone calls and also seemed able to get her a line very promptly. Gran acknowledged this improved service by a box of home-made shortbread and a bottle of sweet sherry every Christmas.

What memories do you have about telephones? Did you carry the correct coins for a public phone box emergency call? What news do you remember receiving by phone? Do you remember your old phone number? I’d love to hear some of your telephone stories.

Unlike most of the celebrities, whose ideas sounded rather outlandish to me (an endless supply of chocolate, very popular with celebrities, made me smile a bit) my needs are somewhat simpler and more realistic, given that desert islands don’t have electricity, let alone broadband internet.

1. My husband, Jack, is my first selection as I’m sure that between the two of us, we’d make the best of the situation. We’ve weathered quite a few storms together over the years and have complementary skills, which means that we’d soon have a hut in which to live plus a huge beacon fire pile to signal for help. Our ability to laugh with each other would also be essential.
2. A box of matches or some other way of creating a fire, which means that we could cook food, keep warm and alert passing ships or aircraft of our situation.
3. A supply of pencils and paper for us to write down our memories of life before arriving on the desert island and to record our daily life while living on the island. I know that our family would treasure such a written legacy. This exercise would also keep us sane as we remembered different aspects of our lives.
4. A sharp knife would have many uses – scaling and gutting fish, opening shellfish found on the rocks, cutting palm leaves to thatch a roof on our shelter to name but a few.
5. Some books to read. I can’t imagine life without reading and would be bereft without at least one book. If limited to just one book between us, which one would we choose? At a guess, I’d say “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, which seems as fresh today as it did when it was written. The characters still retain their charm, despite many readings, and I love the double wedding at the end!

Aunt Ruby as a trainee nurse

Hospital food had a dreadful reputation and many patients refused to eat the meals which were overcooked, watery and often congealed on the plate. Today’s patients are given a menu list of selections to suit all tastes and heath requirements and can even order a glass of wine or beer.

Syringes were made of glass, and both the syringe and the needles were cleaned, sharpened and autoclaved for sterility by nurses. Today’s syringes are made of plastic and both the syringe and the needles are made to be used once and then thrown out. There are even special syringes for taking blood that contain a vacuum, which greatly assists in this procedure.

Bedpans were made of stainless steel, flushed after patient use and then placed in a machine which hygienically washed out the pan and steamed it, ready to be placed on the pan rack for the next patient. Today’s bed pans are made of papier mache and are designed for one use before being  thrown out.

Dressing trays were made of stainless steel, draped with sterile cotton drapes and set with steel gallipots, kidney dishes and instruments such as forceps, scalpel handles and scissors. Today’s dressing trays are made of plastic, with paper drapes and plastic instruments and are designed to be used once and then thrown out.

Hospital beds were made out of cast iron, with a back rest which was pulled out and then screwed into place by the nurse. To elevate the head or foot of the bed involved propping the bed legs on a wooden block and the beds were high to prevent backache for the nursing staff. Today’s electronic beds contain 3 segments which can individually move up or down at the press of a button, and lowered to suit each patient’s needs.

Have you ever been in hospital? How old were you and what do you remember about your hospital stay?

Perhaps you were a nurse and have some wonderful stories of your nursing days – I know I have and my family are urging me to write down these stories of a different era in medical care, which they now find difficult to imagine.

When you are writing your stories, don’t forget to add how you received any surgical scars – perhaps you fell out of a tree or maybe you had a sporting injury or war wound? Behind every scar lies a story!

I have shared some of my ‘then and now’ hospital observations with you and I’d love to hear about your hospital experiences.

I offered nuts, olives and an old ‘70’s favourite – a grapefruit studded with cubes of cheese, tiny pickled onions and gherkins and slices of cabana, which brought howls of laughter from our friends. Jack poured beer for the men and we ladies sipped either sherry or vermouth and soda as we started exchanging memories of nearly 40 years ago.

Seating everyone around the table, I served halved avocadoes, filled with prawns and homemade seafood sauce. We talked about such meals as fondue parties, serving the traditional roast dinner to the family(including our parents and in-laws) each Sunday, the introduction of such fast food outlets as Hungry Jacks, Colonel Sander’s Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut to Australia.

Ben talked about working on a kibbutz in Israel as I brought the Beef and Guinness pie to the table and Sue remembered serving gratin potatoes as her ‘dinner party’ potato specialty as I cut slices to serve with the pie. Geraldine talked about the various pies she’d eaten around the UK – Beef and Stilton, Star-Gazy Pies in Cornwall, Chicken and leek pie in Wales and Eel pie in London.

I’d really dithered about what to make for dessert – Australia’s perennial favourite Pavlova with strawberries and passionfruit, Crème Caramel, an old fashioned Sherry Trifle? In the end I decided that a light mousse would be ideal and settled for fresh lemon mousse was preferable to the much richer Chocolate version.

Over coffee we discussed music from the 70’s and favourites ranged from Rod Stewart, Elton John, Abba, Kate Bush, John Denver, Billy Joel, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Bread and Neil Diamond. Movies such as ‘Midnight Cowboy’, ‘The Sting’,  ‘Love Story’, ‘Cabaret’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Rocky’ and ‘Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid’, ‘The Godfather’, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Catch 22’ were amongst our top films from the decade.  The women recalled wearing Laura Ashley frocks, crocheted vests and chucky shoes, while Jack and Ben talked about such fashion horrors as flares, body shirts, floral ties and ‘Che’ moustaches.

Do you remember the 70’s? Were you at Woodstock or perhaps at the Sunshine Pop Festival in Melbourne? How did you wear your hair? I’d love to hear some of your memories about that decade.

Ev’rywhere you go’

Do you, like I, remember this 1958 hit for Perry Como?

While out shopping the other day for some gifts for overseas family and friends, I was bombarded with the ‘Christmas is coming’ message’ which seems to get more strident every year. Christmas Carols were being piped through each shop, artificial trees and decorations were attractively displayed and the butcher was advising patrons to ‘order your Christmas ham now!’

In my family, we have usually given gifts of home baked cakes, mince pies and Scottish shortbread to friends and neighbours and each October my mind turns to making lists of dried fruits – sultanas, raisins, cherries and apricots and bottles of brandy with which to macerate the fruit until plump, ready to be added to handed down family recipes for Christmas cakes, puddings and our secret recipe fruit for mince pies and truffles.

Since I was a wee child, I have helped firstly Gran, then Mum with the preparation, baking, storing and wrapping of these family favourites from our kitchen. I have taken a special delight in using these traditional recipes for my own family Christmas celebrations and have revived the process with both of my own children when they were younger, especially having a wish with stirring each pudding and the reward of licking each sticky spoon!

What family traditions have you brought into your family?

Do they originate in your cultural background, like my Scottish shortbread? Do you remember the origins of each much loved recipe?

Have you thought of collecting all of the family favourite Christmas recipes and copying them, accompanied with both a photo of the originator and a story about that person, for the members of your family? I’d love to hear about your family recipes.

Here’s my family Melting Moments recipe to help you start your own traditional recipe book.

Annie’s Best Ever Melting Moments

Ingredients:

250 gm butter

½ cup icing sugar (not mixture)

1 cup SR flour

1 cup cornflour

Pinch of salt

Turn oven on to 160degrees C. Line 3 oven slides with baking paper.

Place butter (at room temperature) and icing sugar into bowl of food processor and whiz for a few seconds. Add other ingredients and whiz until mixture forms a ball around the blade. Using a teaspoon, roll small amount of mixture into a ball and place on lined baking tray. When tray is full, pour a little cornflour into a saucer and dip a fork into the cornflour before pressing down on the balls of mixture to flatten slightly.

Bake in oven for approx 15 minutes (don’t let them brown!). Cool on tray for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Filling:

1 passionfruit

1 cup (or more) sifted icing sugar

1 tbsp butter

hot water.

Place butter and icing sugar in a small bowl and with a balloon whisk beat until butter disappears into the mixture. Add passionfruit pulp and stir again. If mixture is too stiff & unwieldy, add a tiny amount of hot water.

Spread the icing mixture onto the unmarked side of the biscuit and place another on top, squeezing slightly until icing mixture fills the space between the two biscuits. Leave for about 30 minutes, until icing had set and firmed.

Store in an airtight container.

Tips: can also make the icing either lemon or lime by finely grating the rind of a lemon or lime and adding the juice until the mixture forms. I have also used chocolate, coffee or victoria (using sherry as the liquid) icing, but I prefer the tartness of passionfruit!

Little Miss Ruby and koala

We always had these for afternoon tea when I was a little girl in Brisbane. The passionfruit vine grew over the outside toilet at our Clayfield house, so we had them on everything!

At Christmas time, Gran used to tie a cellophane bundle of Melting Moments, tied to a bottle of beer, as a gift of appreciation for the postman, milk man, green grocer, baker and the garbage collectors.

Why not share your family recipes, Christmas memories with us? I would love to hear from you.

]]> http://www.historyfromtheheart.com.au/aunt-ruby-remembers-traditional-family-recipes/feed/ 14 http://www.historyfromtheheart.com.au/aunt-ruby-remembers-timelines/ http://www.historyfromtheheart.com.au/aunt-ruby-remembers-timelines/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:32:45 +0000 Aunt Ruby http://www.historyfromtheheart.com.au/?p=388 Recently I have been reviewing my life and trying to identify various themes, important events, influential people or mentors and life-defining choices. My family are very keen for me to write about my life and sometimes I’m not sure just how to get started.

I don’t want to bore my future descendents with a history filled with trivial details: I want them to learn from my mistakes and to recognise similar characteristics within themselves.

Several friends suggested I use a Timeline to help me sort my life experiences into manageable portions and I searched for something suitable via the internet. However, I found it simplest to use a notebook and pencil.

This is what I did:

• Starting on the first page of my notebook, I wrote the year that I was born. On the second page, I wrote the year that I was one, and so on throughout the book right up to my current age (I’m as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth!).
• Every day or two, I’d flip through the notebook and select a couple of years on which to focus my memory. I carried the notebook with me as I focussed my thoughts on 1957, asking myself those who, what, where, why type questions about my life, family and circle of friends during that year. Where were we living? What type of car did we have? Who was my best friend? Once I had the answer to my questions, I quickly wrote down those points on the appropriate page in my notebook.
• When I caught up with family or friends, I’d take out my notebook and ask them questions about some of the blank areas or years. Is 1961 a bit hazy because I went to stay with my grandparents as Mum was in a car accident? Which year did we go to Disneyland for a family holiday?
• Once I felt I had exhausted my memory bank, I tore out all of the pages and placed them chronologically on the dining table. Firstly I went through them looking for milestone events which had occurred and I made a list of those dates and details.
• Continuing, I looked for the mentors in my life, lifetime themes, choices I’d made (both good and bad) and again noted the years and details, which provided me with a) a good idea of where to start writing my life story and b) the areas where I needed to do more background research.

Like many people, I don’t want to start my story, like Dickens did in David Copperfield, “I was born with a caul around my head…..,” however the Timeline has given me several good openings, some sound ideas for different chapters and even a thought or two about how to end my story, given that I live long enough to tell my life story in my own words.

Have you thought of starting a Timeline as a way of sorting through your life time of memories?

How do you identify which incidents you want to write about and those you should omit? Let me know how you tackle this subject as I’m sure many of us just don’t know how to ‘get started.’