e-Muster August 2012 - Central Coast Family History Society Inc.

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Page Page No: No: 15 Journal of the Central Coast Family History Society Inc. THE HALL SEAT The short entrance from our front door opens into a wider area and there stands the hall seat. Let me tell you something of its history and how it came to be there. My grandfather, Alfred White, my mother’s father, was a cabinet maker. Alfred married Mary Louisa in 1902 and they moved to Lismore on the NSW north coast. Here Alfred worked for a furniture manufacturer as foreman cabinet maker, and it was at Lismore that my mother, Leonie, was born in 1905. Time passed. By the 1920’s the family had moved to Sydney, my mother’s older sister had graduated from teachers college and was teaching in western NSW. Leonie was the remaining daughter so was natural she, then in her early 20’s, would assume the role of carer for her invalid mother. Clearly Alfred loved his daughter and greatly appreciated the sacrifice she was required to make. Though he was no longer in the trade, Alfred drew on all his skill as a cabinet maker to make for Leonie a hall seat, to be used as a glory box for her trousseau. By the time Mother and Dad married in 1931 the hall seat was well stocked with linen and other items required by the newlywed couple. Mother and Dad moved from their initial North Sydney apartment to a larger flat at Greenwich when the first of four sons was born. I was born there in 1936, the second son. The family moved on to Sutherland to begin a new life following the strains of the post-Depression years; on then to Cronulla, possible for more affordable accommodation, back to a different house in Sutherland to start yet again to build a life after the difficult years of WW II, then to the Canberra suburb of Yarralumla when Dad was transferred to open a branch office for his insurance firm, and then to the nearby suburb of Farrer when Dad retired. Mother moved back to Sydney and into a retirement village after Dad died in 1985. The hall seat, the first item of furniture to be moved into their first home in 1931, had travelled faithfully across the miles and the years. Inevitably, the time came for Mother to move to a nursing home where space for personal items was limited. As is the way, her sons and their wives selected special items. I selected the hall seat, so let me tell you why. The Muster – August ugust 2012 2012
The Muster – August 20 2012 20 2012 12 Journal of the Central Coast Family History Society Inc. Let us go back to 1942-44, the middle years of the war, when we were living at South Cronulla. For much of this time Dad was in the air force and was away from home, including time in New Guinea. Times were tough. I remember the black-out curtains, the windows of my bedroom were covered with heavy brown paper painted black so no lights could be seen by enemy bombers; during the day and at night with the lights out, I could open the windows and watch the navy ships pass by at sea, probably en route from Sydney to the Navy base at Jervis Bay. I remember the tank-traps along the beach front, large triangular prisms of concrete placed to obstruct any attempts by an invading enemy to come ashore. I remember the slit trenches dug in the school playground in zig-zag fashion so that, as we were told, even if a bomb landed in the zig part those of us in the zag part might not be killed. And so when the time came to select special items from our earlier life, I remembered that as a small boy of about seven or eight years, climbing onto the hall seat which became, only partly in play, my safe haven from pirates, alligators, burglars and what-ever else might threaten. Mother was pleased to let me have the hall seat because she understood its significance for me. Though sad to let go this piece, made with love by her father and part of her life for more than 70 years, she knew it would continue to be cared for. It is only now as I think back that I understand what this inanimate but constant life-time companion must have meant to my mother. Warwick Forrest – Member 1552 [Note: This story was prompted by the talk given by Janis Wilton at our July monthly meeting, on the importance of objects in the stories of our families.] Page No: 16 16 16
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