Changing Lifestyles

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Barbara AshtonBarbara Ashton9 7 8 0 9 8 0 7 3 9 9 2 3

www.aampersanda.com

Barbara Ashton is a senior lady who livesin a retirement village on the CentralCoast. She took up writing afterretirement, and is herfirst published work. Barbara has a fulllife with her husband of thirty years andhopes to enjoy many more in the beautifulsurroundings of their home.

Changing Lifestyles

Young women had been taught by way of examplethat their place in life was to be a mother, to nurturetheir children and put any thoughts of highereducation out of their minds.

Children from privileged families who showed promise weresent to universities and a lucky few won scholarships. Thehusband went to work and was encouraged to seek highereducation or,as in , to work the farm.

Amy could see that this situation was not right for her; shespoke to her mother to let her know that she wanted to earnher own living. She was more than willing to work hard toachieve her ambition, maybe she would even have a lovingfamily eventually.Was her ideal partner out there or was it alla dream?

Changing Lifestyles

About theAuthor

Fiction – Australian romance

Changing Lifestyles

Barbara Ashton

A & A B O O K P U B L I S H I N G

A & A B O O K P U B L I S H I N G

[email protected]

First published 2010Text © Barbara Ashton 2010

This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under theCopyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means orprocess whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers.

Cover design, text design and typesetting by David Andor / Wave Source Design http://wavesource.com.au

An entry for this title can be found in the National Library of Australia.

This book is dedicated to my sister, Mary Ross,

my companion on the farm.

THE SWEET SMELLING, washed and wind-driedclothes and linen were piled in the baskets, June had

collected them from the clothes lines. Clara called to hertwelve year old daughter, “Amy, please put your pencilsdown and help your sister to fold the sheets and towels.”

Amy very reluctantly did as she was told; she had agenuine love of drawing and sketching, mainly figures inall sorts of clothes. She was of slight build with wavystrawberry blonde hair and fair skin, the youngest ofthree children. June was four years older than Amy andtheir brother, James, was in the middle.

Clara had married Robert Farley and moved into hisparents’ home at the family farm, Green Meadows, whichwas set on about 100 000 acres a few miles out ofCrookwell in the lush bush area of the beautiful SouthernTablelands of New South Wales. They were the third

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generation of Farleys. Bob’s father and grandfather hadbuilt it up to a good working farm and orchard.

Bob—as he preferred to be called—lived on the farmall of his life and when he spotted Clara at a district fairhe fell in love, she had the perfect way of walking withher skirt brushing gently on to her long slender legs. Shewas closing the gap between them and he saw herbeautiful blue eyes smiling at him.

“Hello Bob, I believe that you seldom come to townfor social events? I work in Smiths & Miles; I have seenyou a few times when you have come to purchase yourgoods.” She had made discreet enquiries with her boss.

“Hello,” he stammered, “you took me by surprise;may I ask your name?”

“My name is Clara Smedley and I live in Crookwellwith my parents and sister, Lily.”

Clara always knew that she would marry a farmer, shehad heard talk about different eligible young farmers andwas thrilled that Bob seemed to like her on this firstmeeting. Both sets of parents were delighted. Clara andBob married and settled down to help his aging parentsto run the farm and also to raise their three children,June, James and Amy.

The year was 1942; World War II was of great concernto everyone. June had started to blossom into a prettysixteen year old; she had long brown hair with blonde

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tints from the many hours that she spent in the sunshine.She had searching brown eyes, was tall for her age, slim,with boundless energy; she spent a lot of free timehelping Bob and James with all the work on the farm.She loved the baby lambs and calves and often had thejob to bottle feed them.

James was a sturdy lad; his long legs, dark hair andbrown eyes mimicked his father and his love of farm lifewas obvious. Amy, on the other hand, was a bit of adreamer; she was happy to help Clara with the cookingand cleaning but escaped to her sketch pad wheneverpossible.

The farm house was set on a small hill near the road,rolling hills covered with lush green grass disappearedinto the distance behind, and white sheep could be seendotted here and there. The building was a large, rectanglestyle, which had been built from timber with mainlycompressed mud for the walls, which were whitewashedregularly; the roof was pitched and covered with sheets ofcorrugated iron painted red. The front garden was abeautiful picture, which was lovingly tended by Clara—sometimes Amy helped—with roses, lilac and lavenderin bloom at different times of the year. A red telephonebox stood in front of the small post office, which wasbuilt at the end of the verandah.

The bathroom was built at the end of the back


verandah, a door led into a hall which gave access to thefour bedrooms. The bath was a large tin one, which hadto be filled with hot water from the wood heated copper,cold running water came from the tank. The toilet wasknown as ‘the dunny’; it was down a path in the gardenin the outhouse, each bedroom had an elaborate jug andbasin on a side table with soap and towel handy for smallabsolutions through the night and a jerry pot under thebed in case it was needed.

Two huge water tanks, one underground, wereinstalled for all the water that was used in the house.Light was by beautiful kerosene lamps that were lit atnight, cooking was all done on a huge fuel stove that alsosupplied warmth in the winter; James chopped most ofthe wood. Fresh air was the only cooling system availableduring the long hot summers. The luxury of electricityhad not reached the farms at that stage which meant thatthe women had to work extremely hard with woodenwashboards to scrub the clothes clean and flat irons wereheated on top of the stove to iron the dresses andtablecloths. The floors had to be swept until they gleamedand the cooking was all mixed by hand.

Clara was very skilled at making clothes for herselfand her two daughters on the treadle machine. She taughtthe girls how to sew; Amy loved it, but June only did whatwas necessary.


The farmers’ wives never complained—it was a goodhealthy life—there was always plenty of fresh meat andvegetables, which all came from the farm, plenty of freshfruit in season and the milk and butter were laid on.

The cows had to be milked each morning and nightand then Clara and Amy separated the milk from thecream in the spotless dairy near the house. Clara keptwhat she needed and the rest was put in large cans to becollected for distribution.

Education for the children was at a one-teacher school,which was located two miles down a winding dirt road.The syllabus only covered the first five to twelve years andthen they had to make the journey to and from GoulburnHigh School to complete either three more years for theexternal School Certificate exam or five years for theexternal Leaving Certificate. They would then graduateif they won a scholarship or the parents could afforduniversity.

Amy was helping her mother make the beds with thebig feather and down quilts when she decided to tellClara her decision. “Mum, I don’t think that I want tomarry a farmer and settle down to raise children, I wouldrather live in the city somewhere.”

“Amy, you are only twelve years old and I guess youwill change your mind a few times.”

“Maybe … but I love sketching beautiful clothes and I


could make some of my designs when we have theelectricity connected. I will be going to high school afterthe holidays. Gosh, I am looking forward to that!”Amyenthused.

“My guess is that you will meet and fall head overheels with a boy at school and change your mind aboutmarriage. How about the Watson boy? I believe he is atalented lad.”

“I didn’t say that I will not marry eventually, but hewill have to accept my ambitions and that would not fitin with farm life. Mum, you know how I like to look atthe magazines which you buy when you go to the shops intown.”

The traditions of the farming community had longbeen accepted—the daughters of the farmers wouldmarry local men from the farms or men from the smalltowns surrounding them. A lot of the marriages werestill—very subtly—arranged by the parents with goodresults and happy lives.

The war situation had deteriorated. The local schoolteacher, Tim—a young bachelor—had been notified thathe might have to enlist. Tim enjoyed his teachingposition, a real challenge to teach all infants and primarygrades to his twenty or so pupils. He said that the schoolwould have to be closed unless the education departmentcould find an older retired person to fill-in for him. The


single eighteen and over girls in the towns were beingcalled up to replace the men from the factories who hadbeen called to serve the country. A lot of the farmers lefttheir land and volunteered, leaving their wives andchildren to manage as best as they could.

June had just completed her three years at high schooland decided to try for a job at the bank at Crookwell afterthe holidays. She had been very friendly with Peter Smithfrom a neighbouring farm. He was a tall young man withsandy colour hair and hazel eyes, and she hoped that hewould not be called up when he turned eighteen next year.

Peter had some news to give June, “Sally has givenbirth to her pups, five in all, would you like to come overto see them?”

“Yes, thank you. I will bring Amy with me.”Bob had mentioned that the Smith’s kelpie was due

and that he would like to have one to train so that it couldwork with his dog, Roger. He had purchased a few moresheep recently and they were excellent work dogs. Juneand Amy collected their push bikes from the shed andstarted on the four mile ride to the Smith farm. Themorning was very warm, birds were singing and the girlssang as they peddled along the side of the rough unsealedroad. The main road was the only one to be sealed, allthe side roads had started as dirt tracks with very littleprogress, the traffic was very light, being local farms.


Peter was waiting for them at the big farm gate, whichopened to a very long drive between huge pine trees; thisled to a very neat white farmhouse set on a hill. Peter tookJune’s hand and the three of them walked up the longdrive.

“Hello June and Amy, it is good to see you both. Thepups have opened their eyes, they are a bundle of fun,”Peter said.

“Hello Peter, what colour are they?” Amy wanted toknow.

“They are mainly black with a touch of tan and whiteon their faces and legs.”

“What have you been doing, June? Are you looking fora job now that school is behind you?”

“Yes, I would like to work in a bank for awhile, but Ilove helping Dad with the animals and the fruit has to bepicked and sorted for the market.”

“Will your dad hire any itinerant workers to help?”“Dad usually puts one or two to work at this time of

year,” Amy replied.They had reached the house by this time. Mrs. Smith

came out to meet them.“Hello girls, I believe you have come to see the pups.”

She noticed the closeness between June and Peter andsmiled to herself. “Come inside for a cool drink beforeyou ride home.”


They put their bikes on the lawn and went to the shedwhere Peter indicated the box where the pups were curledup with Sally who unwound herself from her babies togreet the children. One little pup had slightly more whiteon her nose than the other four. Amy picked her up. “Thisone is my choice, which one do you like, June?”

June felt that they were all beautiful but she told Peterthat a definite choice would be made when they were alittle older, in a week or two. The trio joined Mrs. Smithfor a cool drink and they walked down the drive. Petergave June a friendly kiss. The girls rode home to tell Boball about the pups.

“Dad, one little pup is my favourite; it is a girl, she hasmore white on her face than the rest.”

“What did you think, June?” asked Bob.“She was certainly lively; I think she would be okay.”“Alright then, what name should we give her?”“Candy, please, Dad,” begged Amy.Clara and Bob were happy with the girls’ choice; Bob

rang Allan and asked him to keep Candy for them. Whenthe time came for Bob to collect her, Amy went along.She made a great fuss of her and then introduced her toRoger, Ginger and Whiskers, the two cats. She didn’twant to stop playing with her new friend but when nightcame, she made a lovely bed in a box and put her in theshed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I grew up in the Sydney suburbs, first at Sandringhamand then at Bondi, and spent my high school years atCrown Street Girls Intermediate High School. I wasfourteen and ten months when I graduated with anexcellent pass in the School Certificate. My parents triedto persuade me to move onto Sydney Girls High Schoolbut I was keen to get on with my life. I worked for fiveyears at David Jones in the pay office, we had moved toCroydon by this time where I met my first husband.Western Sydney was starting to spread; we built a housein Blacktown where my five children were born. Mysecond child was stillborn at twenty six weeks.

I persuaded a friend to help me set up a group to raisemoney and lobby the council to build a pre-schoolkindergarten at Doonside. The centre was opened in1969 and they held their 40 year anniversary last year.

My need for further education was beckoning in 1975;I began my personnel management and accountingcourse at Nepean Collage of Advanced Education.

Unfortunately, my marriage had started to fall apartand my second son was killed in a car accident at the ageof seventeen in 1979. I had been working for Boral since1973. My children helped me to pull myself together andI completed a lower grade course at Blacktown Technical

College with many credits from Nepean. An increase insalary followed; however our branch closed down whichresulted in retrenchment in 1990.

I married my present husband in 1982; we started ourown business, Ashtons Texture Coatings. We decided toretire to the Central Coast in 2002.

I began a correspondence course with The WritingSchool. After many short stories and instructions I wrotemy novel, Changing Lifestyles. I received my certificatein May 2005. I thoroughly enjoyed the research and ampleased to say that it is a dream come true to have thebook published.

We now live in Forresters Beach Retirement Villagewhere I currently hold the position of treasurer on theretirement committee.

We play bowls, go on bus trips and spend time beinglazy.

My youngest son lives on the coast with his family, mydaughter lives in Melbourne with her family and myeldest son lives in Sydney.

Lex and I have 17 grand children between us.

ChangingLifestylesChangingLifestyles

Ch

angin

g Lifestyles

Ch

angin

g Lifestyles

Barb

ara Ash

ton

Barb

ara Ash

ton

Barbara AshtonBarbara Ashton9 7 8 0 9 8 0 7 3 9 9 2 3

www.aampersanda.com

Barbara Ashton is a senior lady who livesin a retirement village on the CentralCoast. She took up writing afterretirement, and is herfirst published work. Barbara has a fulllife with her husband of thirty years andhopes to enjoy many more in the beautifulsurroundings of their home.

Changing Lifestyles

Young women had been taught by way of examplethat their place in life was to be a mother, to nurturetheir children and put any thoughts of highereducation out of their minds.

Children from privileged families who showed promise weresent to universities and a lucky few won scholarships. Thehusband went to work and was encouraged to seek highereducation or,as in , to work the farm.

Amy could see that this situation was not right for her; shespoke to her mother to let her know that she wanted to earnher own living. She was more than willing to work hard toachieve her ambition, maybe she would even have a lovingfamily eventually.Was her ideal partner out there or was it alla dream?

Changing Lifestyles

About theAuthor

Fiction – Australian romance

Changing Lifestyles

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Transcript of Changing Lifestyles