Sunday 4 August 2019

musical memory

Learning about the historical events of a community is expected at a local history seminar, but finding out more about personal history was a bonus recently. I was thrilled to hear about my hometown, and further questions revealed a shared memory of primary school.

A gypsy chorus girl, Tweed Heads Primary School, 1969

I always remembered this photograph of myself in a "gypsy" costume, because it was one of the first I have in colour. Looking closely, I recall my mother's pink shawl, the apron made in sewing class, the curtain ring 'earrings', and a love of beads. It is probably the only photo with all my adult teeth, some painfully extracted at a later age. I remember the make-up being applied with my mother in attendance, on the landing at the top of the stairs leading to the main Primary School Hall. 

The stairs leading to the School Hall in 2019
Until this year, I didn't remember the name of the musical or how it came to be. That's where the seminar provided an amazing connection - the teacher who had been tasked with organising the musical also attended. Yvonne, a Tweed Shire local, returned for a two-year teaching stint at Tweed Heads Primary School. She was asked to arrange a musical in both 1969 and 1970.

Her first choice was "The Gypsy Gay", the lead character "Romany Rof". Trove reveals that this musical was a stalwart of school productions for many years in many Australian states. 

Did participation also bestow a love of musicals and being part of them? Certainly I tried in high school, but never made it past the chorus line. 



Monday 15 April 2019

communing cousins

I remember the delight of Christmas Day when many of the Judd family cousins visited their grandparents at Piggabeen, at about the time the exhaustion of the day set in for their parents. We sat on both sides of the hallway, eating home-grown watermelon in large chunks.

After a long gap of several decades while busy establishing their own family branches and professions, the cousins have started a tradition of meeting at Easter every three years or so. And now there are two or three new generations of cousins, some meeting each other for the first time. But it's also an opportunity to go back in time and look for resemblances amongst the twigs. 

Here are the antecedents for those twigs.

Marie, John, Esma, Amy, Joe, Oswald, Jim, Olga and Pauline circa 1952

Esma, Olga, Marie,
Jim, Joe, Pauline

Esma, Pauline, Jim (in car), Olga, Marie

Marriage of Amy Esma Parkins and Oswald Joseph Judd 13 June 1928

Amy Esma Parkins 1906 - 1994 Doris Parkins 

Parkins family wedding, Amy Parkins seated on the floor

Parkins family, Amy Parkins seated on right

Amy Parkins, seated, frowning at the camera, circa 1907 
(On reverse: aged 12 months)

Elizabeth Prisk 1861 - 1940 Samuel James Parkins 1856-1922 

Joseph Judd 1861 - 1946 Ida May Judd 1874 - 1949

Oswald Joseph Judd 1903 - 1979

Alwyn Judd, Oswald Joseph Judd 1903 - 1979

Ida May Adams 1874-1949

Joseph Judd 1861 - 1946














Sunday 27 January 2019

looking for May

Harold Dion Slocombe was known as Dion, from the time of his birth on 28 March 1914. With such a distinctive name, learning about his exploits should be easy, but he stepped lightly until Sunday 19 May 1963. His ashes reside at 131 Brooklyn Road, Brooklyn, close to where he was killed by a car on the low level railway crossing while walking to the station.

Dion was born in Auburn and went to school in Manly. He worked for his father after leaving school, and spent time as a military volunteer during the 1930s [1] before the family moved to Wollongong. World War II was the impetus for another move, to Cowra, but Dion decided to take advantage of the free flow of people and went to Darwin. 

On his return, he was once more absorbed into family life, using family members as subjects for his amateur photography and filming. But on his return to Sydney-side where he lived in Hewlett Street, Bronte, someone else caught his interest. Previously married and with two daughters, May  - or Mavis - became a close friend. 


Dion Slocombe and May

The Leicagraph Co. Pty. Ltd, 
5 Strand Arcade, Sydney



"My mother at 31. Slick chick eh what?
An Identity study 
The Leicagraph Co. Pty. Ltd,
5 Strand Arcade, Sydney
That they were close is evidenced by the photographs Dion kept and which still reside in the Slocombe family archive. But what happened to May? We'd still like to know. 


"Mum" on right
59 Strand Arcade, 1st floor. E.S. Smith Box 17, Bondi Beach

Advertising (1943, March 16). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17840570


[1] The National Archives making a rare transcription error, labelling him Harold Don...


Slocombe, Harold "Don", 23 October 1934, National Archive of Australia B4747