2. YOUTH AND MARRIAGE: 1916 — 1928

I know little about the period of my father's youth. Gramp records that, in 1919, the family returned to Adelaide and lived at Keswick, an inner suburb of Adelaide near the railway yards. However, his notes are silent about the period from 1916 — 1919. Norman attended Unley High School (where both Bob and I attended in 1943-47 and 1950-54 respectively), from about 1916 (when he was 14) onwards. It is possible that he stayed with relatives in Adelaide while he was at high school. He was close to his cousins on his maternal grandmother's side, so he may have boarded with the Longs until Steve and Edie returned to Adelaide.

A single photo of him, sent to his grandmother (presumably Mary Ann Quintrell at Moonta), survives. It is undated, but the fact that he addresses it to 'Grandma' suggests that it is after 1913 (when his grandfather Stephen snr died). He is also interested in his own growth, so it is probably in his early adolescence.

Dear Grandma,

Had my photo taken the other night, so I thought I might as well send you one just to see if I have grown at all since I saw you last. I think I have sprung up a little bit don't you think.

With love from Norman.

At some time he must have taken music lessons because in his early adulthood he played the trombone in dance bands and I grew up on the music of the big bands — Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey — and the traditional jazz of the 1930s — especially that of Louis Armstrong. He also played football and cricket, and I have a small cup that he won in 1929 as the 'fairest and most brilliant' player for the Richmond and Kilburn United Football Club. He often recalled one of his biggest sporting disappointments — being selected for the West Adelaide league football team and breaking his collarbone at training, thereby missing his big chance.

By the time he entered the scene in any way that I can recount, (from my mother's recollections), he was in his mid—20s. She tells of their first meeting on the train to Victor Harbor for a summer holiday in the summer of 1924—5, when Norman was 22 and Olive 19.

'Some girlfriends and I were going to stay at the Clifton boarding house at Victor,' Olive recalled. 'We got on the train at Adelaide station and found a compartment. The train was just pulling out of the station when a young man put his head in the compartment and asked if there was a spare seat. He was quite attractive; stockily built, with brown wavy hair with flashes of auburn, hazel eyes and a lovely smile. He was travelling to Victor for holidays with some mates. We found out that his dad was a train driver, he lived at Keswick, he worked in a lumberyard, and that he played football for West Adelaide Seconds.'

Norman on the horse tram on Granite Island Victor Harbour

Summer 1924—1925

The young men and women kept company through the summer vacation. They were photographed together, the men in smart blazers or cream jumpers and slacks, the women in calf—length skirts with frills and flounces and broad-brimmed hats. Olive reports that, halfway through the holiday, Norman said to her that he would have to cut his stay short and return home. When pressed for reasons he admitted that he had often been stuck with the bill when the group bought lunches and teas and he had run out of cash. Olive had obviously seen something in this young man that was worth investing in so she loaned him two pounds[1] so that he could stay for the remainder of the holiday.

Norman and Olive, Granite Island, Summer 1924 — 1925

with a stray dog that followed them around the island

Photographs of them in 1925 at Alberton where Olive lived, suggest that by then he had been introduced to her father. A studio photograph of Norman dated 30 April 1925 (when he was 23) inscribed simply 'Yours sincerely, Norman' suggests that the courtship was proceeding steadily, if not with overtly exuberant expressions of romance.