3. ESTABLISHING A FAMILY, AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION: 1928 — 1939

It was not unusual for newlyweds to move in with parents and the arrangement was quite acceptable to Norman and his parents. Olive however agitated for a place of their own. Ever frugal, she had saved a small nest-egg of money in her working years before marriage, and by 1930, pregnant with her first child, she was for moving. They rented a house in Hampton Rd, Keswick, the same street as Norman's parents, so by the time Bob was born, exactly two years after their marriage, they had the independence she craved. Bob was born in Memorial Hospital and made a reluctant entry. He attempted to enter the world bottom first, and gave his mother 48 hours of very hard labour. It is reported that, on viewing his new-born son for the first time, Norman observed that he was "the colour and texture of a used cricket ball", and that his head was so misshapen from the birth trauma, that Norman feared that he had "sired an idiot".

He continued to work at Barrett's lumberyard, but in early 1931, my brother only a few months old, the great Depression of 1929—1933 hit home.

'Take a good look at that,' my father is reported to have told Olive as he handed over his pay packet,' that's the last full pay you'll see for some time.' As unemployment climbed to more than 30%, men were being laid off everywhere. Norman had managed to secure his job at half-time so that they had some income. With rent to pay and a child to support, the ever-resourceful Olive took in boarders (her newly-married brother Cyril and his wife), and they eked out Norman's slim wage and Cyril and Lorna's rations until employment at the lumber yard was restored.

By the mid-1930s they were obviously looking to the future with some confidence. They purchased a block of land at Byron Rd, Black Forest — a deep block stretching 120 metres back to the train line — and began planning to build. Shortly after I was born, in September 1937, they moved into their new home.

The year before, Gramp had retired from the railways after over 35 years service. Sadly, within a year of his retirement, his wife died. I did not know her, but Bob says of her simply "I loved [Nanna] more than any person in the world." Gramp went to live in the country — the South East of the State where he had spent his early married life — and I did not know really get to know him until many years later.

For the first years after my birth, my parents would have been busily establishing their new home. Photos of the time show Norman as a young man with his two sons (he would have been in his mid—30s). The hair, although cut 'short back and sides' is still full and wavy; his forearms are tanned from his work; his hands square and strong; and he retains the firm, strong muscles of his youth. One of the worries would have been my propensity to asthma that, later in my childhood, would cause my parents to decide to move to a somewhat drier area of the city, echoing his parents' decisions to shift because of his croup.

  Norman, Bob and Neil, Orroroo 1939 (during a visit to Olive's sister, Alice)