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4.
THE TWENTIES: YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD Whatever
the back-story of Lily's death, Olive's life had taken a sudden turn. Her
father, bereaved and disorientated after his return from France, would need
support from, rather than be able to offer support to his family. Alice was
engaged and would, within a year, be married—ironically to the son of
Lily's lover. Arnie and Cyril had left school and started work. Olive could
have chosen to stay home and keep house for her father and young Lily, but
this role was taken up by Chrissie, her father's younger sister. With
hindsight, it is easy to see why this arrangement would have suited Chrissie,
who would later become a part of our family through my growing up years and
beyond, and whose story is told below.[1] Olive's
report was that she decided to leave school and go to work. The few mentions
Olive ever made of her school years suggest that it may not have been a hard
decision! She began work at a milliner's in the city. She and her cousin
Lorna Bailey, daughter of Emma, Fred's sister, would walk to the city across
the parklands to save the penny fare which would then allow them to buy a
penny piece of cake for lunch. Her first wage was seven shillings and sixpence
a week[2],
of which she gave her father five shillings[3].
It
was the flapper era. The newly—arrived radio played the Charleston, the Black
Bottoms and the Varsity Rag. The hobble skirts of her mother's time –
which made climbing aboard and dismounting from the trams a problem—were
now replaced by the short skirts of the twenties. By the end of the decade,
the silent movie era would be finished as talkies made their debut with The
Jazz Singer in 1929. Electric trams now ran in the streets of Adelaide and
cars were becoming commonplace. 'Adelaide boys' Ross and Keith Smith made
the first flight from England to Australia, and were followed by Bert Hinkler,
who made the first solo flight. The first flight across Australia from
Melbourne to Perth was accomplished in just under 24 hours. Olive saw Harry
Butler, in his 'Red Devil' take off to make the first delivery of mail by
air in South Australia. 'It is estimated that he reached the dizzy altitude
of 10,000 feet before he headed for the west,' The Advertiser reported. The
Duke and Duchess of York — who would become King George the Sixth and Queen
Elizabeth on the abdication of George's brother Edward—visited Adelaide
in 1927 and Olive watched their progress from one of the buildings on North
Terrace. The
future beckoned with promises of expanding possibilities. Olive's father
Fred and her brother Arnie were two who were especially excited by the ferment
of the twenties. Fred began his own business as a butcher, which provided a
greater affluence for the family. He purchased a car, a big Penn tourer with
which there was much tinkering but little driving. Olive's cousin Marge
remembers the children being cajoled into pushing the car out into the street
with Arnie at the driving wheel, and pushing it along with Arnie trying to get
the motor started. It would fire, backfire, run a few yards with the children
cheering it on, then the motor would cut out and the circus begin again. Marge
is not sure that the car ever ran at all apart from these brief excursions
around the block, after which the tinkering would begin again. In later life,
Arnie built some of the first tourist buses to take to the Australian roads. Arnie
also dabbled in magic (and I recall parties when I was a child where he would
do magic tricks for the children with his trademark red velvet cloth on which
was embroidered 'Scotty', his stage name). He persuaded his sister to take
part in the 'sawing a woman in half' routine, with Olive (at 17) playing
the part of his 'beautiful assistant'. The trick may be seen as tame by
the standard of today's stage illusionists, but Arnie made the box,
instructed Olive in her role, and carried the trick through. To her dying day,
Olive refused to give up the secret of how the trick was accomplished.
Olive
and Arnie — the 'sawing a woman in half' trick, 1922. In
the summer of 1924—25, Olive met Norman Quintrell. 'Some girlfriends and I were going to stay at the Clifton boarding house at Victor,' she 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.' 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. She had obviously seen something in this young man that was worth investing in so she loaned him two pounds[4] so that he could stay for the remainder of the holiday. Photographs
of them in 1925 at Alberton where Olive now 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! On October 20th, 1928, nearly four years
after their first meeting, Olive and Norman were married at the Woodville
Church of England. They honeymooned on the paddle steamer 'Marion' on the
River Murray, and returned to live with Norman's parents at Hampton Road,
Keswick. The
four-year courtship would not have been uncommon. Norman may have been
reluctant to give up the freedom of bachelorhood, and Olive would have wanted
to make sure she had everything newly-weds required. Olive is able to lay
claim to the fact that she is the first Quintrell bride in at least five
generations not to be pregnant on her wedding day. Whether this was due to
good luck, good management or significant self-discipline will never be known! Olive
aged 20. Wedding
of Norman Oliver Quintrell and Olive Myrtle Scott From
left: Arthur Raven, Vera Remphrey, Norman, Olive, Lily Scott, Marge Jarvis[5] On October 20, 1930 exactly two years after their wedding, Robert Norman Quintrell was born. The birth was a difficult and potentially life—threatening one for mother and child, and it appeared likely that he might be the only child of the marriage. Fortunately for me, this was not to be the case.
By
1931, the world Depression began to have its impact on the new family.
Norman's hours were halved and Olive's brother Cyril and his wife, Lorna,
moved in with Olive and Norman who were renting their own house in Hampton
Road, Keswick. Cyril had been laid off and, as a result, was eligible for
government ration relief, denied to Norman as he was still in part-time
employment. The newlyweds would have been acutely aware of the suffering of
ordinary people. They would have known of people who had been forcibly evicted
from their homes for non-payment of rent, their meagre belongings piled in the
street. They knew of men who 'jumped the rattler', hitching illegal, and
dangerous, free rides on the underside of trains. As unemployment soared
towards 30%, there would have been beggars in the streets and men in ragged
clothes going house to house, vainly pleading for work of any kind. Children
were mal-nourished and fell ill and school attendances slumped. Olive
became the manager of the household and its finances, a role she never
relinquished. The support of family became fundamental to survival. Was it in
these years that the importance of families holding together in times of
trouble became a defining value for Olive? Could it be that her later
commitment to family acknowledged by her grandchildren was forged in the
searing experiences of the Depression years?
By
the mid-1930s, the most severe effects of the Depression were waning, Norman
was once again in full-time employment, and the couple could begin to look to
the future with greater optimism. It was the swing era and Olive and Norman
would have danced to the music of Glen Miller, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey.
Norman was a competent trombonist and often played in dance bands. In England,
one king abdicated and another, George VI, was crowned. Norman and Olive
contemplated the possibility of their own home, and by 1937, plans were under
way for the purchase of land in the new sub-division of Black Forest. Surgery
for an ongoing gynaecological problem was discussed and one last pregnancy was
considered. In September 1937 I was born. Apparently I was a far less
difficult birth, arriving on time and expeditiously. However,
I was to have no further siblings, as soon after my birth, Olive had a
hysterectomy.
Within
a year of my birth, we had moved into our new home in Byron Road, Black
Forest. The house was sited near the front of a deep block that reached 120
metres to the train line at the end of the block. Soon, a garage had been
erected, a garden and fernery established, almond and fruit trees and
passionfruit vines planted, and lawns seeded. It was a time for hope after the
stringencies of the Depression, and for planting for the future. However,
the storm clouds of war were gathering again. 'The War to end all Wars'
had ended less than 20 years before, but the election of Adolph Hitler as
Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 (and subsequently as president
('Fuhrer') in 1934) signalled the beginning of new world conflict. Before
the end of the year Germany and Japan had given notice of withdrawal from the
fledgling League of Nations[6]
and the first concentration camp had been established at Dachau in Germany.
Japan invaded China and civil war broke out in Spain. The time of flowering for the young married couple was all too brief for, in 1939 Robert Menzies, the Australian Prime Minister, spoke the fateful words to Australians gathered around their radios, 'Great Britain has declared war on Germany and …Australia is also at war.' |
