Posted by: cronelogical | September 18, 2007

Elizabeth Lilly to the official, May 8, 1854

Sir I beg most respectfuly to state that I am under the disagreable nesessity of requesting your ade, in behalf of my family
seeing that they are starving for want of food, which I cannot provide for them which you know, Sir, must be hart breaking
to a mother and if it is in your power to send me an order on Mr Sinclair’s for some flour tea and sugar you would much oblige
me as wel as relive me and my family from our miserable situation, and if it is not in your power be so kind as to write to
the Governor and let him know our miserable situation and your Humble Petitioner will ever for you pray.

P.S.Please favour me with an answer as soon as possible

(Signed) Elizabeth Lilly

Posted in History

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Responses

Friday 28th Dec 2007.Flour Tea and Sugar as Fran has said………
********************************
I do feel this poem talks to me
It tells me a tale not at all uncommon
If one goes back to the years of the Great Depression..

I sat on the couch with Jessie
I was 52 and doing my thesis
An essay of ” An Older Person”
I placed the tape recorder on the small table
where Mum put her tea cup and cake

“What was it like in those days ?”those times in 1928.
“You don’t want to hear about that” she says.
I did want to know, I needed to know
She or Dad had never spoken of it to us children
It was time we knew ,or it was time I knew
Even for History’s sake as well as my own

“I’ll make you a fresh cuppa” I said.
Nothing like a cup of tea to loosen the tongue
“Your Grandma managed to feed us, I lost my job”
Nobody wanted Baby Johnson Powder in the Depression ..you just did without those things,not necessities ” said Mum

She told me of the Pawnbroker who gave you a few pennies or six pence for a pair of GOOD shoes
Mum said Grandma wrapped a 1/2 brick up in brown paper ,put it in a box and tied it with string
Mum took it down and with the few pence bought some lamb bits for soup
(The funny thing Mum said was that my G/Father only had one pair of shoes and he wore them every day)He never had a pair of GOOD shoes at all.

They only rented houses in those times,none of our family owned a house
So when they couldn’t pay the rent ,they were evicted
Their furniture put out on the street by the landlord.
This happened 3 times in one year said Mum.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like ,to be thrown out of having a roof over your head.
I don’t even know about renting a house
I am the lucky generation I bought my home.
The advice given to my Brother John and myself was
” Pay off your home as soon as you can,then no one can throw you out”
We perhaps thought at the time in our 20’s that this meant you had become successful.
And they could be proud of we two..

They milked goats on the sand dunes ,because they knew the family
Mum collected firewood on the sand on Port Phillip bay in an old pram ,for the wood fire in the kitchen.

Mum said ( she was one of 5 girls,no boys) ” I was the Man in the family ”
My Grandfather washed the horses of the company who delivered the milk.he took them down into the sea to cool them off.
He received a bit of money,there was nothing else when you are unemployed

Mum and I talked over the Easter holidays ,I recorded much ,
I cried when I went to bed or went home at night
I now understood why so many decisions about my life
had been influenced by her times and Dad’s times during the great Depression of 1928.

There is much to tell, too much for this short story
except to say…I wish I had met my Grandmother but she died before I was born ,she was not old perhaps just worn out., nothing on her death certificate except ” Died Peacefully at home”.

The legacy I carry from these my kin,is this
” Never overstretch yourself financially ,always pay your way,have a social conscience for those less well off” ….be proud of your heritage

It has stood me well……

Lois (Muse of the Sea) 28.12.07

said Mum

By: loisdaley on December 28, 2007
at 2:37 am

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