I love my family

One wonders what life will toss at you through the years. I did not have a happy life on the farm when i was young . i was bullied at school by some children and at home both verbaly and physically by my aggressive father. Burnt bacon and eggs and an argument was the norm at our breakfast table. other mealtimes were not much better.

I was sent to college in Adelaide . I must have had a target tattoed on my back as i was bullied at this school. I learned to fight back, this stopped most of the bullying especially when i was dragged to one of the top sportsmen at this school. A ring was formed around and i was tossed in to be slaughtered by this big lump. He swung a punch at me . I ducked sideways and hit as hard as i could on the nose. Blood spurted everywhere. he wen to the ground crying. The mob parted . I was left alone after this. i had a few friends

I returned to my home town and finished school there. The people were different, i had plenty of friends. When i left school i worked on the farm with two workmen and my brother. My father spent much of the time hitting golf balls around the padocks. This kept him away from me.

After an ultercation i left the farm and travelled to the city where i eventually got a good job . My mother was writing to me and telling me my father had changed. I belived her and came home. Leopards do not change their spots. The morning breakfasts were still the same.

i found a lovely girl from am interesting family. I feft home and moved into a small room in their house with them. I had always thought they were putting on their feelings toward each other because they had visitors. I began to realise this is what a normal household is like.

I was working hard and accumulated a deposit to buy a small stony farm some eighty miles from home. In the first year the price of wool dropped by 50% this did our budget the world of good. I started cropping some of the stony land with glenys to help me, we had visitors in our crops at night . kangaroos and emu’s . They did a lot of damage After nine years struggling to make ends meet we sold the farm and bought a semi developed farm near our home town .

The next three years were one of the worst droughts ever. We would have gone broke on the other farm. The new farm was a far better rainfall area. We traded a lot of livestock though the farm the first year to make some extra money. We were having sheep from the drought landed on our property for $1.00 per head and after fattening them wewere getting $6.00. this helped.

Over the years we trebbled the production on the farm by clearing scrub and providing more permanet water sites. We had many good friends. At this time we had three daughters. Glenys liked working with me on the farm. I felt blessed to have been so lucky to have found her.

Our youngest daughter had a small party for her eighteenth birthday with our family. she left and went to an all noght Rage at a small country showground. After two weeks she started to loose her balance. We took her to the local doctor who sent her to the City. glenys went with her . I folloewed and found she had been bitten by a mosquito and had Encephalitis. The doctors said she was going to die. Helen could only slur a few words. She would grab me and say “I am Going to beat this” . She survived after fourteen weeks in hospital. She had to be taight how to dress herself anf to enen hold a knife and fork. We were devastated. We would take her to the local hotel on a friday night where her friends were. The rotten girls would not have anything to do with her any more

This is the first install ment of my so interesting life