… seasickness was the main feature of the voyage. The Atlantic can be particular unpleasant in winter and the Ile de France’s zigzagging worsened it. One of the post women, Miss Rhoden, said she had to hang on with all her strength the veering was so severe – and noisy: ‘the sirens, the banging, the horns, and the whistles; the galvanized cans were banging and clanging.’ And in their cramped cabin women’s perfume and cosmetics whizzed off the shelves, ‘flying through the air like marbles.’
Tag: women’s work
Soaring with Eagles – Part 2
Lillian Roth once said her life was never her own, it was charted before she was born. Boy, you’d better believe it. Within a month or two I met an Englishwoman who had lived in India for 11 years and had vowed, after the spirit and vivacity of India, never to return to her homeland. She was looking to fill the void, and found it through workign voluntarily with fledgling Aboriginal organisations adn people. At the time I didn’t really know this, it is only in retrospect, but on first encounter she hugged me like a daughter and I was to become like a daughter, for she became my second Mum, my ‘migloo Mum’, for want of a better word. (‘Migloo’ is a Queensland Aboriginal term for ‘whitefella’.)
Soaring with Eagles – Part 1
Oh sure, Mum pissed me off at times, as she cautioned me against this and that. That I needed to relax, was still too highly strung, needed to slow down, stop impressing ‘the snows’ (which is what she called whitefells) and told me to believe in God. At the time, this was a bit too much for me, especially the remarks about God, as I was a card-carrying Marxist and hell bent on changing the world. When I did object, she’d tell me I was getting a bit too big for my boots and would cut the conversation short by saying: ‘I don’t know what they teach you at uni, Lillian, but it certainly isn’t manners!’
Taking Control Now – Part 2
When I walked into the Commonwealth Bank in Darwin, telling them I had worked in the bank down south, I got a job instantly. The resistance was in the south. I worked on ledgers, work I had never done. I remained for a year, returning south in 1971. In 1972 the Aboriginal tent embassy was set up in Canberra. There was an explosion of pride in being Aboriginal.
The Women’s Time Has Arrived – Part 2
Notices in the sisters’ home and dining room of the Thursday Island Hospital declared: ‘Nursing sisters must not attend coloured Islanders’ parties or homes. They must not travel in unauthorised vessels.’ In the 1950s and early 1960s the hospital’s decisions were greatly influenced by the Thursday Island tennis club. The self-appointed cream of Thursday Island society (all white) were members until ‘the tone deteriorated’, because black people were learning to play tennis. A bowling club was formed and anybody who classed themselves above the black Torres Strait Islanders joined. Today, it’s just an ordinary bowling club. All the power people believed they projected has been diminishing since the Whitlam government of the 1970s came to power and gave status recognition to the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
From the Bush, to Sales, to the Airforce – Reflections on the Beginnings of a 20th Century Life
… As a junior, I didn’t serve any customers for almost 12 months, because that was the seniors’ job. Juniors weren’t allowed to speak to a customer. We had to run the messages and tidy up … The seniors at Farmers were trained in what we’d now call customer relations. The juniors were trained too. When I first went there, even though it was only for three weeks, for a sale, I had two days training before beginning in the department. I was paid to be taught where the items were in the store, how to write out dockets, how to speak to people …
Not According to the Calendar
One cadet, David Hill went on to become executive producer with Channel 9’s “Wide World of Sports”, then Murdoch took him over to Britain for Sky Channel. Many years later at a party I tapped him on the arm and said: ‘David, do you remember the day I threw you out of my classroom for giving me …’ He recognised me immediately, and took me around the room to meet his children. He told them: ‘This lady taught Daddy.’ The children looked at me as if I were the pyramids.
Captured by Germans – WWI Women Seafarers
German crew … wondered at the women’s calmness. ‘Aren’t you afraid of being shot?’ they asked. After all, Edith Cavell had been executed by firing squad just seven months earlier. ‘“We are Englishwomen” was considered sufficient reply,’ claimed the women’s company magazine …
Taking Flight – From Air Hostess, via ‘Trolley Dolly’, to Flight Attendant
We took it in turns to work the galleys. In First Class this included cooking a roast, which was carved at the seat, heating up the various main meals, the fish course and setting up elaborate carts for hors d’oevres, salad, cheese and desserts. For breakfast we cooked eggs to order. In Economy the meals were loaded in large pans and had to be served up on individual plates – breakfast being more of a challenge: scrambling the raw eggs for 120 passengers in a small oven, particularly in turbulence!