Nancy's Memoirs 5
Written 17/10/87:
SHOPPING
When I was a school age child in Kilcoy (1944 to say 1951) my Mother bought the groceries
from the family store of Lanes & Craig situated lower William St. Kilcoy. It was a fascinating
shop. Groceries one side, along with hardware (fowl feed etc. out the back). There was a
walk-through division into a full drapery department. The grocery order man was Alexander
(Alec) Thornton who came on horse back on Mondays.
He sat at the kitchen table and wrote as my mother dictated. I remember during the war
years, coupons had to be given to him for sugar, tea and butter. As these commodities were
rationed. Coupons were also necessary for cotton goods such as tea towels, dress
materials, babies' nappies etc. I know a special allowance of coupons were given to mothers
with new babies and a great deal of swapping went on between families. As we had our own
house cow and made our own butter we had surplus butter coupons. Rice was available on
a sort of monthly roster system occasionally. Also my Mother had to take turns in getting her
much prized "Home Journal" magazine. She bought it for the dress and knitting patterns.
This was the only magazine she ever got.
Getting back to the groceries - they were delivered by horse and cart on Tuesday. Jim
Garden did this. I remember he had to hump the bag of pollard or whatever for the fowls or
cow in under the house on his back, or in our wooden wheel barrow.
Mr Peter Herd also called for orders while Alec Thornton was away at the war I think. He was
a retired butcher (Peter Herd) and lived nearby in Atthow St. One of his daughters Grace
married Colin Duncan and so was my aunt. Mervyn Herd was lost in Europe during the war.
When any of the townspeople perished in the war the Australian flag was flown at half mast
at the Victory Theatre owned by the Burt Family and built during the war. It burned down a
few years ago. It stood on the corner of William & Kennedy Sts., Kilcoy and for many years,
large gatherings of people attended movies there. It was sometimes used for Balls. At the
pictures I was never allowed to sit with the children "Down the front". We usually sat upstairs
in the "Dress Circle"
Mr Stan G. (Boots) Robinson operated the pictures till he was very old, when it was done by
Bill Clarke Jnr. Mr Robinson was a J.P. and was a shoe repairer in the main St. of Kilcoy next
to the Union Bank, which later became A.N.Z. Bank. He always had a shop full of leather
shoes to be half soled or heeled or toe capped. These were small metal plates called
Protectors on the tip of the sole which wore away before the other parts of the sole. As
people walked everywhere & most of the streets were of rough gravel the wear and tear on
shoes was tremendous. My father did a lot of our family shoe repairs himself to save the
cost. You could buy a kit to do the job at Lanes & Craig & he had his own shoe last.
We lived very thriftfully but never were in need of anything. My Mother did all her sewing -
she made pyjamas for us all, all our dresses, petticoats and panties and even bonnets and
sun hats. The brims were stiffened with raw starch before ironing and placed on a vase
while it aired off. A wet day at school soon caused the brim to flop!
We did have some straw hats. The best ones were very prettily decorated with ribbon
veiling, ribbon or embroidered flowers and sometimes silk artificial flowers. These were
usually bought at Beanlands store, cnr. Mary St. & William St. The building was later owned
by Hobarts. Aunty Ruby Beanland ran this store. She had been married to Mark Henry
Beanland who died at an early age. He had no children but raised her sister's child Jean
Harley (later Eliason) when Isabel died in childbirth. Ruby and Isabel were Pointons.
Another of their sisters, Alice, married Peter Duncan, parents of Eric, Daisy, Lily & Charles
Graham (or Pat) Duncan. For this reason we called Ruby Beanland "Aunty", but she was
not a real aunt. She taught my father Sunday school and she was a most respected person
who lived to a ripe old age. Aunty Ruby always mixed up my name & called me Shirley, and
she called Shirley "Dawn" confusing her with Horace's daughter "Auriel Dawn".