That trip north...

I've previously written a post about my 'crochet hook' experience at Brisbane Airport when we flew to Cairns in early November. But since then I haven't written any posts about our 4 days up north. 

The reason for the trip was all about catching up with family rather than sightseeing, although on the second last day we did do a fair bit of the latter. 

My cousin Sarina lives near Innisfail and we had not seen each other since 1966. I looked liked this, but I don't have a photo of her at that time but she was 23.

Luckily though, for a number of years, we have communicated by phone and email. 😉

So you could say that this trip was mostly about the people DH and I met up with...

This is my 'big' cousin and her husband Len. Len got talked into having his DNA done recently and he is a match with both Sarina and I. It looks like the link between Satina and I is through my grandfather who was most probably a cousin of her father! ( we still have a bit/lot more to do to be able to put ourselves on each other's family tree) But the link with Len seems to be a bit further back.

We had arrived mid morning on the Monday and that afternoon Sarina took us to meet her friend Katie ( Caterina), whose cousin had been my dad's first wife.

I had taken my dad's old photos on the trip with us in the hope that someone might identify people in those pics.

You can imagine the frisson of excitement when Katie recognised herself and her sister...and then her parents!

So three more photos 'now have names'! 

The next day DH and I were driving to South Johnstone to meet up with my cousin when my phone rang. It was the son of a man who had come out from Sicily on the same ship as my dad. Mario and dad stayed best friends until my dad died in 1967. His son Sam and wife Teresa were driving from Tully to Innisfail to meet up with us...so we did a U turn and headed back to meet them. I had last seen Sam when I was 15. 

Once again those photos came out! And Sam was able to confirm that one of the photos was indeed his parents and him.

All too soon, we had to leave Sam and Terese to head off to South Johnstone to meet up with my cousin, but only after we exchanged addresses. 

Our next stop was to visit some more relatives of my dad's first wife. They were very welcoming and enjoyed looking at the photos I had of her from my father's collection. 

Because the older people in this group had not arrived in Australia until the 1950s, they did not know that their cousin had married my father in 1937 when she was a teenager. But they told me that counting her marriage to my dad, that made 3 times she was married! 😉

Then my cousin took me to visit another of her friends who had known my father...

This lady gave me the phone number of a lady who might know what village my dad was born in. I did ring this elderly lady when we got home, but she didn't know. 

So it had been a busy Tuesday!

Every picture tells a story; tales from the 1950s.

Once a month, the church that DH and I attend has an informal morning tea; a very relaxed affair with parishioners sitting around talking, sipping tea or coffee. DH is always at golf so it's just me who heads off. We are usually asked to bring an item along for a 'share' session. This month it was 'baby photos'.
I took along 2...this first one isn't a very clear image but it shows my father and I sitting somewhere in the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens...

 So I took another photo which wasn't blurry but I'm not a baby...rather I'm a toddler...

My friends 'picked' me straight away in the second photo but didn't recognise me in the first photo.
This photo was taken at our home when a 'door to door' photographer came around the suburb. My father always wanted photos to send to his brother back in Sicily...this uncle was my godfather. Below is a scan of 4 of the 6 proofs that the photographer left with my parents. They apparently had the 'proof' in the top left hand corner printed and sent overseas. I preferred another one of the proofs and as an adult I had prints made of it.(which is the one I took to the morning tea)

Well you know how 'every picture tells a story', so let me tell the story of these photos.
As I said it was a 'travelling photographer' which was common in those 'earlier times'. (Years later,with my own children we went to Pixie Photos which travelled around to shopping centres/malls and I also had their photos done at Photography Studios.)
Then there is the dress that I'm wearing which was made by my Nanna (mum's mum) who had been a tailoress. Nan made identical dresses for her then 4 granddaughters, made out of light floral cotton with eyelet lace. I know that somewhere there is a photo of 2 of my cousins wearing the 'same' dresses.
And that big bow in the hair! A few years ago, some of my friends and I posted photos on Facebook of our 1950s hairstyles...all very similar and with a BIG bow! lol

Next I draw your attention to the jewellry that my little 3 year old self was wearing. I believe that it was a special privilege to wear all those pieces; they usually were put away in my mum's dressing table. When I started school she let me wear the bangle all the time but there was a reason. I couldn't remember my right from my left as a 6 year old so the bangle went on my left arm  to remind me! lol. It had been a Christening gift to me from dad's niece and her husband.
The chain and pendant was a gift from my uncle in Sicily...it was a beautiful chain with a 'holy medal'...very delicate and typically Italian. When I was in Grade 7 I sneaked this piece out and wore it at school without telling my mother...and lost it. I lived in fear that she would find out but I seemed to have 'got away with' that bit of naughtiness! lol
And then there was the tiny ring which was a Christening gift from my godfather.
And look what I still have tucked away in a dressing table drawer...

They obviously don't 'fit' me any more! Lol