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Riley & Dave

Dear Ann,

Have I mentioned Dave to you?  If I have, my apologies & if not, I will rectify that. Some months ago, by mutual consent, Riley & Adam parted company. I think it was only a couple of weeks & a new beau was on the scene, as so often occurs with the young. It’s all part of life’s experiences.

I think I started dating when I was fifteen & going out to dances & balls frequently, which kept me very poor on my meagre weekly wages of fourteen shillings & seven pence that is all I received when I started out in the work force at that age.   

Life was different then, but when I went out to work a new life opened up. I started going to local dances where the girls would sit on one side of the hall & the boys on the other! The boys would look us over & we would get asked to dance if we were lucky.  

I took to ballroom dancing like a duck takes to water & soon found myself with plenty of partners. It didn’t take me long to become besotted with dancing, so I started going to more & more. In those days there were plenty to attend in the town & also in the rural areas.  

To get to the latter, my girl friend Joan & I would dress up in our finery – often in long gowns if it was a country ball – & wait at the bus stop for the right bus to come along.  If it was raining we would take our raincoats & umbrellas along & hold our long gowns up off the ground, we were keen!  

On the way home in the bus we would sing all the current songs including “Roll me over in the clover, roll me over & do it again!” Truly I didn’t appreciate the full meaning of that. I was too young, which I guess was why my Dad had great concern for me!!

It didn’t take too long with all these dances & balls that I was attending before it caused friction between me & my Dad.  I was going to at least two dances per week & he considered I was too young, so did his best to limit me to one dance per week.

Jeepers, that was like taking away my life at that stage so I almost pleaded & after much pleading he consented to let me go to three dances per fortnight.  Now and then when a ball was held that was not allowed, but as an extra.

During winter the local theatre in Burnie, where I was born, was relieved of all its seating as it was organised into a huge  ballroom.  I look back & think what a lot of work this entailed as the balls were at least once a month, but as a teenager that didn’t worry me one little bit.  

I was more concerned about my gowns which Mum made for me. I had a few, plus a garland for my hair. All this kept me poor for years, but I had a great lot of enjoyment in my teens.  

Max with Dawn in one of her ball gowns, 1949

My friend, Morva & I would dress in our finest, then walk from her place to the venue, which was a good half hour’s walk or more. It was probably twenty blocks away & we had to get there about 8.30p.m. that was the norm.  

The boys would arrive in the droves after 10 p.m .when the hotels closed & most of them would be pretty ‘happy,’ including my future husband!

Before the main stream arrived we girls would be dancing with the teetotalers  which was pretty boring, but there were some nice chaps who were more interested in dancing than drinking. It was nice having a male partner as it really wasn’t the ‘thing’ to dance with your girl friend!  

I was having a great time with different beaus for a few years, until Max came along & that changed my history: even though I thought he was a loud mouthed smart alek!

I really didn’t like him at all but as he deigned to ask me for lots of dances I got to thinking he wasn’t too bad as he could dance really well.  What’s more we sort of fell into step together naturally.

He almost cooked his goose though after several balls of dancing together most of the time during the night, but one night he sent his mate over to say “Max Hodgetts wants to know if he can take you home tonight!”  

The cheek of him! I told his mate to tell him where to go!  However, history is history & I let him take me home the next time when he asked me himself.  

Besides, he was the only young chap in town who had his own car, a Ford Prefect that he had bought with his winnings as an athlete. He was a long distance runner.

Anyway, I swallowed my pride, accepted his offer, which was better than walking back to Morva’s home after the ball so I thought that on the whole he may be a good catch!  

So you see with a history like I had Gran is all for her grand daughter having a ball before she settles down to serious life.  Thankfully, she is one of the most sensible teenagers on this planet & gives life a lot of serious thought, which I think has stemmed from her Dad who is a pretty astute Dad.  

As I said, life is different now. Even though Dad is very astute he said he got one heck of a shock when Riley casually said one day, “Oh by the way Dad, I will be staying at Dave’s place tonight.”  I had to smile when David told me how he felt, but with his own experience as a youngster he didn’t have a leg to stand on, so he just swallowed his tongue.  As Riley’s Gran I just wished it had been that open when I was a girl!  

Did I tell you when Charley was with me in Burbank last Christmas she asked me after we had all had dinner one night if I would write ‘Letters to Charley’ & tell her confidentially all the naughty things I did when I was young?  I know she is very trustworthy but…?
 
So Riley’s Dave appeared on the scene & we call him Dave so as not to get confused with her Dad & we accepted  him with open arms.  He is a really nice guy as well as being tall, dark & handsome. Riley can fit under his armpit – almost. She looks such a tiny  little thing beside him.  

It’s a year now that they have been dating & Dave is part of the family – well at least for the time being.  He even cleaned up Riley’s mess when she vomited one night after drinking too much. You have to be Mr. Nice Guy to do that!  

Dave & Riley at Kristen Close on Dave’s birthday.

Dave comes to family dinners; stops over at Riley’s place frequently &  annoys David greatly. When Dave has a shower he moves the shower higher because he is so tall & David is so short he has to get a step ladder to get the shower down again.  

And Dave is no mean eater either, but when a chap is as tall as him he needs a lot of sustenance to keep him going. I witnessed all this & after eating two or three of David’s bruschetta that he make for us all as a pre dinner snack on Monday night family dinners & are pretty substantial. Then Dave has his normal meal of three real thick fillet steaks with all the trimmings.  

You would think he wouldn’t be able to eat another thing.  However, one Monday I took up some of Riley’s favourite Apple Coconut Slices that she loves & when Dave thought no one was looking I saw him pinch of couple of slices out o the refrigerator before he went home, so I guess he likes them too.

Therefore you will not be surprised what I gave him for his recent birthday – a whole batch for himself because I like Dave & it’s good to have him around. Besides my Mum told me that the way to a mans heart is through his stomach!  I think I did win some Brownie points for my slices!
 
Lots of love Ann.  Dawn X O X O

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2016 at 11:49 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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