Memoir & Biography

GOLDEN LEAVES

First paragraph:

It seemed of late the weekends were for memories... Lloyd literally plonked himself down into his favorite armchair. He smiled inwardly as he landed... The kids had surprised him with his fancy armchair on his last birthday. They thought he was going to announce his retirement, therefore it seemed to them to be an appropriate gift. Ha ha ha... He’d had news for them! He’d had no intentions whatsoever of retiring. Slow down a bit for sure... He would become a Monday to Friday man, maybe even a nine to five’er, and that was all he’d had to say about that!

In a bid to get comfortable and to take in the best view of his lake, he dragged himself back out of his magnificent armchair, swiveled it around to face the picture window, he then dropped himself back from whence he came. His eyes were always immediately drawn to the lake. He and June had often sat together facing the water while they reminisced over their late afternoon cuppa. It was funny how his dam had become known as ‘The Lake’... In his mind it was still the tiny dam he’d created by damming up the little creek on his property... He focused his eyes on the little wooden jetty and thought of June and the kids. All in all they’d had a good life. Not so his forebears though, they’d had a rough time of it on leaving their home in Scotland. He’d never known his first Australian forebears. They were both convicts and it was well and truly before his time, however, he knew their life stories and the hardship they had endured. He was grateful for the lessons he’d learned from their existence. It had steeled him to do well for himself from a very young age.

JOHNNY (Commercially unavailable)

First paragraph:

Baby John! That was how he was referred to and known by family... The youngest, much younger child, older Parents, two older Sisters, after the war, and a blessed Boy! The perfect recipe for producing and enabling a ‘Naughty Little Boy’! Seriously his antics were there from the get go! ‘Nature or Nurture’? Six of one or half a dozen of the other! Who really knows or cares? Regardless he was primed for entertaining and eventually ‘cream buns’ for the rest of his days!

His dear Mother probably did care but he was such a handful and she didn’t have too much time for thinking... With a Husband away fighting a war in Papua New Guinea, for King and Country, she’d all but raised the two older Girls on her own... Today he would be your typical ADHD kid, most likely on medication to calm the farm... Had that been the case it would have been a terrible shame... Although seriously you would have had to spare a thought for his poor Mother though! I personally praise the Good Lord Jeremy and Rachael didn’t inherit the naughty genes... Most of their activities were sanctioned and above board. Not all though!

Baby John was born in the Launceston Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital 23rd July 1948, to Walter and Faye Mullins of No: 3 Henty Street Invermay. Soon after they moved to 40 Blamey Road, Punchbowl, where John spent his formative and very excitable years... Both Parents had convict forebears well and truly locked in the wardrobe. His Mother was of Prussian forebears with First Fleet ancestry, born in Derby, nee Krushka. His Father was of Irish forebears, although Tasmanian, he was born in Taihape New Zealand, where his Father Walter was running as a professional athlete. Grand Pa Walter John Theodore Mullins, was known to capture the last known Thylacine, ‘Benjamin’. He has a Convict Grand forebear named; none other than: ‘John Mullins’... Faye worked at Coats Paton’s Woollen Mills and Walter contracted himself and his truck to the Public Works Department... Sadly they both tragically passed away while John was still a School Boy. He was old enough when his Mother passed to leave school and get a job. He was on his own from a very young age!

John’s Mum’s Krushka family emigrated from Prussia and went from rags to riches in no time! It was said they lit their cigars with rolled up 20 Pound notes: John’s comment, ‘No wonder there was nothing left, they burnt it all... Had they known a Great Depression was going to hit; they may just have held on to their notes: That’s if the story is actually true! Given their other well-known excesses it is most likely correct! ‘Inheritance!’

PADDY’S WAR (Contact Author, Lauren)

Prelude:

Paddy’s real war would come well after war’s end...

Patrick went to war for King and Country. He enlisted with reluctant approval from his extremely unhappy mother. Paddy had shared his World War I experiences and the story of his wars both on and off the Western Front with both his Granddaughter and his Grandson who had lived with Pop and Nan for a time when young. Pop Paddy had also shared the story and had shown his war wound from the shrapnel hit he received while fighting his for King and Country...

Paddy was one of the lucky boys who came home to kith and kin at war’s end as a man. Only Paddy’s war wasn’t entirely over! He had the luck of the Irish it had seemed... He was born on St Patrick’s Day; and he did come home from war.

Then his luck somewhat ran out... Apparently Paddy’s actions had unwittingly divided his family permanently. Paddy’s older brother seemed to have received the accolades and benefits, which were awarded to returned soldiers at Paddy’s expense after his extreme sacrifice... Interestingly Paddy had said his mother cared more about the issue than he did...