<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side one <&>0:28 so what's meant by clay feet what <{><[>does that <[>clay feet like i had him on a pedestal <{1><[1>until i went nursing at seventeen i thought my dad and my brothers were the most handsome intelligent and <,,> marvellous beings <,> i came back my first holidays and saw that dad was more or less ordinary and had a crooked nose and my brothers were freckle faced and crooked noses too and <,,> and they weren't as tall as i thought they were <&>1:00 you see my life was so limited because moturoa was only a little country place and <,> all i knew was kin and the odd neighbour <{2><[2>and they were good people <[1>oh <[2>right mm and so the only knowledge i had of a world at all was through those same values all the time yes <{><[>which were you lived to the farming community <[>and yes and the church <{><[>was it yes <[>and the church yes <,,> and catholicism was like i wrote in one of my essays about my upbringing with dad was very genteel and you know he did a great job of protecting me there's not doubt i got to adulthood without any accidents <{><[>but i didn't know what the punch line was i knew that we all young catholic girls said three hail marys for purity but nobody told me the punch line <[>right right and dad tried one evening he was talking and he said over the fire you know all men tut all men can be buggers prudence <&>2:00 and i was one of them and i remember thinking oh what's he talking about you know because my father was perfect marvellous i didn't know that he was talking about a sexual nature right and er even putting the bull to the cows was never discussed in front of women wasn't it no and definitely not in front of me it wasn't until i'd been nursing and went back and was running things myself and had to take daisy to the bull that i understood and i er that all that was a gap in our lives i knew <{><[>the bull was there for <[>so you weren't allowed to see it OH NO no no not only see it wasn't discussed in front cos dad was doing this job of bringing up a baby girl mm and he was gonna make sure that he did it well and he'd say to my uncle i've modelled her on my own pattern <,> and they would say oh prudence is great um and i got to the stage later thinking but i'm me <,> i'm not dad i'm ME i was thinking when i was about <&>3:00 fifteen or sixteen right i started to realise that <,,> that er er he was chairman of the school committee for about twenty years as my brothers have been since <{1><[1>and he had great sway and he was very er open man like they wanted to have prayers at the church at the state at the school it was a state school and the committee people went mad to him and my father would've sanctioned that if the school teacher wanted that that was fine with dad <,> and raising the flag pole and <{2><[2>you know all that sort of thing <,> he was <{3><[3>quite liberal in many ways but <,,> in other ways he wanted to hang onto this daughter and when it was suggested and particularly the headmaster mister simpson came down to insist that you <&>4:00 know john you know you send her to hokitika let her go to the common with the others <[1>mm <[2>right <[3>mm to high school yeah dad wouldn't didn't but it was never i was never given any any options it was never discussed in front of me but i was thinking oh hope i don't have to go mm because the others hate it right they HATED going away from <{1><[1>home boarding had to board and they came back all <.>p porridgey and chubby <{2><[2>and i didn't have to go and i but he er bill simpson said to dad you know she's gonna find out one of these days john er and mark my words you'll regret it i can remember him i thought i heard him saying things like that and i <{3><[3>thought what's he on about <,> but nobody said oh you're quite bright <,> <{4><[4>you know <,> that was never suggested so then the next thing that happened i WAS working you know on the farm and <{5><[5><.>re but not on the farm that would've been okay really in a sense i suppose but doing the housework being <{6><[6>the <&>5:00 <[1>hated going to school mm <[2>laughs <[3>right <[4>no <,> no <[5>mm <[6>so this was as a thirteen year old yeah from then on <,> <{><[>until <[>and you did housework mhm for how many were on the farm at that stage well on the farm about that stage er there would've been john and murray and kane and terry and myself and dad <{><[>plus rouseabouts <[>so six so there were six people you kept house for and you were the only one who did cooking cleaning <{><[>and <[>at that stage yes because there didn't need to be anyone like housekeepers or anything like that <{1><[1>and you couldn't get them dad said during the war it was difficult cos people were all <,> <{2><[2>you know women were manpower <[1>oh <[2>oh so this was war time yeah right and four of my brothers were overseas yes <,,><&>3 mm <,> what do you remember about <,,> well yeah that difference between you and your peers who went off to school <,> just that you were privileged to begin <&>6:00 with because yes but i could begin <{><[>i began to realise that they knew things that i didn't know and because i like reading i knew they had an access that i would never have <[>word stay at home right they had music oh which i didn't have <,> they <,> they were learning about shakespeare which i knew would've been really interesting mm but you can't pick up on that if you haven't got it if it's not there in the home or right that no <{><[>if it's not word <[>and what books were in the home were i would read but they weren't appropriate you know and anything that was like gone with the wind dad put up in a VERY HIGH wardrobe but not so high that i couldn't get it down and look at some of the juicy bits well they were supposed to be juicy in those days but i couldn't see what it was about because i didn't know the punch line right <{><[>right <[>see i was <.>innoc innocent of the sexual connotation because <{><[>i nobody had explained that to me <[>right mm <,,> so how did it come that you went nursing <&>7:00 in the end that's the punch line <{><[>because dad had an accident he'd got er thrown off his horse and dragged along and his er er lung was punctured by his ribs and because he was an asthmatic <.>matic in the first place he'd that was the other side of it all <[>is it mm he was an asthmatic and i slept in his room i think i told you that years ago that <,> because i was this baby girl <{><[>first he had a little the little cot beside him blue cot in the bedroom and i slept in there and then when i got too big for the cot another neighbour a farmer crafted a lovely wooden bed and that fitted in this room in dad's room and i was there till i <.>m must've been about eleven and one night when i was getting ready for bad bed he cut the cord he said you're getting too big for er dad's room now prudence and i was horrified i didn't want to leave that room it was great because a because he was an asthmatic the light was on more often you could read in bed a bit and <&>8:00 <[>yeah mm and b it meant i could go to bed later because you <{><[>know <[>he'd disturb you sort of coming to <{><[>bed late <[>yes and i was petted and there was a big tin of lollies that big at the <,> head of the my bed which old joe collins gave us every year for christmas and that was good for a few months of fossicking and sneaking them out the terror that i was thieving was the other side of it so you see and now if you told people that they'd think that this was an <.>incestu incestuous relationship but of course it was <.>no that wasn't the issue at all it was just that i was reluctant i thought oh bother but dad of course <{1><[1>realised that i was yes that i was growing up and that i could <{2><[2>no longer share the bedroom with him <[1>losing those privileges <[2>mm mm and i don't know whether i i can't remember getting <.>undre yes i was getting undressed when he said that so obviously it was he that realised mm and er <,,><&>3 amazing isn't it yeah you were obviously totally innocent to that <{><[>change coming to you by then what it meant <&>9:00 <[>yes <,> yes yeah yeah well not having older sisters see that older sister would've <{><[>left by then wouldn't she <[>well she was at the convent when our mother died she was having some secondary school she had about oh she had three years i think and er then she got engaged early and was away from home and then she <.>d she did come back home later for some time <,> and she and i are close <{><[>so that's good it didn't make the big difference although she didn't have any relationship with dad as i had we talk about that <,> and it's wonderful that she didn't feel that jealousy <[>that's nice no no well <{1><[1>she word her parents hadn't she for most of her childhood yeah <,> yeah so when <{2><[2>word dragged by the horses <[1>no she loves me and she thinks that i <[2>so then dad went he went yes he went to hospital and there he saw <,> these wonderful women and of course six of one and half a dozen of the other was that if i was a nurse and in his old age and especially with his <.>con <&>10:00 delicate condition tut yes er it was a very wise move mm and so he parted from me but BROKE his heart when he <{><[>came up <[>so he decided that <{><[>though you didn't think oh word <[>yes OH NO i didn't i knew that there was another world out there but i had no ambitions because i didn't have <.>ene enough clues to have <{1><[1>ambitions i i i wanted to be a grace darling or a florence nightingale or a frances drake or you know always wanted to set the world on FIRE but there were these great mountains here and how did you get out of that place <{2><[2>i knew there was a shirley temple too that was another hassle and i knew that i would could be more less like her than anything in the <{3><[3>world but i imagined i'd fantasise away even with the salts and peppers and the trees and <,> everything i would pair them up but i didn't know how there was always this nostalgia when i looked at the mountains how people got OUT of it <[1>right <[2>yes word <[3>laughs mm and i never thought any further than that for <&>11:00 me but <{><[>however dad came home and that was it and he had the papers and <[>mm mm and you see from christchurch <{><[>or word <[>no this is from the western hospital from the western mm it was an a grade training school and armed with a couple of pair of navy bloomers and a new horrible green coat and a new dressing gown i went off to nursing oh right and got one pound four and six i think it was a week one pound four and six yeah and it was a fortune because of course i didn't have money you always asked er one's parent for money or clothes or whatever and what was the training then was it three years were three years <,> three was it three <,> years yeah and you would've been with your peers then though a <{1><[1>seventeen year old with other seventeen year <{2><[2>olds <[1>yes <[2>yeah eighteen <{1><[1>now going on eighteen by the time i <{2><[2>went yeah <[1><.>eight <[2>you'd be a wee bit older than lots of others were you <{><[>or not <[>no there was a mixed no there were <{1><[1>older <&>12:00 there were girls three girls who'd come from england to you know voc emigrate <{2><[2>and they were there and no there were older than i <[1>a mixed lot <[2>right <&>12:09