A Heart Divided

Chapter 2

Young Dorrie 1918-1932

By the time I was five and ready for school, Irene, Olive and Joe were married and Mary was drawn into the milking and dairy end of the farm life. By this time, WWI was over and help was plentiful. A Dutch woman by the name of Veta Spoor was employed to do the cooking. Ten milking machines were installed, and we were milking some 275 to 300 head of cattle. From the time I was six I was able to take the cattle away to one of the pasture paddocks before school, at about 7:00 am. I would then ride my horse into school. Mother would have packed my lunch for school and I would attend the 7:30 am Mass, which I longed so much for - to receive Jesus in the sacrament of Communion.

Being the youngest, I didn’t get drawn into the heavy work, but I was on hand to pitch in when the milking machines broke down, and to help with the dipping of the milkers and the bush cattle when there was a demand.

I attended public school in the town of Proserpine where my first grade teacher was Miss Alice Graham. Mr. Walker the headmaster of the school was a very proper English gentleman who took no nonsense from anyone. The Sergeant of Police was Sgt. Cleary, a fine Irish ‘copper’ who had complete control of the town and was loved and respected by everyone.

Chapter 5

The Yanks 1942-1943

We were blessed in many ways by having great, faithful men like Harry Davidson, a good-looking Scotchman, Herbie Burnham, and Harold Parsons, who stayed and worked on the dairy for some ten years. When the war broke out in Europe in 1938, these men volunteered to join the Australian Infantry Forces and went off to Tobruk to fight with the so-called ‘Rats of Tobruk.. They wrote faithfully to my Mother and she always found time to write to them. She loved them as her own. Harry Davidson’s. brother came to replace him, but things never seemed to be the same again. My sister Mary had been drawn into working in the dairy, mostly of necessity, but she carried on with brother Joe and eventually we rented the dairy out. That is another story. It was through the stick-to-itiviness of my sister Mary working the dairy and helping Mother out that I was able to have four years at the Range College. For this I shall be forever grateful.

The early years of the War took a great toll on the young men of Proserpine. My sister Mary’s classmates mostly were killed or maimed in Egypt by the Rommel forces. My classmates were killed mostly on the Burma Trail, in Singapore, and in England. Harry and Harold did return from Tobruk safely and the first one to be notified of their safe return was my Mother. Only our family knew how she prayed for their safe return.

Chapter 8

Minneapolis, Minnesota 1947-1950

Lew and Madeline came to our place on Colfax Avenue for Thanksgiving in 1947, promising to be there for a turkey dinner at 1:00 pm. So there were lots of preparations. Joe fixed the turkey 1:00 pm. So there were lots of preparations. Joe fixed the turkey and I made pumpkin pies, two of them. As I was taking them out of the oven, the shelf slipped from my hands and they both fell, upside down,on the flor. I called out to Joe, and together we put them back in the pie shells, covered them with whipping cream, and served them up at the right time. No one seemed to know the difference. Every time since them, whenever I bake pies, I take extra precaution to get them out of the oven carefully.

Christmas came and went and we were caught up in the excitement of the new baby. There had been showers and showers, my sister Mary had hand knitted a beautiful fine woollen layette for me. It was taken from Princess Marina’s layette pattern. Mother sent crotchet sets, Joannie and my sisters Irene and Olive sent lovely baby blankets. Michael was clothed in the best. At this time, we were living in our place at 3448 Colfax Ave. South. I had my heart set on going back to Australia early in 1948 with Michael. We didn’t have much money, but looked around to see if any of the ships were going to Australia in January.