Mum's Poems of Ballarat

This postcard was taken at The Cedars when Mum was a baby. She is held by her Mum, her Father standing in the garden. Her Grandfather is sitting on the porch. The cedar trees, one bough of which became her favorite swing are in the background. Ballarat is a gold mining town in the mountains outside of Melbourne and gets very cold in the winter.

CEDAR TREE SWING
Memories of Ballarat, Australia, 1933
By Coral J.P. Ayraud

When young I had a swinging tree
A cedar bough so supple
My Father swung the branch
As up and down I flew
As across the way a sky blue lake
Came sailing into view

WOOLEN STOCKINGS

The skeins of wool about two chairs
Were draped and round I ran
Winding up the dark brown balls
As fast as small legs can

Then in the evening, mother knits
Long stockings, warm as toast
When wind blew cold from artic shores
Legs needed heat the most

Little girls in nineteen twenties
Wore dresses in all weather
And ice would lie along our path
As we walked to school together

Our teacher had us jump about
Before we sat for classes
Singing, “Here we go gathering nuts in May”
A folk dance for lads and lasses

When out of breath and rosy cheeked
So glad to sit awhile
Our books came out and down we sat
To do our work in style

I don’t remember feeling cold
Tho’ winds blew off the lake
And all because of stockings
Mother knitted for my sake

By Coral J.P. Ayraud