"Teaching people about the world in which we live."
"Teaching people about the world in which we live."
Mr.
Eric Abraham, Spring, 1998, is the time to celebrate two special events in Brisbane, capital of Queensland, Australia. As with all Australian and New Zealand cities, the end of April is the time to celebrate ANZAC day. However, this spring saw a once-in-the-century celebration for an ANZAC hero of World War One, Mr. Eric Abraham celebrated his 100th birthday on April 20, 1998.
Born at the end of the 19th Century, Mr. Abraham has seen Australia grow from a frontier society, much like the American Wild West, into a modern 20th Century country. A few examples from everyday life can serve to describe the differences between a boy growing up in rural Australia one hundred years ago and today’s experiences.
There was no electricity in rural Queensland on the farms where Eric grew up.
One of his chores was to tend the oil lamps which served the
same function as our light bulbs. The lack of electricity also meant that there was no
refrigeration for keeping foods from spoiling. Food spoilage was a very real problem in
the hot climate of northern Australia. Each farm family made its own cooler for keeping dairy products like milk, eggs, and butter.
There were no electronic sources of entertainment either. No radio, no CDs, no video
games, no TV, no movies! However they did have one source of "canned"
entertainment, the gramophone. All other entertainment
was live.
For live entertainment, people would gather, from 10 to 15 miles away, at a farm with a good sized floor and hold a barn dance. While 10-15 miles may not seem like a long distance in a car, imagine loading the family into a buckboard wagon or picking up your girl friend in a buggy, or (if you were lucky) getting on your saddle horse and riding to the party. All family members were expected to do their share to contribute to the smooth functioning of the house and farm, but when it was time for a party, they all enjoyed these special evenings with their neighbors and friends.
In 1908 in the towns and villages of Queensland, all perishable food stuffs were delivered by the milk man, the meat man, or the Green grocer (vegetables and fruits). The meat man drove an open wagon with beef or sheep carcasses hung from a rack. When he got to a house, the house wife could order any piece she wanted and he would cut it for her then and there. Remember this was long before plastic had been invented, that the village roads were unpaved and dusty, and that horses pulled the wagons. You can imagine the amount of dust, manure, and other impurities which settled on these meats before they got into the home! Careful washing and thorough cooking (often for hours) seems to have solved most problems of contamination.
Eric was really just past boyhood when England entered what was to become the first world war in history. Australia is a member of the British Commonwealth and hence supported England in this war. The war lasted from 1914 to 1918 and engulfed the entire globe. Therefore, even young farm boys in Australia were recruited to fight on the side of England during a long, cruel conflict. Eric had taken his first job as assistant Post Master in Boonah, Queensland, when the army recruiters and a rousing brass band ignited his youthful patriotism. Eric Abraham joined the 25th Battalion. This group of diggers (soldiers) left Sydney, Australia, on March 31, 1916 to join the 25th Battalion in some of the most famous battles of the World War One, the War to End All Wars.
By his own admission, at 17 years old Eric Abraham, who joined the war as a Private, was "unsophisticated, very unsophisticated"; however, by the completion of his tour of duty, four years later, he was very sophisticated. He has reported several of the incidents which led to this rapid maturation under wartime conditions. The stories he relates can be both humorous and bloody. He was discharged in October, 1919, older, wiser, sophisticated, but not at all hardened or bitter.
After the War, Mr. Abraham returned to Australia where he had a very successful career in government service. Mr. Abraham was working for the Commonwealth government on special assignment in Rockhampton in January, 1940, when Australia entered World War II. He was transferred back to Brisbane, Queensland, to serve on the Price Commission. This was a protected occupation and as such Mr. Abraham was barred from enlisting in the military. Therefore, he was in Brisbane for the duration of the war. He watched Brisbane grow from a small, provincial capital to a city of 1,000,000 seemingly overnight. General Douglas McArthur had his headquarters on the campus of the new University of Queensland in a Brisbane suburb. Mr. and Mrs. Abraham entertained American soldiers for Christmas dinner each year and he remembers them as very well behaved and pleasant young men.
Mr. Abraham is now retired in Chapel Hill, a suburb of Brisbane. For the past 20 years, his close friend and companion, Ms. Beryl Wilson, has been insuring that Eric mend his youthful life-style habits of rich food and wine, while continuing his youthful athletic interests—Eric played a mean game of clay court tennis until he was past 85. He still enjoys a weekly round of golf with Ms. Barbara Wintringham at the local course. Thus Mr. Eric Abraham, Centenarian Extraordinaire, enters his second century sound of mind, body, and spirit. We wish him continued health.
It played a record cylinder shaped rather like a can with both ends cut out. A pattern of holes and raised bumps were made in the wall of this cylinder and it was inserted into a hand-crank machine called a gramophone. When someone turned the handle of the gramophone, metal prongs vibrated when they struck the raised bumps and this music was amplified by a large horn so that people in the room could hear it. When you see a picture of the RCA dog listening to his master’s voice he is listening to a gramophone.
The coolers all shared the same basic cooling design. A box frame was built and a cloth made of material Australian’s called "hessian" (burlap ) was hung over it. This rig was hung in the shade of a tree near the kitchen. Then a hose was attached to the top of the cooler box and turned to a very slow drip. This dripping water wet the hessian cloth and the desert breeze evaporated the moisture. The result was a cool interior in which foods were safe from ants, flies, and spoilage.
When oil burned, it produced soot which blackened the glass shield around the flame. Keeping this glass clean was a weekly chore best performed by the child or a woman with small hands. Even after the glass was clean, the wick itself (made like a candle wick except wider) had to be trimmed. Otherwise it would burn sooty and the glass cleaning had to be done all over again!
