The name stirs the blood, doesn't it! Well, no, not mine. I'm ho hum about the whole putting the shot thing, but the name does stir something in me - a childhood memory! Although it'll be of no interest whatsoever to anyone, I knew some Ostapchuks years and years ago. The were neighbours when I was a wee lad. Not nextdoor neighbours, but down-the-street neighbours, whom I visited from time to time, though they had three girls and no boys, as I recollect. They did have a television though, where my family did not. I clearly remember watching and "Tintin" on their set. In colour. Impossible, I know, as colour television hadn't appeared in new Zealand way back then, but there you go - I remember it vividly. While I'm wandering memory lane - Elizabeth Street, Richmond more accurately, I was running through, in my mind, in a quiet moment, the names of the families I remember from those far-off days, starting at the far end of the street and sweeping down to my end of the street then back. Here they are, as I recall:
Wilsons, Armstrongs, Packers, Taylors, Tunnicliffs, Kemps, Gardeners, Guytons, Brays, Smiths, Gilbertsons, Fitzgibbons, Adamsons, Gills, Millers, Duncans. I suppose kids these days know the names of all their neighbours and will be able to reel them off in 45 years time - not sure about that though. I have to add, there are a couple of houses along the 'ol street whose occupants I can't name. I'm not sure if that's because there was too much coming and going or if they were elderly and of no interest to a young scallywag like myself.
Anyway, Ostapchuks - we go way back :-)
7 comments:
I don't know why, but Elizabeth street Richmond rings a bell for some reason.
You certainly ended up a long way from home, in fact, about as far away as you can get staying on the mainland! (probably including the North Island too).
Yes. Why that is, I'd rather not go into :-)
I had a thought the other day that I have been pondering quite a bit since.
People always go on about how bad rebellious teenagers are and often see that 'stage' as a flaw or pointless trial the parents and young adult have to go through.
Then it dawned on me that it is a safety mechanism.
It gives the child the opportunity to hold up their parents and call 'bullsh!t' on the things that need to be called. Now obviously that can go too far (and it often does) but it could also be the very thing that enables the child to progress in life free of the generational strongholds of his or her genetic line.
Some families unfortunately need to be escaped, or at the very least, some aspects of families need to be escaped.
Family doesn't mean the right to control or the right to ownership of people.
I'm going to approach my kids teenage years a bit differently now, the last thing I want them to be is limited because of their old man!!
My wife and I have taken far to long to escape certain things and I don't want that for my kids.
I'm not saying this has anything to do with you living in Riverton Robert ;), but for some reason your thread sparked a thought.
Those are very good thoughts, Shunda. Your children will (most likely) thank you for them (eventually).
I like the two Maori 'phrases':
kia ngawari
and
kia hiwa raa
The combination of the two is a good way to approach parenthood, I reckon, especially around the teenage years.
Robert sorry to correct you, but if Elizabeth St is in Invercargill its not Richmond but Kew the area.
Interesting though as it reminded of me growing up in as a little girl Dalrymple St and later two blocks north in Earn St ( Appleby ) Yeah I was also a regular to some neighbours especially the widows or single ladies they were good for a drink and few snacks to feed this always starving child ...mind u there was a price which to my Mums horror I paid up! I gave them the latest gossip around the neighbourhood :)
Pauline - I'm guessing many NZ towns have an Elizabeth Street! Ours was sunnier than the Invercargill version, as I remember :-)
I can't imagine you selling information nowadays! We all change as we age, thank goodness.
Oh, Richmond, Nelson.
That's where I was brung-up :-)
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