Reflections

The Simpler Life … continued

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Some of my recent posts have stirred up more old memories. They made me think about how we entertained ourselves as children in the 1950s and early 60s. Here are a few of things that I remember doing:

Courtesy: Google Images

My dad was a green grocer with a huge stack of fruit boxes. These could be constructed into the most wonderful cubby houses – in fact they became a cubby city with tunnels and streets. I remember doing a similar things in a haystack on a farm I visited regularly. Many Saturday and summer hours were whiled away here.

When I was 10 or 11 I constructed my first crystal set to pick 3GL the Geelong station. Construction was a regular pastime – model “Airfix” planes which I would hang from my bedroom ceiling, and later balsa and paper planes powered by tiny 2.5 cc motors and guided by control wires.

Walking the streets of our town was never an issue – even at night. People looked out for each other and their children. In fact, if I did do something naughty it would usually get back to my parents. We would take walks along the beach collecting cuttlefish and other “treasures” or tramp through the bush behind our town known as Cuthbertsons. If we were sick of walking there were always bike rides to neighbouring towns.

Courtesy: Google Images

On a couple of occasions we went to the local airstrip to look at the planes and on at least two occasions we went up for a gratis joy ride. I can’t imagine that happening today without eyebrows being raised – to say the least.

Camping at a friends farm, playing sports at the local football and tennis clubs, playing cricket and football on the unpaved street, “cowboys and Indians” in the scrub, marbles, swapping comics, playing with a chemistry set (do you remember Ron?)… are just a few more of the things that come to mind.

Finally, as we didn’t have a TV set until I was in my mid teens, I spent some time in the evening listening to the serials on the radio or crystal set. Biggles, Dad and Dave, No Holiday for Halliday are just a few I remember.

What do you remember doing as a child in the “olden days”?

Categories: Family, Reflections | Tags: | 2 Comments

Was The Past Really Simpler?

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Mr Spears Allansford

When I have a minute here or there I love browsing through my photos. They are great memory-triggers recalling times, events and people from the past – recent and distant.

The photo above was taken in 1954 in Allansford, Victoria. We had only arrived in Australia a short time earlier  and after having stayed with a lovely Australian family we moved to a house in Allansford. One of the neighbours was the farmer in the picture. Most farmers had moved to tractors long ago but Mr Spears preferred the traditional methods. He wasn’t bound by engines or petrol prices. Many farmers kept a foot in the past and the present. I remember the thrill of helping rig up the horse and buggy at a friend’s farm because the old WW2 army Jeep wouldn’t start. It was important that we get the 10 gallon milk cans to the depot for pick up by the truck from the local butter factory. Riding in the buggy along the highway was a special pleasure.

When we lived in town I also remember hanging the billy-can on the side of the milk collection depot. One of the local farmers would fill these for the town locals; none of the pasteurised, homogenised and diluted rubbish in those days.

In my lifetime so much has changed for good and evil. Yet sometimes in the madness of a busy day I do fondly remember a time and place that was simpler. One of the reasons it was simpler was that I was young and did not have adult concerns. However the picture above makes me think the simplicity was due to more than just my youthful naivety.

Categories: History, Photo, Reflections | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Orthodoxy … In Conclusion

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Pieter Stok

The following is the conclusion to G.K. Chesterton’s head spinning ramble “Orthodoxy”. It is a passionate and articulate demonstration of the veracity of the Christian faith. He finishes with the following:

Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something.

Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.

Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith) . Orthodoxy (pp. 163-164). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, G K Chesterton, Reflections | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

If You Remember These …

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Do you remember these?

If you remember these two books you are probably a Victorian who is getting on a bit.

Categories: Education, Reflections | Tags: | 6 Comments

Family Memories

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Minifigs invade the Eiffel Tower

What are your favourite family memories and traditions? Was it a particular Christmas, a trip, a visit by someone special, a particular meal your mum cooked, a tradition your family has – what were they? These moments that warm our heart whenever we think of them are special. A sight, smell or word can often, quite spontaneously, take us back to a time and place.

Positive memories are part of our emotional health. They remind us of important connections, people and values. They anchor us in a family and history. I recognise that some readers don’t have these and I find that incredibly sad. That is all the more reason to build these into our own families.

Muesli and Hot Milk

Our, now grown-up, children often reflect on events and activities from the past that are important to them. Some of these my wife and I planned and others happened by accident. Having pizza on Christmas Eve in which everyone pitched in, just happened. This tradition was so important that even when my wife and I were living in a tiny flat in England, and all the girls came over for a visit, we still had to have pizza on Christmas Eve – or as close to it as possible.

Grover at Conwy Castle

Having an all girl family (apart from me) meant that particular stuffed toys and dolls gained a life all of their own. To this day questions about Muesli, Jessica, Grover and Fiona’s welfare pepper the conversation as though they are real – which, of course, they are!

The camping trips to Canberra and Woodgate, the building of Lego cities and towns and making “continental” s’mores (using Speculaas biscuits and Lindt chocolate instead of Graham crackers and Hershey bars) either around an open fire or over tea lights, are just a few more memories and traditions that I am certain will continue through the generations.

So what memories do you have and what memories are you building? In a fleeting and uncertain world they are more important than you think.

Categories: Devotional, Family, Reflections | Tags: , | 4 Comments

Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used To Be

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Opa and the bakery cart

I know I have stolen the title above but it caused me to reflect on my father. For a while my dad was an itinerant hawker selling fruit and vegetables from home to home,  around Ocean Grove and Geelong. There was a tradition in my family of this type of work. A grandfather and a great grandfather had done the same. In fact it was an age of home delivery. The baker, butcher, iceman, milkman and even the draper came in vans on a regular basis. I remember the Rawleigh man coming with his suitcase of lotions and potions. The memories of hearing the milkman’s horse clip clopping past the house in the early morning and chasing the iceman for a piece of ice on a hot dusty day in summer, is still strong.

Slowly these mobile salesmen (I don’t remember ever seeing a woman do this) have faded into the past. Supermarkets and cars led to their demise.  Nothing ever stays the same. Today we are seeing a modern version: Internet sales. The sales people are in our homes and what we want is delivered to our doors. I have to confess that a lot of my purchases are now delivered by my “Pay” pal.

Yet I still miss riding in the back of my dad’s truck during the holidays “helping” him on his rounds and meeting his amazing variety of customers; migrants from all parts of Europe, a WW1 gas attack survivor, and a seaman who had clung to a table when the Titanic sank.  My dad being a gregarious man elicited amazing stories from these, now long gone, people. And I miss the smell of fresh bread wafting from the back of the baker’s van. Horses and carts on the street, even a few, seemed to have a way of slowing life down to a more reasonable pace.

The internet is helpful and efficient. Its range is enormous. But give me the hawkers and the colour and life they brought from house to house. I can’t imagine my children ever being nostalgic about a mouse click on an internet sales site.

Categories: Family, History, Reflections, Uncategorized | Tags: , | 3 Comments

“Poetry Sucks” a poem for Rohan

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Pieter Stok
“Poetry sucks!” a plaintiff voice cries.
“That is your first line,” I respond.
 
Why do we fear

Image courtesy: Google Images

plucking words and phrases
and arranging thoughts,
phrases,
pains and pleasures
on paper or a screen?
 
What is the “horror”
Created by poetic lines?
Why cringe at rhyme or verse,
metre or metaphor?
 
Let your heart speak
your anger and hope,
and your pen scribble
your love and hate
or the keyboard
the tremors within.
 
“Poetry sucks …”
at my feelings
and flows through the
straw of my pen …
Categories: Poem, poetry, Reflections | Tags: , | 3 Comments

Paddle Steamers to iPads

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Pieter Stok

20120709-194404.jpg
Today my wife and I went for a short cruise along the Murray River from Mildura on a hundred year old paddle steamer. It had plied the waters as a working steamer until it was put out of business by the railways in the 1920s. In the 1970s it was reinvented as a tourist attraction. That was providential because usually that is not the case. What ever happened to pagers, record players and tape decks? In teaching I have seen spirit duplicators, ink duplicators, 3 stage photocopiers, photo copiers that copied onto strange grey photo sensitive paper, black boards and fountain pens all disappear into museums.

A few days ago I was tidying up my garage (a genuinely scary experience) and I came cross my first laptop – a 486 with Windows 3! Does anybody need an anchor for a small boat?

I was 6 years old before TV came to Australia and we had to make phone calls through the exchange. We were that old fashioned we had a two piece telephone hand set . Now people get annoyed if you don’t respond immediately.

Paddle steamers to iPads – where will it all end?

Even though I am an early adopter with a lot of technology (except mobile phones) I still enjoy seeing and touching the old. On my desk I have an old black Remington typewriter and a black Bakelite phone. But I must confess to being unfaithful because they sit next to my laptop and iPad. To sum up, I like the new and the old. Just let’s not forget how the new got here – via the old.

Categories: Life, Reflections, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Teresa’s Words

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Here are a few quotes from my favourite Catholic saint – Teresa of Avila. They come from a book by the C19th Presbyterian writer Alexander Whyte. … and the Kindle edition is gratis which is cheap at twice the price. (N.b. there are some amazing books for Kindle that are free on the Amazon site).

“I were a person who had to advise and guide God’s people, I would urge them to fear no difficulty whatsoever in the path of duty: for our God is omnipotent, and He is on our side. May He be blessed for ever! Amen.

“The true proficiency of the soul consists not so much in deep thinking or eloquent speaking or beautiful writing as in much and warm loving.

“I was once considering what the reason was why our Lord loved humility in us so much, when I suddenly remembered that He is essentially the Supreme Truth, and that humility is just our walking in the truth.

“Rely on the waiting and abounding goodness of God, which is infinitely greater than all the evil you can do. When we acknowledge our vileness, He remembers it no more. I grew weary of sinning before God grew weary of forgiving my sin. He is never weary of giving grace, nor are his compassions to be exhausted.

Teresa of Avila . Santa Teresa an Appreciation: with some of the best passages of the Saint’s Writings. Kindle Edition.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Reflections | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

The Grubby Book

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

Psalm 91:1&2

In a previous vocation I had the privilege of officiating at the funerals of many older saints. Quite a few of these had gone through wartime experiences in Europe or Indonesia. They had been through the worst that humanity can inflict upon their brothers and sisters.

A Psalm that was often requested at their funerals was Psalm 91. It encapsulates both the horror of war and the beauty of God’s grace. These people were able to declare in life and in death, “The Lord is my refuge.” They had the confidence, in a bombing raid or in a Japanese prisoner  of war camp, that nothing could remove them from their place in the eternal family of God. Incidentally, it was this solid expression of  faith that was lived by the Moravians in the face of danger that impressed and impacted John Wesley so deeply a few centuries earlier.

One story I remember clearly: on a visit to an elderly white-haired saint, I noticed a small grubby book, in an otherwise immaculate bookcase. I commented on its incongruity. This elderly man, while holding his wife’s hand, told me its story. This was the Bible he kept in a tropical  Japanese prison camp. His wife and children were in a separate camp. He kept it closely wherever he went.It was his constant companion. He would have been severely punished, even killed, if he had been found with it. The worst moments were snap inspections. So when an inspection was called he quickly scratched a hole in the dirt and stood on the book. It was a precious memento that had pride of place in his bookcase. It was a reminder of God’s centrality in his and his family’s life. And he added with a wink, “I could always say I stood firmly on the Word of God.”

May we also dwell in the Most High by “standing” firmly on the Word of God.

Categories: Christianity, Church, Devotional, Faith, Reflections, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

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