Economic – I never had rich friends but nor did I have very poor ones.
Politics – rarely discussed.
Cultural – mostly Aussie except in Indonesia.
Social – ‘Best friends’ all from the church I was attending at the time!
Later close friendships always seemed to involve a family who went to our church, lived on a farm and had children. We often visited them on Sunday afternoons.
But to get back to earlier friendships. We moved to Belmont when I was 14. Lorraine Dunn lived over the road. She answered to Larry. I was in year 10, she was in year 9 and together we rode the hilly two or three miles to Geelong High school and back again each day. We were the youngest members of the church choir. We put on skits during youth group concerts. We played tennis and netball, although Larry was always a grade higher then I was. We both had boyfriends from church. Don and I were the second couple to get married in the new church and Larry and Cliff were the third. Larry went off to Teachers’ College, I went to University but still we are in contact with each other.
Bet and Jess were actually friends of my mother. We lived in Hobart – three little girls and a mountain of steps to the front door. Jess came from Queensland and was visiting her sister where my father met her. Within days she was living with us and helping my mother with her girls and her housework. Jess studied at night, got a job, but still lived with us until we moved to Launceston. We loved her.
Betty came from Penguin and was a trainee teacher in Grade 1 at Elizabeth Street State School. I was very unsure of myself, so much so that I regularly bit the corners off my collars! The teacher didn’t have time to show me any special attention but Betty encouraged me and gave me the confidence. Meanwhile the Penguin Methodist minister got in touch with my Dad to ask him to look out for Betty. She became best friends with Jess and was at our place more often than not.
‘Auntie Elsie’ lived with us in Launceston and when a new baby was due, Auntie Elsie said, “I’ll look after Dorothy and Thais but I won’t have Carmyl!” Bet took me up to Penguin for a fortnight with her family.
We moved to a small town near Beaconsfield while Dad was in the army. Bet came to visit and needed to see a doctor. Dr. Suerth was an Austrian Jew, who had escaped to Italy, converted to Catholicism and ended up in Beaconsfield. The long and the short of it was that Betty ended up as Mrs. Suerth. They married at the Ulverstone Catholic church, with broad steps to the front door. Some Penguin Methodists stood on the steps as Bet entered the church calling out, “It’s not too late to change your mind!”
The Suerths later moved to Hobart and Jess and Bet were reunited. Both visited us on occasions. Jess wrote up our wedding for the Geelong Advertiser. We visited them in Hobart. Both these wonderful people died only recently, both inm their 90s.
Carmyl Winkler
April 2023