Locality

Rural experience as teenagers. Hamilton considered the centre for Gordonton.

Jack remembers tremendous changes of the appearance of Hamilton, school buses had only started running the year before Jack started secondary school, at the stage Hamilton was quite a small town.

Jack: "Fairfield School was surrounded by farm land in those days"

Jack: "The roads into Hamilton were horrible dusty corrugated metal roads"

Margaret remembers Insoll Avenue being a rural area. Their bus driver was Harold Davies,

Jack: "He always said he had his eye on Davies Corner to settle there"

Harold Davies had been a member of the J Force, had an office named after him. Got to town by car, got to secondary school by bus which started at Orini, left to catch the bus at 8.20am and got home around 4.00pm, school was about ten miles away.

Father was 11 when he came to Woodlands, Woodlands was the headquarters of a big land company that extended from Gordonton to Eureka, when his grandfather arrived is when they were dividing the block up. Three sons farmed 300 acres each.

Woodlands was the centre of Gordonton, completely self-contained, own flour mill, blacksmith shop, Mr Gordon one of the original managers.

The three brothers went to the first World War, one was killed at Gallipoli, one was injured and returned early, Jack and Margaret's father involved in action in France. Father returned and farmed a piece of land on the south side of Woodlands. Margaret used to enjoy visiting her Aunt and Uncle at the Woodlands homestead,

Margaret: "A house with stairs was quite a novelty to us.... I can't say I grew up thinking we were involved in quite interesting family as far as background and that went"

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