Spectrum 613 and Spectrum 614. The years of bread and jam

Rights Information
Year
1988
Reference
17078
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
1988
Reference
17078
Media type
Audio
Categories
Interviews (Sound recordings)
Sound recordings
Duration
00:58:09
Credits
RNZ Collection
MITCHELL, Miro, Speaker/Kaikōrero
Perkins, Jack (b.1940), Interviewer

A two-part documentary in which Miro Mitchell recalls her childhood on a King Country farm during the Depression of the 1930's.

Part 1. Miro Mitchell's childhood encompassed the depression years of the 1930's. Miro's parents were hard-working and proud of their northern King Country farm which they had built from nothing and which had no power or running water. But as the Depression deepened, defeat, despair and eventually bankruptcy were their only rewards. Her family moved to another house which her mother furnished via the Farmers Catalogue. She describes how their livestock all became diseased and died and how their home became filthy, old and run down. She discusses the impact of the Depression and being bankrupt on her parents, especially her mother who always put on a brave face and was proud of her daughters and

Part 2. Miro recalls her teenage years and the degenerating effect of poverty on her family, but through it all her story is one of endurance and survival. She recalls riding to school on horses and being embarrassed to invite friends over to their flea-infested home. She recalls “old Bob’ a bullying headmaster who made them write with their right hands, and they plays they performed at school. Her father left the farm to earn more money while milling and came home at weekends but retired before contracting appendicitis. Her mother made clothes from old flour bags, and Miro herself made an effort to clean the house. She left home to move to Auckland and described travelling there by train and being overwhelmed by all the grandeur of her first visit to a city. She says the Depression reinforced her closeness with her family.