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it was only after we had all left home and she had a TV finally in '79
or so that Mum became obsessive about the lives of people in soapies and The Bill and Dr Phil etc.
I guess she was home alone with no one else to talk to and Dad was in the paddock somewhere working. The Leedses are noted for lack of verbal communication. My mother was and still is very verbal.
posted by
Norwood
on January 27, 2009 at 7:41 PM
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Oh Mum wasn't like that when she was younger
We lived on an outback Queensland sheep property. My late father OBM was a grazier. Mum was totally involved with
1. Food and food preparations (she is a yeker from Austria) and everything has to be on time. Did not go over well with the casualness of the outback Australian mentality. I think it used to drive her a bit mental at times. She used to get quite excited about people who strolled in about 2pm or even 3pm for lunch when she was expecting them at 12.30 pm. In fact I think some of the family used to do it deliberately to watch the fireworks and the display.
2. Saving money. She used to do things like unravel the jumpers from last year and reknit them into new season's jumpers and add a ball of new wool to make them a bit bigger. We had the same bluey grey wool jumpers with bits added in for about six or seven years.
3. Vegetable gardening because it saved money.
4. Hating my father's family, especially Uncle Dick, my father's older brother. She was a cultured European. She also felt very offended that the Aussies did not take to her and treated her with a bit of distain which was undeserved in many ways as she did make some great sacrifices to adjust to life on a sheep property.
4. Bemoaning the fact that her children had no culture. We were sent off to boarding school at 11 1/2 (me) 10 1/2 (my brother was even more difficult than I was at times) and 12 the younger brother who was her favourite so she kept him an extra year at home.
5. Reminding us of the sacrifices that she and my father made for us so we would feel extremely guilty at all times.
She obsessed about saving money and what the family would think. I have relatives in Brisbane who measured the amount of jam put on toast of a morning to save money and you were only allowed one piece of toast because the fruit loaf had to last the week. If you had jam you really shouldn't have butter. One or the other.
posted by
Norwood
on January 27, 2009 at 7:03 PM
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I lived in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney for years and your Mum just
doesn't fit the pattern of my friends back then, They were such Jewish Mum's all too involved where their kids were concerned. But I agree with you TV is a real social and family killer.
posted by
Kabu
on January 27, 2009 at 6:45 PM
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I think it is frightening the way people
lose empathy for real people and get growing obsessions about those characters' lives as depicted in film and on TV soaps. I guess it is the gossip element, isn't it?
posted by
Norwood
on January 27, 2009 at 3:31 PM
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I agree...TV is NOT conductive to conversation - a necessary element of family life.
posted by
adnohr
on January 27, 2009 at 2:33 PM
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