KIRSTEN
All my life I had nephews and neices running around me so it is no wonder
that my name was more Uncle Stan than just Stan.
In my early years my sister Phyllis who married Jimmy Yee and moved to
the family market gardens in Te Ore Ore Road in Masterton, had two
children that I was very close to.
They were Trevor and Beverley.
Every school holiday time when we had the opportunity some of us would
be sent up to Masterton ostensibly for a holiday but in reality we ended up
working again in the gardens.
It was a very hard life.
One of the jobs we had was to water the cabbage plants that had just been
put into the freshly turned soil.
There was a tractor drawn sled with a huge tank on it filled with water.
We would fill our water cans full and then walk along the seemingly never
ending rows of cabbage plants watering them one by one.
After this there were tomato plants to be attended to.
These were in glass houses and it was very hot and close as we plucked off
the excess branches from the plants that were strung up on wire all along
the glass enclosure.
What I did like though was the fresh smell of the tomatoes.
Then there was the peas picking jobs.
We would have to bend over pea plants and seek out the mature pods and
fill up kerosene cans with them.Each can full was worth from memory
about 2 shillings but it took a lot of peas to fill up one of the containers.
Jimmy was generous though and always paid us so that made us feel very
There was ample play times and Trevor and Bev were always ready to
oblige in any sort of fun.
Most were outdoors as there was no TV in those days so we played in the
fields and climbed the fruit trees or perhaps went to Masterton township for
a movie and an ice block,the most milkiest from Page's milkbar on Queen
Street.
One day I decided to lead the two along with brother Raymond and sister
Connie down to a river bank that was out of the bounds of the Yee's
gardens.
We were happily playing at the river's edge when Jimmy's father came into
view and started shouting at us in his Se Yip dialect.
He was very annoyed and probably at me being the ring leader mostly.
Apparently someone had drowned their baby in this river just recently and
he wanted us well away from the place.
I guess he was cussing me in Chinese but because I could not understand
him it was not too bad and we all headed back to the homestead.
Trevor was a handsome kid and Bev was very pretty.
I told my sister that one day she would be the prettiest girl in Masterton and
I was right .
Phyllis was to have other children, Richard and Pamela but I associated
with them less .
Probably Pamela was the only one to move Beverly off the prettiness
stakes.
Perhaps attractiveness came from the country air and fresh fruit and
vegetables that they grew just out the backdoor.
Then back in Newtown there was the sons and daughters of Ian and Ena Yee
who were only two doors up the road.
Their eldest was Phillip and younger brother Victor.
These were two cute kids whom I spent time with.
I called Phillip Ishubibba because he could not pronounce Phillip but said
something like Bibba. And Victor I named Beany which was something like
the Chinese name my sister called him.
Then along came Elizabeth and Margaret.
Elizabeth was called Liz and when grown was one of those quiet but
brilliantly intellectual types. She was a whizz at computers. She married my
friend Peter Poy's brother Norman and now has a very successful computer
consulting business in Sydney.
Of course there was Eddie who I wrote of elsewhere and we spent a great
deal of time galivanting around Wellington and the country together.
Eddie's brother Howard would later work with us when we established the
Zenith Fruit shop in Manners Street.
He was an excellent worker with a very dry sense of humour.
He was to start his own fruit shop in Hataitai which was called Zodiac Fruit
and as with his nature he had the market buying code of DRG which was
short for Doctor Grubb as was one of his apellations.
Howard was very fortunate to woo and wed Miss Dorothy Young one of the
beautiful sisters of the Young family of Tennyson Street.
She would have been the catch of the city and had a tremendously lovely
nature to match her attractiveness.
Some of the photographs I have in my collection would vouch for what I
say and she must have had all the boys in Wellington on her heels when in
her youth.
Dorothy had equally attractive sisters around her. Shirley would marry
Harry Moon who never seems to age and is always in perpetual motion,and
June would wed my friend who took me bodybuilding at the YMCA, Chas Wong.
So not only were we integrating with the world of the Kiwis we were also
becoming related albeit distantly with intermarriage.
Bill my oldest brother had married Marie Ting and her two offspring were
Neville and Danny.
So as I grew older these two were my latest nephews and both were very
photogenic kids.
I had aquired Bill's Zeiss Super Ikonta camera by this time and was clicking
furiously at every chance and most of the time Neville and Danny were in
my viewfinder.
Of course my brothers Arthur, Ron and David also had children but because
they had moved down to Christchurch I did not see much of them.
In such a large family it is very easy to lose track.
Up north I even had more nephews and neices from sisters Ina and Helen in
Auckland, Rona in Pukekohe, Rosie in Levin and of course Shirley in
Wellington.
Our family tree was getting so extensive.
I had better not start mentioning all the cousins.
I guess in the end the niece I spent most of my time with and had her grow
up for a decade with me would be sister June's daughter Kirsten.
Born Kirsten Andrea Wong on............... , June was to have an unfortunate
seperation from her husband Ken while Kirsten was only a few years old.
They shifted into our house at Karori and I suppose I became her surrogate
father.
Kirsten could not pronounce her name very well in her youngest years and
it sounded something like Shirt Shirt, so this I called her for many years.
She was so cute and had these glorious big cheeks and big round eyes and
the greatest nature.
She would call me Uncle Stanley and would come into my room in the
morning to wake me up.
I told her seriously that to do this she must kiss me three times on the nose
otherwise the shock of waking me might kill me. So this I conned out for
years lots of hugs and kisses.
As she grew she had this curious nature and since the Peanuts Charlie
Brown comic strip
was the thing to follow in the morning papers at the time I called her
Snoopy after the cute pot bellied dog.
She did not mind this at all.
Kirsten then became the target of my camera and as brother Ray said "She
must be the most photographed kid in New Zealand..!!"
Probably was too.
As I look through my many many photos of her there are real classics like
the ones of her dancing naked on the lawn or being covered in bubbles in
her bathtub.
But apart from photographs I still have her on tape at about 5 years old
when I told her that I would enter her in the Loxene Song Quest for new
talent.
Kirsten had a bit of a nasal problem and this came through on the tape but
the seriousness of her attempt at singing is something to be heard...but now
if I released the tape she would probably kill me.
As she grew up and went to St Mark's private school we still retained our
special relationship.
Each day after school she would arrive at the shop brought along by her
cousins who attended the same place of learning.
I would have a huge meal waiting for her.
Great big chunky deep fried chips with pan fried cabbage covered in oyster
sauce with an inch thick porterhouse steak.
I made sure that she did not starve.
She would go home with her mother and later on I would always bring her
something home from the dairy.
This kind of bribery ensued that I was to remain her favourite uncle.
To cement this factor in at 10 years of age I decided to take her to
Disneyland in Los Angeles.
We went via Hawaii and returned through Tahiti and the trip was really
successful and of course well photographed.
We also took in San Francisco and ate at Fisherman's Wharf then went on to
Las Vegas where the nights were colourful with all the neon signs but
freezing cold.
We took in a show at the Flamingo with all the beautiful but topless Las
Vegas dancing girls.
Kirsten turned to me in surprise and said "Uncle..those girls have got no
clothes on..!!"
But it was a brillant and colourful show.
We stayed at the Circus Circus Hotel where you had to stumble pass all the
slot machines but up in the air in the foyer were actually trapeze artists
leaping from swing to swing.
Our trip back through Papeete was drowned out with rain and apart from
that one could not afford to do much as things were devilishly expensive
there.
However, I did bring Kirsten home safely to her mum and had movies to
show everyone where we had been.
Kirsten would later work with me at the Zenith.
By that time I had incorporated Eastern fancy goods into the shop and this
was making up most of the business but required lots of attention and
restocking. This we both did on Saturday evenings.
Kirsten would polish all the brassware and refill the incense racks.
Then we had the linoed floor to scrub and reseal and this could take hours.
We sometimes would not get home until after midnight.
Me and Snoopy were to remain close buddies until the time I married at the
age of 45.
By then she was 14….
and was to be the bridesmaid at my wedding.
It was a great period of my life and being a 'Dad' without having the real
responsibilities of one was a wonderful experience.
One evening because I was concerned over her welfare I showed Kirsten
some self defence techniques.
I was in her bedroom next to the bed.
I showed her how to grip my collar with one hand and use the leverage with
the other.
She said "Like this...??" and the next thing I knew I was lifted off my feet
and crashed on to the bed.
I guess that exemplified my time with my nephews and nieces and especially
Kirsten who gave me lots of experience with kids and how to handle my
own later on.
They can really flip you and make life so much fun and fulfilling.
Kirsten now lives with Nigel Murphy the family historian and honorary Chun.
They are the ones responsible for me writing all the articles of my
yesteryears.
Perhaps one of the most valuable things in life is to bring back the
yesterdays for people because in the end memories are all we have.
