This month I share an email I received from Oriel Ridge, of her memories of the local area. Sometimes, these days, we are busy and don’t have time to sit and chat with our local residents who have been here before we were a twinkle in someone’s eye. So, I thought I’d share some of Oriel’s memories. Enjoy.
I was interested in your article about the Indian Hawkers in the district as I had first-hand experience. An Indian Hawker used to come to my parents’ farm, Warrengong. This would have been in the early 1940s. His name was Gunda Singh and he travelled in a covered cart or wagon pulled by a horse with a Blue Heeler dog tied on behind. He came quite frequently at first. He would set up his cart in the exact same position each time and there was a lot of Giddy-up and whoos until he got it just right.
Then he would come to the house and sit on the kitchen floor and open his old battered port, so to do the right thing, Mom would always buy a shirt or a tablecloth or some such item. He would say I buy one pound, sell em 2 pounds, make 1% profit. He would make us a Johnny cake, similar to damper, on his fire and give us one but it was as tough as old leather, but we said it was nice. Mum being the generous person that she was always offered him vegetables from the garden and eggs which he would very seldom accept because I think that he had a fear of white man’s food which he considered poison. Every morning after dad had completed the milking he would provide Gunda with a pannikin of milk.
Us kids had a slight fear of him for he was so different from us and from a distance we would watch and see him take his turban off and be brushing his long dark hair while he was chanting in his own language. One time he arrived with a foal trotting alongside the cart. This foal was full of mischief and somehow tore the tarpaulin that was kept over the header to protect it from the weather. Dad said "I am not very happy about this Gunda" and Gunda Singh replied, “Him is a cheeky bugger”. Gunda would stay for anything up to six weeks at a time and Dad would say "are you going to go today?" (hint, hint) BUT he would say, “no the wind and rain come up, not good for the harness”.
Then over time he did not visit and I had thought that he had gone to “Hawker Heaven”. All of this was confirmed yesterday by my cousin Mavis amongst much laughter during the reminiscing. She further elucidated insisting that Gunda would occasionally bring extras with him, thus there was a party of turbined Indians around the camp fire waiting for the Johnny cakes to cook.
I also remember the Rawlies man coming to visit and his products were very good, there was also another person from the company called Watkins selling similar health products.
Oriel Ridge, via Fiona Beckett