Birthday parties

I can only remember a few birthday parties and most of those were in Wellington.  I do have photos of both my first and second birthdays, though.  I see my first birthday was celebrated in Wellington at my grandparents’ house although I think we had moved to Havelock North by then.  I cannot remember it of course.

My second birthday was in Havelock North and I can see from this photo that I invited all my stuffed toys to it!

There is only one party that I really remember in Hastings so I am wondering if perhaps we did not go to them.  There was someone in my class who had a birthday in July (mid-winter) and an older sister whose birthday was only a few days away from hers.  They had joint parties.  The one I remember was probably when I was six or seven and all I can really remember is the food.  Children’s birthday parties always had food at the centre of them and we used to play games but there was no ‘commercial’ or ‘bought in’ entertainment that I can remember in Hastings.

There was also my cousin’s birthday party that took place on one of my trips to Wellington.  My outstanding memory of that is that one girl wore a white dress.  There was also one white balloon and this girl was insistent that she had it.  Most of these girls became my classmates when we moved to Wellington but at that point I knew none of them. 

Memories are clearer for the parties I attended from the ages of about nine to eleven.  After that we abandoned the idea of a ‘party’ and started having just three or four friends for a meal and a trip to the cinema.  Suitable films had to be found but Wellington had several cinemas so that was no problem.  Interestingly, one of these stands out in my memory.  It was for the same cousin as the party above.  We must have been about twelve and her father insisted that we saw a film that would ‘stay with us’ rather than the Norman Wisdom comedy her mother had in mind.  So we went to ‘Friendly Persuasion’.  Her father was quite right as I have never forgotten it.  It is a story about Quakers in the American Civil war.  I remember it as quite violent in places but we learnt a lot about the Quakers, the civil war and even American scenery.  I remember there were lots of covered bridges that people crossed in wagons.  And scenes of Quaker Meetings.

My father was brilliant at organising children’s parties.  I put that down to his experience in the Boy Scouts combined with the fact that he was artistic and very creative.  These parties reached a pinnacle in 1954 when both Margaret and I were allowed a ‘fancy dress’ party.  They had themes: mine was Alice in Wonderland and the experience began as people arrived.  My father placed a rug over the front door opening so everyone had to bend down to get into the house.  My father had a lot of books with games in them that he owned because of the scouts so this formed the entertainment.  The birthday tea was also part of the theme.  We owned a mould for jellies in the form of a rabbit.  My mother used to make a form of white blancmange and this was set on a large meat serving plate. The rabbit had eyes of some sort and then there were ‘mushrooms’ set in the grass.  These were meringues that had cocoa powder covering the undersides and stalks of apple.

Everyone came in fancy dress which was home-made.  Two or three people came as Alice which we considered a bit of a cheat as you could just wear your usual party dress for that.  But there were plenty of other characters as you can see from the photograph.  I am kneeling second from the right, Margaret is kneeling on the left and our little sister is standing next to her.

Other people had access to film projectors and showing films at home became a popular way of entertaining the children.  We sat in darkened rooms on the floor and the father (usually) worked the projector.  I think people must have hired the films.

Finally, here is a photo of a party that was not a birthday party but was fancy dress.  Again my father’s creativity ensured we had wonderful costumes.  The occasion was the children’s Christmas party at Government House.   I went as a Christmas tree with parcels stuck all over a green costume cut to resemble a pine tree.  Margaret was ‘Mary, Mary, quite contrary’ with a watering can hat and rows of cockle shells (real shells) and silver bells around the skirt.  My mother had to make both these costumes, of course.  It was a very large party for the children and grandchildren of Wellington’s establishment figures.  We were invited because of my grandparents.  The party was held on the Government House lawn and my main memory is of the lolly scramble in which we were all trying to pick up sweets. Lolly scrambles were common at this sort of event.