Tag Archives: Family history

Launch of my memoir.

Me signing books that guests had purchased.

Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Greenmount, was rocking by 3pm last Sunday. Guests started arriving half an hour ahead of the planned opening time, so keen were they to be a part of the launch of my third book, ‘CHILD OF THE WAR YEARS.’

Parking is limited at the centre, but we were lucky to avoid rain and once inside the cosy, historical house, everyone quickly found old and new friends and family to chat with.

Many of my friends helped, heating and serving food, making sure everyone had a wine, soft drink, coffee or tea. They also cleared up afterwards. Music from the 1940s added to the atmosphere and the borrowed microphopne system ensured that everyone could hear us.

Grandson, Andrew, introducing me.

One of the nice things about being old (I’m eighty) is that my grandchildren are all adults and one of them, Andrew, was happy to introduce me and then conduct an interesting, entertaining interview.

This is an extract from his introduction: Everyone here today knows that nothing’s off the cards with Vicki. Just like in real life when you ask her how her dating life is going, her memoir also goes into salacious, explicit detail will all things romance. You might notice that I’m looking a little concerned at this point, wondering what secrets from my past he was about to reveal, but he continued with ‘At one point in the book there’s a particularly eye-watering passage about a nun trying to teach sex-ed.’ 

As the interview progressed, I had to read from this passage, much to everyone’s amusement. Here is a part of that reading:

‘In Holy Matrimony a man and a woman are joined together in a bond of love, to support each other and to fulfil God’s laws, which include having children. A man’s desires make him want to have sex with his wife and she, as a loving, obedient wife, must willingly oblige him.’
That part didn’t exactly thrill me, especially the ‘obedient wife’ bit, but as the lesson progressed and I learnt about various bodily parts that were to be involved in this transaction, I thought it sounded rather fun. Of course I had to pretend to be interested purely in an analytical way, but couldn’t wait to discuss the possibilities with Denyse and Margaret.

Please email me at vicwinmiz@gmail.com if you would like to purcahse a copy. They are only $15 plus postage. I will post a couple of reviews next, so you’ll see that this story is interesting and entertaining.

If you have read it aleady, please add your review in the comments.

The Snowden Ancestry

 

Martha Rouse Snowden (nee Gardiner) was my great grandmother. This photo shows her almost smiling, not like the photo that hung over the fireplace in Granny and Pa Snowden’s house in Subiaco. I was frightened of the woman in that photo and was always on my best behaviour when in that room. She and Christopher Snowden senior arrived in Australia in 1857, making us fourth generation Australians. Pa, the youngest of their five children, was born in Victoria in August 1875, after the sudden death of his father. Having to raise those children on her own would have been difficult. No wonder she grew to look stern and cross.

Pa, the younger Christopher Snowden, was something of a rebel in the family. On leaving school he was articled to an architect, but instead of finishing his training, he moved to Western Australia and worked for much of his life in clerical positions on the railways.

He was a pacifist, refusing to fight in the first world war. Consequently, he got the ‘white feather’ treatment which affected him badly and led to excessive drinking. However, by the time I was born, this was no longer a problem. He was a very loving, caring father and grandfather.