Be Our Guest entry: Letter, Unknown
Current rights
All Rights Reserved
Object detail
Brief Description
Letter to the Be Our Guest competition written by an unidentified correspondent. The author writes about her memories of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.
The author was born in 1941 and writes about the experiences of her mother, as was told to her. Her mother was twenty years old at the time and living at home in Havelock North after returning from Training College in Christchurch. The family lived in what is now Scannell Street. They had come out from England ten years earlier. On the day of the earthquake the writer's brother was home from school with a broken arm and they had to get him out of the house and on to the lawn while he was still groggy. The weather stayed fine over the next few weeks and they made a fireplace in the back garden from all the bricks and slept in a tent with a big tarpaulin.
Everyone had sore throats from the dust and they called themselves gypsies because they were living in tents and were wearing scarves over their hair to keep it clean. The winter that year was long and cold but the author writes that no one in the family was hurt so they were thankful that they had survived.
The author was born in 1941 and writes about the experiences of her mother, as was told to her. Her mother was twenty years old at the time and living at home in Havelock North after returning from Training College in Christchurch. The family lived in what is now Scannell Street. They had come out from England ten years earlier. On the day of the earthquake the writer's brother was home from school with a broken arm and they had to get him out of the house and on to the lawn while he was still groggy. The weather stayed fine over the next few weeks and they made a fireplace in the back garden from all the bricks and slept in a tent with a big tarpaulin.
Everyone had sore throats from the dust and they called themselves gypsies because they were living in tents and were wearing scarves over their hair to keep it clean. The winter that year was long and cold but the author writes that no one in the family was hurt so they were thankful that they had survived.
Production place
Production period
Production technique
Media/Materials description
Typed on unlined paper. Corrections written in blue ink.
Media/Materials
Measurements
In the Be Our Guest Folder No 2.: Height x Width: 335 x 205mm
Classification terms
Subject period
Subject date
03 Feb 1931
Current rights
All Rights Reserved
Credit line
gifted by Art Deco Trust
Other number(s)
m2006/27/147, 36049
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