Overview
A trip to town
In the following, Shelley Venimore (née O’Brien) reminisces about family trips to town, a special occasion when the children got to wear their best dresses.
The school would close for one day each term so the local families could go to town. When we were preparing to go, Mum would get up really early. By the time we got up, our shoes would be lined up in the kitchen all polished, and Dad would be impatiently revving up the car and waiting for Mum and the kids to get ready.
A town day involved grocery shopping, Dad’s visit to the stock agent Dalgety's, then a trip to the milk bar. Sandwiches and cakes for lunch, a cup of tea, milkshakes, and little tiny ice-creams. Fresh bread was a luxury. One of the Masterton bakeries made very small barracuda loaves that were about four inches long. This was always a special treat. On stock sale days we were treated to a sit-down meal of fish 'n' chips and fresh bread with fancy butter-curls at the A1 Fish Shop. The butcher and the greengrocer were also on the day’s agenda.
Every couple of years, Mum, Grandma, and the kids would set out for Wellington on the workers' train. We had to get up at about 4.00 a.m. The train always left at 6 minutes to 7 in the morning and we lived an hour away. We walked all over Wellington and always had one activity for the kids: the zoo, museum, cable car, or the botanic gardens. For the rest of the day Mum and Grandma shopped for material and clothes. Tired and exhausted we returned on the workers' train. These annual trips were always a real highlight.