Open Writing

Shopping day for most of our regulars was very much a social event of the week. They were able to catch up on the local gossip with our staff Irene and Pat and the other shoppers. Jan and I made a point of getting to know each customer to try and satisfy there individual needs. We greeted everyone as they entered the store. Tourists who came to Woolgoolga for their annual holidays also appreciated the personal treatment they were given and made a point of bringing us up to date with their news each time they returned.

My first major task was to relay the shop, once again using the principles and priorities in which Woolworths had trained me. I used the three-day Easter weekend to change the layout of the fixtures. While the children enjoyed the break with Jan's parents Jan and I, with the help of a couple of broom-handles as rollers, repositioned and organized the heavy wooden shelving. Much to Jan’s surprise, we had relayed cleaned and filled the whole store before opening on the Tuesday morning. During the next few weekends I emptied, repainted and reorganized one set of shelving after the other until the shop took on a fresh new look.

We levelled an area in the back yard of the shop and brought over our caravan and its annex from the Beach Caravan Park where we had been staying.

I bought a second-hand lawn mower and cut down the knee-high grass and weeds. Unwittingly and unfortunately, I killed a number of small harmless grass snakes in the process.

We had a portable shower installed in the corner of the storeroom downstairs and used the outside pan toilet. I never stopped complaining about this foul-smelling facility. Our accommodation was somewhat crowded at times, but we coped as best we could. For the first time since our children were born, both Jan and I were able to greet them when they arrived home from school. We hung a curtain over the plate-glass window in front of the unused shop (the adjoining wall of two of the original three shops had been removed to enlarge the grocery store), and this became our living room. We lived under these conditions for over a year.

As for the shop, gradually over the next eight years we added new refrigeration, fruit and vegetable shelving and an electronic cash register. I also introduced a whole new range of products to keep the local people in Woolgoolga from doing their weekly shopping in Grafton, and later, Coffs Harbour.

In February 1972 as a consolation to my parents and to ease my sense of loss, we made the very courageous decision to send our eleven-year old daughter Jennifer on her own to visit her grandparents and other members of my family in Vancouver. She had to make the journey before she turned twelve as we would only have to pay half the cost of the airfare. Another factor in our decision was that we did not want her to be exposed too early to the temptations of senior students going to High School in Coffs Harbour. At that time Woolgoolga did not have a high school. We decided to have her repeat her final Primary school year in Woolgoolga before enrolling her at Orara High School the following year. It was a decision we never regretted.

While Jennifer was away in Vancouver Rodney picked up a staphylococcus infection and had to be taken to Sydney where he was hospitalized. I was left with David, the house and the business to manage plus Fred our Labrador dog.

In her letters home, Jennifer kept saying how much she missed Fred. Rodney too could not wait to get back to Woolgoolga see his beloved dog again. Both of them did not know that shortly after they had left Woolgoolga, probably in trying to find them, Fred was run over and killed on the road in front of our house. I had the distressing job of disposing of our much-loved dog's body. This was not a happy time for any of us. To soften the blow when Jan, Jennifer and Rodney returned home, especially for Rodney who had been very ill, we arranged for another Golden Labrador pup. Rodney had the privilege of naming him. He chose the name Chester, after a rather disagreeable boy called Chester in his hospital ward in Sydney.

When Jennifer had left for Vancouver, she looked just like any other young country schoolgirl with pigtails and a school uniform. Jan and I barely recognized the smart young woman that stepped off the plane in Coffs Harbour two months later. Jennifer arrived wearing a black mini-skirt with a close-fitting red top, a chic short haircut and a Canadian accent. She gave every appearance of being a sophisticated modern young lady. The impression did not last, as she soon reverted to her sweet unaffected self. My sister's influence was only temporary.

Because Jennifer attended Orara High School in Coffs Harbour, we were able to send both Rodney and David there instead of the new untried high school in Woolgoolga.

© Clement 2007