Stephens Oliver Amy. Stephens Oliver Amy. Stephens Oliver Amy. Stephens Oliver Amy.
STEPHENS O.L. & A.E (Bulla and Nell)
1950-1970
Written by Moya Blunsden (nee Stephens)
Gorgeous, living, caring and hardworking parents are the first thoughts that come to my mind when thinking of my childhood in Nyabing. A loving, happy home, being with strong foundations to our very blessed childhood. Our father, Bulla Stephens, worked tirelessly for both his family and his district.
Front of the store.
The General Store and Post Office, which Mum and he owned, kept the family busy. The telephone switchboard was manually handled by our family and staff, between the hours of 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday. This was a very busy part of the Post Office section which quite often had calls piling up to get through on trunk calls on our one and only outside line.
Bulla & Nell’s first truck for delivering fuel to outlying farms.
Party lines were quite common in the early days when more than one person shared the telephone line. The good part was those who shared the party line, could phone each other free of charge. The downside was if the party line member wished to have a lengthy conversation the other members of that party line could not use their phone until the line was free again. This must have been quite frustrating. I don’t think today’s patience would stand that kind of test, having now been spoilt with mobile phones. In those days, the operator interrupted every three minutes with “Three Minutes – Are you Extending?” to find out if the caller was continuing on with the call, and charged accordingly.
Mum and Dad were very active in the sporting activities. Dad helped to reform the football club (around 1951) in the area. He would pick up the players, take them to the football and then run them home again. He also coached many teams. It was quite a common, if the team had a popular win, for Dad to invite everyone home to celebrate. Mum very capably obliged with food and hospitality. She often had all the football players’ jumpers to wash, remembering there were no washing machines in the early days. So, as well as working in the shop and Post Office, plus three children (Keith, Robert and Moya), and a husband to care for, mums hands were always busy. Mum was a lovely cook and an excellent housekeeper. She also taught sewing classes at the local school.
Dad also had a hand in the formation of the basketball, cricket and tennis clubs. Apart from sports clubs, he helped with the formation of the St Johns Ambulance Association in Nyabing and in November 1986, he was awarded an Honorary Life Member of the Nyabing Sub centre. Dad was also awarded a community policing award in 1993 for “Services to Community Policing in the Sporting Area”. This being for helping young people learn the principles of good sportsmanship. Of course, Mum was always right behind Dad supporting him in many ways.
Many farmers were struggling in those early years, and it was not uncommon for Mum and Dad to provide credit for farmers until the next harvest, to help them feed their families. The shop in those days was quite different to today’s streamlined businesses. My brothers and I helped in the weighing up of potatoes, sugar, flour, split peas etc and also bottling the methylated spirits and kerosene. Other early memories I have is about tobacco rationing. Most things came in bulk. Biscuits arrived in large tins, not in packets as they do today. It used to be a feast time when the big tins of chocolate coated biscuits during the winter time. The chocolate coated biscuits were not available during the summer time as they would arrive melted.
The once a week train brought out fresh bread on Thursdays. This would all need to be wrapped from a big roll of brown paper and then tied from a big ball of string, which was conveniently position above our heads. The farmers mostly came to town on a Thursday for their weekly grocery order. The orders were quite often phoned through before the farmers came to town, so we were able to have their groceries ready for them. Sometimes the farmer was expecting the farmhand to arrive on the Thursday train. Because the train would arrive early in the morning, these farmhands would sometimes have to wait to be picked up, so Dad would hustle them up and take them over to our house where mum would make them a cooked breakfast.
It was a big day when we got our first Ice-cream fridge in the shop. Interval time during our monthly picture night was another time we opened the shop, and ice cream was on top of everyone’s list. Pictures were shown in the Town Hall and it wasn’t uncommon for the night to be interrupted by a projector breaking down in the middle of the film. This was usually rectified fairly quickly and the movie continued. This was usually followed by an applause.
I can remember staying at my friends farm, Ruth and Lila Langley, and coming into the pictures in their horse and cart. We had a hessian bag wrapped around a brick, which had been heated to keep us warm. This was very effective, just as long as you didn’t knock the hessian bag off the hot brick, if you did this; you soon put the hessian bag back on the brick!!
Slim Dusty and his wife Joy came to town and treated us all to a really good fun night in the Town Hall. They came back to our home after the show, and mum provided her usual tasty supper. This was such a buzz. Another show person who visited Nyabing and came back to our house was a hypnotist named Rocky Martin. One of those acts he performed was being blindfolded then walking through the hall amongst obstacles placed in his path and not once faltering. He explained to us that he kept himself in a darkened room for six weeks to develop his sixth sense. Some of the acts performed that night by local hypnotised volunteers were quite hilarious. He was a very clever man.
Nell with Bulla with Laurene in the background aged about 4.
Dad and Mum had the General Store for sale, and sold to Jack Gannaway with a takeover date of January 1970. They then retired to Albany.
Keith married Shirley Batt, moved to a farm at Kuringup and raised five children; Kerryn, Darryl, Laurene, Brent and Graham. Kerryn still lives with his family in Nyabing today.
Robert married Dorothy Dye, and they had five children; Gayle, Neil, Jane, Jason and Michael.
Moya married Jim Coutts and farmed in Pingrup. They were the first couple to be married in the Pingrup Church in 1960. We had three daughters; Leanne, Donna and Janelle. We were only blessed with our third daughter Janelle for thirteen weeks. Leanne is a High School teacher, had three children (two sons and a daughter) and has one grandson. Donna has three children (two sons and a daughter). She is married to a Pastor in Albany. They have a grand-daughter and are expecting another grandchild in May 2012.
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