Grandfather Thomas McGoldrick taken back in the late '20's or early '30's.

These were drought and depression years in Australia but they managed to hang on to what they had only just.

I read one of Grandfather's tax returns and see that they broke even...and the reason they did was they had no debts such as farm machinery to be paid off, fertiliser or other such potions. They ate well, worked hard and played often.

We have forgotten more that what we ever knew in a way, and it is so hard to back track, not to these times which were often cruel and intolerant, but to keep the essence of commonsense that we seemed to thrown out...like throwing out the baby with the bathwater...

In letting go of the bad things that existed in the past we also let go of the decent good ethical things...like courtesy, manners COMMON SENSE...ah! we all know it.... but so hard to unwind yourself from all the sticky threads which seem to have quietly and gently stuck themselves to our lives so that so much time is taken up wasted in acquiescing to the multitudes of new laws and governance's we seem to be having imposed upon us these days.

You can see that these people (my mother is the baby) didn't have much, but I never saw Grandfather come for a visit, without a suit coat and tie... even if in summer he did peel the coat off after he arrived.

Mum's mother (holding her was to die a year after this was taken...and was unwell here) She looks worked to death in this but she wasn't. Grandfather was a gentle man and mum was the only child. He never remarried and took care of our mother till she married herself 20 years later. Grandfather had been mid forties when mum was born so this was not as if he was young.

Mum said he grieved for Vera all his life, and had many photos of her which he had taken. Vera played the piano and been a teacher (music) before mum was born.

The lives of the small people are often filled with much more appreciation of beauty and sensitivity than people from other classes would ever dream.... and this is more often the case than not... just a thought train.