Hi there
Above: 12 Manley Tce. Recent picture
When I was a small child, maybe kindergarten age or earlier, my parents and I moved in with my grandparents at 12 Manley Terrace, in Newtown. It was one of the oldest streets in Wellington, with several beautiful turn-of-the-century two-storey houses and an old closed-down factory that may have been a flour production place, around which we kids would play.. The old book "Streets of My City" (F L Irvine-Smith, 1948) listed the history of every street in Wellington up to when the book was printed. Manley Terrace was in the book.
My grandparents' eating area, off a tiny added-on kitchen, held a huge wooden dining table. I remember my mother telling me that she had her tonsils taken out by the visiting doctor on that table.
There was a fireplace with a stool at each side of the fire.
At one family gathering around that table, my ever-so proud grandmother declared, "Lorraine knows a song-"
"Ooooooh.. " Four aunties, four uncles, two grand-parents, three cousins, three of my grandparents' boarders, my parents, and even the dog, Sandy, perked up his ears.
I remember marching proudly up to the far stool, and clambering up onto it. My first public appearance!
My voice rang out -
"I'm a little teapot
short and stout
Here is my handle
Here is my spout -
Tip me over, pour me out..."
My cousins, with tremendous glee, still like to remind me, and others, of my theatrical debut. I am so embarrassed.
