My friend Kenny wrote this engaging, nostalgic piece about his mum’s cooking, which made me also remember what it was like growing up in NZ in the 1970s. Like Kenny, I’m from Dunedin originally and so is my mum, though I was brought up in Auckland from the ages of 7-9 and 12-17.
Pauline, Russell and Jean celebrate a combined 240 years!
Bennie and his father have just returned from a quickie four-day visit to New Zealand – to New Plymouth in the North Island region of Taranaki, to be precise.
The ostensible reason for the visit was to help Bennie’s Grandma, Pauline Ethel Weir, celebrate her 80th birthday.
But it was more than that, as it was a triple-banger 80th birthday party taking in also the milestone’s of Pauline’s brother-in-law Russell (Kenny’s uncle), and his partner Jean.
And it was far more than that again, as relatives and friends flew or bussed in from all over New Zealand and Australia.
It was a family reunion of the likes never before experienced by myself, let alone Bennie!
Over three organised events on the Saturday and the Sunday and more informal get-togethers, tales and family lore were exchanged and rolled out.
Relatives and neighbours…
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The Crayon Files 
What a thoughtful journal. We all should remember all the food our Mom’s made for us – just like Kenny and every children’s of moms who “cooked” I think my Mom too was the best cook there ever was for me.
Yes, Mum and Dad always served nutritious food, grilling low-fat meat and serving lots of vegetables. My dad did a lot of cooking, too. He was into what we thought of as more “exotic” food back then. He liked to do Chinese stir-fries, rice, and Italian pasta. When he was a student in Dunedin, NZ, in the late 1950s, he said they ate mostly rice and cabbage with rabbit that they shot themselves. As a child, he lived in an area near the sea with plentiful wild crayfish, and on a farm with lots of chickens, so as an adult, he didn’t like either of those things!