Stans’ Legacy - My Fathers Impact on his 13 Children

Written by Ron A. Welsh


I will always have a clear picture of his face etched in my mind. As clear as a bright spring day in Geelong,repparttar city in south eastern Australia where may father (Stan) and mother (Elsie) raised myself and my twelve brothers and sisters.

Our home in Geelong (lovingly referred to as “55”) wasrepparttar 100518 envy of hordes of friends we kids accumulated. “55” was always full of activity, it wasrepparttar 100519 meeting place forrepparttar 100520 whole neighborhood and it was also full of genuine family love, largely because of Dad.

I recall his high forehead withrepparttar 100521 shock of strong, thick gray hair atop his smiling face, so full of character. That nerve shattering, stern look;repparttar 100522 infamous querying glance overrepparttar 100523 top of his dark rimmed glasses;repparttar 100524 easy smile and quick wit. The sheer presence of a man so many people had a great respect for. He was without doubtrepparttar 100525 most profound influence on my life. If I live to be halfrepparttar 100526 man he was I will have achieved much. A formidable man in so many respects, and yet, a simple man with simple tastes.

I remember Dads’ work as a “wharfie”, a stevedore inrepparttar 100527 Port of Geelong where he worked hard and was admired by his peers as a man with great integrity and genuine humility. After several years “onrepparttar 100528 wharf” he became Secretary, and later President ofrepparttar 100529 WWF (waterside workers federation). He served his members’ interests well, torepparttar 100530 point that many considered him their guardian, and in fact he ended up retrieving several from jail inrepparttar 100531 wee small hours. They nicknamed him “The Mirror” because Dad always said “I’ll look into it” when one of his charges raised an issue. He could easily have been “Father” Stan. He had that sort of sincere quality to him, though he was no saint.

Dad was almost always a fair man, with a genuine concern for his fellow man. Some of his surreptitious acts of kindness overrepparttar 100532 years only surfaced after he passed away in ’81 with colon cancer atrepparttar 100533 age of sixty one. One time he partially mortgaged our family home, packed torepparttar 100534 rafters with kids, to help a struggling wharfie and his family. There were also many times when he instinctively didrepparttar 100535 simple but caring and thoughtful thing for people he hardly knew.

I remember Dads’ justice as clearly as I remember his face. He had an uncanny way of knowing who was inrepparttar 100536 wrong, despiterepparttar 100537 outright lies and preposterous exaggerations we heaped on him in explanation of our frequent sins. Of course he saw throughrepparttar 100538 bumph, and dispensed his justice accordingly. No “trial” or denial was tolerated when he knew he was right. The amazing thing was, he was almost always right!

Dad and Mum had other rebels to contend with as well as me. We were by no means perfect children. We had inherited his spunk. Some of us had mischievous natures sufficient to test any parent, even one withrepparttar 100539 wisdom of Solomon. He somehow allowed our spirits to thrive while steering us through those formative years, and he did that with all thirteen of us.

He was justifiably a very proud man and he made sure we knew he was very proud of us all, as he would often tell us so. His was a family which revolved around him, and he wasrepparttar 100540 strong center ofrepparttar 100541 family unit. Still, how he and Mum managed to feed, house, educate, guide, correct and advise us, and keep us all onrepparttar 100542 “straight and narrow”, I will never know.

Of course we had our chores, from washing and drying dishes to cleaning school shoes and collecting eggs fromrepparttar 100543 chook-pen inrepparttar 100544 yard, to chopping great piles of wood and buildingrepparttar 100545 fires to warm our bones on those cold Victorian winter mornings. There were many times when Dad would drag my brothers and I out of bed early on Saturday mornings to hitch uprepparttar 100546 trailer and head for his mates’ place inrepparttar 100547 bush to collect that firewood.

This wood collection ritual scaredrepparttar 100548 living daylights out of me. I wasn’t too keen on spiders andrepparttar 100549 wood we collected was riddled with them. It was even hairier when one such hairy monster ran frantically down a log hanging out ofrepparttar 100550 open fireplace to escape immolation. My younger sisters, Carol and Christine used to shriek fit to pierce our eardrums, as only little girls can.

One time, after we had collected enough wood to sagrepparttar 100551 old wooden trailers’ axle, Dad decided we should collect mushrooms for dinner inrepparttar 100552 surrounding paddocks. Mum did wonderful things with fresh mushrooms and we didn’t mindrepparttar 100553 chore. It was a beautiful day and I was glad to be clear ofrepparttar 100554 tarantulas’ I knew were itching to crawl intorepparttar 100555 back seat ofrepparttar 100556 car to get at me, so off I set into a paddock amongrepparttar 100557 sheep.

I was about ten atrepparttar 100558 time, inrepparttar 100559 middle of a huge paddock covered in lush, green grass. I had been bending to pick a fine specimen of a mushroom when Dad called me loudly fromrepparttar 100560 fence, “Ronald”.

I merely turned my head in his direction without standing, and was promptly head-butted by a charging ram!

I was laid flat out flat on my stomach, with my face in a still warm “cow pattie” when he came running over to make sure I had survivedrepparttar 100561 onslaught. When I came to and he saw I would survive, his concern was over-ridden by tears of laughter as he hugged me hard. Eventually my tears dried and my head stopped aching. I was more peeved atrepparttar 100562 apparent fact thatrepparttar 100563 ram hadn’t felt a thing.

To my embarrassment I heard him relate that story many times to his mates, but it was worthrepparttar 100564 embarrassment because it always brought on more of his infectious laughter.

Dads’ relationships with various Catholic priests was overrepparttar 100565 years was always a source of great fun for us. Various priests used to call at our modest house at “55”, usually on Friday nights, with a packet of fish and chips wrapped in newspaper under one arm, and a few bottles of beer underrepparttar 100566 other. They would spendrepparttar 100567 evening joking with Dad & Mum and teasing us kids, telling jokes and laughing a lot.

Of course,repparttar 100568 inevitable Irish singalong would ensue. Dads’ rendition of “Irish Eyes” kept us enthralled and hadrepparttar 100569 priests reminiscing about Eyre. We were so proud that our Dad had such a great voice and with priests as friends to boot. We were in awe that he was held in such respect by these men ofrepparttar 100570 cloth, and we were always entertained withrepparttar 100571 humorous stories and friendly banter. We also leaned priests were very human. I sometimes thought that perhaps they envied Dad his family, and I know they respectedrepparttar 100572 man forrepparttar 100573 way he conducted himself and his life. The night one ofrepparttar 100574 priests told Mum (a converted Methodist) that there was a place reserved for her in heaven because she had borne so many wonderful children “into Gods’ church” (we were all christened Catholics) she laughed and said “right, you won’t be seeing me at church anymore then” Dad laughed fit to cry. Mum, true to her word, didn’t turn up at church much after that, only for weddings and funerals.

I also recall Dads’ close relationship with, and reliance on, his good mates. Often, late on Saturday mornings after taking Mum into town for her weekly shopping with a few of us kids in tow, Dad would slip intorepparttar 100575 Corio Hotel. Our sole mission on these outings was to try to con Mum into buying sweets and other such luxuries. We usually failed. She couldn’t afford it and as it was we used to accumulate three trolleys of groceries that seemed to take forever to get throughrepparttar 100576 checkouts.

Unique Baby Names

Written by Michael Barrows


What’s in a name? Er…well, everything, really! Of course your little bundle of joy isrepparttar sweetest, most beautiful thing you have ever seen and you want to choose a name that reflects his/her individuality, spirituality, uniqueness and all-round special-ness.

But wait a minute!

Remember thatrepparttar 100515 unique baby name you choose will help define junior’s life - how they are viewed and accepted - for many, many years. What sounds cute and original for a 5-year-old, may not sound so funky for a 15-year-old…and what about a 55-year old?

Time was when only celebrities could get away with unique baby names (Zowie Bowie, Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa, etc), but inrepparttar 100516 modern world, individuality is more prized than ever before, and increasingly, this starts with our names. Great idea – but don’t allow a flash of a self-indulgence to condemn your child to a lifetime of problems; it’s reported that a Chinese couple named their child “Saddam Sars” to markrepparttar 100517 current world events atrepparttar 100518 time ofrepparttar 100519 birth! I just hope it means something nice in Mandarin, or Cantonese!

This probably wouldn’t have happened in Germany, where names can only be registered if they recognizable, do not ridiculerepparttar 100520 child and are gender specific. Perhaps there is at least one Chinese child inrepparttar 100521 world, who will grow up wishing he/she were German!

So – assuming you are not German - what should you do if you want to create a unique baby name, without creating too many problems? Here are some tips and some warnings to makerepparttar 100522 process less painful:

1. Anagrams: try creating an anagram of an existing name.

2. Father and Mother: try using derivatives of one ofrepparttar 100523 parents’ names, or a combination of both. Alternatively, how doesrepparttar 100524 mother’s maiden name sound as a first name?

3. Telescoping: try dropping letters from another name or a word, until you get a nice-sounding name.

4. Spelling: an unusual spelling of a common name creates uniqueness. However, remember that your child will be condemned to a lifetime of “…that’s David spelt D..A..Y..V..I..D…” conversations.

5. Pronunciation: another trick is to pronounce a common name in an unusual way. But this can also lead to a lifetime of corrections and explanations – as well as teasing and accusations of pretentiousness.

6. History: do some research into names that were popular in previous eras, but have become less so.

7. Family History: are there any unusual baby names that can be used to honor family members or ancestors? But beware family politics…

8. Nature: many names come fromrepparttar 100525 natural world, particularly flowers (e.g. Rose) and it’s a great source for unique baby names (e.g. Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter Apple).

9. Geography: another useful source of great names - grab an atlas and start searching. David and Victoria Beckham called their first son Brooklyn, which many people think is a cool-sounding name. However, it’s reported thatrepparttar 100526 choice was made because that’s where conception took place. Hmmm, imagine a lifetime in which your name is a constant reminder of your parents having sex! Eeeuuuuww!!!

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