McCarthy, Rona Iris Interview

Today is the 26 August 2014. I’m interviewing Mrs Rona McCarthy. Good morning Mrs McCarthy. The first thing I’ll ask you is your full name?

Rona Iris McCarthy.

And your date of birth and where were you born?

22 August 19.. oh, gosh.

It’s a while ago anyway. And your father and mother, what was their name and what were their occupations?   [Her maiden name : Rona Tong]

My Dad was a cabinet maker/undertaker and he worked for his father and they had a business in Karamu Road as the undertakers, and Dad worked at the workshop in the back. They had a 2 storey building at the back and that’s where their workshop was.

Where did your grandparents come from?

I don’t know.

They weren’t Irish or English?

More English I would say.

Yes. Now your childhood, you were born in Hastings and grew up. Which schools did you go to ?

When I was born we lived in Haumoana and I was aged 5 years to go to Haumoana School.  And after this I got to the age we used to walk from the housing area up into the back hill where the school was. We used to walk up there and back again in the rain and in the paddocks.

Well that was a quite a long distance wasn’t it?

Oh, a fair distance yes.

Well Haumoana must have been a very quiet little village in those days.

Oh, it was, it was.

That would have been in the early …

Mick Thomson, he went to school with me out at Haumoana.

Your family activities when you were out at Haumoana ?

Well, we were made to take part in sport even if it was only for a quarter of an hour and then of course walking home all that distance from school, that was all exercise.

So what activities did you take part in?  Did you do any running at school or basketball ?

We didn’t partake in very much actually in the younger days but as we got older we did, we used to play what sport was going.

At some stage you would have moved on to … did you go to high school?

After I’d finished at Haumoana we came into town and Dad worked for his father, and we got into all the sport in town.  But yes my brother and I were very keen sports people.

And did Hastings have an organised sports activity going on at that time?  Did they have a sports club?

Not to the extent that there is now of course. Yes, we struggled at Nelson Park to try and keep it going and a lot of the children as they changed the areas where they lived go to different clubs and then they built Nelson Park and all the sports then took part at Nelson Park.

Well, you wouldn’t have had a proper running track those days would you?

Yes.

Oh, did you?   It’s been there a long time?

Yes. But it was not the surface that it is there now.

Was it asphalt?

No, it was only grass.

And so obviously this became quite something you enjoyed doing. Were you a runner or hurdler or…

I was a sprinter to start with and I sort of – looking through magazines and that and I came across a girl from South Africa. South Africa was the only country in the world where women hurdled. So Frank Sharpley from Hastings, he was a hurdler and of course I always watched him and got itchy feet, I wanted to do that but I had no inclination of how to do it and what height the hurdle and the distance etc, and I mentioned it to my Dad and he was a keen sportsman and we almost used to live at the library looking for information because we heard that South Africa was the only country in the world where women hurdled. And of course you’ve got to get the exact measurements from the start to the first hurdle and in between and to the finish. Anyhow, after months going to the library, Frank Sharpley, he was a hurdler here, so we got a little bit of information, one hurdle and then the next hurdle and the distance etc, and in the finish the Club got a whole row of hurdles for me and that started hurdling off in New Zealand and I was then, when I’d had a bit of practise, invited to Dunedin to give an exhibition. It took me 2 days to get there and then I was invited to Wanganui and then Rotorua to give an exhibition.

And then the trials came up for the Commonwealth Games, they were in Wellington of course. Mum and Dad went down to them. However, I got on the mark and got set and I went head over heels didn’t I, and Dad said to Mum, we come 200 miles to see her fall over a bloody hurdle, she can do that at home. I’ll never forget that. However, I got up and they massaged the parts of me that was hurt and they said I was to go in the final. Of course I won that.

Were there any South Africans running against you?

No, only New Zealand girls. And those that I had visited the area, tried to coach them previously, they gained a lot of experience from it.

Obviously you ran again or hurdled again?

Oh yes, for a long time.

Did you go overseas?

No. The games were overseas in Sydney which took us 3 days to get there. We had to go by boat.

So how did you get on in Sydney?

Oh, not bad. I got third.

So how long did you actually hurdle then?

A few years after that. I was doing a bit of coaching.

So you only hurdled.

I sprinted as well. I liked sprinting.

A lot of us didn’t realise these things were happening then. We thought a lot of things didn’t happen until later in the ’30s and ’40s but they were going well in advance of that.

That’s right. And then basketball. I was chosen for New Zealand for basketball but unfortunately we played 9 a side and Australia played 7 a side and New Zealand wanted to know how to play 7 a side, so a team was chosen and I was chosen in that team and nearly ready to go and they cancelled the trip. I’ve got a photo there of all the team ready to go.

Oh, what a shame. So you didn’t ever play Australia?

No, I never played Australia.

Is it still 9 a side?

No, it’s 7 a side and they’re trying to bring in another third too now so it will be interesting to see how that’s going to work.

Do you follow our netball girls?

Oh yes.

They’re quick.

Quick all right. To me it’s getting a little bit too much, too fast.

And the shouldering and the knocking them…

Pushing, yes, we didn’t do that. We weren’t allowed that.

Well you could be penalised for that couldn’t you?  And so you did that until you were married and played basketball?

My husband was going out to football as I was coming home from netball – or basketball I should say. He was a Hawke’s Bay man.

Which club did he play for?

High School Old Boys.

And did he ever play for Hawke’s Bay?

I can’t recall whether he played for Hawke’s Bay or not.

So then at some stage you were married and what did your husband do?

He still carried on football.

You were married when he went to the war?

Oh yes.

He went to the war and came back and so you said you had …

So I lived by myself all those years and had a big section at the back of me from the other street coming in.

A lot of us don’t understand what it was like for people to all of a sudden have to live on their own because their husband … not knowing whether they were coming back, probably not getting news about them. Some of my uncles went but my own father was too old, I was too young and so we just didn’t know about the war. So you had your daughter at home with you during ..?

No, she wasn’t born yet. I only had one child.

Does she have a business locally? Whereabouts is ..?

She’s an agent for something. I don’t know what she does. She goes visiting different firms and that.

Now I missed one. When you left school did you go to work and where did you work?

First of all I worked for Mademoiselle Bignon, a French Dressmaker.  Where the courthouse is now, that was a big section and there was quite a big house on it. Only one house on that big section which took almost the whole block, and she had a dressmaking business and of course I was always a keen sewer and knitter and she advertised for somebody so I thought here goes I’ll go and be interviewed. She was a French dressmaker. Anyhow I got the job, and I worked there for her for many years. I was young and had more things in my life, dates etc, and she was in business for a long time and very well known and from there I went to  – I had several jobs – Bon Marche. Bon Marche wanted to start up an alteration business – you know, the people who buy a frock too big and want it taken in and I would do all that work. From there I went to Noonan’s.   I was at Noonan’s for quite a while and then I went to Jack Charters’.

Yes. I used to buy all my fishing gear from Jack Charters. A lot of people wouldn’t even know the name Jack Charters now. I don’t know what happened to young John.

He married and had a family. He’s left Hawke’s Bay. And I sort of stayed there with him until things got a little bit too much for me with this and that, sporting life and I couldn’t do everything. I had to give Jack Charters up mainly because we had a very heavy downpour and it flooded the shop and of course the materials were all wound up on a cardboard rod and the rain got into the shop and it started sopping it right through all the material. I had left prior to that, only a couple of weeks, anyhow I got a phone call would I come back again and help him with all this work so I was with him for quite a while.  And time went by and I thought it was about time I retired and then I was keen on sport. I took that on more seriously as coaching with all the different clubs and that, helping out there. But I only had one child, that was her that rang then. Then we sort of … She got into the way – one day she couldn’t go with Mum so she’d go with Dad and a lot of the other men were the same. Their wives were the same and they had to have the kids but it was a very very busy life.

Did you travel much around New Zealand?

No.

Did you go overseas at all?

No.

Were there other interests you had in the community?

Well it was a mixture actually. I was in one thing for summer and another thing for winter and I took up bowls in the summer and I had my athletics in the summer and I had my netball in the winter and my basketball then, and actually the netball took up all my winter and athletics took up all my summer.

So you’ve seen a lot of changes haven’t you?

Oh, definitely. And not only that – in the early days of athletics the likes of Waipawa, Wallingford etc, country sports, and they were swamped with competitors and it was an old track, nothing more.

Well, I suppose that was the only outlet in Hawke’s Bay. We used to go to rifle clubs, smallbore rifle clubs at Wallingford, Wanstead, Dannevirke, Haumoana.

Yeah, all those names.

Maraekakaho in the little community halls and of course behind the community hall. That’s where they had the sports days.

That was the initial part of opening of the sports in your area. And not only that it was an interest for the country people.

And of course the other thing you would have known growing up here were the dances.

You’d go to a dance on the bar of a bike. I’ve done that. [Laughter]

I know. You’d go to a dance and take a girl home. She would be wheeling her bike and you would be wheeling yours. All of those old country places. Dusty old halls some of them but we made our own fun didn’t we?

Well, you had to.

In Hastings, there used to be a dance at the Buffalo Hall on Wednesday night. The Premier. There were dances everywhere. Even though we only had bikes we still got there.

Yes, that’s right.

When your husband passed away … how long ago was that? Some time ago … and so you lived on your own and then you moved – how long ago was that?

Two and a half. Nearly three years I’ve been here.

Yes, it’s lovely isn’t it? It’s another page in your life.

Oh, definitely.

And it takes the pressure off. You haven’t got the pressures and if you need help they’re here at your fingertips.

You just go and ask. The only trouble is distance to go into town. That’s the bugbear.

We’re back to almost having a bike. We’ve been the full circle.

I’ve been the full circle all right.