Re: Pat Ritter. Books
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 9:54 pm
'His Life Worth Living' - Page 89:
Chapter 29
After the war I returned to Australia. We were waiting to be shipped home. I was sick and weighed about fifty-six pounds. Before we boarded the ship for our return to Australia, small boats, about six of us in each boat, took us out to the ship. The ship sailed to Darwin and onto Brisbane. I remember landing in Brisbane, people lined the streets shouting and yelling. I was in a jeep and put my hand out to wave when someone put a glass of cold beer into my hand. I don’t drink, so I handed the glass onto my mate next to me.
After being a prisoner of war I spent time in recovery. Eva lived in a flat at Coolangatta to be near me at Greenmount Convalescent Camp. She nursed me back to health. I was very weak and ill. Her love and devotion helped me to cope and to work out what I needed to do.
An opportunity arose when I was at the old boss’s farm, talking. Jack told me of his son Alan who with his mate Cecil had a farm in the Mary Valley, a pineapple farm. I had left the half-share dairy farm at Coomera. Eva was with Dorothy our eldest daughter and staying with her mother and father on the Walker farm, which I left. A Thursday, so next day I went out to the pineapple farm with Alan.
The farm itself was up in the Mary Valley with a name of Moore House Gully. Locally named Poor House Gully. The farm had a very good house, steep with red soil. A pretty place. This was the first time I had seen pineapples growing, the fruit was just beginning to show. I was fascinated. I asked many questions among mainly on how to grow pineapples.
Pineapples were easy to grow and appeared these two ‘young men’ were not overworked. Each Saturday morning they went home to their families because they played cricket in the Mary Valley team on Saturday afternoon and Sundays. They resumed work on Monday morning. I went back with Alan to his father’s farm and threw out the remark, ‘I wouldn’t mind owing a pineapple farm’ and the answer came back straight away, ‘you can buy this one’. I thought for awhile – a wife, a baby, no home for us, a nice house, furniture in storage, nothing in sight for me, no prospects for a suitable job; a little money on hand, so I asked Alan, ‘how much?’ He said, 'two thousand pounds'. I had about one thousand, eight hundred pounds or thereabouts. I was short from the start.
I first approached a chap, a successful man. I wanted six hundred pounds. He said right away ‘no’ and apologised for having to refuse me. I went into Gympie to the Commonwealth Bank and spoke with the manager. I explained I wanted to buy a pineapple farm in the Mary Valley and short six hundred pounds. He was quite firm in his refusal and said he would not dream of lending me six hundred pounds especially for a pineapple farm.
My feelings zero. Two refusals in one morning. I went out of the bank and walked down Mary Street. Alan stood with someone on the corner. ‘How did you get on?’ He called out.
‘No good, the manager just about hunted me out of the building.’I told him
The man who Alan was talking with said, ‘What is the problem?’ He was a complete stranger, so I told this complete stranger I couldn't raise six hundred pounds to buy the farm. He looked at me for a few seconds and then said, ‘let’s go inside.’ This stranger on the corner of the street turned out to be the manager of the ANZ bank.
We sat around the table and he asked me a lot of questions, the outcome of which he bought out many forms to sign. I became the owner of a farm over which a mortgage of six hundred pounds. With the farm went two horses, two slides, a mouldboard plough and a packing shed, a well on the property so we had water for the horses partly fed by galvanised tanks at the house to catch the rainwater from the roof of the house.
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Chapter 29
After the war I returned to Australia. We were waiting to be shipped home. I was sick and weighed about fifty-six pounds. Before we boarded the ship for our return to Australia, small boats, about six of us in each boat, took us out to the ship. The ship sailed to Darwin and onto Brisbane. I remember landing in Brisbane, people lined the streets shouting and yelling. I was in a jeep and put my hand out to wave when someone put a glass of cold beer into my hand. I don’t drink, so I handed the glass onto my mate next to me.
After being a prisoner of war I spent time in recovery. Eva lived in a flat at Coolangatta to be near me at Greenmount Convalescent Camp. She nursed me back to health. I was very weak and ill. Her love and devotion helped me to cope and to work out what I needed to do.
An opportunity arose when I was at the old boss’s farm, talking. Jack told me of his son Alan who with his mate Cecil had a farm in the Mary Valley, a pineapple farm. I had left the half-share dairy farm at Coomera. Eva was with Dorothy our eldest daughter and staying with her mother and father on the Walker farm, which I left. A Thursday, so next day I went out to the pineapple farm with Alan.
The farm itself was up in the Mary Valley with a name of Moore House Gully. Locally named Poor House Gully. The farm had a very good house, steep with red soil. A pretty place. This was the first time I had seen pineapples growing, the fruit was just beginning to show. I was fascinated. I asked many questions among mainly on how to grow pineapples.
Pineapples were easy to grow and appeared these two ‘young men’ were not overworked. Each Saturday morning they went home to their families because they played cricket in the Mary Valley team on Saturday afternoon and Sundays. They resumed work on Monday morning. I went back with Alan to his father’s farm and threw out the remark, ‘I wouldn’t mind owing a pineapple farm’ and the answer came back straight away, ‘you can buy this one’. I thought for awhile – a wife, a baby, no home for us, a nice house, furniture in storage, nothing in sight for me, no prospects for a suitable job; a little money on hand, so I asked Alan, ‘how much?’ He said, 'two thousand pounds'. I had about one thousand, eight hundred pounds or thereabouts. I was short from the start.
I first approached a chap, a successful man. I wanted six hundred pounds. He said right away ‘no’ and apologised for having to refuse me. I went into Gympie to the Commonwealth Bank and spoke with the manager. I explained I wanted to buy a pineapple farm in the Mary Valley and short six hundred pounds. He was quite firm in his refusal and said he would not dream of lending me six hundred pounds especially for a pineapple farm.
My feelings zero. Two refusals in one morning. I went out of the bank and walked down Mary Street. Alan stood with someone on the corner. ‘How did you get on?’ He called out.
‘No good, the manager just about hunted me out of the building.’I told him
The man who Alan was talking with said, ‘What is the problem?’ He was a complete stranger, so I told this complete stranger I couldn't raise six hundred pounds to buy the farm. He looked at me for a few seconds and then said, ‘let’s go inside.’ This stranger on the corner of the street turned out to be the manager of the ANZ bank.
We sat around the table and he asked me a lot of questions, the outcome of which he bought out many forms to sign. I became the owner of a farm over which a mortgage of six hundred pounds. With the farm went two horses, two slides, a mouldboard plough and a packing shed, a well on the property so we had water for the horses partly fed by galvanised tanks at the house to catch the rainwater from the roof of the house.
TO DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK: CLICK HERE: