Christine West (Salisbury) YHS1959
MRS KIMBERLEY'S TEAPOT I have a teapot which I treasure, every time I look at it, it reminds me of the happy times we had growing up in Yallourn and of our lovely neighbours when we lived at 8 Latrobe Ave.
My sisters, Gail and Karan, and myself used to build huts all over the place in our back yard, sometimes in the lemon tree, hedge or on top of the chook house. They wouldn't pass standards today but they were great fun. Sometimes we had help from our neighbours, Sandra & Lynette Slade, or our cousins Frances and Billy Robinson, whoever helped or whatever we built, the end was always the same lunch for mum and dad.
We used to cook in anything that would hold a fire and I have to tell you, those meals were pretty ordinary. One day, Mr & Mrs Kimberly Snr came to the back fence and gave us an old electric stove and we were thrilled. This was also a great improvement for our meals and after sourcing vegetables from the Foleys, eggs from the Kimberley’s and fruit from Oliver's, the meals improved and at last were edible, to mum and dad's relief. Mrs Kimberley Snr saw how much fun and enjoyment we got out of her old stove and brought us down an old teapot, blue & white with fading chooks on it. We thought this was wonderful!
Looking back, mum and dad must have loved us dearly eating those awful meals, but they did enjoy the cuppa out of Mrs Kimberley's teapot, which I still treasure today.
Hope that you can use this little story. I was cleaning it and thought I would tell you the story of my teapot, which I suppose is now about 100 years old