Waipawa District High School

From: Kasey
To: Jan
Subject: Waipawa District High School 1940’s-50’s

Hi Jan,

I love your site!
It is full with valuable information which must of taken you a little while to put together. I am interested in Waipawa’s history because my grandmother Margaret Cudby (Ireland) grew up there. I am researching and interviewing my grandmother’s life to publish her story. I was wondering if you had any information about any of her family below:

Hazel May Cudby (born 1913)

Kenneth Thomas Cudby (born 1910)

Margaret Dawn Cudby/Ireland (born 1936)

Betty Lillian Cudby/Bishop (born 1939)

David Kenneth Cudby (born 1942)

I know that Betty still lives around that area but what I am more looking for is 1940s to 1950s school photos, school records, and a photo of Great North Road or the Railway where Kenneth worked.
I have read all the enquiry’s and have found them really interesting. You mentioned in the school section that your mum and her sisters went to the same school as my grandmother around the 1940s. I was wondering if your mum may know of her?
As for the Milk Bar my grandmother also worked there in the holidays around 1949/1950.
Thank you for your time and help in advance 🙂

From

Kasey Ireland


From: Kasey
To: Jan
Subject: Waipawa District High School 1940’s-50’s

Hello Jan,

I love your site! It is so great.
I am wondering if you got my last email I sent you?
Yesterday I went to Waipawa to go around and take photos of the Houses and Waipawa Primary School where my Grandmother use to live and attend.
Do you by any chance have a photo of the Waipawa Primary School in the 1940s to early 1950s?
And would you have any class photos or records from that timeframe?
I love getting information about history and when I started asking my Grandmother about her life as a child and teenager. This love for history has grown. But I think she is sick of all the questions I have been asking.
You have done fantastic work at the muesum. I went around it yesterday also. It is lovely…
My Grandmothers name is Margaret Dawn Cudby her families names are:

Kenneth Cudby
Hazel May Cudby
Betty Lillian Cudby
And David Kenneth Cudby

If you by any chance have any records or anything to do with the Cudby’s that would be great!
My Grandmother married a man named Stanley (Stan) Archie Ireland. Would you have any records of the Irelands?
Thanks so much in advance…

Kasey Ireland


From: Jan
To: Kasey
Subject: Waipawa District High School 1940’s-50’s

Hi Kasey,

Yes I did get your email, and sorry I didn’t get back to you – I’ve been super busy with school, family and sculpting, and its taken the flu to slow me down so I have time to think for a while.

Anyway in answer to your question – no, I don’t have any photos of 1940’s and 50’s apart from my mother’s class photo 1944.(and my aunt’s basketball photo) But if you come across some I would love to have them if you can email them to me.

I have been collecting old photos for a while now – but they do have a very family slant.
Its great having other people’s input through the website because quite honestly the amount I know about Waipawa is just a tiny drop in a huge ocean and lots of people out there have photos and stories which would be great to share. And it gets really interesting learning their stories too.

I agree with you, history – and old family stories, are fascinating (and very addictive). You could spend hours and hours and hours looking into your family/ town stories and still not know everything.

I think you should try and record as many of the stories as you can from your grandmother and her memories of growing up, because once she has gone all the stories tend to go too and its great to have them as personal stories are so much more interesting than just dry history of dates and facts.
I’ve been pestering my mum for her memories (and her sisters) precisely for that reason – and get the 3 of them together and they love to relive happy memories.

I had lots of fun during my time down at the Museum and sometimes I really miss it – especially George who was the curator back then. We had great fun tearing the museum apart and then putting it back together again in a more meaningful way. When we started it was just a clutter of all sorts of bits and pieces just shoved anywhere there was any space.
I think the Museum committee found it hard to keep up with our grand ideas – and us ripping down walls and piddly little displays (George called it a rabbit warren) – but it came together ok in the end – and mostly its all still intact and I get quite a buzz when I drop in and see it.

Back to your email enquiry I remember talking to Rosheen (who was the curator down there until late last year) about Waipawa School records – and I am fairly certain that all the Waipawa School roll and records are now kept at the museum.
I will forward this email on to Jana (the new curator) and hopefully she will be able to help you.

Let me know how you get on.
🙂 Jan

Oh – looking through my files of photos I found this picture of the high school. I’m not sure what year it was though.


From: Kasey
To: Jan
Subject: Waipawa District High School 1940’s-50’s

Hi Jan,

Thanks for replying to my email. The flu is awful – I have had it recently and I know exactly how you feel 🙂

What sort of time frame did your Aunt play basketball?
What school did she go to?
Because my Grandmother said something about being in a basketball team called the “A” Team.
The more I write down and record my Grandmothers stories the more I learn that I have only a speck of information about her.
But at the moment I have been trying to get information off other people to give my Grandmother a break since I have asked her about 170 questions!
I wish I could get my Grandmother and her brother and sister together so that they can all share about life back when they were kids. But they all live so far apart and I have never really gotten to know Betty and David.

I had so much fun at the museum and wished I could’ve taken photos. History is just so fascinating.

I have been very happy to been given a job at a Rest Home in Feilding. And I start on Monday. So I will be very happy to get to know the residents and see if they can tell me stories about when they were children.

Thanks so much for all your help…

Kasey


From: Jan
To: Kasey
Subject: Waipawa District High School 1940’s-50’s

Hi again Kasey,

Aunty Ali was in the ‘B’ team so maybe she wasn’t as good as your grandmother? Although even now that she’s just turned 80 she seems very fit and active. She goes on tramps over all sorts of rugged tracks – well at least she did up till last year, and earlier this year she had a hip replaced so she hasn’t got back into her intrepid journeys again yet.

Recently I scanned a whole lot of photos for her 80th birthday and they sparked off lots of stories too – amongst her friends and brother and sisters.
I suppose I am lucky because mum has come back to live in Waipawa and 2 of her sisters and one of her brothers live locally so I see them quite a lot – and when they get together I just turn my ears on and try to absorb as much as possible.

Unfortunately the photo I have of Ali (Alison Bibby) in the basketball team hasn’t got a year on it. But at a guess I would say it was 1946 – 47ish. (She’s the one in the back lefthand corner.)

Anyway I don’t know if this helps in your quest to learn more about your grandmother and her siblings – hopefully the Museum will be able to help you more.
I will add your enquiry on the website. I find that if I post things there one day someone may read it and say ‘I know something about that!’ and then I can put people in contact with each other and they can share stories as much as they like. – and that may catch the eye of other people too.

Anyway keep in touch.
🙂 Jan


From: Jan
To: Kasey
Subject: Waipawa District High School 1940’s-50’s

oh – I forgot to say in the last email. Ali was in the Waipawa District High basketball team.

This is a photo of all the pupils of Waipawa District High back in 1944. I have looked at the names in mum’s photo album but can’t find any Cudbys. Maybe they went to the High School after Mum left? ie. later in the 40’s


From: Kasey
To: Jan
Subject: Waipawa District High School 1940’s-50’s

Hi Jan,

Thanks for replying. Do you know if the Waipawa Primary School in the 1940s had a school uniform?
And any information on the school would be great. When my Grandmother comes down to see us in September she will bring all her photos she has collected over the years. I will see if I can scan any interesting ones to you for your website.

My Grandmother lives so far away and she doesn’t want to risk posting precious things to me. So I have to be patient until she comes down every few months.

Your family history sounds so fascinating. My Grandmother says sometimes, “Oh… I feel like I have no more stories I can tell you!” And then I ask her a very direct question and she starts talking… I hardly have time to catch up with writing notes down on paper!

Do you have any information about the gas works which is just across from the clock tower. Heading toward Harker Street. Or photos of it in the 40s?

My Grandmother told me she worked in a Milk Bar in the school holidays in Waipawa when she was about fourteen or fifteen. Would have any photos of the Milk Bar? Has it been torn down?

Sorry for all the questions.
Thanks so much for all your help…

Kasey


From: Jan
To: Kasey
Subject: Waipawa District High School 1940’s-50’s

Hi Kasey,

The school uniform in the 1940’s was the old black gym – that I think was fairly standard at most schools. You can see it in the photo of Mum’s class and the basketball team which I sent you.
They didn’t go into too much variation in those days – unlike now where every school has a different uniform. Suppose it would be handy if you shifted because which ever school you went to they would still wear the same thing.

I don’t think I have any photos of the old gas works specifically but I do have one of the Milk Bar (or “the Lounge” which is the milk bar everyone used to rush to to get icecreams in the intermission break when they went to the movies at the town hall back then) – mostly because the Lounge used to be the Bibby store before that, and of course there’s my family connection again. The building that was the Bibby Store, and the Lounge, is still there on the corner of Ruataniwha Street and Kennilworth – only now it is a secondhand shop.

I am presuming that is the milk bar for grandmother is talking of? I’ll send you a photo and maybe you could ask her. I suppose it is likely that there could have been more than one milk bar back then.

🙂 Jan


Hi Jan,

Thank you for telling me about the school uniform.
& Yes that is the Milk Bar my Grandmother worked in. Thanks for the photo…
Just now waiting for the email from the Muesum.

Thanks again

Kasey