God likes peppermints too
Book Review: "God likes peppermints too" by Edgar O. Gersch (Lutheran Publishing House Adelaide 1986).
In this "delightful volume of nostalgia" which is Edgar's first book, he includes on his final page his poem titled "Memories". In it, he recalls his "wonderful days" of child-hood and growing up at his home "Willpine" in Vectis and he includes his family members, fruit trees, meals, the setting sun and other memories. His second page indicates that he has recorded "anecdotes", which are stories derived from his childhood experiences and from his memories.
Since nearly everybody during their life-span is able to experience decades of living and will have stored up lots of memories, there is the view that we all have material in our heads for at least one book, whether it is called a Memoir, an Auto-biography or a Collection of Anecdotes. Edgar's book can inspire us all to write down our own humble life-stories. The raw material is already in our memories and it only needs to be recalled and recorded. Whether the final product is a published book or a photocopied and stapled text, at least the future generations will have some record of life and living in previous generations.
The author provides plenty of photos of "Willpine" between the two World Wars and a closer look at life on the orchard/market garden indicates that his Father was G.J.R. Gersch, an orchardist and horticulturalist, as well as an engineer, inventor, builder, businessman, mechanic, musician and family man. His Mother, formerly Annie Noack and sister of Natimuk's Pastor J.F. Noack, cared for their nine children: Looey, Paul, Frieda, Wally, Gertrude, Erwin, Edgar, Esther and Dora, as well as her aging parents and, in the author's eyes, she was a saint (p.14).
Their Vectis land had been bought from an aging bachelor Jacky Bandel. The large population of rabbits on this land soon resulted in the construction of a "Rabbit Exterminator", which burned green wood and produced gas for insertion into the rabbit burrows (26).
We soon learn that the orchard's apples included Granny Smith, Jonathan, Cleo and Delicious varieties (p.34), that its pears included Packhams (p.40) and that the makes of the cars of visitors to the orchard included the Dodge Flying Four, T or A model Fords, Fiat, Buick, Plymouth, Armstrong Siddeley, Austin, Studebaker, Capitol, Chevrolet, Essex Super Six and other makes (p.51).
Work on the orchard involved pickers such as Wally Preusker who came from Jeparit (p.64) and sorters who selected the super grade for export, 1st grade for State markets, 2nd grade for local markets and 3rd grade for the pigs. Wally Starick, a bachelor from Dimboola, liked to sort through the fruit with only minor faults and to sell it in Mallee town such as Rainbow, Jeparit and Hopetoun (p.74).
An important environmental issue is addressed as the author describes the change in the cultivation of the soil from the use of horses which provided rich manure for the orchard to the use of tractors which emitted toxic carbon-monoxide and contributed to damaging the environment. He also notes that bulldozing forests and scrublands for crops tends in the long run to produce red clouds of dust which blow out to sea (p.78).
Attending Vectis Lutheran school involved walking 2 ½ miles and the school days included games like tyre-rolling, marbles, bullock-teams and tree climbing, as well as the strap which was administered when needed by Teacher Len Ziersch (p.103).
Large events such as Mission Festivals and Conventions sometimes included "lantern lectures" and always a midday lunch of sandwiches, sponges, cream puffs, lamingtons and deutscher Kuchen (p.114). As for Harvest Thanksgiving, farmers may have finished their grain harvesting but with such tasks as weeding, watering, spraying, picking fruit and pruning the trees, "the orchardist's work was never done" (p.117).
Edgar includes many anecdotes and some of the later achievements relating to the family members which are both amusing and instructive and he records with pride the accomplishments of the Willpine Brass Band, which included performances of Soussa marches and Strauss waltzes (p.52). Hopefully Edgar's Memoir with its many family Anecdotes will inspire others to put their pens to paper for the benefit of future generations.
John Noack, Reviewer.
Editor's Note:
Here is some feedback on this review from Herbert Mees.
Hi All,
The second paragraph of the review is music to my ears. We should all encourage other people to write down their memories and not be put off by comments like, "Who would be interested in my story?" or (particularly in the case of post WW2 immigrants from Germany/Austria), "I want to forget what we went through, and nobody here would understand anyway!". But it is precisely those stories that to these people appear insignificant or are deemed too sad or horrible to be remembered, that should be preserved.
Best regards,
Herbert
