More Info →Rosalie Hunter Part 1, Family farm and later - Manawatu Conversations

Description: Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 4th February 2025. Part 1 of 3. Rosalie grew up in Brunswick near Whanganui and began to work on the family farm in the late 1940s. Went to Brunswick school which had 40 pupils. Milked two cows by hand after school and carried out other farm work while she was young. Dianne grew up on a dairy farm which also had pigs. Local farmers helped each other with haymaking etc. Dianne preferred town life rather than rural. Rosalie eventually moved to Stanway in the Manawatu. Rosalie once fell in a sheep dip. She went home and had a shower. Her skin peeled off. Later changed to spraying the sheep. There were 800 Romney sheep. Farming became unprofitable so husband Brian worked in Feilding and Rosalie worked at Ashhurst school and farming became part time. Rosalie eventually went teaching. Opted to teach junior children. Lived in a YWCA hostel and shared a room with three others. Very soon met Brian who was to be her husband. He was an engineer. Went to country dances and dances at the Ballroom Astoria with a jazz band and a dance band.