It is hard to comprehend the idea of war when in a country at the other side of the world from where the wars took place. Yet so much here was made ready for an invasion during the second world war - growing up near north head it was so normal to explore the tunnels and the gun emplacements of Mt Victoria - not to mention entering the tunnels under my old high school from St Leonards beach - and then there is the legend of the "japanese spitfire" in the mud by Whenuapai Air Base.
My granny Lilian Solomon passed away in March this year at the ripe old age of 101.83 years old. She was born in 1913. I miss her so much but it also pulled me apart watching her get so old and frail. I pulled out a memoir that she wrote a few years ago and there are some memories that she wrote of the first world war.
I love the way she starts "my earliest memory is being handed over the fence to a neighbour when my sister was born. I can remember the doctor coming and wondering what the hell he had in his little black bag..."
but here is the real part of her first memory after that...she was a very young child at the outbreak of World War 1...
"The next one I suppose was going down to see Uncle George off to the war, Mum's brother. He wasn't married so it could have been in the reasonably early part of the war. Early to middle part I would think. That was at the Auckland Railway Station and I remember there were lots of people. To a certain degree I must have known what was happening because I used to tell my Dad - we used to talk about the war at that stage - "well you can go for a fortnight and then you've got to come home to me" I can remember sitting there on his knee saying this quite vividly. He'd just laugh. He was about to be called up when the war finished, it was getting around to his age group to be called up. I can remember saying it to him quite a number of times. When my Uncle George came back he was shellshocked. I never ever saw him again after that because he lived somewhere down near Taumaranui way and he finished up in a psychiatric hospital. He did marry but I don't ever remember seeing him again. I could have cousins that I never knew. I remember when he died - that was years later. He was the only uncle I had out here. Mum came out to New Zealand to get married. Dad came out six months ahead of Mum - they grew up together. Mum came out on her own and a bit later George came out. He didn't actually live with us.
"Probably the next vivid memory in those early days was the bonfires on Mount Eden when peace was reclaimed. We still lived in the same house on The Drive and I remember Dad taking us out to look at the bonfires on top of Mount Eden. There was a certain amount of excitement, people in the street. I don't really remember any personal feelings although I knew dad could have had to go. At that age it doesn't really register, well not in those days anyway, it perhaps does more with young people today because I think they probably talk about things more than they did when I was a kid. You were seen and not heard in lots of ways. War was discussed and different ones going, families that you knew, and I suppose the fact Uncle George going, that just brought it home to you properly. While I remember the celebrations of the bonfires when peace was declared I don't really remember anyone actually coming back."
I really hope that I never get to see war like they had last century in my life time. The fear and shock I felt the morning of September 11 is etched still on my mind and I remember saying that I would rather shoot my partner in the leg than let them go to war. You can never return from something like as you left. War and violence takes a certain mind set, one I would hate to see in someone I loved. To consider what the world could have been like should the war have gone the other way is beyond imagination. We owe those that gave their lives for our freedom so much - to honor them 100 years on seems such a small thing to give them back.
THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD, AS WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD
AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
- LEST WE FORGET