The Diary of Iris Vaughan “We are having a holy time in the church It is called Lent. In lent is the time when all must fast. We must give up something we like to eat like sugar and sweets and cakes men must give up smoking. Pop has not given up anything it is not fair he is a warden man. On Good Friday is the holiest day of all. Then you must eat nothing all day and be quiet and not play. Only fish and hot cross Buns you may eat. We eat many buns Mr. Syd Sparks made them and put a cross on every one. All must go to Church. We all went to Church. Only Coot stayed behind with Ellen. It was a long church. When we came home Ellen said The vark has got out of its hok and is eating in Masters potatos. Then it was a great shouting and running to the garden and Pop with his coat tails flying and his bouler hat tight on his head in front holding his blackthorn stick and saying catch him and Charles got him by the tail but pig squeeled loudly and ran and Pops said you fool catch him by leg tail is no good for holding pigs and we all ran Florence and Coot too only not Mom who was calling leave the pig you spoiling your good clothes but all ran and pig ran and Pop put his blackthorn between pigs legs and pig turned round and ran between Pops legs and Pop fell over and we all laughed and Mom said this is disgracing the Holy day and then Charles got pig by leg and pulled pig back in hok. Pig squeeled loudly. Then we all went to wash and eat dinner of sardins and bun We talked about Judas I said I feel sorry for Judas being such a wicked sinner Mr. Damp (Mr Campion) says we must be sorry for sinners and if Judas hadnt done that terribel deed would we have had a church Pop and Pop said enough that is enough we will not discuss Judas any more and we all went out to feed pig and see if he alright. When winter comes poor pig must become bacon and ham this is cruel I feel sorry for pigs.” Life in the Vaughan household was never dull, and what started out as a ’holy time’ ended up in an irreverent fiasco to re-inter the family pig that had escaped and was happily munching in Cecil Vaughan’s potato patch (picture 1). Lent was meant to be a solemn religious observance, covering approximately six weeks before Easter. The traditional purpose of believers preparing themselves through prayer, penance, repentance and self-denial was clearly not observed by Cecil (picture 2)! Iris felt some chagrin that he didn’t give up any of his luxuries, especially in the light of his position as a church warden, while the children were expected to give up sweets and cakes. Good Friday must have been especially trying for the children if they were not even allowed to play. And while the family was at church, the mice … er … the pig played. Ellen must have been a maidservant, and she babysat Coot, whose unpredictable behaviour in church, such as dipping chubby hands into the collection plate, was too dicey to risk. One can only imagine the scene of five Vaughans, in their Sunday best, chasing one pig through the vegetable garden trying to catch it! Notice the young writer’s fast and furious unpunctuated sentences that capture the essence of the action. And once again it was her father, with his coat-tails, bowler hat and blackthorn walking stick, who was at the centre of the fracas. Her mother, unwilling to sink to such levels, stood on the side and cautioned them not to get their clothes dirty (because obviously, she would have had to wash them!). When the recalcitrant pig was finally back in its hok, the family could settle down to their dinner of sardines and hot cross buns (picture 3). The buns were made by the baker Syd Sparks, who has been mentioned a few times before. It was traditional to eat fish instead of meat on Good Friday, and the sardines would have been canned (picture 4), as neither fresh nor salted fish would have been available in Adelaide at that time. To end the day, Cecil met his match in Iris when she challenged the notion of Judas Iscariot and identified him as the lynch-pin in the whole church calendar! Despite having encouraged her to be free-thinking and outspoken, this was too much even for him! Tomorrow well let Iris tell us about Easter, and the Reverend Campion calls it a day.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 16:29:56 +0000
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