1 00:00:07,133 --> 00:00:10,453 Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast 2 00:00:10,573 --> 00:00:11,733 Speaker 1: from News Talks. A'd be. 3 00:00:13,453 --> 00:00:16,893 Speaker 2: Honestly, I was kind of I was taken aback by 4 00:00:17,093 --> 00:00:19,773 Speaker 2: how long it had been since I'd last come to town. 5 00:00:20,653 --> 00:00:24,733 Speaker 2: It's amazing how time creeps up on you like that. 6 00:00:24,813 --> 00:00:27,773 Speaker 2: You know, one minute you're at Grandma and Granddad's place 7 00:00:27,853 --> 00:00:31,373 Speaker 2: every few months, knocking around with your siblings. The next 8 00:00:31,613 --> 00:00:35,093 Speaker 2: you're going through Granddad's draws, picking him a bag of 9 00:00:35,173 --> 00:00:40,173 Speaker 2: his most precious possessions, and the next you realize it's 10 00:00:40,173 --> 00:00:44,053 Speaker 2: three years since you even drove down his street. State 11 00:00:44,093 --> 00:00:48,333 Speaker 2: Highway one was an absolute shocker, a shocker. I was 12 00:00:48,413 --> 00:00:51,613 Speaker 2: driving the old straight line heading south from christ Church, 13 00:00:52,013 --> 00:00:57,853 Speaker 2: Rolliston Dunsandal Rakaiah. The storm was fierce, There was surface 14 00:00:57,893 --> 00:01:01,573 Speaker 2: flooding and the rivers were up, which obviously made things worse, 15 00:01:01,573 --> 00:01:04,133 Speaker 2: But some of the potholes, honestly were so large they 16 00:01:04,133 --> 00:01:07,533 Speaker 2: could have swallowed the irrigators that usually crawl the paddocks 17 00:01:08,013 --> 00:01:12,013 Speaker 2: on either side of the road. Those irrigators have brought 18 00:01:12,093 --> 00:01:16,733 Speaker 2: a lot of prosperity to mid Canterbury, but not so 19 00:01:16,893 --> 00:01:20,613 Speaker 2: much on Grandad's street. His place was an old state 20 00:01:20,653 --> 00:01:23,333 Speaker 2: house on what Dad always called the wrong side of 21 00:01:23,373 --> 00:01:26,933 Speaker 2: the tracks, and given the main trunk line cuts right 22 00:01:27,013 --> 00:01:30,813 Speaker 2: through the middle of town, it's a literal thing in Ashburton, 23 00:01:32,453 --> 00:01:36,213 Speaker 2: Dad Reckins the family moved in in about nineteen sixty seven, 24 00:01:36,933 --> 00:01:41,413 Speaker 2: a two bedroom place clad in a shocking baby blue, 25 00:01:42,053 --> 00:01:45,573 Speaker 2: an eighty five square meter state house on a nine 26 00:01:45,653 --> 00:01:51,493 Speaker 2: hundred and something square meter section. They don't do property 27 00:01:51,613 --> 00:01:55,733 Speaker 2: like that anymore. The Tames had arrived from UK a 28 00:01:55,733 --> 00:02:00,093 Speaker 2: few years earlier. Migration had cost Grandma and Grandad basically 29 00:02:00,093 --> 00:02:03,613 Speaker 2: everything they had. By the early nineteen eighties, on his 30 00:02:03,693 --> 00:02:06,893 Speaker 2: limited income, Grandad had saved up and for two twenty one, 31 00:02:07,373 --> 00:02:09,893 Speaker 2: five hundred dollars he bought the house from the government 32 00:02:10,453 --> 00:02:13,693 Speaker 2: as a home for life. He spent his working life 33 00:02:13,813 --> 00:02:18,373 Speaker 2: slowly chipping away paying off the mortgage. The quarter acre dream. 34 00:02:19,973 --> 00:02:24,733 Speaker 2: Granddad always had an amazing garden, you know. He kind 35 00:02:24,733 --> 00:02:27,213 Speaker 2: of always made the most of all of that space, 36 00:02:28,053 --> 00:02:33,053 Speaker 2: the nine hundred square meters of backyard. There were vegetable beds, 37 00:02:33,133 --> 00:02:35,613 Speaker 2: There were like fruit trees. That was this massive compost 38 00:02:35,613 --> 00:02:38,293 Speaker 2: heat flowers out the front of the house, a big 39 00:02:38,333 --> 00:02:41,693 Speaker 2: hudder kicker bush. We used to play games of hide 40 00:02:41,693 --> 00:02:45,013 Speaker 2: and seek and go home stay home before retiring inside 41 00:02:45,493 --> 00:02:51,813 Speaker 2: for luncheon and tomato sauce, sandwiches and vegetable soup. At home, 42 00:02:52,573 --> 00:02:55,973 Speaker 2: our parents didn't really put salt in our food, and 43 00:02:56,013 --> 00:02:58,093 Speaker 2: it was always a thrill to eat a hot lunch 44 00:02:58,173 --> 00:03:03,653 Speaker 2: prepared by someone less concerned by cholesterol readings. The neighbors 45 00:03:03,693 --> 00:03:06,733 Speaker 2: back then were mixed. I remember Granddad telling us once 46 00:03:06,773 --> 00:03:09,013 Speaker 2: that if we hit the tennis ball over the fence, 47 00:03:09,493 --> 00:03:12,573 Speaker 2: it was probably best just to get a new one. 48 00:03:12,733 --> 00:03:16,453 Speaker 2: I doubt the police were strangers to the neighborhood. Inside 49 00:03:17,173 --> 00:03:19,613 Speaker 2: I used to curl up in Granddad's lazy boy and 50 00:03:20,013 --> 00:03:24,533 Speaker 2: read Grandma's gossip magazines by the fire. On the times 51 00:03:24,573 --> 00:03:29,053 Speaker 2: we stayed over, I read old biggles stories that Granddad 52 00:03:29,053 --> 00:03:32,813 Speaker 2: had lying around. We'd all get covered in labrador fur, 53 00:03:33,493 --> 00:03:36,053 Speaker 2: and they had a faux grandfather clock in the living 54 00:03:36,133 --> 00:03:45,973 Speaker 2: room with a mechanism that filled every silence. Granddad lived 55 00:03:45,973 --> 00:03:48,853 Speaker 2: in that house for fifty five years. He raised his 56 00:03:48,933 --> 00:03:52,813 Speaker 2: sons there, He lost his wife there. When it finally 57 00:03:52,893 --> 00:03:55,933 Speaker 2: came time for him to leave, my cousin found his 58 00:03:56,053 --> 00:04:00,933 Speaker 2: war medals secreted away in one of his drawers. When 59 00:04:00,933 --> 00:04:04,853 Speaker 2: I came around the corner. The rain was pelting the windscreen. 60 00:04:05,693 --> 00:04:07,933 Speaker 2: It took just a moment to get my bearings. The 61 00:04:07,973 --> 00:04:12,893 Speaker 2: little place next door was gone, a similarly vast section 62 00:04:13,373 --> 00:04:17,013 Speaker 2: where once there was a humble cottage, it was now 63 00:04:17,053 --> 00:04:21,093 Speaker 2: filled with a tidy row of modern units. But there 64 00:04:21,573 --> 00:04:25,013 Speaker 2: was Granddad's. Some of the baby blue cladding was missing 65 00:04:25,053 --> 00:04:27,453 Speaker 2: on the front of the house, the hudder kike and 66 00:04:27,493 --> 00:04:30,053 Speaker 2: the flowers at the front had all been ripped out. 67 00:04:30,493 --> 00:04:32,733 Speaker 2: I'm sure the veggie patch out in the back is done, 68 00:04:32,933 --> 00:04:36,773 Speaker 2: but the house was still there. Tired, yeah, but still there. 69 00:04:38,413 --> 00:04:41,773 Speaker 2: Nothing lasts forever. I can't say with certainty when I'll 70 00:04:41,773 --> 00:04:44,453 Speaker 2: be back, but I know one day I'm going to 71 00:04:44,533 --> 00:04:48,933 Speaker 2: come around that corner and Granddad's place will be gone too. 72 00:04:49,253 --> 00:04:52,373 Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live 73 00:04:52,453 --> 00:04:55,613 Speaker 1: to News talks'd B from nine am Saturday, or follow 74 00:04:55,693 --> 00:04:57,253 Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.