Friends and memories

Make new friends but keep the old

One is silver, the other gold
=====================================
http://ethelred.vox.com/library/audio/6a00c225267788549d00e398a0c9ad0002.html

“Heart of My Heart”, I love that melody

“Heart of My Heart”, brings back that memory

When we were kids on the corner of the street

We were rough and ready guys

But oh how we could harmonise



Heart of My Heart, meant friends were dearer then

Too bad we had to part

I know a tear would glisten

If once more I could listen

To that gang that sang “Heart of My Heart”


I found the melody of this old song again on my computer when I was looking for something else and thought that it was worth sharing.

They certainly don't write and sing songs like this anymore that harmonise. This song was old when I was young. It brings back memories when my sisters and I were sent to the Pakuranga Health Camp because we did not have enough to eat at home. We sang this song ( one amongst many) when waiting to eat. ( It seems that I still don't have enough to eat) This song brings back happy memories of Bruce, my good friend I made at the Health Camp. We still keep in touch.

We had to drink some horrible medicine like Cod Liver Oil that was supposed to make us healthy. Also we had to drink milk which I HATE and makes me puke !! I tipped mine onto the grass when the nurses weren't looking. We had toast and marmite, which I liked but my sisters didn't. So, I used to eat theirs and give them my rice milk pudding- ugh!! However I did get to like bananas and custard which didn't taste like milk. (In those days, I think they didn't know much about enzymes and that some Asians have no tolerance for raw milk)

Most of the nurses were kind, but one used to beat the kids with the buckle end of her belt. The Matron was very strict and had a name that suited her. Years later I saw a TV comedy where the woman in charge of a German prison of war camp had a similar name.

The matron's deputy had a very odd first name. I couldn't believe it when I saw her name on my health report. Her parents must have had some strange ideas for names. I must dig out my old health reports next time I go back to NZ

The school teacher, Mr Snelling was nice and kind. A real gentleman. I looked him up some years later but never kept up the association, which I now regret as it is too late.
(Life is full of regrets and lost opportunities to let people know how much they mean to you. Mark Twain wrote something like "When I was seventeen I thought my father an idiot. When I was twenty-seven, I was amazed at how much the old fool had learned in ten years."

Mr Snelling taught us the song
I met an old beggar all tattered and torn
He was eating the grass on my front garden lawn
So I said to him "Sir, if you're hungry and wanting a snack
The grass grows much longer around at the back"

Fortunately, we didn't have to eat grass.

Last year I went back to the Health Camp to look around. I had difficulty finding it because it wasn't there any more. It used to be farmland but now the land has been developed for very expensive houses. Where do disadvantaged kids go to now?

I finally found what was left of the Health Camp. It only takes in a few children now as it is on a very small piece of land with not much grounds for the children to play. It seems that money is more important now than the health of the nation's
children.