YESTERYEAR: Enjoying time at Kapiti's first kindergarten, Grant Reid, Noel and Carol Mason, Christine and Kevin Corner.
Geraldine Mason, from Waikanae, writes about Kapiti's first kindergarten
Paraparaumu was starting to buzz.
New roads were opening up, houses were being built.
The Baby Boomer era was in full swing.
The airport was busy with SAFE Bristols coming and going all day as well as the passenger planes; the majority of the aircrew were ex RNZAF pilots.
An early RSA meeting ground was the old "dug out" in the domain grounds where lively dances were held.
The Plunket nurse was a busy lady, with her headquarters in an old shop in Hinemoa St behind the railway station.
Mothers on the Plunket committee decided it was time the district had a kindergarten so a committee was formed with two men and six women.
A report in the local paper would have read Messrs Spackman and Rhodes, Mesdames Dovey, Duley, Eckoff, Hadfield, Mason and Sweetman.
First up was to procure a suitable hall.
We were offered St Paul's Anglican church hall in Hinemoa St at an affordable peppercorn rent.
Reverend Ingham Holt provided a helping hand in the set up.
Fathers made swings from old tyres while the committee ladies canvassed the community for equipment.
Beverly Sweetman and I were given Otaihanga which in those days consisted mainly of farms, poultry farms and holiday houses near the river.
We came back with Fun Ho toys, a child's easel, some dolls and even some well-laundered undies.
The other girls were treated with the same generosity.
It was time to find a teacher.
We had heard that the wife of the newly arrived Presbyterian minister, Rev McCaw, was a retired kindergarten teacher.
Mr Spackman had been unable to contact her so in the meantime he had found a Mrs Booth who with the help of the mothers could get things going.
By coincidence Rev McCaw was visiting the new houses seeking parishioners.
Arriving on our doorstep at 3pm, I invited him in for afternoon tea and learned that his wife was hoping to help at a kindergarten but had discovered that the district did not have one.
This was glad tidings indeed.
Mr Spackman duly contacted her and we were all set to go.
The first morning [the year was 1956] there was a large circle of children following Mrs McCaw as she taught them High Stepping Horses.
Some, mostly boys, clung to their mother's skirts but settled down later when it was story time.
The mothers were welcome to stay until their child was comfortable in a new environment. It was a happy start with a variety of things to do.
The Fun Ho toys - tractors, front end loaders and the like were swooped upon by the boys.
The girls tended to like painting, trying to skip or dressing dolls.
We knew that the only toilet was a dry lavatory at the back of the garden.
That was no problem.
Most lavatories were "down the garden path" or "across the yard" up until the late 30s.
It was kept scrupulously clean by the helping mothers.
That first day Blackie Duley and I armed with a bowl of diluted Jeyes fluid, cleaned it on arrival and before we left the hall.
On fine days the swings, empty cartons, boxes and games with Mrs McCaw and Mrs Booth kept the children occupied and happy.
Time for a rest now so back into the hall in a circle on the floor.
This was done with no protests, which showed the skill and natural ability of Mrs McCaw as an early childhood teacher.
During the next two years we had various fund raising events like a garden party in the church grounds and a fashion parade provided by Mrs Redstone and one of the Eatwell girls who had a boutique in Maclean St.
Apparently there was an arrangement with the Education Department that if we could raise 3000 pounds they would establish a Free Kindergarten like the ones in Moera, Lower Hutt and other places.
Those children of our first kindergarten are now in their early and mid 60s and are scattered far and wide.
The old hall has been demolished and the dry "dunny" long since gone.
Even the church is now a chapel attached to Wellington's St Paul's Cathedral in Molesworth Street.
The new St Paul's is on Kapiti Rd with amenities for the community.
In Hinemoa St where St Paul's hall once stood is an up-to-date play centre with toilets and showers.
We have become a flash society with people wanting en suites and in some cases, semi mansions replacing the New Zealand modest bungalow.
Times have dramatically changed but our first kindergarten was a success story.
A necessity for our small children and an absolute boon for mothers.
It is remembered with appreciation and affection.
