ROSEWOOD’s Mary Mogensen will celebrate her 100th birthday next month.
Mary now lives at Cabanda and has lived in the Rosewood district all her life.
She was born on December 18, 1921 to John William Evans and Lilla Dorothy Evans (nee Harding), in Nurse Stubbs’ Maternity Hospital in Rosewood.
There were 12 children in the family and Mary has many memories of their growing up years such as frosty cold mornings where the grass was as white as sheet and the time when telephone poles and wires were installed in the town.
She described her childhood as harmonious and generous and recalls her siblings reading and fussing over her, “a happy time that lasted forever”.
“We had groceries delivered by horse and cart that were carried into our house in a huge cane basket and we only had kerosene lamps,” Mary recalls.
“I remember the Dunny Man as we referred to him as visiting our toilet which was located at the back of the house to take the waste away once a week.
“I attended Rosewood State School and one young male teacher was very strict, I recall seeing him scrub out with soap and water the mouth of one of the boys because he was swearing.
“We never dared speak in class unless he spoke to us first, but he taught us well as we soon knew all our tables and spelling and short cuts for mathematics.
“The desks all had holes or inkwells for our ink bottles and grooves for our lead and slate pencils and pens.
“We mostly used slates and cleaned them well with a rag or sponge that was kept in a small bottle.”
In 1931, when Mary was nine, the family went to live life on a farm, excited at first at the thought of having animals, the reality of hard work then set in. Mary also moved schools to Tallegalla.
“My time at Tallegalla School was very happy,” Mary said.
“It was a one teacher school with about 40 pupils.
“Mr Bunny Horne was the teacher and was marvellous and his wife taught us singing and sewing.
“Mr Horne thought that the real country bumpkin kids needed their horizons widened so we participated in our first school excursions to places such as the Ipswich Woollen Mills, Mount Coot-tha, Parliament House, Sandgate and Redcliffe where this was the first glimpse of the sea for some pupils.
“Our family also attended the Rosewood Congregational Church and Sunday School, for religious education and a social outing.”
At the end of Year 8, Mary sat for her scholarship exam, then for the next two years she went on to complete a Commercial Course at Technical College in Ipswich where she excelled in typing and bookkeeping.
In 1939, when World War II was declared, Mary assisted in many roles as dairy maid, washer woman, cream carter, office worker, household shopper and in general duties helping her mother in the home.
“Everyone in Australia worked hard, and long hours on food and clothes rations and after the Japanese entered the war, all of the windows had to be blackened, no lights were ever to be visible,” Mary said.
“After the Americans joined the Aussies, there was a big Negro camp at Calvert, and lots of those men would join our church for evenings of worship, when entering the church, they would all ask the white men for permission to enter.”
After the war, in what was described as love at first sight, Mary was introduced to Albert Mogensen. They started dating, moved in together and were married on May 2, 1949 in the Rosewood Congregational Church.
“Albert was into photography and was a marvellous tradesperson having learnt all the old fashioned skills of hand sewing welted shoes and inverting and re-soling dance pumps, using both hands for the job,” Mary said.
“Albert took up photography as a profession. People would leave their films and he would process them at night, then I would trim each one with a guillotine to make it square with the border before sorting them.”
The couple had four children – Dora, Doris, Coral and William – they lived in different houses in Rosewood before they moved a house into John Street next to a building owned by them which they turned into a shoe store.
“Things went nicely in our shop, with Albert as a first class boot repairer and photographer and with our beautiful children, we had many special days and made many memories,” Mary said.
The family tree grew with the addition of nine grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.
Mary describes her family as “everything a special bond that carries with it love and special stories”.
Now a resident of Cabanda, Mary enjoys arts, crafts, gardening and is always busy mending other people’s clothes ironing and caring for others.
Her 100th birthday will be celebrated with her family, friends, Cabanda residents and one of her lifelong friends Hazel Johnson.
