Social Mores
Glimpse To Bygone Days
The diaries capture the customs and conventions embodying the values of the time.
Through McCallum’s subconscious attention to period detail, we learn about their social norms, their romantic courtships, the way they talked, domestic duties, the way they dressed, and prevailing attitudes towards women and foreigners
Terms And Phrases
The diaries offer many unusual words and phrases. The turns of phrase are often beautifully crafted. For example instead of simply “meeting” a new person, McCallum would “cultivate the acquaintance of a charming new girl”.
Some words may also be considered offensive, derogatory or not politically correct today such as “nigger” and “dago”.
He might have “a long natter (or yarn)”, be “down on his uppers”, or “on the yoles”. On the construction site, the “navvies” might be “dodging about“or “loafing around”, he might have paid “all hands” before they “knocked off“ and “went on the spree”. He might go to a social “do” in the evening, pay for it with ‘quid”, be “two bob short”, and if it was bad he considered it a “tin-pot” performance.
Domestic And Social Attitudes
We learn the family had domestic help. It was a time when a wash lady would come to do the clothes washing. She would use a wringer and linen press.
It was a time when people were self-reliant in other areas. We watch McCallum plant seeds, sift soil, and lovingly tend to his vegetable and fruit gardens.
- He planted spuds, sowed lettuces, grew peas, cabbage, rhubarb, french beans, onions, sweet corn, and planted rows of beefsteak tomatoes. He planted a passionfruit plant, macadamia trees, grew figs, put grafts on apple trees, and put in a patch of oats.
- He made a hen coop, built a fowl shed, and they gathered their own eggs. He killed cows and fowls and plucked roosters.
- We witness Hetty making jams (apricot, fig, and strawberry) and storing preserves without refrigeration.
These were times when soap was made from scratch, in bulk, and then cut up. We see carpets being lifted up and given a good beating. - We hear of McCallum melting lead
House Details
The house mirrored different times. In the context of journaling his everyday events, we get glimpses of his house details and structure. We learn for example, that McCallum and his wife had separate bedrooms.
His house had a front room, a drawing room, and a sewing room. There was the night commode and out-building. It was furnished with the front clock, the card table, and the music cabinet. There was the combination chest and kiddies rocking horse. Nighttime was all illuminated by candle and gaslight.
When traveling, he referred to “diggings” as his accommodation, and onboard ship there was the bar parlour and the saloons.
Unremarkable Yet Still Interesting
In addition to numerous poignant storylines, the diaries contain many records of ordinary, placid everyday routines.
Far from being uninteresting, some readers will find these entries just as compelling. For some, the appeal and charm lie in the day-to-day, the unremarkable; the beauty is in the authenticity and the details.
Timeless Everyday Family Scenes
Part of the appeal about the diaries is about reading an event or a feeling that happened a century ago, that transcends time, and that can be related to today, even though it may be innocuous and unexciting in itself. For example:
- Going with wife, Hetty to make wallpaper and curtain selections.
- Cutting trees to improve the view
- Shopping from an Army and Navy catalog
- Buying goldfish for the kiddies, putting money in their piggybank
- Making four-wheeled trolleys for son, Bruce
- Taking daughter, Val to piano lessons
- Making a dog kennel
- Wife Hetty going to the hair salon
- Bruce’s first time at Sunday school
