Another visit with Doll and Cush

For all the Aunt Doll and Aunt Cush fans - please see an earlier post - we now have another delightful story from their grand niece Claire.  Enjoy!

Aunt Doll and Aunt Cush were brought up in Mt Morgan, their father was an Irish mattress and furniture maker in Mt Morgan.  Their mother died when kids were small, the eldest (Mona – my Grandmother) was then in charge of raising the others, their sister Rene died in her early teens, and their brother Orm who was deaf, later went on to run a hardware store in Toowoomba.  Mona got married and moved to Longreach, Doll and Cush moved to Brisbane.  Doll played the piano at the silent pictures in Brisbane and Cush worked at the McArthur Chambers during WWII.  Doll worked at McDonnell and East for many years and Cushwas married for a short time to a man who was called “The Singing Policeman” (prior to traffic lights, the Police used to stand on the corners directing traffic).  Policeman Chapman was well known for singing while he was directing!  My Grandmother was the only one from the family to have children (twin boys) so my father and his brother were very close to their doting Aunts – and the Aunts doted on them too and were so very proud of them!  Mum and Dad and we four kids would pack the car up and drive down to Auchenflower from Dalby every couple of weeks to mow Doll and Cush’s lawn.  Always a lovely visit and Cush’s pineapple jam drops were always ready for us!  After our cup of tea, we retired to the loungeroom where we sat in the huge Genoalounge while Dolly played the piano and Cush played the viola, accordion or melodica.  When it was time to go home, Dad would always make a big deal of it and count the four of us off (like the Von Trapps) to get into the car – Doll and Cush (who obviously had no children) thought that was just the greatest thing!  They were immensely talented musically and spent their final days in Brisbane playing at seniors functions.    Wonderful, wonderful people.  I may not have followed in their musical expertise, but I make a mean pineapple jamdrop using of course Cush’s recipe.

Claire McGovern