Historical Society and local poetry

History Notes

As a number of readers would know, members of the historical society gather at the museum on Friday mornings to chat with each other about questions they have received, look up enquiries, and discuss how best to show various items. Last Friday the discussion flowed along to poetry.

Many of our ancestors wrote/recited poetry concerning things that had happened to them or others they knew. Great grandfather was one of these poets - he converted cricket matches into poetry, using nicknames, sometimes not very complimentary, about players! I can think of at least one that is not suitable for publication even a century later!

He also wrote the well known verses about his sons playing tennis on a tour around New England pre World War 1, and even illustrated the page. This poem has been photo-copied several times.

One of the best known poems is about Kennedy's pigs at Cobbadah - a well known local poem - the pigs were getting into the publican's vegetable garden and various ideas, as to how to remove them were brought forward!!

Then we have the poems such as the building of the cattle shed at the show ground and another written by a bank manager's wife about the lady golfers. A poetry book was published by a group of poets about 1988 and I do have a copy of that which is a good one especially as most of the poets are no longer with us. They were a very clever group.

Another wonderful poet was Ken Baker who published two lively books in the 1980's. His books were very popular and the proceeds assisted Richardson House but I suspect there are still a few copies around Barraba.

Another source of local poetry is an autograph book which often has a short verse devoted to a friend – incidentally, I wonder how many autograph books are around today! They may have fallen victim to our modern age of machines!

Anyway, we are hoping to have a poetry reading in the future, possibly on a Friday morning, depending on the numbers that are submitted.

Finally, I have a quote from a 1930's Barraba paper-

Four Scotsmen entered a cafe. One ordered a cup of coffee and three saucers!

Back to history next week!