This week's story is about a girl named Pearl who grew up in the 1920s on a farm near Stratford. She made it through two great epidemics, had a tough old grandmother who cracked a whip and she learnt to work the land as hard as anyone.

Pearl Wildermoth says she's had a tough life but a good one and this week we see why.

Rewind

So what was New Zealand like in the 1920s? Did the events below really happen? You decide by answering true or false and then check the answers at the end of this week's TreasureLink.

1. There is an Anzac service for the first time.
2. New Zealand has a rugby team known as "the Invincibles".
3. An aeroplane flies across the Tasman Sea for the first time.
4. Cars are becoming more reliable.
5. The Swaggers are out and about - men who walk New Zealand's dusty roads offering labour in exchange for food and a bed.

Word watch

All the words and phrases below are in this week's story. Choose the best meanings then check your choices when you read the story. The answers are at the end of this week's TreasureLink.

1. scullery (a) a kitchen or (b) a small room joined to a kitchen where jobs such as washing up are done
2. revenge (a) to punish in return for injury or insult or (b) to hold a grudge
3. determined (a) annoying or (b) persistent
4. epidemic (a) an illness that affects many people at the same time or (b) any life threatening illness
5. prosperous times (a) times when people have more money or (b) times when life is easier
6. hell bent for leather (a) scared of being punished or (b) moving very quickly
7. indispensable (a) dependable (b) couldn't do without
8. from the old mould (a) born in a time when things were done differently or (b) old fashioned
9. content (a) happy or (b) dissatisfied
10. grizzle (a) laugh or (b) moan

Small farm jobs

In the late 1800s farms in New Zealand were usually very large or quite small. The great estates covered thousands of hectares but a family could grow their own food on the very small farms.

Pearl grew up in the 1920s and by then a family farm of around forty hectares was the most common kind of business in New Zealand. It was still hard work because much of the machinery that farmers use today hadn't been invented.

Try this activity with a classmate:

Different times, different houses

Read the first two parts of this week's story. Granny Kilpatrick's house was a lot different than houses today. Draw a floor plan of her house and section using the description from the story. The one thing that wasn't mentioned was the outhouse. This was the toilet - a little building on its own. Don't forget to include this.

Floor plans are birds eye views of the house. What you would see from up above if there was no roof. They are fairly simple and you can see an example here.

Granny Stockwhip!

Look here to see what a stockwhip actually looks like and look here to find out how they are used.

Taking on Granny

Granny Kilpatrick was a tough old lady and strict with the kids. That's probably why Pearl's brother thought he'd take her on. The cartoon above shows what happened and Taking on Granny describes the action. Read on!

In those days many adults used the expression, "children should be seen but not heard." At school and in the home kids either behaved or were punished. At school they could get caned or strapped. It was a different time with different attitudes. Scroll down to Alan's story on this website. Read the first two parts- Respect for authority and Church attendance.

Are grandparents as strict, stricter or less strict than your parents today? Think, pair and share your ideas with a classmate.

The Spanish flu

This flu was a global disaster killing millions of people. It still is the worst disaster in New Zealand's history. When experts talk about the bird flu today they say it that if it breaks out it could be like the Spanish flu.

Here's how another Puke Ariki story described what happened.

Medical staff at the New Plymouth Hospital on Barrett Street have been dealing with a rapid stream of patients suffering sore throats, headaches, high fevers and breathing problems.

Day after day, one or two patients lapse into unconsciousness, dribble red froth from slackened lips, their faces darkening to purple-brown. Then they die.

People could catch this flu though and still live. That's why Pearl can tell the story today. Read The Spanish flu and find out how Pearl dealt with this deadly virus.

It hit the fit!

Even fit, strong people could catch the flu and die. If an epidemic happened today we should be able to deal with it better.

Discuss it with a classmate. Which of these things from 1919 would not happen today?

1. People gathered at inhaling centres to breathe in formalin. It was meant to clear the lungs and anyone who did not have the flu was told to report to the chambers daily.
2. Big businesses like newspaper companies continued to run.
3. People were sprayed with formalin. It was used as a disinfectant.
4. Travellers from overseas still called into New Zealand.
5. Hospitals only took the most urgent cases.
6. There were no vaccinations.
7. No one really wore masks.

Another deadly virus

Influenza wasn't the only deadly virus floating around when Pearl was a girl. Infantile paralysis was another. Today we know it as polio. Read all about it in Infantile Paralysis and then work with a classmate to help solve the problem here:               

Presents of a different kind

Pearl has a big collection of dolls today and perhaps it has something to do with the presents she once lost. Read A doll collector now and Christmas memories and look for ways Christmas Day in the 1920s was different to the way you celebrate Christmas Day today.

Which things from the past would you still enjoy today? Which parts of your Christmas would you miss if we went back in time? Think about it.

The cemetery dash

Pearl probably walked and ran a lot further every day than a lot of kids do now. She covered nearly 50 kilometres a week just getting to school.

Read A long walk to school and find out where she had to walk to every Sunday.

New Zealand celebrates its first National Walk to School week from 6-10 March. We probably need one of these now to encourage more kids to walk to school. In Pearl's day almost everyone made their own way to school but times have changed.

There's more traffic on the roads and pollution in the air. School entrance ways have traffic jams before and after school, parents worry about stranger danger and there are dodgy dogs with big teeth. All this means kids aren't as fit as they once were.

Find some solutions here:

What a worker!

Pearl was a real worker- perhaps that's why she's still fit and well and into her 90th year. Read A bigger farm means extra work and then check out the haymaking story below.

Haymaking has changed a lot. Some farmers don't touch their hay any more. They have contractors to do that. In Pearl's time however it was more like this:

"Haymaking was once a real community affair. There could be 20 farmers in the paddock. They would all be neighbours and they all had their own job.

The hay was cut a day or two before haymaking. On the big day one man with his horse and rake swept it into rows. All sorts of clever ideas were used to gather up the hay. Some farmers used an old gate or rope as a sweep and others dumped the rows into heaps using dumping sweeps or driving sweeps towed behind two horses.

Swept hay was forked onto the stack up to the stacker. The stacker was the most important person. If he didn't do a good job the stack would leak and the hay would rot. Some men stood on the ground but as the stack grew the shafts of a dray would be rammed into the side as a platform and more men stood up there. Others stood on top of the stack to feed hay to the stacker. Mechanical grabbers with the help of a horse were also used. The jaws grabbed a bundle of hay like a mechanical digger can today and the hay was lifted to the top of the stack.

Haymaking was a hot job and hard work but it brought people together and neighbours got to know each other really well."

A tough life but a good one!

Finish the story now.

Pearl said, "there were probably things I would have liked that I never got, but it passes by." Team up with a classmate and decide what these things would be. Compare your list with another pair.

Fast forward

Pearl Wildermoth lived through two of New Zealand's epidemics and is now hearing about another.

It's Avian influenza -the bird flu and it keeps popping up in the news. Some city and district councils, including New Plymouth, have already identified land to use as cemeteries if the bird flu strikes and begins to claim lives. That's serious!

Anti flu drugs have been pouring out of pharmaceutical companies and stockpiled ready to be sold. Big businesses have been deciding whether to close down if the bird flu strikes, or put in a plan where people can work from home.

It's good to be prepared but an epidemic may not even happen. People have died in some countries but they have all caught the flu off birds- poultry mostly, like ducks, chickens and geese.

An epidemic won't strike until the virus can be passed from one human to another. Doctors say that is possible.  An avian influenza virus and a human influenza virus might mix, or the avian flu virus could change in some way. This would mean a new strain of influenza virus that can be easily passed from person to person.

The new influenza virus could spread quickly and infect many people worldwide. This would be an influenza pandemic- similar to the one that happened in Pearl Wildermoth's time.

No one knows for sure what will happen. Perhaps the pharmaceutical companies will just make a lot of money by selling their vaccines but it's better to be safe than sorry.

You can check out New Zealand's emergency plan here.

Rewind answers

1. False. The first Anzac services were held in 1915 to remember those that fell on Gallipoli but the public holiday didn't come until 1921.

2. True. This team was the All Blacks who played and won all 30 matches in Britain and France.

3. True. Charles Kingsford Smith flew from Australia to New Zealand in 1928.

4. True.

5. True.

Wordwatch answers
1b, 2a, 3b, 4a, 5a, 6b, 7b, 8a, 9a, 10b