HILARITY rules as a group of five women meet at Kirwee in Canterbury to recall their well spent youth.
These five, like many young rural women of 50 or so years ago, were involved in Country Girls’ Clubs, a parallel organisation to Young Farmers’ Clubs which they eventually merged with.
None of them can say exactly when the Country Girls Clubs started and when they formally merged with Young Farmers, but the late 1940s is a likely date for their establishment.
A search of the internet only shows that the Cheviot club started in 1949 and went into recess in 1969. In 1965, there were 159 Country Girls’ Clubs nationally with about 2000 members.
It’s extremely challenging for a reporter to keep this group of women on track. They are arranging a day-long get together for former Country Girls in Darfield in September and are bursting with memories.
Helen Williams: “A man came and gave us a talk on Meeting Procedure and somehow or other The Press (newspaper) put Mating Procedure. I felt very embarrassed for him.”
Formal meeting procedure was an important feature of Country Girls and a full report of their meetings went to the Department of Agriculture.
Country Girls was for women up to age 30. After that there was an expectation that they would go on to Women’s Division Federated Farmers.
Each group had one or two older women as advisors at their meeting from Women’s Division or Country Women’s Institutes, “and they had to be addressed as Mrs, none of this first name stuff”.
“We were scared still of the advisors,” Helen Williams says. “An advisory member got up and said in a very firm voice (on nominations for office) ‘I don’t want anyone to say no’.”
All five women say learning formal meeting procedure and debating has stood them in good stead in later life.
Elaine Inch: “We would never have got that experience otherwise. Debating allowed you to stand on your feet and think for yourself. I remember we debated in Southland.”
Each meeting had a speaker and a roll call topic where everyone had to say a few words.
Looking back at a magazine from the early 1960s a couple of speaker topics that may have had the matronly advisory members on edge were “Family planning” and “Lingerie parade in private homes, club members as models.”
Roll call topics from the time included “My ideal man in six words”, “The book I recommend and why”, “What I left undone to come to these meetings” and “My husband or boyfriend’s most annoying habit”.
Country Girls was involved in a full range of activities, which would probably be impossible to fit into today’s busier lives.
Stock judging was one, where they competed against the boys. Peggie Jenkins, who was Dominion President of Country Girls in the 1950s says “There were some good girls (judging), and some of them (boys) didn’t like it much.”
Then there were other competitions between clubs, as well as sports days. The competitions included things you might find at A&P shows today such as cooking, sewing, jams, flowers and veges.
Peggie recalls rugby matches. “My father didn’t approve of women playing rugby, but we used to get crowds and crowds come along.”
Country Girls was closely associated with Young Farmers. Helen Reid remembers the ball at Darfield was the first time she had anything to do with Young Farmers, while they all remember the Young Farmers ball in Christchurch. “There was no alcohol, so we used to smuggle it in in our stoles and shove it under the table,” Elaine says. “We didn’t drink wine then, it was all spirits.”
Eventually Country Girls merged with Young Farmers and the role of women began to change. The organisation gradually faded away and young women rightfully took their place as young farmers.
Anyone wanting to attend the Country Girls get together in Darfield on September 24 contact Helen Reid 03 3181748.
howardkeene@clear.net. nz
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