There it sits, spine out, on one of my book shelves. The spine is so worn that, if it ever had a title, it has now disappeared amongst the munchings of insects and the thumpings of writers.
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| The Ever Ready Complete Account Book c.a. 1930 |
Where has it sat over the years? On whose shelves? Was it ever in an old tin trunk?
It has a similar colour to the red one my grandfather used in his first adventures from his home to a work camp on a railway line 'up on the Downs'.
Don't you love 'up on the Downs'. It was such a Brisbane thing to say.
The spine is one and three quarters inches wide and ten inches high (46 mm x 256mm). It is cardboard covered in material and has some other outer coating that the insects have explored fairly regularly but not completely ingested.
Well the spine hasn't got me very far, so, on to the front cover where I can see right in the centre -
'THE
EVER READY
COMPLETE
ACCOUNT BOOK'
in gold coloured, embossed lettering.
The obvious question is - whose Every Ready Complete Account Book?
I open the book.
At the first opening is an advert for, you guessed it,
The Ever Ready
BUSINESS MAN'S
Complete
ACCOUNT BOOK
(For 3 years)
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| Frontispiece |
Well it wasn't supposed to be my grandmother's was it, even though I suspect that, like my mother, my grandmother may have been better at keeping records than my grandfather.
By the way the advert tells me that, if I want to order another all I have to do is ring B6631 or send away to P.O. Box 1649 V. The other thing about the frontispiece entry is that I can see blue smudges on both pages. Carbon paper maybe?
Down the bottom of the frontispiece is the address of the Ever Ready Account Book Co. - 'Room 42, Equitable Life Building, Queen Street, Brisbane.
I turn again - suggestions about and examples of how to use the book. I guess if you are a business man you may now be feeling more confident that the £3/3/- that you've parted with to purchase this wonderful ACCOUNT BOOK has been worth every pound, shilling and penny.
I turn again- aah, entries - Sales for the Month of July 1930. ('July' and '30' are handwritten in pen and faded black ink in a clear, legible hand.)
The date tells me something - it is unlikely to be my father's account book. He was born on the 24th of August, 1917 so he was only 13.
My grandfather Robert Henry Bellingham was born on the 13th April 1893 so he was 37 years old - good candidate.
What else can I work out?
The next row has the titles for the two columns of Sales and they are for the 'Shop' and the 'Cart'.
- Tuesday 1st July 1930 - Shop £1/2/3 Cart £2/8/4 (2 pound 8 shillings and 4 pence) and all the way down to Thursday the 31st of July where it was recorded that the month's total sales were £113/3/1
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| Sales for July 1930 |
What were Robert Henry Bellingham and Ettie Lavina Bellingham doing in July 1930?
A quick search of Trove reveals that they advertised in the Catholic Advocate of Brisbane:
R. H. BELLINGHAM
BAKER AND PASTRY COOK,
508 BOUNDARY STREET, SPRING HILL.
Picnic Parties Catered for.
Orders Taken and Delivered.
Soft Drinks, Tea, and Sandwiches,
always Available. 'PHONE B4085
That all ties in well. My father passed on some stories about when his parents and three children, Ruth, Allen and Roy, were living and running a bakery and shop at 508 Boundary St, Spring Hill. They moved there when they sold the bakery in Caboolture. They had a bakery, a shop fronting the street and a cart for delivering orders and selling around the streets.
So this boring old Accounts Book was from the Spring Hill bakery. Whose writing? Grandpa's or Grandma's? I don't know yet but maybe I'll be able to find out with some more exploring. It is quite beautiful writing and I'm sure we can whisper a story or two out of the rest of the book.
