Patty Johnson's Schoolgirl Diary '57-'59

Bayside Life in 1950s Melbourne

 

INTRODUCTION

Patricia Marion Deuchar (Patty) Johnson was born in Melbourne on March 25th, 1944. She was the only daughter of Laurence (Laurie) Johnson and his wife Nancy, née Cuffley. Her brother Geoffrey born in 1941 was three years older than her. At the time the diary was written the family lived at 436 Beach Road, Beaumaris, in a stuccoed two-storeyed house called Avalon. It was on a corner site directly opposite the beach. Her father’s mother, Grandma Johnson, lived in her own flat in one half of the house. Patty was born into a mixed marriage with her mother being a staunch Catholic while her father remained steadfastly opposed to the teachings of the Catholic Church and refused to attend Mass or share in any proceedings to do with it. At the time she wrote the diary Patty was aged between thirteen and fifteen years old. She was an ardent Catholic, often going to daily Mass by herself in the morning before school. She belonged to ‘Children of Mary’, attended Benediction and Masses said for deceased nuns.

 

The diary was discovered among her personal papers after her death in September 2012. It had never been mentioned by her during her lifetime but had been stored in a file along with other documents and memorabilia to do with her childhood years. The first pages of the diary are written on loose leaves of paper, some in pencil others in biro. Page sequence is established to some extent by numbering of the pages at the top but the sequence is not always easy to follow as the pages were out of order when found and were written on both sides with another numbering sequence on the verso. In 1959 she bought a proper commercial diary and from February that year the sequence is easy to follow. The diary began in December 1957 and ends in December 1959. It is not always continuous as there are gaps in both the loose leaf and bound sections.

 

Why she made the diary is not explained but she did type out some of the first pages with the heading Record of Christmas 1957 Vacation: from Marion Deuchar’s ”Journal”. Marion Deuchar is a pseudonym Patty Johnson used for various other writings such as letters to the paper, some of which were apparently published. It is clear that she was aware of the literary precedents for her diary and it was undertaken with considerable seriousness and application, though it may be originally she intended a shorter account of the holiday period, perhaps with publication in mind. The total surviving text amounts to some 54,000 words – equal in length to a short book. At various points she made illustrations to the text that relate to and complement its content. Her drawings of all her clothes, for example, were made to show in detail what the text couldn’t.

 

The diary is appealing because of its freshness, simplicity and authenticity. It was written day by day as events in her life happened. At several places she explains that she had neglected to write an entry on the day it happened and caught up a few days later. But that is exceptional. Unlike some diaries it is not a later construction made up long after childhood had ended and inflected by the adult mind. It is written by a schoolgirl, and this gives it real charm.

 

Surprisingly little happens at home except in the sunroom where she goes to paint, to read and to write. Later in the diary she sees girlfriends and boys there in a degree of privacy. Very little is said about home life with her parents and her father in particular is a fairly remote figure. She plays the piano, does her practice and her copious homework but says little about anything else. With the arrival of the TV in December 1957 this becomes a centre of entertainment in the evenings. Her parents do their entertaining mainly at Moondai, their holiday home in the Dandenongs near Selby. Moondai was a place where she relaxed and socialised – a country alternative to Beaumaris and the beach that she remembered fondly throughout her life.

 

A lot of her time in the summer is spent at the beach over the road from her home. She goes there often to be alone, to write her diary, to sketch, to do homework and to socialise. Frequently she meets friends or acquaintances coming or going. She meets girl friends and importantly boy friends like John Walker, an altar boy at Stella Maris with whom she goes for swims, walks and games of cricket. He seems part of the attraction in the regular trips to early morning Mass. But she has a response to Nature and writes about her enjoyment of changes of weather, walking along the beach and studying the marine life near the shore.

 

Already she has a keen interest in social events and has a busy social life going to dances, parties and the occasional ball. Her appearance is important and she is very interested in her clothes and hair styles. The cutting off of her plaits is seen as a rite of passage from childhood to early adulthood. In the later sections of the diary when she is fifteen she goes for dates with boyfriends especially Ross who has a car and drives her to clubs and parties.

 

Of course school and the church play a big part in her life. She describes school throughout the diary, including comments on the teachers, nuns like Sister Attracta who are formative influences on her musical and artistic taste. She seems very devout and belongs to the Children of Mary and the Sodality. Apart from attending daily Mass she helps out at school, staying behind, tidying up and doing additional work. She takes her painting seriously, attending the Beaumaris Art Club, entering for exhibitions and winning an art prize.

 

She is very observant of people and things. She notes Father Coakley skipping prayers to finish Mass early but is concerned when he is ill. Often she records actual conversations thus giving life to her narrative. Her own character emerges naturally from the pages. For example we can see her critical feminist perspective when she notes John Walker’s self-importance, sense of superiority over his sister and fixation with cricket and games where he wins every time. She also comments on Ross’s extravagance with money and his photo albums full of pictures of himself winning prizes and accolades for his pole-vaulting.

 

The diary gives an informal, now nostalgic, view of Bayside life in the late 1950s. Important events like the Soviet launch of a rocket to the moon are noted as is the preaching of the evangelist Billy Graham, the records of Elvis Presley and the opening of the Myer Sound Shell. Sporting events like the Davis Cup also get a mention. Occasional trips to town, the country or to drive-ins add to the rounded picture of schoolgirl life. Part of the appeal of the diary is the way in which the bigger context of her admittedly small world is referenced and made vivid.

 

Patty Johnson’s schoolgirl diary can be read for a variety of reasons, in parts or in full. Overall it is a remarkable achievement for a young woman with heavy commitments at school and home to have written with such skill and consistency for two years. It provides a unique legacy for the family and friends that will have enduring value and appeal.

 

Michael Dunn, Auckland, April, 2014