Centenarian Mary Celebrates
Long time Burnside resident Mary Maitland has celebrated her 100th birthday.
Born in Riverton in the mid north in April 1920, Mary had a long career as a teacher and an even longer marriage to Bill.
Mary says things have changed a lot in her time. “You have to lock up your house when you go out, even if I just go around the corner I lock the back door. Many years ago we didn’t do that - we just left everything open. Things change – even the bus routes into the city have changed.”
Asked her secret to longevity Mary says “I think if you are lucky enough to have a loving family and you have enough common sense to eat properly. I have someone come now to shower me every day and someone who comes in the evenings and helps me get ready for bed. I couldn’t live here if I didn’t have that help.”
Raised at Auburn in the mid north she was brought up a very staunch Methodist. “I was not allowed to buy an ice-cream on Sunday,” she says. “My father believed it was wrong for shops to trade on a Sunday. Those were very different days. Our bathroom did not have hot water or a shower.”
Despite the hardship and lack of modern conveniences Mary says people who haven’t lived in the country have missed a lot. “I used to go dancing Saturday nights at the Auburn Institute but I couldn’t go unless my older brother went with me.”
Playing tennis regularly Mary met Bill on court when he appeared for an opposing team. “Our first date was a dance on the lawn at Riverton and we had to wear sensible shoes,” Mary says.
Completing her education at Clare High School Mary was the only girl in the senior class. She went on to train at Adelaide Teachers College and began teaching at Woodville High School in 1940.
“I was very lucky that I had loving, caring parents. I was renting a unit (in Adelaide) but I could go home any time,” she says. “I could also go to Bill’s parents any time.”
In the 1940s married women were not employed as teachers or bank staff. “So when I decided to marry Bill I went to the Director General of Education and asked for an exemption,” Mary says. “He thought about it and said ‘You have to resign and stay home for 3 days to make it official, then I will re-appoint you as a temporary teacher for 3 years.’ And that’s how they got around it,” Mary says.
She and Bill attended Church regularly at the Pirie Street Methodist Church where Mary sang in the choir and learnt to play the pipe organ. “We were married there in 1941,” Mary says. Soon after marrying, Bill went to South Africa with the Air Force to learn to fly planes. Mary heard very little from him except the occasional telegram.
After the war Bill returned but stayed with the Air Force. Their only child, Craig, was born in 1943 at Auburn where Mary was living with her parents. Bill was in Melbourne at the time and got home on the odd weekend.
They eventually moved back to the country where Mary taught at Clare and Riverton High Schools, two days in one and three in the other. When Craig was three they moved south to Pinnaroo. There the local school Principal heard Mary was a trained teacher and asked if she would work there. “He said I would be happy because women got as much (pay) as men did which was not the case before,” says Mary. Later Bill was moved to Jamestown and Mary resigned. “But the same thing happened,” she says. “There was a knock on the door and the principal of the High School asked if I would come back.”
When they moved to Adelaide in 1958 she was called by Nailsworth Girls’ Technical High School. She became a senior mistress, then Deputy Principal, until she was 61 when she retired. “I enjoyed teaching. As Deputy Principal a lot of staff came to me with their problems and when I could solve them that was the best part.”
“We bought a house in Allinga Ave Glenside when Craig was 12 (1955). We stayed there about 30 years then we decided we better buy a unit which would be less work. I was 89 and I have been here since.”
“I used to always go over to the library, that’s where I leant to use a computer and the books were excellent. I found Burnside Library a great help with everything. They still deliver books to me once a month.”
Mary says she is not good at walking around Burnside Village as she used to, so Craig does the banking. She has a hairdresser and podiatrist come to her and the chemist delivers. She also has groceries delivered once a month. “You can live successfully in your own home,” she says. “I am being very careful now since I had a fall a while ago and broke a couple of bones so I use a little walker around the house.”
Mary has a granddaughter who is married and lives at Jamestown with her three children. Her grandson is 50 this year and has a partner and they have two children, 7 and 10.
She is still a social member at Toorak Bowls where she played with Bill for more than 20 years. “The Club was going to have a party (for my 100th),” she says. “My son was going to have a party as well but this virus came and it was all stopped. They all arrived with flowers and the back porch was filled with flowers. I even got a letter from the Queen and the Governor General.”
“I just like to be grateful for living in Burnside with all the help that I get. I go to the Legacy Widows’ Club, a lovely group, but I haven’t been for months because of this virus. But of course the numbers are declining and the younger girls are not joining because they are all working. I have always found Burnside a wonderful area to live in. I miss Bill very much but I recognise that I was lucky to have had him for so long.”
