Frank Goodman celebrated his birthday on August the 4th. (His birth certificate states he was born on 5 August 1911 at Trentham). His parents were Albert Goodman and Minnie Elizabeth Scrimshaw. They lived on the Main Road - now known as Fergusson Drive - just opposite the Moonshine Road turn off. Frank had an older sister, Eva Mary (called Dorrie), born in 1909.

He went to school at Trentham and Upper Hutt, and also at Nelson where his parents shifted for a time. In 1912 his sister Rene Mavis was born. His brothers, Roy Albert and Keith William (Tip) followed in 1914 and 1916.

He left school at the age of twelve, and for several years went around the race courses with his horse-training father - often acting as jockey. The Goodman household was one where young jockeys boarded for training. His father was inclined to spend the racing wins, so Frank would take the money, roll it in his shirt sleeve and sneak it home to his mother.

He attended his first party at the age of fourteen, held in the house which in later years became the "Maid's Cottage" at St Patrick's College, Silverstream.

Around 1926 he got an apprenticeship with Cotter, the plumber. He worked there during the day, and in the evenings - for five years - he attended the Petone Technical College. For five nights a week he would walk to the Trentham Station, catch the train to Petone, walk to the College, and after classes make the return trip home. In later years, he could always beat his children at mathematics!

When the Depression came in 1931 Cotter the plumber could not afford to have two workers - they had to lay one off. Frank had already passed his plumbing exam, so he was laid off and they kept his brother Roy on. Frank went gold mining at Maggie's Creek, Owen River, near Murchison.

When he came back from gold mining in 1935 Frank set up his own plumbing and drain laying business in Upper Hutt. He lived with his parents. The business was very successful. He was known locally as "Basher Goodman".

One rainy day at Doctor Sternberg's surgery the spouting began to leak and they phoned for a plumber. Frank went to fix it. The nurse held the ladder in the wind. That was how Frank met Doreen Mary Peers!

HAVING MET...

The Peers family had moved to Hastings, so Doreen boarded with Mrs Grantham and family who had bought the Peers house in Beth Street, Trentham. Mrs Grantham taught Doreen to sew. "I used to have cold baths because I was frightened to use the hot water up!"

Doreen thought she had better introduce her fiance to the Catholic priest of Upper Hutt, Father Michael Brennan. They made an appointment, and Frank refused to shake his hand!

Doreen moved to Hastings, where her parents lived at Grays Road. She got a job with a dentist and left after three days. "He was a terrible man. I was used to Doctor's procedure!" Then she got a job in a private nursing hospital. She applied to the Hasting's Memorial Hospital for a job, and they wanted her to do training. Doreen said that she couldn't because she was getting married.

For three weeks then she worked for a sick widow. She looked after the widow, the widow's two children and the widow's dairy shop. She then went to Dannevirke to care for an old man who had had a stroke.

Meanwhile, Frank was building a house in Upper Hutt - the last house on the right side of the Main Road as you enter the city.

Doreen travelled down to Trentham to see Frank. When she called at his place he was away duck-shooting - with the Catholic priest Father Brennan! A week before her wedding Doreen returned from Dannevirke to Hastings. Her mother was in a panic.

Frank travelled from Trentham to Hastings with his friends Buster Foster and Roy Gilbanks and his sister Rene. The wedding was at Sacred Heart Church, Hastings, and the reception was at Doreen's parent's place in Grays Road.

After the wedding, they returned to Wellington with Doreen and Rene in the back seat and the three men squeezed into the front seat. Doreen and Frank crossed to Nelson for their honeymoon. They set up home in Upper Hutt. Frank's father Albert was very angry because Frank had become a Roman Catholic.

On 15 October 1940 their first child, Anthony John, was born. Their second child, Suzanne Jennifer was born on 2 May 1952. World War II had broken out. In 1942 Frank closed his business and joined the Ministry of Works at Trentham Camp as plumber and drainlayer.

On 6 July 1945, their third child, Richard Philip, was born. The war ended at the end of that year, and Frank re-opened his plumbing business.

In 1947, Frank ran for the Upper Hutt Town Council, and missed out on being elected by a few votes.

Frances Marjory, their fourth child, was born on 7 March 1948.

In 1949, Frank sold his plumbing business and bought the leasehold of the Provincial Hotel in Wanganui. Their Upper Hutt house had been sold and the hotel wasn't ready. Buster and Eileen Foster looked after Francie, and Tony and Sue were at boarding school. So Doreen, Frank and Rick spent three weeks living in a hut with only a dirt floor at Moonshine. Doreen was expecting their fifth child. They moved to the Provincial Hotel. Doreen recalls: "It was the first time I had been in a hotel in my life!"

On 6 December 1949 in Wanganui, their fifth child, Bruce Bernard, was born.

They kept the hotel for five years. The hotel was no place to rear children. In 1952, Doreen and Frank bought a small farm at Matarawa - out of Wanganui - and Doreen and the children moved out there. Frank continued to run the pub. It was a legal requirement to have a woman in the running of a pub so a housekeeper was employed. It was while at Matarawa that Frank's sister, Rene, died suddenly at Trentham.

Frank and Doreen sold the farm at Matarawa and moved to a house at Nixon Street in Wanganui. It was there that Bruce got very sick and nearly died. Doreen and Frank returned to the hotel. The children were at boarding school and Bruce was looked after by a woman called Miss Boon (although he always thought it was Miss Spoon!)

In 1953 they sold the hotel and bought a sheep farm at Springhill, Hawkes Bay - called Rosskeen after the place in Scotland where Doreen's brother Dick was buried. (Today the farm is known as Waterfall. The children went to Springhill Primary School - although Tony boarded at St Patrick's College, Silverstream, and Sue boarded at Sacred Heart College, Napier.

On 30 July 1954, their sixth child, Leo Patrick, was born at Waipawa. Bruce recalls that Frank was making the school lunches at this time (while Doreen was in the Maternity Home) and called out from the kitchen "Do you want to go to school today?" And so that's when he started school - even though he was only four!

Frank built a new house on the farm, of 1700 square feet, and they moved into it in 1957. They lived not far from Doreen's sister and husband, Margaret and Bert Worsnop, and the Goodman children spent many happy hours at Wakarara. They also spent quite a few hours sitting in the Humber Super Snipe outside the Onga Onga pub! On Friday evenings once a month they would travel to Waipukurau to do the shopping.

Frank and Doreen were very involved with the local community. Many of the locals were Doreen's relatives, for her great-grandparents had lived in the area. Frank was chairman of the School Committee and Doreen was president of the Country Women's Institute.

In 1961 they sold the farm at Springhill and bought a dairy farm at Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast. A large farewell was held at Springhill. For several weeks they lived in a house at Waitarere near Levin, and then moved onto the dairy farm. Frank built a new car port with a lounge above it on the house at Waikanae. Sons Tony and Rick became share milkers on the farm, while at the same time becoming interested in earth moving. Sue became a dental nurse and worked in Christchurch. In 1961 she married Allan Archer at Miramar. In 1962 Doreen and Frank became grandparents - with the birth of their first grandchild Mark Richard Archer. Tony married Mehegan Stuart in 1968, Rick married Helen Ryder in 1967, France married Ronald Weggery in 1972, and Bruce was ordained a priest in 1975.

With Tony and Rick running the farm, Frank got a job as Drainage Engineer for the Housing Division of the Ministry of Works in Wellington. He worked there until 1972 when he retired. In the meantime the earth moving business was growing, and Doreen worked as accountant for Goodman Earthmovers. She retired in 1978.

The Dairy Farm had been sold, and Doreen and Frank moved to a house in Waikanae - 37 Rauparaha Street for several years. In May 1974 they moved to a smaller house at 6A Wakefield Grove.

On 15 January 1984 Frank died of cancer at their home at Waikanae, having been diagnosed on Christmas Eve. The following month, their youngest child, Leo, married Kay Williams.