Lorna Langford leaves well-loved Bainham
Lorna Langford hard at work in the Post Office at Bainham in the week prior to handing over the operation to Sukhita Langford. Photo: Neil Wilson.
We revisit some of the year's favourite and significant stories at this time of the year, and 2008 saw a major change at a well-loved Bainham landmark. Here's another look -- and an update -- on the old and the new.
"I'm a real hoarder," says Lorna Langford, emerging from a storeroom at the back of her famous Bainham Store, clutching an ancient tin of Hylusta gold paint. "This is the paint I used to use to touch up the lettering on the headstones in our cemetery. I think it's probably past its best now."
Lorna is in the process of having a bit of a clean-out at the moment because she is handing over the running of the Post Office and store to Sukhita Langford, her uncle's grand-daughter. As Lorna has been at the store since 1947, there is quite a lot do.
Sukhita, who has been easing her way into the job for a week or so, says that she is honoured to be taking over from Lorna.
"This has been a special place to me almost since I was born," she said.
Lorna says that she will miss the people most of all when she hands over the store after running it for over 60 years. "They're lovely people here-they always have been and they always will be," she said. "This is a magical place. I love the tranquillity and the native bush too."
Before starting to help her grandparents at the store, Lorna completed her secondary education by correspondence. "There were seven of us doing it here at the time," she said. "The only way to be a full-time student at Collingwood was to board at Rockville, and my parents didn't want me to do that. We were quite isolated here. I guess we've had to be rugged independents-the way of life has made us resilient...There was no radio at the school so we used to go to the Tibbles' place, which was quite near, and listen to the broadcast to schools. I remember a wonderful programme called South With Shackleton."
Communication with the outside world was very different in Lorna's youth. "We had the power on from 1951, but there weren't a lot of people here with phones," she said. "There was one party line and lots of people used to go their neighbour's to use the phone. Some of our neighbours used to come to our place and book in their calves with Solly's. We had a phone room at the store too that people could use. I remember the number at the store was 6S and we were 6J at home. My grandfather used to say to people, ‘If you can't remember the store's number just remember "success".' Then the P and T changed the store's number to 34S and he lost his slogan."
Lorna says that her role has been to offer service to her community, but she likes the way she also became a link to the past. "People often come here and ask if I know where their grandparents used to have a farm. I can usually give them a good idea. When I was a girl doing my correspondence studies I had to do a project on some of the older people in our district. I interviewed some folk who were the children of the settlers that Bainham was named after. I like that."
When Lorna started at the Bainham Store, King George VI was on the throne and Peter Fraser was New Zealand's Prime Minister. A lot has changed in the interim, but Lorna has made sure that the store has retained plenty of historic charm. When The GB Weekly visited Lorna to talk about this story, we were regularly interrupted by visitors from all over Golden Bay and New Zealand. Lorna's standards of service and courtesy ensured that everyone signed the visitors' book and most people bought something.
Neil Wilson
Lorna now lives at Abbeyfield. She says she is enjoying the companionship of the other residents and she really likes the meals. "The shift to Abbeyfield has been great but it did require some adjusting. As I said, I'm a bit of a hoarder and I don't have the space I used to have. I've only been back to Bainham twice since the lovely send-off they gave me."
