| "By
the time a man gets to twenty, he'd be married or before eighteen,
he might be a married man. After he gets married he's be still under
the control of the older people.
You
can't please yourself whatever you do. No divorce in the old days.
One's got to die first. They'd say that he left that firestick because
he died. They'd say 'Can we get another man or woman to replace his
light. She might have little kids coming up and they might feel sorry
for the kids. They'll
trace it back through the records and there might be a widowed man.
|
The
man can't say 'No I don't want that woman, I don't like her.' He's
under the gun barrel then.
The
woman can't say 'Oh, what do they want to send him over for, I don't
want him,'Even
if he's a hundred years old, she can't say nothing. They'd say 'Here's
your man, here's your firestick'. She can't knock it back, he can't
knock it back. It works out most of the time." (Lee Wilton, Leigh
Creek South, 1989 in Education Department of SA, 1992, p76)
|
