From Coast To Coast

This novel, the eighth in the series, follows the lives of the two families as the children grow into adulthood and leave home.
Benjamin, Patricia and Rose remain on the farm and Rose continues her education in Chadora and moves to Bunbury where she completes her high school studies before fulfilling her dream to become a schoolteacher like her mother was. Rose boards with her aunty in Bunbury and she becomes like a sister to Edward.
Ambrose lives in the cottage and continues his love of playing the piano and tending to chores on the property with his son, Benjamin.
Elizabeth, Connor and their children, Edward and Charlotte remain in Bunbury and with the introduction of television into their home convey some of the news to their friends in Chadora.
Charlotte also is in her high school years and when the time is right, she commences her nurses training at Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) and on graduation moves to King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH) for her midwifery training.
The hospitals of that era provided accommodation for their nurses and under their guidance were cared for. House rules were strict with only limited time permitted for social activities when the time to report in to the staff on duty, maintained homelike discipline.
Edward is a young man and behaved as such, yet, he is not averse to sewing the arms and legs of the girls’ pyjamas or short-sheeting their beds if they were being difficult to live with.
Ronald and Maxine’s son, Kenneth, is a young man, mature beyond his years in many ways as he set his mind on his trade as a mechanic. Despite his maturity, Kenneth was not beyond picking up his friend, Charlotte, and carrying her kicking and screaming in to the surf and dropping her. Her brother also if he could catch him off guard. Such was the simplicity of social gatherings.
Rose’s dream of visiting the Morgan family in Sydney is dashed when their prize bull dies, leaving them with a debt.
Connie Morgan, now living in Sydney with her husband, Charles and their adult family, has continued her nursing career and is a Matron in an aged care facility.
The space race is beginning and the Russian Sputnic could be seen moving across the sky to the amazement of the world below.
The American Government announces the plan to put a man on the moon within ten years and an American communication base is built and manned in the Northwest town of Exmouth at a cost of $33 million dollars.
Kenneth Murphy meets Mary Louise Jones and a romance develops moving the next generation of the family.
Rose and Charlotte meet prospective husbands and like their Uncle Alexander sent their parents a photo of themselves with a note written on the back saying, ‘me and a friend’.
The story leads the characters to towns south and east and they remain in contact with their friends From Coast to Coast.