P&K: Years with glassless windows

U.S. Marines on furlough from Guadalcanal with malaria were deployed to Martinborough after the 1942 earthquakes (Magnitude 7.6) to help demolish parts of the main P&K store structure which had been badly damaged and partly destroyed. 

Part of the demolition job called for wire ropes tied to trucks, then the Americans brought in explosives to move some of the wrecked building facade.

David Kershaw said one unintended consequence from the blasts: they blew out all the remaining glass windows on the Square and Jellicoe Street frontages.

Result? At a time of World War, at a time when Europe was using all the glass it could produce to repair war-damaged buildings _ and when all glass was imported _ P&K had no front windows on its building for six years.

Solid wooden shutters improvised for all that time, with glass finally installed in the last months of the 1940s.

P&K: Weevils in the dates

During and after WW11 imported Middle East dates were always infested with weevils.

Staff would break up the cakes of dates and put the dates into water to drown the weevils.

They would scoop off the dead weevils and put the dates on sacks on top of the shop’s bike shed to dry in the sun.

The dates were then put into a mixture of hot water and golden syrup, and stirred to coat with the mixture before drying them a second time.

The staff would bag and sell them to customers who said, as David Kershaw reported: “they are the best dates we’ve ever had.”

David insisted nobody ever reported finding a weevil in the repackaged dates – dead or alive.

P&K: Veterans on “The Live Edge”

Architects call the Eastern or Square side of the P&K building its “Live Edge” as its windows face into the open square “where stuff is going on” and the morning sun shines into the relocated fashion store and new cafe.

David Kershaw explains that “my old man used to say it’s such a warm spot that a lot of the Second World War vets – the old guys that also did all the heavy (local) fencing work _ the guys who lugged all the concrete posts to the top of hills putting fencing up – all their hips gave out.”

“They were in pain all the time,” so in the early mornings “they would shuffle into town and sit on our window sill all along (the eastern wall) waiting for the sun to warm them up.”

“That was the only thing that would get rid of the pain. If there had been hip operations (in the day) … they’d have all been fixed.”

Family Food Box

Several weekly “Food Box” options offered to clients come with all the ingredients, down to the printed recipe, spices and cooking instructions, priced from $5.00 (e.g. potato chick pea curry) to $10.00 (pineapple chicken casserole).

“We try to provide nutritious and really tasty meals on a budget. They’re popular with the people,” said May Croft.

“What was really lovely is that two people sent me photographs of the Big Pork Sausage Roll coming out of the oven,” May said. 

“That is really rewarding, that someone has made it and are so pleased with themselves that they’ve sent you a photo. That $10.00 would have fed six people.”