Sprinting past a large bull blocking the road on an icy winter’s night was one of the memories that prompted Marg McCorkindale to write her book - ‘Being a Southern Woman’.
Marg was a self-confessed townie when she married a Southland farmer in the 1980s and was thrown into country life that involved everything from lambing a ewe and a complicated birth through to dealing with frozen plumbing.
For the past few years, Marg and her husband Norm have been residents at Olive Estate in Richmond and Marg spent 20 years teaching at Nayland College following her days on the farm.
Back in the 80s she was a teacher at rural Southland schools when she married Norm and was immersed in a rural lifestyle that predated the internet and mobile phones.
Even the luxury of a supermarket was a monthly trip to Invercargill where they stocked up with a month’s worth of food.
“At lambing time I had no idea how to jump out of a truck to grab a ewe. There was always plumbing problems because pipes would freeze. You would get leaking through the roof and one time water came up through the floor from a leak.
“Farmers had to be builders, plumbers and electricians – and you couldn’t Google it.”
She loved the lifestyle and the escapades that could be retold for a good laugh.
She hopes the 14 short stories in her book will prompt a few laughs because she feels there is not enough laughter in the world today.
Her bull escapade occurred in the middle of the night when she drove home from a late school meeting and found the road blocked by a large bull about a kilometre from home.
Knowing there would be no other drivers likely to be on the road to help and no phone in those days, she had to take matters into her own hands.
Especially after the car would not start again after she turned it off to see if that would entice the bull to move.
She could climb the fence and negotiate electric fences in the paddocks in pitch black, or she could try running past the bull.
She chose to run, leaving the lights on full to keep the bull’s attention.
“I didn’t look back. I was picturing it chasing me but fortunately it was attracted by the lights.,” she says.
Marg is promoting her book at Paragon Eatery in Olive Estate on 7 May at 2.30pm.
