Mein Stammbaum

Cecil can remember hearing a story about William Zimmermann Hupfeld tipping a load of mallee roots out, with Fred (his father) still on the load. Cecil went to school at Batchica where the family had a 30 acre wheat fann. He broke bis arm while at this
school and the father of one of the boys responsible took Cecil into Warracknabeal in a buggy. He had two months off schoel. When he retumed to school he was asked to spell island, but missed the hyphen and was grabbed by his sore arm. He gained bis Merit Certificate at Batchica State School. As a youth, Cec faced many hardships and was often expected to take on adult responsibilities within the family. He overcame early adve.4ities with the sarne resilience and stoicism that he displayed in later years. When the family moved to Warracknabeal he became familiar with the strap of the headmaster at the school when he was late for school. While in Warracknabeal Cecil had a paper round and used to deliver the Heral( around the town when he was 14. After working with his brothers at a vegetable garden in Haven, Cecil joined the staff of the Mail Times newspaper in Horsham in 1920. He was a compositor then a Linotype operator and he remained there until he retired in 1973, except for an 18 month stint working for the Stawell TimesO-News. Throughout his working life, Cec was highly regarded as a loyal and conscientious employee. Each fortnight Cec would send two pounds to his mother and the family. He loved riding his motor bike, fishing and tennis. lt was through bis involvement with the Adelphians Tennis Club that Cec met and courted Lila Ball, who family had retired to Horsham from a farrn at Polkemet East. Cec attached a sidecar to his AJS motor bike so they could enjoy travelling around the district together. He married Lila and they set up house in Baillie Street in 19X They had two daughters Yvonne and Joy. Cec was a great fishennan, a gifted gardener and he also began processing, enlarging and hand colouring his own photographs. He set up his own photographic studio and darkroom at home, where he continued to pursue his hobby for many years. He was a proud member of the Racobite Lodge, abstaining from drinking alcohol. He never smoked in his life. He was a life member of the Printer's Union and he was awarded a life member of the Horshain Angling Club in 1998. Cecil never wore a watch during his lifetime and he passed away on July 112003. He is held in very high esteem by his fainily and the Horsham cortimmüty. CECIL RECALLS EARLY DAYS AT HERALD "An elderly Horshain pensioner worked with the Warracknabeal Herald from 1916 till 1920. Cecil Hupfield is the son of the late Frederick and Caroline Hupfield (nee Nikkelson) and was bom at the Warracknabeal District Hospital on November 1 st 1902. His parents originally had 30 acres (12 hectares) of land at Batchica (about 1/2 mile from the school) where Fred, who grew wheat (and had a few cows) was a farrn labourer about the district and a fencing contractor. The family moved into Lyle Street Warracknabeal when Cecil was about 14 and this was when he started work at the Herald. He left school to work at setting and delivering papers to the whole of Warracknabeal on a push bike. When he started with the business, it was owned by Sydney Sampson, in partnership with N Pearson. He remembers well when Mr Sampson was defeated in Parliament, as he had the job of climbing a ladder to post results on the shop's front wall as they came in. After this, the paper was under the sole control of Mr Pearson. Mr Hupfield also worked at the Herald when rival paper, the Warracknabeal Post hit the streets and was later bought out by the Herald. Mr Hupfield remembers a Mr Donahue who was employed by the Post and was later given ajob at the Herald. He says several parts of the machinery were also transferred to the original paper when the new one was taken over. He recalls a funny incident, when he was paper boy with the Herald. One aftemoon, the police arrived on his parent's front door-step. lt tumed out that a servant girl from the house across the road thought he had pinched oranges because he had a pile of papers on the bike. When Mr Hupfield left the paper, he went to start a fruit shop in Warracknabeal with his mother, in a building that was owned byfour-eyes'Smith. He remembers serving customers and making ice cream by hand from his mothees own recipe. The family moved to Stawell when the shop was bumt out. Mr Hupfield recalls his fear during that night and the fact that he managed to rescue a sewing machine from the bunüng building. "The next day, I could not lift the machine at all," he said. He also recalls that while he was working at the Herald, a linotype operator Plunkett, put a hot slug on his arm as a prank."