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IT USED TO BE GREEN ONCE, Patricia Grace, , , , , , , , , , Introduction, , , , Patricia Grace, born on August 17,1937, whose real name is Patricia Frances Gunson, is a, New Zealand writer who is a towering figure in the rise of Maori fiction. Her works depict the true, Maori culture and diversity. Through her writings she showed the world what it is to mean to be a, Maori., , She is born to a Maori father and a European mother and identified herself as a Maori. Her, first book is Waiariki published in 1975. Her stories are written in English, though some Maori, words are left without translation. She has named her characters in original Maori and not, ‘Pakeha’ (European white settler) names., , Patricia Grace's story “It used to be Green Once” is taken from her collection The Dream, Sleepers and Other Stories. Her Mum is the main character. It is an ordinary story about the, everyday lives of the Maori people. The narrator tells about some memory she and her siblings had, with their Mum. Colloquial language and Maori identities are preserved in the story., , Summary, , The Maori short story ‘It used to be Green Once’ talks about the author’s childhood, experience with her mother. She introduces the mother figure as a funny and interesting character, whose actions used to shame the narrator and her siblings when they were children. She shamed, the children by putting red darns on their clothes, by stitching togs for the children from old, swimming togs. The kids never wanted to wear them because they were too big for their size. She, also used to give them rotten apples and pears, after digging out the rotten bit, to school. That, made the kids embarrassed. They didn’t have school bags and shoes for school. The story is how, their mum’s car which had no brakes and a squeaky horn shamed them the most. She would drive, past the neighbours honking . People would yell the items they wanted and on the way back after, shopping she would throw their items of grocery (as the car had no brakes), , Then one day their dad won a lottery and everything around them changed. Mom got a new, car, a shiny green Chevrolet. The children too got all they wanted. They started to feel they were, no more ordinary. Mum and Dad didn’t change at all. After the new car she took all her friends, and relatives for shopping. Sometimes she even forgot her new car had brakes. It was always jam, packed that some of them sat squashed between others and the shopping items. The boot was, always open because of the things in there. It was never kept closed. Some would hold their bags, and shovel handles out to the sides or to the roof. Now one looking closer at the car can find it, used to green once as there are some patches or green here and there., , Exercises, L Answer the following questions, 1. How many children did Mum and Dad have?, fourteen, , 2. How did the fruits become “holey?”, , The rotten parts were dug out, , 9, Ways with Words Page 41, , SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION, 3. Why did the children ask the driver to stop the bus when they saw Mum, approaching?, Mum's car had no brakes., , 4."but then one day something happened that changed everything.” What, happened?, , Dad won fifty thousand dollars in a lottery.
