Isabella Annie Lavinia Beckmann - The dropping of the "N"

I recall Isabelle (Grandma Evans) telling me that they dropped the "Von", then had to drop the "N" later due to the war. She told me that people thought they were German, and so they did it to appear of English decent. I recall, as a small child, feeling shame of the "N" and this may have been my first realisation that we were not all equal in Australia.

Grandma Evans lived about 6 doors down from us, in a 2 roomed "Granny Flat" on the back of Nanna (Alice Evans) and Pats (Patrick Evans) our Grandparents house.

When we would visit, she would get out her fine china, I usually got the set with violet flowers on it. Sometimes we would have the cup and saucer with an extra side plate, but, she also had some that had a large saucer, so our piece of cake would sit on the side. The cake was usually a layered fridge cake, in a loaf time, made up of milk coffee biscuits and chocolate icing, maybe 5 layers or so.

She loved playing cards, and we would play canasta and cribbage. The crib board was made by Evan I think, and was the dashboard of a Japanese fighter jet, recycled, that he found in New Guinea.

Our special treat from her would be Bush biscuits, and sometimes our "very own" tin of condensed milk, she would punch holes in it, and we would suck on it for hours.