Some months ago, Civis chatted with a woman at a children’s playground in Christchurch.
With a European accent, the woman had been living in the city for a few years and had not been to Dunedin.
She had absorbed the view that Dunedin was too cold.
That’s not altogether surprising because that’s the image. It’s not only the default expectation for northern sports journalists, but they can defy the evidence of their experience.
Civis remembers a rugby commentator, on a relatively balmy northwest midwinter day of about 17°C, still going on about the cold.
Although Dunedin’s climate is far from Nelson-like — and northeast drizzles can be dreary — its temperate climate avoids extremes of hot and cold. By international standards, it is most livable overall, albeit sometimes subject to three seasons in one day.
The writer, publisher, benefactor and epic walker of yesteryear A. H. Reed features in one of the panels on Dunedin Writers’ Walk in the Octagon. It quotes his 1945 book The Story of New Zealand.
"Otago was believed to be bleak and cold ... This amusing mistaken notion is still held by a few people in the northern sub-tropical part of New Zealand."
Civis, 79 years later, claimed to that Christchurch immigrant that while her city had hotter summers, Dunedin’s winters were a little less cold.
To Civis’ chagrin, a check on weather sites came close but failed to back the assertion.
One, for example, had Christchurch’s mean June and July temperatures at 7°C and 6°C. Dunedin was 6°C for both months.
These averages seem lower than expected when we’re familiar with daily weather report maximums. That’s because they include nights.
Anyway, you can put on another blanket if those hours of darkness are a little cool.
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It’s been a while since Civis has dipped into "out of the mouths of babes" quips. They are often so cute.
Civis liked an earnest comment when a 3-year-old told Civis that he couldn’t hear anything when he was asleep because he was snoring.
Go back a couple of generations there was Art Linkletter and the Kids. Parts of his television shows from the 1950s onwards featured unscripted children. It morphed into Kids Say the Darndest Things.
The Canadian-born American radio and television personality was beloved and popular, including in New Zealand. Children made observations or were asked questions. Their replies were a mixture of mirth and wisdom.
One small girl was asked to share the first thing she would do when she was president.
"Keep my mouth shut," she replied. Fat chance that’s going to happen.
This line is dated but tells us something about the time. "Our pussycat has got some kittens, and I didn’t even know she was married."
"Give Mommy a lot of real sweet food so she’ll get fat that’s how you get a baby," we are also told.
Linkletter was honoured at the Emmys and was a big enough star to feature forever on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Despite his celebrity and the gems in his programmes, some of Linkletter’s material and aspects of his style have not aged well.
It makes you realise how much attitudes and approaches change with the passing years. Again, this is a salutary lesson that we should avoid being too self-righteous about our views in 2024.
Readers are most welcome to email any of their favourite pearlers from the mouths of our youngest citizens.
