Michael John Barkman
1933 – 2004

(Extracted from his incomplete autobiography and family reminiscences)
Early Childhood

Mike was born on the 30th November 1933 in Matamata, where his father was manager of the local branch of the Bank of Australasia

Early photos show a smiling child in a cane pushchair with lots of curls and long hair. He appears to have enjoyed normal sibling relations with his older sister Pauline and brother Bruce; they were teenagers at secondary school having to cope with a little brother 10 years or so younger. Being of a trusting nature, he was very easy to "have on" and Bruce lost no opportunity to totally convince him of the truth of any fanciful proposition.

At the age of six, his father was transferred to the Upper Hutt branch of the bank. They moved into the manager's residence above the bank, where his bedroom looked down the main street. On Sundays, the local Salvation Army band marched up the main street with banners flying, to take station in the side street right on the corner underneath the window. It is on record that he once succeeded in aiming the contents of a glass of water straight into the bell of a euphonium – the beginning of his long association with the ‘Sallies’.
Early Schooling

He was enrolled in the Upper Hutt Primary School at the start of 1940. The inconveniences of war were less visible to him, being young. The family had been issued with ration books - years later, Mike learned that his mother made his school lunch with what butter was available and went without herself

The big earthquake in 1942 woke Mike from a deep sleep. He grabbed his torch and saw the interior plaster wall open right up with a crack big enough to put a hand into. More shaking, and the crack abruptly snapped shut again. The rest of the building survived pretty well, but the contents of the pantry mostly ended up on the floor, a bit of a blow during rationing.

There were few outings during the war, but they occasionally managed to build up enough petrol for a day trip to Titahi Bay. Bruce, as usual, worked on Mike’s gullibility and persuaded him that a sign "Dangerous for ½ Mile" actually referred to a wild animal called a Dangeroo, which kept him nervously searching the roadsides for signs of Dangeroos until he was satisfied that the half-mile was well past.

Going to St Patrick's College
In 1946, Mike was enrolled in the Third Form at St Patrick’s College, several miles away in Silverstream. St Pat’s was a different world and possessed most of the trappings of the English public school system. It was quickly apparent that the “day-bugs” were a lesser breed, vastly inferior to those who were boarders.
Midway though the year, his father was transferred to the Taihape branch of the Bank of Australasia. His parents decided he should carry on at Silverstream, which meant he had to enrol as a boarder. It was a shock to the system to be suddenly transplanted from home into a large dormitory. As he had arrived in the middle of the year, he was on the bottom of the pecking order and largely ignored by his immediate peers. To make matters worse, he was the sole boarding Protestant in the midst of Catholicism. Weekends were a vast lonely wasteland once the compulsory parts were over, and he took refuge in reading. One other facet of school life remained fixed in his memory: fish on Fridays. This was served from large flat trays on which the fish had been steamed, and probably accounts for the aversion for plain fish he had ever since.
The end of the year finally approached with agonising slowness. Eventually he caught the Express north to the new family home in Taihape.
Adolescence in Taihape
Mike slowly integrated into the Taihape teen culture - such as it was. He made a few friends, and his horizons expanded into the surrounding countryside. He and his friends spent hours biking along the tracks through the bush; chasing each other, forming ad-hoc gangs, doing all the aimless, time-wasting activities that young teenagers used to while away the idle hours.
In the summer, they swam. The river at this point was only a few yards wide, of reasonable depth for swimming without being dangerous, and the water was usually warm from trickling over long pebbly shallows in the hot sun. Someone usually fixed up a long rope from a convenient willow branch, to permit a long swing out and up to produce a satisfying splash amid those floating underneath.
Taihape District High School gave Mike a sound basic education, to the best of its ability. It gave him a thorough grounding in Science and Elementary Chemistry, which he was to build on in later years.
Mike was a frequent patron of the small Taihape Library, and he must have read virtually every volume on the shelves over his three years in Taihape.
Boarding School in New Plymouth
Mike’s parents decided he should attend a larger school for the last 2 years of secondary, so they sent him to board at New Plymouth Boys High. As a more senior boy, he suffered less from the regime than at St Pat’s, so the experience was much less miserable. In fact, he particularly enjoyed two things about the school: the well-equipped science labs, and his enthusiastic music teacher. He spent many hours pottering in the labs or practicing in the music block. His jazz piano skills were so good that he was encouraged to take it up professionally, but he was not keen on performing and decided not to take that route.
Pharmacy Training
At some point, Mike decided to take up a career in pharmacy, although we have been told that it is possible that his career was chosen for him by his family. However he got into it initially, it gave him and long and prosperous career, that he certainly didn’t dislike.

After leaving school, he went to Polytech in Wellington in order to launch this career. We don’t have a lot of detail from this period, but we know he continued on to an apprenticeship with Sarney’s in Wanganui, sometime around 1954.
Wanganui – Mike & Leola
Mike and his friends regularly attended the weekend dance at the Aramoho Rowing club where a friend, John McDonald, introduced Mike to a young girl called Leola Clay. John’s habit of calling all his friends George meant that Leola went out with “George” for 3 months before discovering his real name was Mike. Mis-identity aside, it seemed to be love at first sight, and they were together for the next 40 years.

Mike went to Wellington in 1957 to complete his final pharmacy exams. Rumour has it his parents decided that he needed to leave Wanganui as he wasn’t spending enough time studying – the distraction was, no doubt, Leola. After a stint at Castle’s pharmacy in Newtown, he returned to Wanganui to be with her, where he took on a number of locum jobs before becoming manager of the Wanganui Urgent Pharmacy.

Leola and Mike were married in 1959, and later that year gave birth to their first child, Ross. At that time they lived in the small flat above the Urgent Pharmacy, but in 1960, Mike bought his first home, a 2-bedroom stucco house in Carlton Terrace (now Mason Terrace). He also became manager of his own small pharmacy in Alma Road, so had a busy time dealing with the new business, new home and new offspring.

Daughter Sue was born in 1962, completing Mike’s first family. The little house was too small, so a large extension was added to the rear, mostly Mike’s own work with some assistance from a builder.
Gonville Junction Pharmacy
In the mid 60s, Mike sold his pharmacy and became a partner of Bill Baker in the larger Gonville Junction Pharmacy. He later became sole owner when Bill retired, and ran it as a profitable and successful business for 20 years.

Mike gained a reputation as a wonderful boss – he really cared for his staff, and did everything he could to help them progress in their careers. He also helped in their personal lives, as a reliable source of knowledge and advice. Many of them have commented on the major effect his guidance and support had on their lives.
Retirement
Over time, Mike became tired of retail pharmacy and keen for a change of pace. The success of the business, combined with his family’s wise investments, enabled him to sell up and retire in his early 50s. Of course, Mike was never able to actually retire, so he simply had more time to experiment with other things he liked to do!

Leola died of cancer in 1995, at the early age of 57; Mike had never anticipated being a widower, and the next two years of his life were not the greatest. He did use the opportunity to try things he never could have done while she was alive, due to their differing interests. This included buying a little caravan and travelling the country, and the wonderful accomplishment of walking the full length of the River Thames in England, from its source to the coast.
A New Life – Mike & Joan
However, he decided that he didn’t really want to face the rest of his days alone, and so in 1997, he managed to convince a childhood friend of Leola’s, Joan, to keep him company. It appears that some of his wandering around in caravans had been an excuse to visit Joan as much as possible. Sue remembers the phone call she had from Mike, when he sounded like a sheepish teenager admitting he had a girlfriend. Joanna has a similar story about Joan fussing about what to wear on their first date. The relationship obviously went well and Joan Spencer (nee Morris) became Joan Barkman in March 1997.

Shortly after, Mike moved to Rotorua to set up a new home with Joan. He quickly became part of Joan’s family, and really enjoyed becoming ‘grandad’ to three lively kids. He also became heavily involved with his new son-in-law’s graphic design business, and joined the Rotorua Camera Club. He made many friends in the last few years, who, like those he left behind in Wanganui, will miss him very much.
His Many Interests
Throughout his life, Mike embraced a number of eclectic and often somewhat eccentric hobbies. From an early age, he was interested in science fiction, avidly reading the early ‘pulp’ magazines, and starting a collection of Astounding Science Fiction magazine (later Analog) that runs from 1949 to the present. He amassed an extensive library of science fiction, as well as fantasy, historical and military novels.

His interest in music, and jazz in particular, also dates back to his childhood. He enjoyed making music as well as listening to it, and was a proficient jazz pianist. In later years, he was able to combine music with his love of gadgets, experimenting with electric organs, then electronic keyboards and early drum machines.

In the 1960s, he became fanatical about Karate, and was the founding member of one of the first Karate clubs in New Zealand, the Wanganui Rembuden Karate Club. Like all his hobbies, he put much effort into become as proficient as possible, and so became a black belt in 1970, final reaching 2nd dan status and running his own club. He was interested in the spiritual as well as physical aspects of martial arts, and believed that, when properly taught, they could change people’s attitudes as well as their bodies. He produced his own training manuals, which were mass produced on an old electric Gestetner duplicator. This is a classic example of two of Mike’s passions – teaching and gadgets.

Once he became expert at something, when the challenge and mystery had gone, he tended to move on to the next hobby. Two things attracted his attention in the 1970s – the first was the arrival of programmable calculators and the other was astrology. Mike has always had a curious and open mind about all things, and very much had the philosophy that “If it works, who cares if we don’t know how?” He therefore became very proficient at both programming and astrology, combining the two to help with the complex mathematical input required for accurate astrological readings.

Then along with the 80s came the advent of the Personal Computer. Mike owned the very first models available in New Zealand and became a very capable programmer and user. He wrote his own software for running the pharmacy, and later created software to assist a number of businesses in Wanganui – among them, the Parag’s grocery business, and the local burglar alarm monitoring company. His love of and proficiency with computers extended right through to the end – he has left a legacy of 3 PCs and 3 laptops, all in use, as well as a whole swag of healthy computers throughout Rotorua, due to his constant willingness to help others to sort out their uncooperative machines.

He used his expertise in dealing with asthma, gained through both to his profession and dealing with an asthmatic son, to contribute to the work of the Wanganui Asthma Society. In particular, he helped with the publication of their newsletter for many years.

In the early 90s, Mike decided to spend a year at the Wanganui Polytechnic, learning to speak Maori. He really enjoyed the exposure this gave him to the culture and traditions, as well as the language. In return, he was able to advise on asthma, a particular problem for Maori, and this earned him considerable respect within the Maori community.

However, probably his longest-standing passion, right from an early age, was for photography – everything from taking movies and photos, through working in the darkroom, and collecting antique cameras. He became a member of the Wanganui Camera Club after he retired, and became a national judge for the Photographic Society of NZ. His participation in the Rotorua Camera Club has allowed him to continue his enjoyment of this hobby, and his even greater satisfaction in teaching others.

| HOME | Kronikles | Garden | Family | Art | Archives | Genealogy | PhotoGallery | PhotoTalk | TechieStuff | IcarusLinks | Current Mail | Asthma Help | Life in NZ | EMAIL ME!