In My Day

[Bush n Beach]

Great stories guys.

When I lived in Putney in Sydney as a kid we had an outdoor toilet with a cement path to it. If you went to the toilet at night you had to dodge all the black spots on the pathway. These turned out to be funnel web spiders coming out at night. Apparently, our home was built on a natural spring as it was always damp underneath and our yard was littered with funnel web holes. Dad would often pour kero down the holes to get rid of them.

I remember when I was about three or so I saw Dad sitting on the grass and about to put his hand on a spider. I yelled out, "Dad, spider". He stopped just in time from putting his hand on a very large funnel web spider.

When I was four mum would send me to get bread from the local baker around the corner. Mum would ask me to get a half tank-top and if, when it was broken and the bread was bulging out, I would eat that part of the bread until it was level with the rest of the bread. I'm not sure if mum ever figured it out what I was doing as I was never punished. Maybe I was just lucky.

Putney primary school has horror memories for me. I was a skinny kid at school, (still am LOL) and, as a result was picked on by the bullies starting from Kindy. The school was in the same street that I lived in and took only 1 minute or 2 to walk there. The teachers weren't much better especially the lady teacher we had in grade 3 who had just graduated from college. She was a very strict teacher and, for some reason, had a dislike for us boys in the class. All the girls sat at the front and us boys all had to sit behind them.

I remember one time when one of the boys sitting at the back let out a real ripper :bomb: which probably made the windows shake it was so loud. The stench that wafted its way through the classroom was overpowering to say the least. :argh: He probably had egg sandies for lunch. Anyway, this lady teacher turned around and nearly shouted saying, "Who did that?" Of course no one owned up and us boys weren't going to dob on him. The result. All us boys had to stay back after school and just sit in our seats until she felt we had been punished enough and let us go home. It still brings water to my eyes thinking of that boy that let it rip.

I have lots of stories of my time growing up. Let me know if you want to hear more.

 

[Mackka]

Keep em comin BnB
Mackka

 

[Bush n Beach]

When I was seven and still living in Putney, dad bought his first car. It was a Mayflower. A gutless wonder at best. For our holidays we went down south all the way to Melbourne towing Dad's home made tiny caravan. (Talk about faith!!) If I owned it there is no way I would have even considered traveling that far, but then, dad did have an adventurous spirit.

On the way down we stopped at Ulladulla on the slope near the water for lunch. Being like dad I liked to explore so I had run down to look at the water and the boats there. Mum called me for lunch and being full of energy as I was as a child I ran up the hill as fast as I could and tried to jump to reach the floor of the caravan. I had miscalculated badly how high it was to reach and instead of my foot landing on the floor of the caravan my shin scraped down against the aluminium edging which effectively took all the skin away for about 6 cm right down to the bone. :awful:

The doctor we saw told my parents that I had to stay away from water until it healed. It was summer school holidays. The weather was warm, the ocean was inviting and all I could do was sit and watch all the other kids having fun in the water. Great holiday for an adventurous boy bursting with energy - NOT!!!! I still have the scar to prove it even if it has become slightly smaller over time.

The next thing I remember on that holiday was arriving at Eden and dad had to drive up this very steep hill. It was so steep in fact that mum and I had to get out and walk. As dad was driving away up the hill and getting further and further away I was crying with tears running down my face saying, "Daddy is leaving us, daddy is leaving us". 8.( Mum had to reassure me that he wasn't. (It's interesting to note that Mum started going out with dad when she was fifteen and married at twenty-one. Mum was ninety went she passed away. That is 75 years they were together. The thing is, they stuck together through good times and bad times. A good thing to remember.)

My leg was still in the process of healing when we finally came back home. Apart from that it was a great holiday and we saw many new places including four seasons in a day Melbourne. I still can visualize the tiny caravan park where we stayed, I think it was located at Brighton. I'm sure it is no longer there.

When we visited the Botanical Gardens it was overcast but well worth seeing even for me as a kid. I remember seeing a lot of water there, lakes, creeks I guessed but it did look good.

Can't remember the trip back home so it must have been uneventful.

Mum and me and the Mayflower. The caravan that dad built is on the left.

Hope you enjoyed my reminiscing.

BnB

Happy Prospecting

 

[Mackka]

Fantastic
Mackka

 

[Simmo]

Shoot There's some memories!!

Milk bottles with foil lids at school!
Putting 20p in the TV to pay for its rent!
50p in the electricity meter box under the stairs!!
Lighting the fire in the lounge to heat water for our bath once a week.
I was the oldest so always had the first bath, my sisters would go next!
The coal man used to come around with bags of coal to put in the little coal room.. black as the ace of spades he was, for a white fella!
Daddo used to come home from the mine filthy too, drink his two long necks and then Nanna would bring him his dinner.
If you were doing something wrong, he only had to put his hand on his belt buckle and that would stop you in your tracks!
I had an air rifle at 14... shooting rabbits, ferrets and a heap of nets....
As soon as the sun went down, you knew you had to high tail it home before dark.

 

[Bush n Beach]

The street we lived in was part of a hill and my two next door neighbours, Clive and William and I would pelt down the steep hill on the billy cart that Dad built. It was high adventure for us and a challenge to keep the cart on the footpath.

That's me steering with William behind. (Helped me develop the skills when I raced go-carts as an adult but that's another story.)

It's quite amazing really what you imagine as a child. As a child the street had a steep descent. In reality, when I visited the old home many years later as an adult the hill was only a slight descent, not really steep at all. I guess us kids had nothing to compare its slope with. but it was a lot of fun with the exception of scraped knees when we came off.

Back in those days of the 1950's neighbours were friends and we did things together. We would even go to the beach together. I remember our next door neighbour buying chips for us all and we ate them between two slices of bread to make the chips go further. Neither our neighbours or us were well off so we had to make do the best we could but regardless, we all still had fun both eating lunch and being at the beach.

Starting from left it is Mum, baby Julie, Aunty Dick (no idea how she had a name like that), her husband Eddie with Leslie in front of him, then William with the Zorro shirt, followed by me and then Clive.

Did you notice the zinc on William's lips. Even back then we used some form of sunscreen protection. (Well, one of us anyway!!)

You may have noticed I was wearing glasses in the first photo which means I had to be at least eight as that is when my parents discovered I was short sighted. Explains why I couldn't read the blackboard which resulted in poor grades and being a poor reader. Back then, things like not seeing well took longer to be identified.

I can still remember wearing glasses at school for the first time. I was out in the playground and just happened to look up at the sky. When I looked at trees above me l could actually see individual leaves rather that just a blur of green. Definitely, an impressionable moment for me.

But, of course, what happens when a kid starts wearing glasses at school, especially when one is as timid as me. They are called four eyes. Boy, did I hate that but I was too timid in those days to do anything about it. Wish I could go back in time now and deal with that. These days, timid I am not!!

I am actually enjoying reflecting on my past and recording it. You guys reading this should share your experiences especially if you have old photos to go with what you are sharing if you can.

Happy prospecting

B n B

 

[Nightjar]

I remember the baker and milko used to come in horse and cart.
Was a treat to be the first kid on the block to get a free ride with the baker.
Milk in glass botttles
Mr Spooner was the local vegetable guy who would drive around with his van and stop basically door to door selling fresh fruit and veg.
The Rabbit guy would sell his rabbits hanging off a stick - door to door again.

Sixpence every saturday - straight to the flea pit for cartoons or whatever was playing and ice cream
Also remember a man used to come and collect money door to door for the mortgagae (I think)

Few years later on the pushbike selling papers and every friday 5 cents worth of chips from the tips.
Street cricket every afternoon with the other boys from our area.
How good was cracker night with bonfires and crackers.
Good times

STC's, Did you live in Geraldton late 50's, what you have written has brought back exactly memories of life in Hutchison Street, Geraldton, WA.

 

[Bjay]

Still remember having to help the old man dig a hole to empty the poop bucket. This wasnt that long ago as it would have been the late 70s . The joys of growing up on a farm. Unfortunately we only got a flush toilet after our grandparents died in a road accident and moved into there place. Still have many happy memories though and thats the most important part.

 

[madtuna]

I remember way back when I used to be handsome.....not sure WTF happened

 

[Bjay]

Damn you must be old.

 

[Tathradj]

Used to make our own fun.
Not sit here in front of a computer.

I think it is because I like me bush outings.

Yes,
Out in the Morning, Come home when tired and Hungry,
dirty, cuts and scratch's.

Building things like Kites, Billy Carts,
A shilling then down to the Kings Theater in Bega
for the Saturday Matinee.
Remember when The Wizard of Oz screened once.
Half the audience got up and left because they thought it was in black and white.
The rest went OOOhhhh when it changed to color.
Well actually that scene was filmed with every thing inside painted and dressed in grey and sepia I learnt later on.

Off down to the river eeling and fishing,
And we also had the dunny man come round to do the run.

A relative of the same surname had a horse and cart to do the bread run and it knew the run that well, He could get off and
the horse would walk on to the next stop.

Milkman doing the run every Thursday night,
Big Floods in 1971 when I broke my arm, well, greenstick broke it,
Cracker night, Especially the bon fire at Jellat Jellat School, (On the way to Tathra)

1 5 cent bottle would get you more than enough chips wrapped in newspaper to eat on the way home.
Then get into trouble cause you could not eat your tea.

Penny Bungers and those big Sky Rockets,

They were good days.

 

[silver]

Musra been about 23-25 years ago I was digging holes to empty the shitta like that.... planted macadamia nuts into the holes after a while..... a other lifetime away now, could be some nice tree's there by now though. Was in a cow paddock too, but I noticed that they left similar looking prickly leaved trees alone, so here's hoping hey !

 

[Mackka]

In my day, to get some extra pocket money i would go to the paddock and pick up very dry cow pats ( as the wet ones were saved to throw at my half brother) and i would put them through an old, un-used meat grinder and turn them into powdered cow manure. Put in paper bags and sold them to everyone for 20cents a bag. I must have been the first bagged fertiliser company :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Cheers
Mackka

 

[Mike678]

Me and my mate Hamish , still in contact with him , had a billy cart and all the wheels had ball bearings . It was very quick . We used to go down a footpath , all the houses had drives , with hedges and bushes etc . If anybody had driven out at the time we were flying past , it would have been curtains for us . Good job there was not many cars at that time . We did not do it very often ,it was a long way back . Meriden Avenue , I think was the name .

 

[Mike678]

My extra pocket money was made by delivering papers 7 days a week . I think it was for 3 years , from 13 to 16 . In the U.K. you could not have a paper job until you were 13 . I went out in all weathers , cold , rain and fog . It was always dark in the morning . I covered a fair distance , came home had breakfast , porridge , got changed and went to school . Came home for lunch , more distance on the bike, up and down hill .

 

[Harbourmaster]

Couple of mates & myself used trap & sell rabbits foe 2 bob a pair. My family had a beach shack at a popular crabbing beach and my younger brother & I used to collect beer bottles. Hard to remember now but I think we used to get 3d a dozen and would get 6-8 bob at the end of the summer school holidays. pack them into a wheat bag 3 one side & 2 the other, necks to the middle then 3 on top of the 2 & 2 on top of the 3 until bag was full. Did they hold 72 ? Bloody long time ago

 

[madtuna]

Remember when you could make good money with fox skins. Sunday morning would see you down the Golden Fleece pumping up foxes.
I remember on my way to work as an apprentice butcher hitting a fox that darted across the road in my charger.

Apart from being stone cold dead, he looked in reasonable condition so I picked him up and put him in the boot to skin when I got home.
Come morning tea break, I got a couple of Coles shopping bags and went out to my car thinking I'll smuggle him into the cool room for the day.

I opened my boot and this fox shot out at 100mph straight up the main street of Bathurst only to get scrunched by a Taxi :8

 

[sand surfer]

Yep we used to make good money off the winter pelts mt not much off the summer ones ,
cagey buggars those foxs, we were out shooting one night and a bloke broke the golden rule ,use the nunga nunga before throwing the fox in the cage with the shooters, well it was about three minutes later cruising around looking for another target, and all bloody hell broke loose in the cage ,i had blokes jumping out ,hanging of the side carrying on like pork chops ,and here is mister fox prowling the cage all by himself :lol: i fell out the drivers seat laughing my head off
Was not our crew, but the bloke that organised the shoot had their missus make a few sangas for the troops when they got home ,either she forgot or he forgot to tell her ,so he wakes her up at 4 am and asked where the sangars where she said there is none, and he asked here to make some for the crew, they found out 2 days later that she had nothing to put in the sangas so she used pal dog food and tomato sauce :lol: :lol:
moral of the story, don't drag the cook out of bed at 4 am to make sangas

 

[OzzieAu]

All these great yarns of the good old days have me thinking back on my misspent youth and what me and my 2 first cousins got up to for laughs when we were about 12 or 13 years old.
Once a month on a Sunday the family would visit Clarabelles (Nana) for roast dinner. After tea us three boys would sneak off out into the neighbourhood under the cover of dusk with our long copper tubing blow guns. (we used em for knocking off starlings and spoggies)
Well, we would pick a house with a solid front door and some bushes in the front yard to hide behind and we would fire off 3 hard putty pellets at the front door in sequence as to mimic a rap,rap,rap on the door.
Pi$$ed ourselves later at the looks on the owners faces as they opened the door to the phantom door knocker. :lol:
This was our monthly scallywagging till we eventually got busted and the neighborhood relaxed...... bloody kids

 

[casper]

.....

.....Penny Bungers and those big Sky Rockets,

They were good days.

Did you tape the penny bangers to the big Sky Rockets and break the looped penny banger fuse so that it was double the length then place the Sky Rocket in a coke bottle and light both fuses at once AND did you work out the right trajectory so that the exhausted sky rocket with the still lit banger lobbed into the neighbors backyard 6 blocks away and exploded in or near the chicken coop causing a helluva commotion