Nostalgic Saturday

Christmas holidays, early 1960's. My cousin David spent his holidays with us for a few years as his parents ran a milk bar- takeaway at Dee Why beach, and were fullon at this time of the year.We used to do a lot of things that kids did then - build billycarts, flying foxes, and the like.
Photo - me, cousin David with Ginger the cat, my sister.

Nostalgic Saturday

Just going back to the "Golf" theme of a couple of weeks ago - this is my (maternal) Grandfather doing one of the things he loved. This photo would have been taken late 30's to late 40's

I never knew my maternal grandparents, other than what my mother told me and my sister about them, but the memories of looking through the various photos, newspaper clippings (my grandfather was in charge of the Sydney Cricket Ground from late 20's till after WW11, and was mentioned in a lot of the articles that were on cricket tests etc at that venue) and other memorabilia from that time, which was kept in an old Gladstone bag with my mother remain.

Sadly, there are a lot of the old photos that we now have no way of putting names to the faces - which nurse out of a group of nurses was my grandmother ? or is it one of her sisters who is the family connection in that particular photo etc . a lot we know, but equally, there are a lot we dont as well

My Paternal Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary (1964)

First pic ; Norman and Hilda (with A- youngest g/child{adopted})

Second pic;Uncle R, my father S, Aunt H, Uncle N, Hilda (Grandmother) Norman (Grandfather) , Uncle L. There was a natural daughter who died at age 3 - Aunt H was an adopted child.

Third pic; All the grandchildren (+a ring in - the girl standing between my grandparents was being fostered at the time, and was in the process of being adopted , but something happened and it never eventuated)

I do remember these times as one where you had to be dressed up ( including a tie - yuk), that there were certain formalities that were followed (starting with the Royal toast and Grace), and that you could do a function such as this on a limited budget with help from nieghbours. The only pic that was missed out on was all of the sons and daughters by marraige (ie my mother, my aunts and uncle who married into the family.

Nostalgic Saturday

This is a photo of my Uncle 'Paddy' and my cousins on holidays at Budgewoi on the central coast.
They used to come up from Wagga every year, and was the only time that we got to see them, us travelling to Wagga back then was just not practible. The car is a Standard 8, that he had owned from new - about this time, he was looking into upgrading, but when he was offered 10 pounds ($20) trade in - kept it and "drove it into the ground" for another 8 years or so.

He was an avid golfer and part of the reason for this trip was to participate in the country week of golf around the Sydney courses. I always remember him as a laconic, cigar smoking (it wasnt frowned on then!!) contact lens wearing ( glasses werent much good in the rain playing golf :) )
and competent person.

He was my Godfather and my mothers only brother, and these visits to the central coast meant that we got to go to the beach - which was a novelty back then other than to my grandparents.

Nostalgic Saturday

Footy Days - South Lakes Junior Rugby League (Under 10's) about 1964

This was a club that was based at Dora Creek (Central Coast, NSW) . We played in St George colours (the "V" is red ) so have usually tended to favour them as an NRL team to follow.

This is how we played, no boots (not everyone could afford them) and the only padding was 2 squares of foam that were in an internal pocket on each hip.

The coach is my Uncle L , Im second left back row, and my cousin G is 3rd right front row (with Bandaids on knee). He went on to play in the Newcastle league for a while and would have most likely played with or against "Joey" Johns when Joey was starting his career in footy.

My father was the coach of this team when we were Under 8's , and can remember the away games usually involved fitting most (if not all ) of the team into a 1937 Pontiac (no seatbelts those days - lol ) and away we would go.

Nostalgic Saturday

This photo was taken in late Spring, 1954 of a crop of oats my father and a sharefarmer grew for chaff to use in the dairy that we had then. I cant actually remember the crop, but remember playing in the temporary storage that they used for the chaff in later years, and the hustle that was involved in chaffing and storing it. This crop was a bit remarkable in its height, Westy (the sharefarmer) was 6 foot 2 - and another photo taken on the same day shows the crop above his raised hand - far different to the crops nowadays that only grow to waist height. My parents closed the dairy down when I was 8, and went into beef cattle - a decision forced in part by the requirements of the dairy inspector to spend more money every visit -the last one that he wanted to see done would have cost more than a years income, and this was on top of a string of requirements that had already been fulfilled.

The girl in the photo is my sister (at nearly 3 yo) , the man is Westy, the baby is ...................................................................................................................................................... yes youve guessed it - its yours truly - Me :-)