The rumblings through the ground (and our home) as the steam train passed over the cement viaduct, three doors from us. The old chap and his horse selling Horehound Beer door to door. Collecting all the lead (thrown away wastage) sweepings from the rear of The Daily Examiner building in Grafton, melting down into a block and selling to the fishermen in town to make sinkers. The party line telephone where everyones call could be listened in on. Driving in my Dads green 1926 Chevy (superbly kept vehicle) and the rain coming in from all angles and Dad busy on the hand windscreen wiper. The Daily Examiner carefully cut into squares and hanging on the back of the door of the outside lavatory. The back fence sagging under the weight of the Choco vines. The Milkman delivering raw milk to your door in a metal galvanised dipper or jug with a hinged lid The Paper boy with the timber box cart drawn behind his bike. The familiar whistle Sunday morns. You or your Neighbour selling your surplus fruit and vegetables by placing a sign on your fence The Lay Preacher on the corner of your block Sunday evenings voicing his praises The Salvation Army Band playing in your street Sunday evenings. When there was always a good feed of fish in the local river or creek. Coming home after a feed of mulberries and all parts the body covered in purple stain, especially feet You Dad cutting off the chooks head for Christmas.......say no more! Your first Billy Cart and all the skin off your knees and elbows Having been stung by a bee or bees and your Mum covering you in Blue or Bluo The large car type wet cell battery running out in the old valve radio right in the middle of your best show The family all singing around the piano as your Mum played the favourites of the day You pegged a piece of cardboard to the fork around the back wheel of your bike to sound like a motor. The radio shows Blue Hills, The Burtons of Banner Street, The Shadow, Randy Stone on Nightbeat, The Smilers Club, Bob Dyers Pick a Box, Leave it to The Girls, etc The old picture theatres, the ushers flashing torches in your face as you rolled Jaffas down the aisle Vivid memories of a vile, cruel and drunkard headmaster named K. B. Fordyce who by todays standards, I believe, would be spending time in gaol. Making a canoe from galvanised roof sheets and waterproofing with black bitumen Winifred Attwell piano music as the huge curtain opened at your local picture theatre Your Dad using a length of stick or rod to measure the amount of petrol in the family cars petrol tank Your Mum, Aunties and friends gathering together to make the yearly soap requirements in the old copper (normally used for boiling clothes). The old clothes line strung between two posts and propped in the middle by long timber poles Using ball bearings or wheel bearings as wheels for our very fast billy carts. Your first push bike, be it a Speedwell or Malvern Star. The lucky kids had mud guards, did yours? The hand washing machine with a metal cone linked to a handle you pumped up and down The grocer who placed all perishables in your fridge when delivered to your home The first motor vehicle that you owned? Mine was a Austin A40 Utility that kept blowing head gaskets. Collecting old newspapers from all over town and selling to the local butcher for twopence a pound. Also collecting bottles and selling them to the local Bottlo in town. My Dad telling me the hard crockery egg used in the chooks (chickens) laying box, came from the the rooster. Using a beer bottle as the hand reel when going fishing. (Unlike today the fish didnt seem to know the difference.) My neighbour Mr Goodwin mowing the lawn Saturday morning with the Victa lawnmower then the taking the motor off and putting it in his boat and both of us going fishing. (special Victa outboard conversion) The massive Clarence River Bridge, over the river at Grafton, New South Wales, lifting for a ship to go under.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 08:28:50 +0000