| Anecdote | | My parents, Joseph and Ruth, were married at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia on 25th January 1918. At that time my father was in the employment of the Commonwealth Railway and was the Station Master at Deakin, a small station on the main line between Perth and Adelaide.
I recall my parents telling me of the time they spent there after their marriage. The living quarters consisted of a small shack with hessian covered sides. At night the aborigines would peer through the flimsy walls, which was very disconcerting to my mother. Prior to this period of employment with the railways my father worked in the under-ground gold mines in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
My parents subsequently moved to Victoria and took up residence at "St Malo" in Mayfield Street Coburg, then occupied by my Grandmother Rosa Constance Howden. I assume that the three children of her second marriage Christopher (Kit), John and Margaret grew up at that address. My parents had by then moved to a house in Reynards Road Brunswick Victoria where my sister Rose Germaine was born (1920) and my brother William Cansdell (born 1920) and myself (born 1921). I distinctly remember this house as a small child. I must have then been about four years old. It was a red brick house with a high galvanised iron fence. The local fire station was in Reynards Road and I remember climbing onto a large box with my brother Bill to witness the fire engines racing down to Sydney Road, Coburg. I have discussed these events with Bill in the past and he has verified the details.
My family subsequently moved to a house in Garnet Street, Coburg. I still can recall this residence painted white as was the "fancy" wire fence in vogue at the time. It is interesting to note that opposite to the house where Bernice (Betty) and I now live in Bermagui, NSW there is a very old house with an identical fence. The Garnet Street house had a large back garden in which my father erected two high masts to accommodate the aerial for his "crystal" wireless set, the only form of introduced home entertainment in those days.
In the early twenties my Grandmother moved from the Mayfield Street, Coburg house to a rented dwelling in Sargood Street in Hampton, Victoria, near the coast on Port Phillip Bay. By that time my Uncle John had left home, Aunt Margaret had married and had built a new home in Retreat Road, Hampton, not far from the Sargood Street house occupied by my Grandmother and her second husband Thomas Gidley Howden. Margaret had two children, Barbara and Margaret Rose. Subsequently Uncle John began an association with a lovely lady named Gloria. In today's terms she would be regarded as his "partner". There were two lovely daughters of this liaison, Barbara and Lucille. My family lost contact with John's family prior to World War II. I caught up with Uncle John in early 1944 in Sydney at Manly where he was employed as a journalist with the Sydney newspaper the "Smiths Weekly". At that time I was in transit on posting to a RAAF unit at Noemfor Island in Dutch New Guinea. He was living in a "flat" in Manly with his new lady "Bunty". Early in the war John enlisted in the Royal Air Force as an Administrative Officer with the rank of Flying Officer. He was eligible to join the RAF, as his mother Rosa Constance was a British national. I last met him in 1946 where he was living in St. Kilda, Victoria. He was in very poor health and died in 1948.
There was a humorous side to my meeting with John in Manly. His residence was close to the beach I and expressed the possibility of going for a swim. Uncle John did not fancy going but he said to me "Aunty Bunty would surely be pleased to accompany you". We spent a couple of pleasant hours on the beach and in the surf. On my return to the Air force "Transit Camp" I was greeted by a couple of my mates with wide smirks on their faces. To accompany this was the remark "We saw you, a married man on the beach with a pretty young sort" (which was a popular term at the time). My rejoinder was "Oh, this was quite in order as the female in question was my Aunty Bunty". Roars of laughter ensued and I never lived this down from then on.
Thomas Gidley Howden had influence at Scots college and offered to arrange for John to begin an education at that establishment. He did commence studies there but this was short lived and his father did not exert any influence in an effort to persuade him to continue his studies. We all looked forward to his visits to our home in Hampton in which our family moved in 1926, but I am jumping ahead of myself here and further reference to Uncle John will be continued later in this manuscript.
My father having been a seafarer in his early years was never happy away from the sea so in 1926, when I was five he and my mother decided to move to Hampton Victoria and to join other families already there.
By this time Rosa Constance and husband Thomas Gidley had moved to a new home at 10 Retreat Road, Hampton opposite the new house built by her daughter Margaret and her husband Bert Stanley. They had two children Brian and Margaret Rose.
When the Wilson's decided to move to Hampton my mothers half brother Christopher (Kit) Howden and his wife Florence (nee Porter) who had resided with the Wilsons at Garnet Street, Coburg, decided to move with the Wilson clan. The house into which the families moved initially was a small cottage but as the Howdens had no other accommodation they were taken in as a temporary arrangement until they could find alternative premises. In fact the "temporary situation" continued indefinitely as where the Wilsons moved the Howdens followed. In fact the two families resided in common premises for the next fifty odd years.
Florence Howden (nee Porter) had three sisters Bertha, Linda and Dulcie. Bertha married Horace (Horry) Clover who was a leading player with the Carlton football club in Melbourne. He joined the club post WWI. We always called him "Uncle Horace" but of course he wasn't our uncle. We naturally all followed Carlton except my brother Bill who had a fancy for Richmond. It was reported that Horace could boot a "place kick" 70 yards, a considerable distance.
I remember the house into which we first moved was Grenvile Street, Hampton, a weather board cottage, much too small for the two families, which consisted of six Wilsons and four Howdens (the second Howden son Geoffrey Burton was born when the families resided in Coburg) as was my youngest brother Kenneth Lamond Wilson, born 1924. The eldest Howden's son was Jack Burton. Needless to say these were very cramped conditions.
Fortunately alternative accommodation was offered without delay (a two storied house at No. 9 Hastings Street Hampton, a short distance from the Grenville Street premises). This house still exists but not completely in its original form, as we knew it. It is close to one hundred years old. I well remember the move from Coburg to Hampton, two Clydesdale horses drawing furniture vans lock stock and barrel including two dis-assembled wireless poles and ten souls and Uncle Kits fox terrier dog Bob who lived to the age of sixteen. The journey took most of the day. It was high summer and I recall it being very hot and sitting up front with the driver watching the pair of sweating horses with odd stops at horse drinking troughs along the way to slake the thirst of the straining beasts. These horse troughs were common in most streets in those days. Water was replenished by an automatic cistern as the horse drank.
When we arrived at Grenville Street, Hampton my Grandmother Rosa Constance was there to great us and see us in our new abode. The electrified train line was but a short distance form the back fence with a lane way between. I remember we all rushed to the back fence to await the arrival of the next train. Granny said that often steam trains went by which carried freight to the rail terminal of the line at Sandringham. The passenger service was then electrified.
The move to Hastings Street was exciting for us children when we discovered that it was a two-story house. The house at the time we moved seemed then to be quite old. The construction would have been planned to accommodate a single family, two bedrooms, lounge room, kitchen cum laundry on the ground floor and one bedroom, large sleep - out and a bathroom upstairs. Before our occupation the house had been converted into two flats. The bathroom upstairs became a kitchen. A communal bathroom had been added downstairs under a skillion galvanised iron roof, which also housed a fernery. A communal toilet was under the main roof downstairs with access outside, inconvenient for the upstairs occupants. My parents elected to occupy the down stairs floor and the Howdens the upper floor. In the large backyard was a free-standing sleep-out (bungalow), which after some modification, was occupied by the Wilson boys. My sister Rose used the small bedroom downstairs. There was a large two car galvanised-iron garage in the yard, which eventually became my father's workshop and storage area. For the first few nights we three boys slept in the garage, as the sleep-out was unusable as the walls of hessian fabric were in ruins.
From the street the house was an imposing structure with white painted stucco walls over internal lath and plaster coke reinforced construction. At the front all the windows were stained-glass top and bottom. In its hey day it would have been an imposing structure. It was in stages brought up to a decent standard by the good work of my father. Although the house was rented the landlord later reduced the rental because it was maintained in good condition. This was a continuing situation and as a result the old house remained attractive and of pleasing appearance. An investigation by us children discovered that the house was equipped with a telephone, a luxury in those days. The prospect of having this facility at our disposal was short lived in those austere times and my father took immediate action to have the phone disconnected.
Life slowly settled down in our new abode. The house had not been occupied for some time and the first thing was to make it habitable. On the first night after our arrival the Howdens were fortunate enough to have a bedroom and sleep-out upstairs. There was a problem with us three boys as previously explained and we had to temporarily sleep in the garage. I remember that the walls in the garage were decorated with framed prints by celebrated English painters.
Dad soon had his wireless poles erected so that he could listen to his crystal radio set (which he made himself), which was equipped with headphones. This was long before radio sets, as we know them today.
His main listening station was 3LO (ABC) for the news and mainly classical music programs and test cricket matches relayed from the U.K by cable. Following the rehabilitation of the sleep?out, we boys moved in. Two single beds for Bill and myself, Ken being a two year old occupied his baby cot. Dad rigged up a crystal set for Bill and I and we spent many evenings listening to plays and stories from 3LO. I particularly recall listening to stories from the pen of Edgar Allen Poe that were often rather frightening to two small boys in a sleep-out isolated from their parents. After one particularly lurid tale we were so frightened that Bill and 1 kept each other awake for hours, reluctant to settle down to sleep.
In the summers there were often violent thunderstorms with livid lightening and heavy rain beating on the iron roof. We awoke very scared and apprehensive. Dear old Dad was aware of this and never failed to come down in the rain wearing a heavy army (disposal) great coat which had been dyed black to disguise it having been a military issue (WWI), the regimental buttons had been replaced by black ones.
He would stay with us until the storm abided. That old coat stays in my memory as I later claimed it as my own and it was permanently on my bed during the cold winter nights.
These summer storms blew in from the South and often caused severe damage to the beach foreshores. In those days "Bathing Boxes" were the vogue. These were individually owned and usually the property of the local residents. There were arranged along the beach and came in assorted colours. It was fashionable to dress for the beach (adult mainly) and then change to swimming ware in the "Boxes". In those severe storms the heavy seas sometime caused considerable damage. At Binghton Beach near to Hampton Beach the sea baths were practically wrecked on one occasion. After these storms Dad would haul out his large wheelbarrow and we would all head for the beach to collect driftwood for the fire. Often the seas uncovered rack beds and we boys would scavenge for coins and any other " treasures" in the rock crannies. One occasion Bill (always the lucky one) found a solid gold chain and medal inscription with the name "Muir". It turned out to be a prize for lawn bowling. In an extraordinary coincidence the Muir was a neighbour in our street. Dad suggested that it would be appropriate to ask this gentlemen if he had a family connection. Bill (reluctantly) agreed to this and sure enough the chain and the medal had belonged to his father, who had lost it on the beach many years before. His father had long since died and Muir junior was overjoyed to recover this memento.
About this time my sister Rose Germaine, who was born in 1918, passed away. My recollection of Rose is somewhat vague as I was quite young at the time. I have in my possession a photograph of her with our father and mother when she was quite young. Over the years my father was reluctant to discuss the nature of her illness only to say that it was followed by pneumonia, which finally caused her death. I imagine that the loss of his only daughter and first born was a sadness that he found difficult to discuss.
As we children grew up in the years before the "Great Depression" our family enjoyed a very happy life together despite the economic conditions. We never possessed a motorcar but can't recall that this worried us to any degree. Of cause it would have been nice to have had one for outings, picnics etc, but because it was so far beyond our reach it was easily dismissed.
Our Uncle Arthur Budds, the husband of our Aunt Marjorie (my mother's sister) was a traveller with the Royal Insurance Co and the vehicle he drove was an early Citroen. It was a single seater and was equipped with a "dicky seat" in the rear. This was combined with the luggage compartment. As previously mentioned my Uncle and Aunt had these daughters, Mary Joan and Norah (my cousins). How the family were accommodated in this "baby" vehicle on outings is beyond imagination. On occasion he took us children on a picnic and other outings but of cause our cousins were not included on these outings.
My Grandmother Rosa Constance Howden was a rather smallish woman, typically English, well spoken, cultured. She stood no nonsense from us boys. After Rose and husband Thomas settled down in their new home in Pibreat Road they established a small orchard and when the trees started to produce fruit our family received our share. There was one rule however and that was there was to be no "pilfering" from the trees. I remember that on one occasion I sneaked into the garden and picked an apple. Grandmother observed this from the kitchen window and called out to me "who said that you might pick my fruit with out asking permission". All meals in the dining room were served on spotless linen tablecloths with s ????? (silver bands). All linen was sent to the Chinese laundry. She took us to task if we were disrespectful to our parents. Her husband Thomas Howden who was then blind took up writing textbooks for schools, geography, and mathematics etc. he used a typewriter for all his draughts. He sometimes sought my assistance in checking, etc. My cousin Jack Howden and I joined the church choir at Holy Trinity Church in Thomas Street, Hampton. My mother attended this church and suggested that we join the choir. I remember collecting our starched collars at the Chinese laundry to wear with our white surpluses.
I was chosen to be included in the school choir at Hampton State School (I was enrolled at this school in 1927), when in the 6th grade our English and Music Teacher Mr Robert singled out myself and one of my school friends, Les Moses to perform solo's and duets before the school assembly. He would walk up and down the rows in the classroom with ears cocked.
The school head master Mr Allison was somewhat of a martinet but fair if the students behaved themselves. W---- bested any pupil sent to him for punishment (at the time a heavy leather strap to both hands). I was lucky not to have even being sent before him.
The boys were required, in the winter to take turns as wood monitor, chopping wood and carrying it to the classroom to service the open fires. I remember this task on cold winter mornings. At this time the onset of the Great Depression had begun to take its toll. My father who was a "permanent" employee at the Melbourne Harbour Trust (Superannuated) was put off work for six months and then returned to his job for six months. In these off periods life was hard. There were no funds founded by the government to support families. My father was not idle however; he and a friend made pot plant stands from scrap metal strips of iron and hawked them from door to door. My parents could not afford school uniforms so Mother made pants and shirts on her trusty "singer" sewing machine. Dad established a large vegetable garden and Uncle ???? raised chickens, and mother ducks. In lean times we could not afford "real" meals very often and as explained there was no monetary "dole" in those days.
Dad went to Sandringham Council offices once a week and collected dry goods, flour oatmeal, sugar etc. Mother made the bread, cakes, scone etc. Or kitchen was equipped with a wood stove and gas stove. Thank heavens for the wood stove as in the lean times we could not afford to pay large gas bills. Soup was a staple diet item. We had a large stockpot and it was always bubbling away. Soup bones weren't an expensive item and there were always copious supply of vegetables from the home garden. The local Italian Greengrocer allowed us to help ourselves to scraps, cabbages leaves etc ------------- to feed the ducks and chickens. In reality some of this found its way into the stockpot. The odd apple, carrot, banana by "error" found its way into the sugar bag.
In the periods when funds were available following Dads periods of employment within the "on" phase if it could be afforded we were able to attend Hoyts Theater in Hampton for the Saturday afternoon matinee. (In hard times the Council occasionally supplied theatre tickets)? I recall Dad taking us to a matinee where the film was called "The Jazz Singer" staring Al Jolson (the first talking film) 1928). The cost for children was sixpence and the cost for tickets to an Aussie Rules match was thruppence each. In the lean periods we children earned money by selling barrow loads of horse manure to neighbours at sixpence per barrow load if they needed it or could afford it. The manure was collected at Hubbands Dairy farm, the yards where the horse drawn delivery carts were loaded with milk supplies. Mrs Hubbard gave us permission to collect two or three barrow loads on Saturday mornings. I recall her once looking as ?????? at us as we passed the gate on these occasions wondering if we had gone "commercial" collecting more than we needed for our purposes, which was sure to some extent. However she never commented on this, as she was aware of our circumstances.
One of my regular customers was a Mr Rouveray, a Frenchman and our neighbour. Every Saturday when I approached him he would say he would have it and "wheel it in" to the back garden. To illustrate his generosity he already had a mountain of manure from past supplies from the Wilson manure merchants.
However I digress from the consequences which followed from the six month "off periods" imposed by the Harbour Trust. In an effort to ensure that funds would be available during these lean periods (other schemes not being adequate) Dad decided that he would give gold prospecting a try. Before his marriage he was a worker on the gold fields at Kalgoorlie above and below ground and had gained experience there. Two of his friends volunteered to accompany him although only one was entirely suitable. Never the less they went off to Blackwood and Trentham in Victoria the site of good fields of gold many years before. Unfortunately alluvial mining had long since waned and the party had little success in the field. Dad had looked over the field many years before as a hobby. He decided that any hope of success would be with underground (mine) prospecting. Of course Dad had to organise everything. They dug a shaft and erected a winched bucket and commenced work. The accommodation consisted of tents only. They did have some success but the meagre proceeds divided among three was barely enough to support them and their families. After a few months Mother pleaded with Dad to return home. I have in my possession a letter from mother to Dad dated 7th July 1931 accompanied by a letter I wrote also to Dad for the same time. I was then only ten years old. Mother's letter is heart rending. We children missed him so much and Mothers words were I think that you had better come home dear. She half blames herself for sending him away but I don't think this was likely. The deciding factor in Dad returning home followed an accident which could have been fatal when the "green horn" member of the group, an Englishman, dropped the bucket into the shaft while Dad was down at the bottom striking him on the shoulder. Luckily he wasn't injured seriously. If it had struck him on the dead the outcome could have been a different matter. I remember the day Dad returned home with a full beard looking tired and worn.
In order to argument the scarce supply and barness of foodstuffs in these hard times, the Wilson and Howden boys took up fishing from the Hampton and Bringhton piers. In those days the fish stocks were abundant in the bay when the Whiting and Schnapper schools appeared and it was nothing to catch 30 to 40 fish in one day. Of course these numbers were well in excess of the bay limits imposed and smuggling them past the fishing inspector required cunning and subterfuge. A scheme employed by my brother Bill was to put most of the fish into a sugarbag suspended by a rake at the end of the pier. We would then pack up and depart with our "legal" stock off the pier and sensibly depart from the scene. When darkness descended we would return to the pier and recover the balance of the stock.
Next to the pier a German WWI submarine had been sunk as a break-water. At the time we had a canoe and we used to paddle to the sub. There was a variety of fish available there - Trevally, Leather jacket ete not found in pier fishing. It was possible for us to descend to the "bowels" of the sub where we had a clean view of the passing fish. If line fishing became boring we would attempt to spear fish. This was more difficult than line fishing. I recall that there was a large Trevally which we saw frequently. It could not be enticed by tackle and bait. Bill constructed a large spear with a metal tip which had a heavy line attached. This Trevally was about three feet in length. Bill waited for the fish to appear which it eventually did. By a stroke of luck he speared the fish. It took off like a torpedo and we all grabbed the line but we couldn't hold it. After about an hour or so we won the day and we were able to land it into the "sub". This was no mean feat for a gang of youngsters.
Being close to the bay we would spend most of the school holidays fishing, swimming and hiking along the beaches. Mother would make us a cut lunch and we would spend the day together, the five of us, Bill, Ken and myself and our two Howden cousins Jack and Geoffrey. On one occasion we walked from Hampton to St Kilda, quite a long hike to see the ?????? boat the ??????????? which was taking passengers on short trips across the bay. We were all quite weary at the end of the day. On another occasion we hiked to Beaumaris, a few miles in the opposite direction. At that time the "fad" was to arm ourselves with "pen" shooters and wage mock battles between ourselves. The usual ammunition was dried peas taken from Mums pantry. During the "battle" we ran out of peas but we noticed that trees along the foreshore had a type of berry whish we thought would do as a replacement. Bill volunteered to climb a tree and began to break off small branches. As he threw a large branch down he called out "Here comes the ammunition". To our dismay he fell from quite a height, about twenty feet. The tree overhung a pathway with a parapet (sea wall) nearest to the beach. As he fell he turned over and dropped onto his back on to the parapet, rolled over, and fell about another six feet onto the sand. We all jumped down on to the beach to assist him. The contact with the wall had knocked all of the air out of his lungs and he was gasping for breath. We were at a loss to help him until I had a "brain wave". At school we were taught to administer "artificial resuscitation". We turned poor Bill over on to his stomach, and I began to administer this treatment. After a minute or two he began to breath then we realised that he was in extreme pain. We had to walk miles back home. He suffered extensive bruising but no other injuries. The incident could have resulted in much more serious injuries. On a visit to Coffs Harbour a few years ago I mentioned this incident to Bill's son Peter and he told me that Bill had told him years before of the "Here comes the ammunition" accident. As mentioned earlier, during the "off periods" Dad was never idle. He had constructed a wood lathe and he made a variety of beautiful wood items, howled bowls etc. He also made lamp stands. I still have one he made for me many years ago. He made us boys wooden fishing reels and rods made of bamboo. The lathe he made embodied the use of an old Singer sewing machine. The means of operating the spindle was conveyed by using the foot pedal. He also made a model of a ships boiler. It was made of copper and was assembled by the use of copper rivets. When heated by a blowlamp it operated a small engine. We were always asking him to run it for us. Dad passed it on to us many years ago; however it cannot be used without a complete overhaul. This boiler is still in our possession. He also made me a beautiful model of his ship the "Lord Templetown". The "Lord Templetown" was the ship (three masted barque) in which he went to sea from London at the age of 17. Details of his exploits post 1899 are detailed in separate papers on my father's history. The last time 1 saw the model he made was when I went into Army Camp in 1941. After the war when I returned to Australia from overseas service with the RAAF in 1945, the model could not be found at 9 Hastings Street, Hampton. This was a great loss to me.
My younger brother Ken never learned to swim although he loved the beach and our trips along the coast. This resulted from an incident when he was quite young. As I recall he was about 3 or 4 years old. He was playing near the waters edge watched by my parents when a large wave came in unexpectedly and knocked him over. By the time my mother reached him he had disappeared in the surf. She rescued him without incident. This had a lasting effect on him with the result that he would never venture beyond his depth and consequently he never learned to swim. Ken's fear of deep water and the sea could have been instrumental in saving the lives of myself and my school friend Ken Crichlon. As mentioned, the canoe we made consisted of wooden laths and heavy canvas. The canoe was very heavy and if it was submerged in the water it sank below the surface and it was almost impossible to refloat. The canoe was always on the beach under our bathing "box". One Sunday morning my school friend Ken, my brother Ken and I went down to the beach and my friend and I decided to go for a paddle and a sail. Of cause my brother remained on shore. We had attached a small mast and sail which we sometimes used in calm conditions. This day a southerly wind was blowing on shore. We didn't go out very far into the bay and as the wind wasn't storming we erected the sail. We were not far from the beach when suddenly the wind changed to a half northerly and began to take us out into the bay (this change in wind direction often occurred in the summer months).
We took in the sail and began to paddle back to the shore but as the wind was strong we made no headway. We were then about a mile from the shore and the wind and the waves capsized the canoe and we were thrown into the sea. We were naturally scared but we didn't panic. We were both strong swimmers and we decided to take a paddle each and try to swim to shore. This was almost impossible in the conditions and we made little headway. Now to Ken our saviour. He was very worried that we wouldn't make it back to the beach. Also there were often sharks in the bay. He was about a mile from the boat harbour and he ran along the beach and told a fisherman of our plight. He immediately started up his fishing launch, raced out into the bay, picked us up, and took us back to shore. He also towed the canoe behind his boat. Needless to say we never took the canoe far from shore again
Dad sought employment with the Harbour Trust because the work appealed to him due to his experience as a seaman. A bonus for us children was the annual picnic either to Queens's cliff or Point Lonsdale on Port Phillip Bay; this event was the highlight of the year for us. There were two paddle steamers plying the route to the destinations. These boats were the Weerona and Hygiea. The Weerona was constructed in Scotland and came out to Australia under its own steam. I can recall the excitement of taking the train to Port Melbourne and going aboard the boats. When we went aboard we each received a bag of boiled sweets, a luxury in those days. The journey down the bay was usually under fairly calm conditions but sometimes the sea could become rough if a southerly change came up which was a frequent occurrence in Victorian Summers. There were picnic races with prizes and each child received a gift.
In those days my father belonged to the local branch of the Socialist Party. This party was well established in Australia and you could say was the formation forerunner of the Community Party. The secretary or the party was Lloyd Edmonds. He and his brother Phillip went to Spain in 1936 and fought in the Spanish civil war against the Dictator General Franco.
Periodically the Social Club arranged picnic outings to the Dandenong Ranges to which we all looked forward. The club could not afford to have a coach so the cheaper alternative was to hire a furniture removalist van with bench seats along the side. A tail board was lowered by chains and the older children were allowed to sit on this with legs dangling outside, a practice which Dad thought very dangerous and which he discouraged. The picnics were unforgettable. We enjoyed this so much that we were sad when the trip ended.
The social club also conducted a social evening from time to time that was held in the dance hall of the Avalon Caf situated on Beach Road near Hampton Beach. There was dancing (old time) and singing and later a grand supper supplied by members of the club. Coffee, tea and soft drinks were served but being family orientated no alcohol. How times have changed. My father was a great lover of music. When he was in Canada working as a Lumber Jack in forest industries he bought himself a mandolin on a visit to Seattle, Washington State and taught himself to play while living and working in the back woods of Canada. His playing was exceptional and I never ceased to enjoy listening to his playing. When I was at Hampton State School I took lessons on the violin and as the fingering was the same as for the mandolin he helped me with my leaning and we played together. I must say that his technique out matched mine. He was expert in working with his hands and made beautiful objects in wood and metal. I have a collection of these items. He had a wonderful temperament as did my mother. Brining up the family in hard times in association with my mother he coped so well and I cannot remember him raising his voice or being bad-tempered with us children or my mother.
I recall my father reading to us small children in front to the fire on winter evenings. This was eons before the days of radio or television. He obtained a copy of a publication he recalled reading as a boy in London, the "Boys own Paper". This was an annual bound copy. One of the stories he remembered was "The adventures of a two gunned watch". He obtained the volume from a 2nd hand book shop.
I recall Dad playing his mandolin on the front porch of our house in Hampton on summer evenings. Passers by used to stop to hear him play. One of the pieces from memory was called Souvenir which was his favourite. Most of his playing was from sheet music.
Dad was employed at the Victoria Harbour Trust at the Victoria Docks. He rode his pushbike to work for years. As he grew older he found this too tiring so he obtained a 1928 B.S.A motorbike that he restored.
In those days my mother was a member of the Hampton Tennis Club, with my Aunty Flo. She taught us boys to play tennis. Mother also taught us to swim on the Hampton Beach.
My mother was an excellent cook. She prepared lovely dishes from the fish we caught. A meat dish she made was called "Toad in the hole" this was prepared with sausages peering from a hole in pastry base. She bred ducks and always had a flock of about twenty of so, "Muscovies and Kahki Campbell's". Her roast duck dishes and plum puddings were delicious.
The following years at Hastings Street were uneventful as the country crawled out of the hardships of the worst years of the depression. I left Hampton High School when I was about 17 without having passed the Intermediate School Certificate which was the pre-requisite to obtaining any sort of gainful employment.
Things were still difficult for our parents in feeding and clothing the family. I started a job at a local Chemist shop delivering prescriptions and cleaning up the shop. The pay was inadequate and did not contribute much to the family budget. I left this employment and found myself a position with the Commonwealth Meteorological Bureau in the City of Melbourne. I was employed as a clerical assistant and also delivered weather reports and charts around the City on a pushbike (rain or shine). I recall one incident which could have been serious. It was raining heavily and I was riding down a hill in Collins Street. There was a policeman at an intersection (no stop lights in those days) directing traffic. I attempted to cross the intersection before he changed the traffic flow. However, before I could do this he held up his hand at me and the traffic. I stood on the brakes as I crossed a pile of wet horse manure. I skidded and my bike dis ????????? about four ?????? and I landed at the policeman's feet. His remark to me was "Do you think you are in the Air Force ??????????? with a broad grin, fortunately I was wet and dirty but unhurt.
When I was about 18 I left the Bureau and I went for an interview with the Public Service Inspector and he placed me in a position at the Department of Commerce as a clerical assistant.
Bill had stayed at school when I left. A friend of the family, a Mr Bigelow was the manager of a Bank at Bringhton. He advised my parents (incorrectly, as it ensured) that if Bill returned to High School and passed his Leaving Certificate he would offer him a position at his bank. Bill followed his advice and passed the exam. However this for some reason never eventuated, much to the chagrin of our parents. We later found out that at that time the bank positions were scarce and one would have had to attend college such as Bringhton Grammar or Scots College before being considered for a position. Bill had then to seek alternative employment. On Dad's advice he decided to become a plumber and attended Bringhton Technical College. I recall co??? this course was for two years. He secured employment with Melbourne Harbour Trust working at the dockyard; later on, Naval Vessels. Because of this he was declared "Manpower" and unable to change employment. Later he joined the Defence Forces. While I was employed at the Commerce Department I met my future wife Bernice Joyce Higgins (Betty). The date was Sunday 20th July 1941. A combination of events led to this meeting. My brother Ken worked at a shoe warehouse Doery and Tilley in Flinders Lane Melbourne. They had arranged an employee snow picnic at Mount Donna Briny, close to Melbourne. My cousin Jack Howden and I obtained tickets to attend the picnic from Ken. A friend of Bettys, Iva Berrett (who later was a bridesmaid at our wedding) also worked at the warehouse. Betty worked as a milliner at a hat Manufacturer. Iva arranged tickets for Betty and a work mate Kathy Edwards. Betty and Kathy sat in front of us in the picnic bus and during the journey to the mountains all we saw was the rear view of the girl's heads. When we arrived at our destination Betty turned around and our eyes met. My first impression was a pair of lovely blue eyes. During the day the four of us stayed together and we had an enjoyable time.
When the bus arrived in the city, on return from the outing, Betty and I walked together in the direction of the Flinders Street Railway station. I casually enquired as to what rail line she travelled on and she replied Sandringham and I said what a coincidence. She boarded the train at Ripponlea and I at Hampton. The Journey to Ripponlea took fifteen minutes and in that time I discovered that she boarded the train at 8:15am in the morning on the way to work. The train I took left Hampton at 8:00am. We met at Ripponlea and travelled together. In that short time we arranged our first date. I casually asked her if she liked ice skating and she was noncommittal but agreed to accompany me to the "Glacorium". We met in the city, me with skates over my shoulders. We set out for the skating rink and the more we talked I got the impression that skating wasn't her first choice so I said to her "would you rather go to the pictures instead?" A look of relief came across her face and she said she would like that. It was then about 8:00pm and the theatres were filling up. The big hit film at the time was a movie with the star Ginger Rogers "Kitty Foyle" at the Regent in Collins Street. The seats were nearly all taken and we finished up in the "Cheapy" front stalls. We enjoyed the show but I remember the strange looks directed to me by other patrons arriving at the "pictures" with ice-skates. So that's how a combination of events led to our meeting and the beginning of our whirlwind romance. This was July 1941 and my "call-up" to the Army was due just prior to Christmas 1941. We had plenty of opportunities to arrange meetings on the train twice a day as we both worked in the city and we met at most lunch breaks. We got together most weekends and played tennis. Betty was a wonderful dancer. We usually went to the St Kilda Town Hall on the Palais De Dance near the beach front on Saturday nights. I was "just a Dancer" but she taught me how. She always wore beautiful dance dresses and often wore a gardenia in her dark hair. Whenever 1 catch the perfume of gardenias I recall those wonderful times so many years ago. I spent more time at 4 Sycamore House Ripponlea than I did at home. On the way home from work sometimes at the last minute before Ripponlea station I managed to invite myself to dinner. I couldn't ring my mother as we had no phone at Hastings Street. I remember Betty's mother Violet saying that this was a mad romance. I thought the family, Violet and Jack (Pop) Higgins and Betty's brothers Jack, Doug and Bob must have been sick of me at times but I just couldn't care. We just couldn't waste the hours available to us before my call-up. "Procrastination is the thief of time", as quoted from an old adage I learnt from my father, which seemed to be appropriate.
I was off to basic army training at Willamstown race course late in December. Luckily my next posting was to Olympic Park and signals training so I was able to visit Betty and my family on occasional leave and luckily on Christmas day. I was posted to other courses at training venues near Gelong, Mt Martha and Nagamlin Road Scymour Victoria. Leave from these courses were few and far between.2 |
