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GROWING UP IN MATRAVILLE - MATTO!
This is
what it was like for me growing up in the Sydney Suburb of Matraville
- Riding your
bike down to the chinese gardens in Franklin Street of a Sunday to get
some lettuce or
radishes to
have with that cold corn beef roll for lunch (the type with the
string round
it).
- Going to Koz’s
milkbar in Bunnerong Road, Matto or the one down in Dacre Street,
Malabar Beach
where the pinnies were.
- Remembering when Mr
Jago had the newsagency at Malabar and his was the sole shop there with
the returned servicemens' memorial then out the front of it.
- Getting the
milk off the milkman as he ladled it into your own container. Only to
find out
years later that the shonks used to water it down.
- Before
refrigerators, watching the ice man bring the big blocks of ice for
your ice
chest into your kitchen.
- Bathing once a
week in the same water as the rest of the family (were you first?)
after the
chip heater was installed.
- Saying “g’day”
to the postie, (our man was ‘Carl’), as he made two deliveries a day
and one on
Saturday Morning on a pushbike whilst my sisters remember the postie
delivering mail on a horse.
- Watching Alf the
baker from Kubere’s (thanks to Colin Murray for the spelling)
Bakery
deliver
the warm bread whilst his horse slowly ambled up the road and if you
were real
game and knew you would get a clip “under the bloody ear”,
pinching a
big bit of warm dough out of the middle of a loaf.
- Going for a
swim in APM’s ‘hotbox’, the timber box which acted as a reservoir prior
to it
flowing into Botany Bay or sliding down Bunnerong Power Station’s water
outlet
over all the green moss and hoping the sharks wouldn’t get you.
- Going
exploring and ending up at the old gun emplacement tunnels on Malabar
headland
or wandering through the graves at Botany Cemetry, or to Bear Island or
Cape
Banks.
- Going to the
pictures of a Saturday Afternoon - if you were very young, at
Matraville, down
near the primary school in Bunnerong Road (the building is still there)
or the Amusu or
Vocalist Theatres
at Maroubra Junction (those buildings are now gone) and catching the
tram home.
- 'Scaling' rides in the
old toaster trams.
- Putting pennies on the
tram line and wait till they were squashed.
- Using your
chocolate straw in the one third pint milk bottles you got free at
school,
after they were let stand in the sun for a couple of hours. That was
before
pasturisation. Didn’t you love the cream on top?
- Going to Stan
Smith’s menswear shop at Matto where your mother would buy you some
clothes on
tick.
- Going to the
bank of a Saturday Morning.
- Walking up
Bunnerong Road opposite Daunt Avenue and full well knowing that that
was the
house where pop singer, Warren Williams lived.
- Walking home
from the shopping centre past Bill
Boon's service
station on
the corner of Franklin Street and Bunnerong Road, which sold about
eight
different brands of petrol and peering into his workshop looking at
that old car suspended from the roof. Remember him in the khaki
overalls and
khaki
berret?
- Going to the
RSL igloo hut (before the club was built) for your diptheria injection.
- Going swimming
in the ocean baths at Malabar with all the turds and frenchies washing
into
your face – every weekend.
- Getting
sunburn like a lobster on the summer weekends full well knowing that it
would
only last a couple of days (but no-one told me the aftermath at 50).
- Listening to
the serials: Superman, Seahound, and biggles on the radio.
- Knowing the
name of every lady who lived in your street and saying hello to them
when you
passed.
- Listening to
your mother refer to the neighbours as Mrs 'Smith' or Mrs
'Brown'
when they
spoke to them.
- Going to the
circus which was either held where the duck farms were at Hillsdale on
Bunnerong Road or
where
the carpark at the high school is now. In fact there was a house
there which was derelict when I was very young.
- Attending
scripture lessons conducted by the Rev. Mr Sumner at primary school.
- Thinking that
Wassells Hardware shop was the only one in existence.
- Getting ice
from the iceworks at Matraville with your father or relatives (to keep
their
beer cold) around Christmas time.
- Playing in the
sandhills which would eventually become the oval at the high school.
- Standing in Wassell Street watching the Drive-In (without
sound) when it first opened.
- Going to the
house a few doors up to watch TV in 1956, because you didn’t have one
and
hoping they would let you stay.
- Watching mum
boil the copper to do the washing ONCE A WEEK!!
- Thinking that
growing vegies
and keeping chooks down the back yard was a normal part of life.
- Treating the
man and woman next door like your aunty and uncle because your families
were so
close.
- Walking to
school – and walking home.
- Going to Luna Park -
'just for fun'.
- Hearing the
dunny man come of a night time and hoping he wouldn't spill any!
- When your
telephone number started with FJ before 661 came in and you had a black
bakelite handset - thats if you had the phone connected.
- These were my
memories!!
If you want to comment
on this site or have
some incidents,
events or photographs I can include,
You can email me
here:
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