C
Contrarian
Stumbled across this while doing my weird and wonderful research, thought I'd share it with some of you.
Remembering your childhood Perth Style
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 12:07:28 +0800
Hi David
We must have been in the same year at Mt Lawley High School.
Remember the fish and chip shop around the corner from Highgate where you
could buy a pile of batter crisps and potato scallops.
or the Pie shop on the corner of 2nd Ave and Beaufort St, if you could
escape from school at lunch time , The pies had Worcester sauce and spices
and melted cheese on top. Food particularly something different , from meat
and vegies and the Sunday roast, was important. Roast chicken was a special
event, usually meaning one of the hens had stopped laying and was generally
only had at Christmas.
As to driveins , the Western night each Wednesday night at the Skyline. In
the early 60s in Albany - we used to go to the drives on our scooters-
Vespa 125 , top speed 35mph (60kph) down hill. and set up camp in the first
aisle, lying on the ground.
Making canoes from corrugated iron , by beating out the corrugations with a
hammer , much to the neighbours delight and making up hill trolleys to
transport them, from timber with ball bearing wheels and then rumble all
the way from second ave Mt Lawley to Maylands - East Street , where we used
to sail them. Outriggers were old kerosine drums on sticks a later
development was a stick mast with a sail from an old old chook feed bag or
similar. Down wind was great coming back up wind was a bit hard.
What about the hill trolleys. bits of timber with a box at the rear , the
best wheels you could scrounge , as money was in short supply , a bit of
rope for steering and a foot as a brake - foot brake - although a later
development was a pivoting piece of timber to the ground to act as a brake
, which would cause the vehicle to swerve in the direction of the brake. We
used to hurtle down the gravel roads in Killarney St Kalgoorlie at a fair
rate. To come to grief was not good , but just meant you tried not to do it
again.
Visits to the Doctor were few and far between , The Chemist was usually the
first and only call , Doctors were only for having babies, operations and
broken bones - maybe.
Later : Talking of crystal sets , remember the next advancement the
Gernanian (??) Diode , an earlier transistor - prior to printed circuits
and long before chips, allowed radio reception without the tweeking
necessary with the crystal. The long antennae going to the roof top or the
clothes lines. All the war surplus radio parts available was it from Handy
Andy's at the top end of Hay St or Murray St.
Christmas and other decorations made from the milk bottle tops. A milk
bottle spread carefully over a penny could almost make two bob - two
shillings - florin.
Nestle's cream in small cans.
Hamburgers at Bernies , Mounts Bay Road.
Friday night movies at the Astor in Mt Lawley and the Saturday matinees
with Jungle Jim , Superman, Tarzan and other similar quality movies !!
Maltesers rolling down the timber floors.
All this talk of deck chairs reminds me of the early 60's when I ran the
movies in Kununurra on a voluntary basis and during the summer or wet
season we had a rule that if the projectionist couldn't see the movie on
the screen because of the rain , we would cancel and re run it next night.
We would receive massive falls of rain and the audience would just sit out
in it , because they were already soaked. Playing golf next to the Ord
River with wild steers and crocodiles as obstacles. Swimming with
crocodiles - now considered hazardous. This opens up a whole new line of
memories for me.
Watching TV in the store fronts when it first started and very few
household had a unit.
Early tape recorders , almost too heavy to lift and four inch reels.
Holidays at Quinns Beach , in a fisherman's hut, water from a manual pump ,
thunderbox toilet etc. Travel in over a very sandy track was usually in
convoy with one vehicle carrying a load of old plasterboard or similar to
cover the worst sections. Once on site there was no going back until the
holiday was over. Everything had to be taken in , in one trip.
This started out with the first line and has sorta grown . Anyhow its
brought a lurker out of the shadows.
David Ammon
Perth Western Australia
Remembering your childhood Perth Style
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 12:07:28 +0800
Hi David
We must have been in the same year at Mt Lawley High School.
Remember the fish and chip shop around the corner from Highgate where you
could buy a pile of batter crisps and potato scallops.
or the Pie shop on the corner of 2nd Ave and Beaufort St, if you could
escape from school at lunch time , The pies had Worcester sauce and spices
and melted cheese on top. Food particularly something different , from meat
and vegies and the Sunday roast, was important. Roast chicken was a special
event, usually meaning one of the hens had stopped laying and was generally
only had at Christmas.
As to driveins , the Western night each Wednesday night at the Skyline. In
the early 60s in Albany - we used to go to the drives on our scooters-
Vespa 125 , top speed 35mph (60kph) down hill. and set up camp in the first
aisle, lying on the ground.
Making canoes from corrugated iron , by beating out the corrugations with a
hammer , much to the neighbours delight and making up hill trolleys to
transport them, from timber with ball bearing wheels and then rumble all
the way from second ave Mt Lawley to Maylands - East Street , where we used
to sail them. Outriggers were old kerosine drums on sticks a later
development was a stick mast with a sail from an old old chook feed bag or
similar. Down wind was great coming back up wind was a bit hard.
What about the hill trolleys. bits of timber with a box at the rear , the
best wheels you could scrounge , as money was in short supply , a bit of
rope for steering and a foot as a brake - foot brake - although a later
development was a pivoting piece of timber to the ground to act as a brake
, which would cause the vehicle to swerve in the direction of the brake. We
used to hurtle down the gravel roads in Killarney St Kalgoorlie at a fair
rate. To come to grief was not good , but just meant you tried not to do it
again.
Visits to the Doctor were few and far between , The Chemist was usually the
first and only call , Doctors were only for having babies, operations and
broken bones - maybe.
Later : Talking of crystal sets , remember the next advancement the
Gernanian (??) Diode , an earlier transistor - prior to printed circuits
and long before chips, allowed radio reception without the tweeking
necessary with the crystal. The long antennae going to the roof top or the
clothes lines. All the war surplus radio parts available was it from Handy
Andy's at the top end of Hay St or Murray St.
Christmas and other decorations made from the milk bottle tops. A milk
bottle spread carefully over a penny could almost make two bob - two
shillings - florin.
Nestle's cream in small cans.
Hamburgers at Bernies , Mounts Bay Road.
Friday night movies at the Astor in Mt Lawley and the Saturday matinees
with Jungle Jim , Superman, Tarzan and other similar quality movies !!
Maltesers rolling down the timber floors.
All this talk of deck chairs reminds me of the early 60's when I ran the
movies in Kununurra on a voluntary basis and during the summer or wet
season we had a rule that if the projectionist couldn't see the movie on
the screen because of the rain , we would cancel and re run it next night.
We would receive massive falls of rain and the audience would just sit out
in it , because they were already soaked. Playing golf next to the Ord
River with wild steers and crocodiles as obstacles. Swimming with
crocodiles - now considered hazardous. This opens up a whole new line of
memories for me.
Watching TV in the store fronts when it first started and very few
household had a unit.
Early tape recorders , almost too heavy to lift and four inch reels.
Holidays at Quinns Beach , in a fisherman's hut, water from a manual pump ,
thunderbox toilet etc. Travel in over a very sandy track was usually in
convoy with one vehicle carrying a load of old plasterboard or similar to
cover the worst sections. Once on site there was no going back until the
holiday was over. Everything had to be taken in , in one trip.
This started out with the first line and has sorta grown . Anyhow its
brought a lurker out of the shadows.
David Ammon
Perth Western Australia