PLEASE NOTE
MY BOOK HEY SHORTY WRITTEN IN 2004 IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING EDITED, RE-ORGANISED AND TOTALLY RE-FORMATTED WITH PICS ADDED ... THE ORIGINAL BOOK CHAPTERS AND SUBJECT WILL NOT BE ALTERED SO IT IS DATED TO THAT YEAR ... IF YOU COME ACROSS THIS POST THEN PLEASE UNDERSTAND IT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS AND IS BEING UPDATED OVER TIME ... THIS IS NOT THE COMPLETED WORK BUT SOME COMPLETED CHAPTERS HAVE BEEN ADDED
The first 50 years
Published in November 2004 by John Andrew Green.
This book is published subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise be lent, re-sold, hired out or other
wise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form
of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and
without a similar condition including this condition being imposed
on the subsequent publisher.
Hey Shorty - Chapters
01 - In the beginning
02 - Childhood memories that last a lifetime
03 - You can pick your friends but not your rellies
04 - A school of thought
05 - Get out and get a job – look when I was your age
06 - Moving on
07 - Party, Party, Party – 21 today
08 - Who's Elvis Presley?
09 - Way out West where the rain don’t fall
10 - On the road again
11 - The Top End
12 - A decade of waste
13 - Bradley James and Mitchell Thomas
14 - Fourth generation Aussie
15 - Remembrance Day
16 - The one that got away
17 - Girls, Girls, Girls
18 - Set ‘em up again bartender
19 - Cooking with gas
20 - The Big C
21 - If you don’t mind umpire
22 - The light is on – ready – racing now
23 - How’s that
24 - Cars and things
25 - Cock a doodle doo
26 - Where was I when?
27 - Music, music, music
28 - Lights, Camera, action
29 - These are a few of my favorite things
30 - Who, what and why?
31 - James Edwin and Joan Winifred
32 - Hey Shorty
33 - Houston, we have a problem
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1 - IN THE BEGINNING
November 26th, 1954, is the day it all began. In a delivery room of the Lady Weigall Hospital at Barmera in the Upper Murray region of country South Australia at 10-30am on a Friday morning, Doctor Geoffrey Hasenour delivered an eight-pound full term baby, and my life was off and running.
I was here; I was ready for the journey. This would be my life.
The next 50-years was to be some adventure. Highs, lows, down time, sad times, happy times, drama, success and failure, they have all been a constant.
Today as I reflect on that time, I can only think that I have had a fortunate life. To say I have been blessed would never seem adequate, so much has happened since that 1954 November morning in Barmera.
Life and the world today barely resemble how it all was on that day 50-years ago. So much change, enormous change in fact and I feel honored to have been a part of how it all unfolded. Thankfully I have a great memory and can instantly recall events, times, dates, people and places that have shaped this past half decade.
History is important to me, and I embrace with all my might how mankind has navigated its way through these wonderful years. My life has been shaped in part by history, and my life has also been shaped by my own ability to navigate and live these wonderful years.
Contentment comes from within, and I must acknowledge that while I have many misgivings as to how I have handled the years, the reality is that I have made it through to be here today, And that is some achievement.
Am I content, yes and no. I have covered so much ground in that time and have experienced decades of personal change and world change. Disappointments are mixed with achievements for me and really, I guess I have done ok knowing my own shortcomings have contributed to my awkward society standing.
That said, would I change anything, do things differently? Here I can say with great clarity that I would not change a thing. I would not change a single day or single act or single event. To do so would not have me at this day with the wisdom, brokenness, knowledge, understanding, hurt, sadness and memories that make me this 50-year-old Aussie bloke.
Sure, I could have done things better in parts and who knows how that may have played out but the person I am as I reflect over a half a century is the person I created through that 50-year adventure. Life is about making choices and sadly I have made some real howlers, those around me will testify to that, they know I have messed up often. But through all of that I have made it to this point.
God has given me a personality and brain in extreme measures in many areas and that is not something everyone could handle. Many times, my extraordinary talents have been poorly used but just as that is true at other times those same talents have allowed me to take on and take in so much of what the world offered.
Thankfully I have so many memories of so many life events, of times when that very life has been so darn good and rewarding.
Do I thank God for giving me this brain, this gift of remarkable academic talent, this ability to navigate situations with cutting edge precision, this ability to battle and then to battle some more to regain my self-worth at such times when I should really have called it quits.
Yes, I do thank God. He has set me apart from others, that is a given and in His infinite wisdom and love He gave me the necessary tools allowing me to navigate the minefield of life and then somehow, I was able to make it all work.
I am blessed, I am thankful, and I am very fortunate. And best of all, I am me.
Dad and Mum had married on Saturday December 9th, 1950, at Barmera and I was the second born child. My older brother Rodney had been born at Woomera on May 2nd, 1952, while Dad was serving there in the RAN.
Mum had a daughter before she married Dad, Veronica Joan was born on December 24th, 1944, in Adelaide. Veronica was our sister; she did not sadly grow up in our household but that is a story told later.
Once Dad and Mum were married in 1950, it would be a few months before Mum was able to move to Woomera to be with dad who had moved to the north of South Australia with his naval posting. So, from early 1951 Woomera would be their home for just on two years.
Dad was posted back to the Flinders Naval Base in Melbourne in early 1953 as his next move. As Dad was married, he was allowed to live off base, so with Mum and Rod they stayed with the Johnson Family at Ferntree Gully in the Dandenong's on the outskirts of Melbourne. Aunty Alice Johnson and her boys ran a vegetable and pig farm in the area at the time.
But it would be somewhat of a scratchy start for me joining the Green clan in November 1954. When Mum became pregnant with me, she moved back to live in Barmera with her parents while my dad Jimmy remained in the Royal Australian Navy. He was now away serving on the aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney at the time of my birth.
I would be three weeks old before my father was able to obtain leave from his Naval posting and returned to be with us in Barmera for a month. When Dad returned to Sydney to join his ship, I spent my early days with mum and Rodney staying at my Grandparents, Henry and Winifred Danvers' house on their fruit property just out of the Barmera township.
It would be October 1955 before dad was able to secure a discharge from the Navy, once that happened, he came back to Barmera, and our family has been a massive part of the local community to this day.
Dad took a job at the Barmera Co-op Packing Shed in November 1955 starting on the weigh bridge in a laboring capacity, that position did include having some clerical knowledge.
From that first laboring job his academic smarts were clearly recognised by management, and he was moved into a front office role as a clerk. Dad would work his way through the ranks being the company accountant by 1964 and was appointed General Manager in 1968. He held the top job until his retirement in October 1987.
With Dad quickly becoming entrenched in his working life in Barmera, as a family we moved from staying at my grandparents' home into a house belonging to Jack and Madge Richards on their fruit property off the Sturt Highway just out of the township on the road headed towards Berri. Madge is my mother's older sister. The fruit property came into that family when Mum's uncle, Frank McBride purchased the land some years earlier. When Frank passed away in September 1953 the property was given to Jack and Madge.
Mum would always tell me it was a 'pretty ordinary house' but it was our first family home. Naturally I have no memory of living there but I do remember as a kid going to the Richard's property and playing, and I would see the concrete slab that was the foundation for this house.
From there we moved to live on a property that belong to Les Saint, a Danvers' family friend and neighbor to my grandparents. Les had moved into the Barmera township and offered the house to Mum and Dad and we would stay at this property for just on a year.
The South Australian Housing Trust had a trust home available in the township at number 15 Hague Street, so this was the next move for the Green family. My younger sister Janice Mary was born August 1st, 1958, during the time the family spent at Hague Street.
I am told a story that is entrenched into family folklore that on the day Dad went to collect Mum and Jan from the hospital that I said to Dad, "Don't forget to bring the baby home". Now, I can neither confirm nor deny having said that because I have no recollection of the event. I am simply taking the word of others at this point. Look, I know I have said all the thoughts here in this story will be my own but, on this comment, I will have to make an exception because if this is true or not, if I said that or not, it is too good a story not to be included.
Memories from this time are not great but as vague as my recollections are, I do clearly recall living at Hague Street. The house was a duplex just like other trust houses at that end of this long Barmera street.
While I don't have a lot of specific memories from my infant years, I remember the lounge room had an open fire and long before the days of TV, a highlight for us kids would be that on Saturday night, we would lie on the lounge floor and watch the coals drop out of the fire grill and onto the bricks below.
But this odd entertainment came
with some perks. Dad would bring home a bottle of Pikes Lemonade in a brown
paper bag from the pub bottlo' and a bag of mixed lollies from Gertie Bishops
Cafe that was on the street corner near the pub. We would cut the lollies in
pieces with a knife and that made them last longer. I know I loved Saturday
nights; it was a special time for a kid with his family; I always looked
forward to it.
The yard fences were standard SA Housing Trust, (as shown in the pics on the left) they were made of wooden slats that extended all the way around the back
yard with a small gate that led into the back lane while the front fence was timber and
mesh with an iron gate on the driveway side.
One vivid memory I have was on a Friday evening, as kids we were playing in the front yard inside a kids tent with the front flaps tied together with a strip of ribbon. Jan was just starting to walk and ran out of the tent only to get tangled in the tie; it caught around her neck. I screamed for mum, and she ran out to see what was happening and yelled for me to race inside and grab a knife. Thankfully, for some reason I grabbed a carving knife and mum was able to free Jan and everything was then ok. I know mum said at the time it was a miracle I grabbed the carving knife and not just a kitchen knife because that would not have cut through the tie, time was running out mum said as Jan was choking.
The Hague Street neighborhood was constant in the time we lived there. A family name McDonald lived next door, Ron and Helen, but I do not recall if there were kids. Ron was a car mechanic at Rosenthal Motors and later would go on to be the first full-time St Johns Ambulance employee in Barmera.
Perce and Millie Millington lived two doors down and I recall as a youngster tagging along with mum on visits to their house. As a couple Perce and Millie would take Rod and I to the Murrayline Drive-in on the Old Sturt Highway in Berri, not sure how that connection came about but it was something we did often. There was no drive-in at Barmera at this time, so it was always Berri for movie nights.
I can only assume that Perce was a 'tight arse' because he would always get Rod and I to get down on the back floor of his little blue and white Morris and he would cover us with a blanket. It seems we would get in for free that way as the gate attendant had no idea we were in the car. Strange what odd memories we can carry in life, and this is one such memory. But, in favor of Perce, this antic seemed to work, I don't ever remember being sprung. For the record, the Berri drive-in closed in September 1983.
So, who else lived in Hague Street in the late 50's? On our side the Shabrel family lived in the end house, on the other side the family names were Hartwell, Law, Butterworth, Cocksedge, Smith and Harrison.
The Butterworth family kids Gary, Peter and David (Rocky) were similar in age to my siblings so we played together. Their dad Corky Butterworth was a gun footballer at this time for Barmera Monash, and his wife Betty still lives in that house to this day.
In the vicinity of our home some of the family names I remember are Mudge, Goodfellow, Jenke, Morgan, Rowe, Tonkin, Milich and also the Barnden family were in our street but closer to the old Barmera Primary School. Paul Barnden was a mate, we both attended St Joseph's Convent School being Catholics. Other kids from the family were Neil and Carmel that I can recall.
The old Catholic Church was close, it stood on a dusty block of land across the lane from our back fence, the area now contains houses as well as the church building. Two houses were built on the Hague Street end and allocated to Aboriginal families and on the Eyre Street side two units were built but at a much later date.
My very special memory from living at the Hague Street house is that I started school from there in February 1960. I do remember the day well, at that point in life I actually loved the fact that I was school age, but gee did that feeling soon change.
Now the final move for the Green Family would be on April 29th, 1960; the Housing Trust of South Australia was able to offer a home to purchase on Nookamka Terrace and Mum and Dad still live at number 132 Nookamka Terrace to the day. The Green Family home is where we were raised so naturally it holds some very dear and precious memories. Our family was shaped there; we just embraced the place and made it the best home we could.
So yeah, what a great place to grow up in, we were blessed as a family to have this joint. When we first moved here in 1960 it was the last home on the newly constructed street. Four houses had been built here and initially we were number 7, that somehow later became 4 Nookamka Terrace Extension before it finally became number 132. At this time nothing existed between Nookamka Terrace and Lake Bonney except for a massive bushland area.
The four new homes were each built on quarter acre blocks and backed onto the houses on Bice Street, the yards separated by a generous sized laneway that ran between the back fences. That was the way the yards and housing blocks were in that section of the Barmera township.
The scrub area at the front of our block was a great area to play in, Dad and our neighbor Art Farrow petitioned the Barmera Council to come and clear an area at the front of the scrub and this little park became play home for us kids. We spent copious amounts of hours playing here with footy and cricket played in season and the park was naturally a magnet for the neighborhood kids. So simple yet so much fun, it was nothing but a dust pile or a mud heap, but it really added to some of the great and lasting early memories of living there. We would have been lost without it.
This was a time in life when most activities around play and leisure persuits were outdoors, so this little park certainly added to our options to just go out and play and have fun with the other kids. And sports, we always had a footy to kick around or had a cricket bat in our hand and we were able to hone our skills over in the park. So good, so lucky.
When we moved to Nookamka Terrace the road in the front of our house was dirt. During the winter months or after heavy rain the road would turn into a slippery mess. Dad would drive the car to get to our gate, and the car would slide and wheels spin as it negotiated its way along the road. I do have childhood memories of laughing at the sight of the car struggling to get along to the front gate.
As time went on the road was sealed. But we always had a streetlight right at our gate, originally it was just a single bulb type that naturally became a fluro when the ETSA infrastructure changed in the later sixties.
Something that became a nightly ritual was to be out on the road under the light finding a menagerie of bugs and crawlies. Some just fun to watch and some really creepy. The green beatles scurried everywhere, hundreds of them at a time, they were interesting but with centipedes and scorpions ever present then it could be a testing time. It was not unusual to have the creepy crawlies number in the dozens, truly an amazing yet scary sight.
So, after dark we would head and see what was around as there was always plenty of bug action. I loved this part of being a kid and despite a scorpion sting and a centipede bite over these years my memories are very special. Such simple family fun.
Dad did suggest to us that the area around where the house was built was probably some sort of insect colony that existed in the bushlands and that was then disturbed by the earth works as preparations went on to make this a building site. The area was certainly infested with these bugs but oddly I recall they were only ever found at night and under the streetlight, they never invaded the house.
And I am not sure how long after we moved to Nookamka Terrace that this nightly bug fest ceased, my memory is that it went for ages. It was a fun time and something very different.
Originally the porch was open at the back heading outside, but it was later built in to provide an extra storage room. A door was added so the enclosed porch was now a lock-up area, and it was used as a secure place to store items. It really changed the back of the house for the better. This enclosed area was small but serviceable and gave a feel of safety.
The sleepout was really very small, and I mean very small. A door led from the back porch area into the sleepout, and that door opened into the porch. A solid wood door closed from inside the room, and it could be locked. But despite the room being so small and compact, it was the bedroom for both Rod and I. This room was far enough out from the house that it gave us privacy from the other people in the house. I am not sure how we got to pick this room as ours, maybe it was allocated, and we just accepted the offer.
But with two single beds and a wardrobe there was very little space to do anything other than sleep there. However, at this point when we were kids things in life were so much slower, so much simpler and uncomplicated, so we made do. We had to really but at the time it was all ok and we felt good about having our own room.
Floor coverings were lino throughout the house, eventually feltex was laid in the main rooms of the house and much later carpet replaced the feltex. Floors were wooden in the main house, in the back section the laundry, toilet, back porch and sleepout were concrete.
The lounge room had a large mat in the centre of the room, this made a great play area especially for me and my toys of the day. It was my favourite area to be in.
As was the case with most houses of the era the lounge had a fancy China cabinet with lots of glass shelving and doors, two lounge chairs and some small pieces of furniture. In the late 60's we eventually added a TV and Radiogram as a three-in-one set and in the mid-1970 the furniture was totally updated with a lounge and new chairs the feature.
Oh,
and back at the beginning, three ceramic ducks hung on the lounge wall, it
seemed every house in the country had a similar set of ducks, naturally we
could not be the odd one out. Mum had a shadow box on the wall with an
assortment of ceramic figures on the shelves. For some reason she
treasured that shadow box.
A collection of ornaments was dotted around the room including a ceramic elephant and a crocodile. I swear these ornaments were a part of the family, it seems like they were there from day one and still have a spot in the lounge all these years later.
The front door led out onto a small front verandah
that was a step up from ground level. The wooden door led straight
outside, and a screen door was not added until years later. Two
windows in the lounge, one on the back wall and one on the side wall were both
single frame structures which slid up from the bottom. The window screen was wood framed with flywire and secured outside. I don't remember that
there was ever much change to the windows.
The curtains were changed at about the time the new furniture was added, but the pull-down blinds were long term additions. They had a spring roller at the top and the blinds could be adjusted up or down. They were very basic and rather bland yet always serviceable. Some curtain pelmets were also added at one point.
When we moved into the house, a four-leg bathtub sat over against the side of the bathroom wall and an overhead shower was a part of the plumbing. There was no hot water at all, instead to have a shower a chip/paper heater was used but it only gave limited warmish water, so showers were all rather quick.
The bathroom had a small window with louvers on the back wall and this opened out into the back porch. That window is still a part of the bathroom.
A wash basin with a cold-water tap was under the window. A shaving cabinet was attached to the side wall, it had a door that doubled as a mirror so it played a significant role.
Like a number of other areas and fittings in the house, a makeover to the bathroom came with significant change. The bath was removed, the chip heater went, and a shower alcove was added. Hot water was now available so this meant we could at least have a long hot shower. The plumbing for the hot shower was messy and is yet another relic that is still in place.
The laundry is another room that has been through a number of different renos throughout the years. A stone wash trough and a wood copper to boil water for washing were there at the beginning, the wash trough remained for many years, but the wooden copper was replaced with a kerosine model. At the time we moved here in 1960 there was no running hot water in the laundry.
All washing was boiled in the hot copper water; mum had a wooden washing pole that she used to first mix the clothing around and then to get it out of the hot water and onto the rinse stage. A thing called 'Blue' was added to the water to help the whites stay, well, white. I think! And no washing powder was used in this era; Velvet Soap was the go. And I remember starch was another laundry product that had plenty of use. And ironing was done in the laundry.
Eventually an electric washing machine was added, a Simpson Pope brand, it had a lever on the outside to change the water spin direction and doubled as an on/off switch. The machine was on wheels and had a ringer that could be swiveled to go over the wash tubs. (The pics on the right of the wash tub and machine are for illustration purpose only}.
So Mum was now able to use the machine to wash the clothes then run them through the ringer straight into the wash tubs. The washing cycle was really a work of art. She did have a wooden wash basket for many years to get the washed clothing out to the back line. And a washing trolly became a part of the wash day process and I am sure that helped Mum considerably in getting the load of wet clothing out across the lawn to the line.
The washing machine was further upgraded in more recent years to a top load twin tub. And the stone wash trough made way for a laundry unit that was placed under the back wall window, and by now running hot water had also been added to the laundry. There was always a rainwater tap in the laundry. It was copper/brass and first sat over the wash trough and later the new cabinet. So, we always had good drinking water from the water tank in the back yard.
At the time of moving to the house a small cupboard sat in the laundry corner, it had a multitude of uses but it was the shoeshine hub for the Green family. Our shoes all required shoe polish, and this is where the deed was done. A small brush dipped in the shoeshine stuff was used to spread on the shoes then we polished off with a bigger brush to make the perfect shoeshine. It was a work of art.
The laundry led off from the kitchen and was separated by a wooden door that could be locked. A small step led down into the room. The toilet then led off the laundry at the side and a back door led out into the enclosed back veranda area. A window again with louvers was on the laundry back wall and was opened to the outside. The toilet had a small fixed window in the side wall.
I remember a curtain rod was added in the laundry to divide the room. It was a plastic shower curtain type thing that was attached to the rod with round plastic shower curtain hooks. This thing was a monstrosity, a Green family original and every time someone tugged on the curtain, it and the rod would come crashing down. It happened literally thousands of times, and I mean thousands.
Every poor unsuspecting kid who came to visit pulled it all down at least once. I never understood what the attraction was to tug on it but inevitably every kid did. Crash, the sound it made when it hit the concrete floor was unmistakable and over the years we would just say, "There goes the darn curtain again."
The kitchen was small but functional. There were no built-in cupboards other than at the kitchen sink so standalone pieces of furniture were added. A kitchen dresser that was dated to the time took up one wall; it was a multipurpose unit and held much of the kitchen necessities. Another small unit stood at the side of the sink.
A fridge was placed, a work bench next to it, the sink was under the side kitchen window, it was built in and provided some storage space. The kitchen table and chairs again were indicative of the time, chrome, and the chairs did have padding on the seat and back rest area.
A wood stove was under a mantle on the lounge room wall; the mantle doubled as a chimney. The wood stove was in use for many years and was then replaced by a gas appliance.
In the lounge room a combustion type wood heater was against the kitchen wall, but the chimney ran through the wall into the kitchen, then went up the wall and through the ceiling. A fine mesh grill protected the chimney; boy, it was an ugly set up, typical trust homes that were really poorly designed, and the finishing touches always looked like they were tacked on as an afterthought. But it was what we had in the house, and we made do.
We spent many hours as a family in the kitchen, mornings were always in this room, breakfast, ABC radio with news and some music. Tea as we called the evening meal was always in the kitchen, as a family we sat together and ate. That too fitted that era of life.
The lounge heater was always in good use, naturally it was the only warmth the house had. A wood box sat by the heater and was kept topped up right through winter. Mallee stumps were the main source of wood with smaller stumps used, when possible, but larger stumps would be split in half or sections and always provided good warmth.
This heater had glass louvers in the swing door, they would regularly shatter and needed replacing. Not sure if it was a poor design or was damaged if a lump of wood fell against it and the heat shattered the glass. Either way we replaced many of the louvers over the years. The heater top opened upwards, a hot plate could then able to be used and across the years was put to good use.
Once electric bar heaters became the go then the lounge heater was removed altogether. That freed up some space in the room and as an added bonus it meant that hideous chimney and mesh guard in the kitchen were also removed.
The contents and structure of the yard have changed significantly across the years. I still think the original completed layout was best, the yard was full, it was busy, and it was productive. And while dad was anything but a typical gardener or DYI bloke he really excelled with how the yard developed. In its simplicity it was a credit to him.
How long the yard took to be at that completed look I am not sure; I would think it took a fair time. Lawns and trees and gardens and pathways, it was many hours of hard work.
And naturally mum played her part, she was the green thumb, her trees and shrubs were always a delight to look at, she had a real gift as a gardener. And she grew flowers; real flowers and my early memory of the colorful flower beds are a really happy and strong recollection. Mum made the yard a bright and happy place for the family.
The very first area of the yard planted
out was a square patch of lawn hand planted with runners under the cloths line
at the back. This original patch of lawn was then extended and later made even
bigger. But the odd thing was each new addition was a slightly different
level and for many years the back yard area that had lawn was a real mix
and match. But gee it was a great place to play in and hang out.
Lawn was planted at the front in a rectangle shape, and another planting of lawn was on the side of the house between the wall that was Jan's bedroom and the side fence. Once the lawn had grown both these areas were important especially to us kids as we spent many hours in play in these two places. As said a few times, this turned into a great yard.
Once the back lawn patch extended it was bordered by a thin concrete edging. I do not remember it being made but for that said I always remember it being there. It did finish the lawn off very well. And in the back yard from the lawn up towards the back fence Dad did lay a number of flat stones to create a pathway. It was around in the early years but like many things in the yard they eventually made way for more lawn.
At the front there was a fence with iron gates, again typical of Trust homes of the era. All four houses built at this end on Nookamka Terrace had matching fences, the green timber frame with wire meshing. The pics below show the front driveway area, the iron gates and the wood and mesh housing trust fencing. In the pics are Jan Green and Sue Starks.
Shrubs were planted inside the front fence; the original plan was that they would grow to be fashioned into a hedge. But they never really played the game and were eventually removed and replaced with rose bushes that mum purchased from Tony Spronk a local nursery grower. For whatever reason they never really took either so didn't grow and blossom as I'm sure mum planned. They lasted for some years before being removed.
Two trees, Jacaranda I am thinking, were planted in the front yard in the lawn patch, these trees were symbolic for so many years at the front of the Green home. They provided plenty of shade and cover. Eventually the trees were replaced with bottle brush bushes, but this was way down the track.
And trees were planted on the footpath in front of the house once the road was sealed and the guttering installed, I am not sure if the district council planted the trees out there or Mum did. The footpath was just covered in crusher dust for many years but in later times it was sealed.
The front gates were later removed and some years on the front fence also came down meaning the front of the house was now open to the footpath. I had loved the enclosed fence look but once the front opened up then that too was a good idea, took me a while to warm to it and the appearance of the front was now changed forever.
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With all the cosmetic changes mentioned at the front, the back yard also had its share of plantings and change over time. Fruit trees were planted basically from day one. A peach tree was in the back corner, then an apricot tree and in front of that a nectarine tree. Two orange trees and a mandarin tree were also planted and later a second peach tree was added.
As a family we were treated to bucket loads of free stone fruit over many years, the peaches were divine I remember, big and juicy, straight off the tree. And the apricots were in abundance most years although every few seasons there would be a light crop, this was common with some stone fruit.
We were blessed with mandarins each year, the tree always seemed loaded and as a kid I loved eating the mandies and while the orange trees did produce fruit, my memory is that they were never a real success. I do think they were a touch finicky to grow in a yard without all the proper attention and sprays etc they would get in a citrus orchard.
I am thinking the shed came as a kit, timber, steel frames and corrugated iron that had to be assembled and again my memory is that it went up over a weekend. Dad would say it cost him a few longnecks as that is all Jim would take for his work.
The two front doors on the shed opened out and really it played an important role as a fixture in the back yard. A side door was important, and a window be it small was on the back wall. The shed only had a dirt floor, and it was used as a car shed initially. It has been extended in length a couple of times over the years to be the structure that it is today. It would become home for Dad's boat and the additions allowed for the rear section to be used for storage.
There was no concrete at the side of the house leading up to the shed, that was added at a later date and a carport was then erected. It ran the length of the house on the Farrow house side and extended to fit onto the original shed. The back area between the house and the tank stand was also covered making an area that Mum used for her pots and hanging baskets.
With all the concrete and building additions it really did transform that area of the yard. It became well used and when the Jayco caravan was around it was always parked under cover. Before the laying of concrete at the back of the house poor Mum had her work cut out stopping dirt and mud from being tracked inside. That part of the yard would get very messy in winter. Wheat sacks were used as mats at the back door, but I am sure Mum still had lots of cleaning to do from what was tracked inside.
One major thing that did change was the sewerage at the house. Originally a pit collected the wastewater and toilet flush, the pit was alongside the car shed near where the tank stood. The Barmera Council eventually introduced a town sewerage system that meant all waste was now directed to this system.
My memory is the council sewerage pipes ran down the side lane by our fence and it was the landowner's job to then connect the sewerage pit to the council pipes. The pipes were earthenware when first put in but I seem to recall they were much later replaced with PVC. Although I seem to recall that there were at times issues with the sewerage in the pit not flowing as it should, and a pump truck would come in to drain the pit. The thought was that over time tree and shrub roots had grown and broke the earthen ware pipes meaning they would get blocked with the damage.
Lots of native trees were planted around the yard. I am sure some were to be forever trees but like life itself forever can change, and it did for the trees. Most of them however served their purpose, the yard always had plenty of shade and over the years it entertained many times for family get togethers and later for the famous Joan and Jim squid days. It was the best yard you could have possibly hoped for, first as a play area when we were kids growing up but later as that entertainment mecca. Mum and Dad did a great job. Thank-you both.
As a part of the Jimmy way, a section of the back fence was removed, and the caravan pushed in. That section of fence then sort of hung in place, it never went back properly and over many years it was iconic, and it just sat as a reminder of the Jimmy skills at DIY repairs. The caravan belonged to Veronica and Joff Linger, they had lived in it out on the Danver's fruit block when they first married.
My memory is that dad purchased the van from them when they left to live in Tasmania at the end of 1963. Then Reg Albrecht and his wife rented the van from dad for some time before it took its final resting spot in the back yard at 132 Nookamka Terrace.
And the worms, yeah, the worms. Dad or Grandpop as we now called him was always the fishing tragic, so he cultivated his own earthworms. An area down near the back fence become worm town, these worms had a great life, well cared for and very well fed and nurtured. We reckoned dad had names for each of his worms and if anyone was visiting the house then a trip to worm town was generally part of that visit.
We always had a telephone connected at Nookamka Terrace and our original home number was 172. In a strange sort of twist, the home number was listed at the time under Murray Citrus Growers in the phone book and not as Green, I recall that often caused confusion for other people looking up our phone number to call us. Dad was the secretary of the Barmera branch for the MCG and for some reason the phone listing needed to be in their name, yet I never recall anyone ringing to speak to MCG.
Phones were very basic back in 1960, to make an outgoing call you would simply lift the handset on the phone, wind the handle, that would connect you to the local PMG exchange and the operator would ask what number you wanted and then she would connect you.
For an incoming call the phone in the house would ring and you just picked up the receiver, and your call was waiting. It was all pretty simple, and it worked very well. But change was happening and like all things in life just when we got used to an idea, yep, it changed. But I am thinking in terms of the telephone, change was for the better. The Post Master General Department (PMG) was originally responsible for phone lines and connections; Telecom was the next government entity to take control of this area and that later became Telstra.
So, once the local exchange was automated then the phone numbers changed, 882 was the Barmera prefix so our number became 882 172. And there was an Area Code system at this time, for Barmera (Upper Murray/Riverland) it was 085. A few years back all Australian phone numbers were changed to 8 digits and Barmera had 85 added meaning our original 172 number was now 85 882 172 and the area code was shortened to 08 for South Australia.
Phone books were a big thing at this time in history. The phone book was originally for the state of South Australia. Then we had a metro and a country edition before that too changed and the Riverland and Murray Mallee had its own phone book.
Handsets for phones are another item to be constantly changed over the years; we went from that heavy black ring type handset from 1960 to a dial phone and now we have this push button handset that is very sleek and very modern. And mobile phones are the latest trend in communication, everyone has a mobile it seems, although the oldies at 132 Nookamka Terrace are likely to be challenged by this new fandangle electronic technology and will likely opt out. Our telephone at the house has always been in the lounge on a table near the front door.
So, life was now moving forward, my childhood days were right there with me, I was settled at 132 Nookamka Terrace in Barmera and the Green family had made this place their home. My journey was just beginning and if I had known then what I know now, nah, nothing would change. I would still be reckless, I would still be daring, and I would give life a real decent shot. As they say in the classics, life is for living.
The Green family residence for 57 years, 132 Nookamka Terrace in Barmera ... it was built by the Housing Trust of SA contactor and offered for sale to Jimmy and Joan Green who purchased the property then known as Block 150 Nookamka ... it was a typical Housing trust building, rough and ready but it was our home, and we loved it, we all grew up here ... the top pics show the property in later life, note the Jimmy automobile parked in the drive way, that car became a symbol of the place, the long driveway shot shows how this area looked as described in this chapter ... and the bottom pic shows Jimmy and Joan with grandkids Mitchell and Jacob out the front with the number 132 proudly displayed on the house
Below are some family iconic pics, Joan and Jim preparing a famous fish meal in the kitchen of their home and Dad with his boat at the side of the house, this was before any of the side extensions were added but the car shed is in the backgound ...
And the bottom pics are all from the Hauge Street Barmera house ... Rod nursing Jan out in the back yard in 1959, John and Rod from 1960 standing out on the empty block near the Catholic Church at the side of the house and fence, it was school sports day and last pic is Jan in her pram in the backyard
2 - CHILDHOOD MEMORIES THAT LAST A LIFETIME
Maybe it is because as a kid, you are still innocent and the world through your eyes is still just as innocent and uncomplicated. Whatever the reasons be I take some great memories out of my early childhood days.
I grew up in a time when not only was the world travelling much slower but also everything about life was done at a less hectic pace. We seemed to have time to ourselves and had time to spend with family and friends. Yes, it was an innocent world compared to the society we have grown into. I know that I would not swap the era I grew up in for any other.
As a kid I always remember having at least the basic mod cons in life unlike my parents as example whom just one generation earlier had none of what we had even from the 50’s going forward. We always at least had electricity, running water, sewerage, a car, and the things that made life just a little more comfortable. Maybe growing up we just thought life was tough, and I reckon we did but reality would show otherwise.
Reflecting back on my early childhood days I guess the worst case of doing it tough we endured at home is having a chip heater in the bathroom for a number of years, meaning hot water was a little bit hit and miss. Of course, some luxuries like TV were not around for us in my early days but you made do in so many other areas. However, with or without mod-cons being on hand, I know that I was lucky to be a kid when it was still a safe world to grow up in.
So, what about the memories from this time other than what I recalled from the places I lived at as a kid. What were the family traditions? How did we make life so much fun? How did we improvise to make playtime the adventure it was? How did we manage growing up in an ever-changing world? How did we transition into being teenagers? Look, it was a challenging time but really it was oh so simple and fun.
Christmas was such an exciting time to be a kid. There was so much going on with life as the festive season unfolded so this was a season of cheer, get-togethers with family and friends and we embraced everything this offered us.
It was like everybody in the town and district converged on the main street on this night. It really was wall to wall people: I guess it was also a way for the town people to catch up with each other.
I remember that I loved the atmosphere, and Christmas feel that Barmera had in this time of my young life. The top pic on the left is a later year photo; the bottom pic is from pageant night in Barwell Avenue in 1984.
Dad's workplace, the Barmera Co-op had a Christmas party for all employees and family in the weeks leading into the holiday break. I am guessing that the Barmera Co-op had some kind of staff social club because each year it would put on the most amazing Christmas party.
It was held at the Co-op in the canteen area and surrounds; it really was a kid's Christmas paradise. I remember things like Father Christmas arriving on the local fire truck, all of us kids would go wild with delight. Father Christmas would bring a present for every kid, and the presents were always something of significance and not just a token gift.
I remember getting things like a tennis racquet, a massive model aeroplane kit and a camera over the years. And the party itself was full on with stacks of food, ice cream, drinks and entertainment. Outside of the building, where the party was held a playground would be set up for us kids to use during the evening. It was one hell of a big show and a great Christmas tradition for me.
Midnight Mass was a great way to welcome the day, again lots of people. We would sing Christian based Christmas Carols and when Christmas morning finally arrived, it was always my favorite piece of family life. We had a tradition that no presents were ever opened before the day, they would be placed under the Christmas tree in the lounge room and would remain there until everyone was out of bed in the morning.
As a family we gave presents to each other so there was a huge pile of gifts to be given out and received. We would take turns at handing out the gifts and you would wait until the unwrapping was complete before moving on to the next one. It was a time of great excitement for me; we kept this tradition for all the years that I can remember being at home in Barmera.
The odd thing is that I do not recall what we did for the remainder of our Christmas Day but the mornings with the presents were so very special for me as a kid doing life with the family. Guess the rest of the day simply took care of itself. To this day, I still follow the same idea; I do not open my Christmas presents until the day. Old habits die hard; I guess!
For the record, I remember that our family Christmas tree was always a live tree, sourced from out bush, cut down and carted home. It was placed in a drum of sand in the corner of the lounge room and mum would decorate the drum with crepe paper to make it look Christmassy! Naturally it needed to be watered but I reckon each year the tree lasted the month of Christmas.
The tree was always elaborately decorated with colourful ornaments and tinsel, and the spirit of Christmas was very much on show at our house. I recall that mum had her own traditions with the tree, it could not go up before December 1st and had to be taken down by New Years Day. Once the Christmas tree came down the decorations were carefully packed away in a brown cardboard box and stored in Mum's room until the following December.
As for Father Christmas, as we knew him in the days of our childhood and not as Santa as he is referred to in this day and age, I guess I thought he was the real deal until about 1964. That year I was getting a train set for my gift, as a family we had all been to midnight mass up at the church and us kids were put straight to bed once we got home. For some reason I was sleeping in Jan’s room, and I remember seeing mum standing by my bed putting something down beside it. I looked and knew it was a train set so I questioned her only to be told to, “go back to sleep.”
However, the trap had been sprung and despite her denials the next morning, I knew it was mum who had placed the gift. Hey, how long can you keep us in the dark for mum? What I reckon happened is that mum was tired, wanted to go to bed, and did not wait long enough for us kids to be asleep. So, for me that ended the myth surrounding Father Christmas.
On pageant eve we had gone to bed as normal, no thought or mention of the pageant. But at some strange hour of the morning Mum woke us kids with the news that we were about to head off to Adelaide and take in the pageant. It was a left field decision made by Mum and Dad the night before but here we were loaded in the family car and headed to the big smoke.
It turned out to be some day; the magic of the pageant was amazing. Any of the trip details and what we did afterwards are not with me, but I do know this was a really special day. What year it was I am not sure, but having a stab I would say around 1965?
Once TV became a thing the pageant was broadcast live and that was always a must watch. Black and white coverage at first but with great commentary the show was simply magical. Father Christmas was always on the last float and once he finished his duties on pageant morning, he would head to the Magic Cave in Johnnies and spent the time here leading up to Christmas.
And as I am now a dad, I attended the Pageant a number of years including 2003 when I went with Mitchell Thomas and his mum so that he could see his very first John Martin’s Christmas pageant. And he loved it; despite being just 15 months old, he was captivated by it just as I had been all those years before. The Christmas Pageant had thankfully lost non-of its magic for kids or adults alike.
Living at 132 Nookamka Terrace in Barmera gives me many of my early childhood memories. We moved to this house in April 1960, and I left home for the first time in February 1973 when I moved to Tailem Bend with my work in the South Australian Railways. Even then I returned home every few weeks, so the place was still important in my young adult life. It was still my home.
Back in the early time at the house, my brother Rod was keen to have an aviary and collect birds. He and a couple of his mates, I would think Gary Campbell and Steven Sander was included, built an Avery on the side fence between the structure Dad built and the car shed that had been erected some years earlier. Rod and his mates populated the aviary with birds that they had collected from the wild and I remember with some budgies, parrots and doves, but I would think some were probably purchased rather than caught.
But one bird collecting exercise that I recall was to do with pigeons. About a mile out from Barmera on the old Monash Road was an historic building that at one time had been built as a butter factory. It was never used as intended, it had been sitting idle for many years and was in a neglected state, but it had become home to flocks of pigeons.
Rod’s great master plan was to go out to the building at night, use torches as spotlights and trap the birds in the light, catch them and bring them home to his aviary. Then the plan was to keep them caged for a period of time and make them into homing pigeons. So, I remember Rod, myself, Paul Sander and I am not sure who else riding our bikes out to this old butter factory building at night and trapping as many pigeons as we could bring home. We caught plenty; that was easy and fun and the plan looked good at this point.
The pigeons were kept caged for months and eventual let out in the hope that they were trained as homing pigeons and would come back to Rod's aviary. Well, trained they might not have been but homing pigeons they certainly were, and they flew straight back to the old butter factory building out on the Monash Road that was clearly home to them! That put an end to the pigeon keeping and I am not sure what happened with the other birds.
Other than the birds, we never officially had a pet. I remember a cat named Fluffy being around for a time but I do not recall any more information than that. There was another cat that called our place home for awhile in the early days at Nookamka Terrace. Again, I do not remember where it came from or how we came to have it but it was never really allowed to be our pet. It did not even have a name.
At one stage, our neighbor Art Farrow and his mate Lionel Island took the cat to the family farm at Parilla in the Murray Mallee. However, I remember within a few days the cat was back. It surprised everyone as Art told us later that the cat was actually let loose in Parilla. The thought was the cat must have escaped from the bag that was on a trailer and somehow, as cats do, it came back home. And poor Art was probably embarrassed to say he lost it so just said the cat made it to its destination as was the plan.
And it was the only cat I know which could fly. I will not elaborate here other that to say this cat could fly from the back door of the house and land up in the back yard. You will have to work that one out yourself. But the positive side to this is that true to legend the cat always landed on its feet.
Anyhow, one day some months after the Parilla episode I walked out into the yard, the cat was by the tap up the back of the shed, and it was dead. It looked to have simply fallen over and died. That ended the cat story once and for all.
In my teenage and young adult life I did have a couple of pets. At one time I had a budgie, it was known as Percy, sadly I came home one Saturday after footy, and it was dead in the cage I had placed in the back porch. Then during my working days at the railway, I had a cat named Ernie, but he died after a few months. Ernie made a big impression on us all in the short time I had him and it was a very sad day when he died. Seems like we never had much luck with the pets we did or did not have!
Next to them lived Mrs. Hogan, she had two grown daughters living at home, Kay and Judy and Mrs. Hogan’s grandson Kim also lived here. The next house belonged to a family named Dawe, a widowed Mum with children, I am not sure if they were the first people to live in the house, but they are the first lot I remember.
One street back was Bice Street, and I remember a family named Best lived here. Mrs. Best was widowed, and I remember a Jimmy, John, Ray and Helen and two older siblings Chook and Alf. A family named Perotti lived in the street as well as families Rowe, Packer, Markof, Green (no relation, I think his name was Bill) and Hastwell.
The house at the back of ours fronting Bice Street originally belonged to a family named Neighbour. Mrs. Neighbour lived here with her children including son Philip whom I was apparently friendly with at the time. He attended the Convent school so naturally the family was known to mine through the school and Catholic Church. I am told I had play time with Philip but my memories of that is told rather than my own so I cannot elaborate. He had a sister Deliah who was older. Mrs Dowling later moved into this house and she and her daughter Bev were long term residents.
Later, when nearby Hawdon Street was extended down the hill to join Nookamka Terrace. The houses were prefabricated homes that were transported from Radium Hill in the North of the state. Radium Hill was an experimental mining town in the early years of uranium mining but when the town closed all buildings were sold off.
One of the houses that found its way to Barmera had in fact been the Hospital at Radium Hill. The Norton family, Nev, Mavis, John, Ian, Denise, Brian and Sandy lived in that house at number 9. Others living in the new homes were the Scarlets, Graham and Helen Hastwell and Mumford families. Eventually a house was built on the corner and the local milky, Jack Baarton and his family moved there.
Others that I remember from nearby were Needing, Sefang, Gartner, Mick Haywood, the Haslam’s, Bill Wright, Skubalas, Bourke and of course there were more but I am not sure now who they all were. Over the years I would suggest that every house has changed residents at least once and that probably Dad and Mum are the only originals left in the immediate vicinity of Nookamka Terrace.
In the bushland out the front of the house there was a creek flowing through that drained into Lake Bonney. The creek had the unfortunate name of ‘Shit Creek’ but it was not as bad as the name suggests, in fact far from it. The creek was fed by water that was a flow-off from the massive local fruit block irrigation system and not from the town sewerage as the name probably suggested. The water was just run off. We would spend copious number of hours playing at the creek with kids from all around the local area.
Together with my siblings we played in that creek and bush so often. The pic left was taken in the back yard of 132 Nookamka Terrace and is my younger sister Jan and I, guessing about 1964 so this was who we were at this time.
The creek was not deep, but it was a long walk and was marked with twists and turns and a number of obstacles. Then on the lake end, the creek flowed through a thick patch of water reeds and it was quite difficult to negotiate a way through. But once the walk was conquered it was a tick of approval for a task well done.
In the bushland, we made bike tracks and again spent hours on our ‘deadly treadlies’ riding the tracks. The bush area extended all the way to the shacks that had been built on Queen Elizabeth Drive. The area was large and again it provided some great play times and even the area between the houses on Hawdon Street and Draper Road that in these days ran down along the outside fence of the golf course was a bushland patch. It too got plenty of use.
Push bikes were a necessity as kids, hey, some of the bikes were so basic and cumbersome but they did their job and hacking around on bikes was a big part of life as a kid. We rode all over the place, it was transport and we made the most of them. I am also guessing the roads in this era were a touch safer, slower vehicles and not so many on the road. Without having a push bike, life would have been tough at times.
Away from the bush-land areas surrounding the house one of my most cherished childhood memories from living in the area was having races around the block. Each of the houses in the immediate vicinity to our home were built on quarter acre blocks with the four allotments surrounded by a lane way. This is the block I referred to where we would go racing around both on foot and on our bikes. It was great fun, great fun indeed, the block made for the perfect racetrack.
The races were full on, it was dead set dinky di stuff, we raced to win. I even remember making hurdles in the back and side lanes to have jumps races. And the footpath along Nookamka Terrace had the fencing alongside so it made the run up the home straight seem like a real racetrack. The stobie pole at the front edge of our property was the finish line, ah, wow, so darn good.
Using these makeshift items gave the thought that this way the damage to mum’s garden was kept somewhat in check or yeah, well, that's what we told her anyway! Because Mum was always very much a gardener and had so many plants and flowerpots and things growing.
But unfortunately, mum had no idea really, she insisted on planting things and placing her pots that got in the way of the football or the cricket matches that were regularly played in the back yard at 132 Nookamka Terrace. And as a result, we kids were continually breaking branches and limbs from her prized plantings, or knocking over the pots, I mean, how could it be any other way.
And even though we got into trouble for the damage we caused, that did not stop us. Poor Mum would rant and rave and have a fit! And now looking back, I feel for her, but sadly at the time I guess Mum's garden was just a long-suffering casualty of the games us kids played in the back yard. Sorry Mum, but I reckon you were ok with having your kids close to home.
And for me personally, it did not matter if other kids were around to play with or not, if no one came over I just played games by myself which was ok because this way I always won. As an added thought, it did not matter what game was being played I always called the action giving a kick by kick or ball by ball description and I guess my ability to be a caller of sport stemmed from this time in my life. Mind you my broadcasting of everything that moved in our backyard must have driven the neighbors mad.
Another play activity in the yard as kids was to be a part of World Championship Wrestling. Back in the 60’s wrestling was big, World Championship Wrestling was a must watch on TV. And as kids, we would attempt to emulate our TV wrestling champions, The Scott Brothers, Skull Murphy, Brute Bernard, Mario Malano, The Destroyer and the likes. We would borrow the car cover from dad’s shed; stretch it out on the side lawn and use that as the canvas on our imaginary wrestling ring. We figured the car cover was about the size of a ring and it worked, we wrestled each other into oblivion. I remember it being fair dinkum fun!
Also, on this side of the house was the TV antenna stand. The stand was a structure of about 60-foot from top to bottom; you needed this sort of antenna height to be able to receive the transmission of the Adelaide television stations. However, the structure was great to climb, it was an easy way to get up onto the roof to retrieve balls that had been hit, kicked or thrown onto the roof. The antenna was close to the wall at that side of the house, and you climbed like Spiderman to get onto the iron roof. From here, you walked around and collected your ball from a gutter. Getting down you simply slid down the pole.
Another roof that we spent time climbing onto was the car shed. Unlike the house roof it did not have gutters so when we hit things like tennis balls onto the roof they would simply run off but when we used that collection of other toys as footballs like the plastic rabbit or the socks then they could stay up on this shed roof. That meant it was time for a climb, to get onto the roof you used the fence railings at the side of the shed as a way of getting up and to get down you simply jumped. Simple, we had our makeshift footy back and more often than not this process was repeated over and over.
Table tennis is something that I played a lot of in the yard at home. I know that will need a bit of explaining. When I first started work one of the things I treated myself to was a table tennis set. Through the hardware shop at Dad’s work, I purchased a tabletop made from chipboard, I painted it and lined it into the configuration for table tennis, just as a proper top would look. Dad had a work mate, Snow Tschirpig make up two steel frames for me to use as legs to sit the board on. It was ideal as I could move it to wherever I wanted.
In the summer months I set it up outside the sleep out window at the back of the house and in the cold wet months I would set it up in the car shed. I had an outside light rigged up at the back so that I could play table tennis at night and when playing in the shed the light could be transferred there. Nighttime play was a regular thing.
Along the journey, I added bits and pieces to the set and in the end, I had a great collection of bats, balls, nets and anything needed to play the game. I spent many hours honing my skills on that table, it truly was a great investment, and I so enjoyed the many hours I used that table playing such a fun game.
Summer months in Barmera were always really special. The lake, tourist activity, school holidays, Christmas, ah, so much going on. You would not swap this season for any other, Barmera and the Riverland really did have it all and summer was the season.
An ongoing summer nighttime ritual from the hot days and nights, of which there were plenty, is sleeping out on the back lawn. After days of continued stinking hot weather, the house was like a sauna, it became so hot that sleeping inside was impossible. Air conditioning was not a luxury we had; it was not something we knew. So, we would take our bedding out onto the back lawn and sleep there. Daylight saving was not an issue at this time, so the nightfall was true to the sun. By 8-30 it was dark, still hot but dark.
Some nights it would cool down enough to go back indoors in the early hours of the morning but some nights we would stay out all night. The mosquitoes could be a problem, but we had a product known as Dimp that we would rub all over our skin and it seemed to work in repelling the darn mossies. Mind you it stank, it stank big time, but it was the product of the day that kept the mossies from eating you alive.
Then as the yard at our family home developed and grew over the years it was just a great place to just be in, to relax in. It has very special and happy memories for me. Things like on a Friday evening Mum fed us her cooked chips, we would eat outside, chips on greaseproof paper, simple but enjoyable. Or we would get to eat Mum's homemade ice blocks, milk based and generally strawberry flavor, ice blocks wrapped in newspaper so as we could hold the freezing cold block. Ah, Mum, very simple but you knew how to create memories.
For me, as I grew into the teenage years I would spend hours with backyard activities. Table tennis was a goer; another odd fun time would be that I would throw a golf ball against a concrete brick that I placed against the side wall. The golf ball would fly off the brick at varying heights and directions, and I would catch it to practice my cricket reflex skills.
I would use my wicket-keeping glove on my left hand to catch with. Being very much a right-handed person, I used this arm to throw the ball with and tried to strengthen my left side play by catching with that glove. It probably looked odd, but it was fun for me, I enjoyed the time and I guess it was a handy way to practice when no one else was around to go and have a hit of cricket with.
This yard and house was my home and it felt very much like home to me. Even to this day, the yard is such a big, beautiful place to simply be in, it has changed a lot but still has lots of lawn and lots shade and for me lots of memories, such good memories.
It was the place to swim and congregate. The lake had everything, and while safety was clearly important the emphasis was never on what you cannot or should not do, it was about what you could do, and that was have fun, enjoy the friendships and it gave so much enjoyment.
The swimming enclosure at the big jetty down from the shopping area was a work of art, jetties high and low, diving boards, shallow and deep water, it was like a structure that had so many great spots to explore and swim. The centre area was actually an Olympic size swimming pool.
I remember Mum would say, “You kids do not need to go to the big jetty, surely a swim is a swim.” Yeah-right mum, get with the program, no the big jetty was more than just a place to swim; it was the social hangout for one and all. It was a magnet for us kids to be drawn together to swim and play.
It was at the big jetty that some of us local kids had another local test of ability and character. Out from the jetty on the lake was an old 20-gallon oil drum tethered as a buoy to indicate to the powerboat drivers using the area that the swimming enclosure was nearby. The buoy was about 500 yards out from the jetty on the lake and the test was to see if you could swim out to it, climb onto the drum then swim back to the jetty. It showed that you could swim of course but it also said you had the guts to tackle the test.
But really the whole of the big jetty area was ideal, and it was a great area to learn about swimming and being confident in the water. It turned us into water babies and the long hot summer days were more manageable having a dip in the lake.
Sure, we swam at other areas, but none had the amazing drawing power that the big jetty had. On the lake front down from our home through the bush land was an area we called Bishop's Jetty, that was a great place to go, and we spent lots of time here. You could walk out from the foreshore, and the water would get deeper the further out you went, it was a perfect spot.
A favorite memory of mine from the lake days is having picnic tea at the lake during summer days. It was not a regular occurrence, but when it happened, we kids would go with mum during the day to swim and then dad would join us later in the afternoon after work. There were shelter sheds between the road and the lake and most of this area was grassed meaning it worked well to host a picnic.
The pic on the right shows our family descendent Jack McBride with his young son Phillip standing in the middle of the lakebed, a wheat crop was grown here at the time the lake dried up. Jack McBride came to the district with his family after WW1 and settled at Cobdogla, Philip Phillip was sadly killed in WW2.
Fishing in Lake Bonney was something we spent a lot of time doing. As a kid and then as a teenager, I would fish for hours and when the fish were running it was always easy to catch a feed, mainly Redfin. I recall that at times you could use any coloured object like mandarin peel to get the redfin to bite. Other times earth worms were the go, and small shrimp could be used. My Dad would tell of some massive fish hauls in the days he first came to Barmera in 1955 and that included Murray Cod but for me, only redfin, callop or brim were caught.
On weekends summer or winter, I would often get up at dawn and go to the lake to fish off what was known as Bishop's Jetty, it was directly down on the lake from where we lived on Nookamka Terrace. Most times I remember at least getting a few fish, the water was only about 6 feet deep here, but it produced some good catches. I made a real outing with the fishing mornings. I would take a thermos with a hot drink and sometimes I had a fire on the beach and cooked toast and maybe a few snags. It was always a fun time for me.
He also built a storage shed for the boat, and it was in fact this shed that the Donald Campbell troop used as a base for Bluebird and his world water speed record attempt on Lake Bonney in 1964. When Reg used the shed for his boat storage a set of twin railways tracks ran down into the water, and his boat could be moved up and down between the shed and the lake.
Across the years we always referred to the boat shed as Bishop’s shed, but now it is known as The Bluebird Cafe. The jetty is long gone and was called Bishop’s jetty by us locals who used it for fishing or swimming.
With the lake being home to a multitude of water sports as well as swimming, I was able to learn to water ski at a young age. Greg Wright was a schoolmate, and his parents' Neville and Joan had a speedboat used for water skiing. I was lucky enough to tag along with the Wright family on days they would spend skiing at the lake. Greg was not a skier, and I think his dad sort of taught me in a hope that Greg might be interested. I loved to ski and did so with the Wright family for many years. It was like I always had an open invitation to be a part of their skiing life and family.
My first attempt to ski was from the area by the boat ramp on the Barmera foreshore, I was able to get all the around a circuit on the lake without falling off. I was not able to stand upright, I simply squatted with my bum dragging in the water, but I held on refusing to let go of the rope. I am guessing I was probably about 10 at the time.
From my next attempt, I was up and away, I stood on two skis and from that day onwards I never looked back as it were. I did fall on my second try, but I made it most of the way around and only crashed off when heading for the shoreline. I had always had good balance and this no doubt meant I was somewhat of a natural for this water-skiing caper. Eventually I progressed to one ski and that was something I loved, it was exhilarating and so much fun.
Another water sport for me during my early years was sailing. A schoolmate Nigel Wittwer had a Holdfast Trainer yacht, and he asked me to be his crewmember. While it was something I had never done, I loved it and sailing was fun. We gelled as a crew, and we were good at what we did. In our second year of competitive sailing, I am guessing 1967 we were leading the club championship with just two rounds left to sail. However, Nigel was struck down with a virus, and we missed the last two Saturday competition races. Sadly, that meant we were narrowly beaten for the title by David and Ricky Garrard.
It was a big disappointment as sailing was a prestigious sport in the town at the time and to have won the junior club championship would have been a big thing. The next year the Lake Bonney Yacht Club committee offered me the use of one of two club boats, a holdfast trainer so I took the opportunity. My crewman was Greg Dymmott, a cousin of mine but we were ordinary and always fished well back in competition. I made this my last year of sailing and played cricket in the summer months from then on.
So clearly for me the lake holds many great memories, but a very special time was in 1964 when land and water speed ace Donald Campbell used Lake Bonney in an attempt to break the World Water Speed Record. Campbell had earlier that year lifted the World Land Speed Record at Lake Eyre (a dry salt bed) in the north of South Australia driving his Preteus Bluebird and he wished to take the world water speed record in the same year.
It was so exciting being on the lakefront watching Campbell’s jet propelled Hydroplane Bluebird race at speeds of over 200 miles an hour across our lake. What a fantastic sight it was as the massive spray and wash created by the boat spewed out behind as Bluebird raced across the water. Campbell unfortunately never did crack the water speed record on Lake Bonney; he packed up and left in mid-December without success despite many attempts.
However, on December 3rd he did manage to set an Australian water speed record of 216mph for the two runs needed to count as a record. I remember that day very well and thousands packed the lakefront and other vantage points on this afternoon once word was out that Campbell was having a crack at the world record. After setting the Australian record he had a couple more runs over and back on the lake, but darkness beat him and that was the last time he raced Bluebird on Lake Bonney.
The interest that Campbell and his group of workers created was enormous and I am sure the town has never seen anything else like it to this day. The day he arrived in town was special, the turn out from the townsfolk and many visitors in Barwell Avenue was a sight to behold. Massive crowds and much excitement to finally have Campbell and his boat in our town.
When Campbell left Barmera, he went to Lake Dumbleyung in Western Australia and claimed the world water speed record late in the day on December 31st 1964 to achieve his dream of breaking both land and water world records in the same calendar year. This superstar of his time had been a living legend of speed racing both on land and on water. And Barmera had been a part of his world history. How good was that.
Campbell was unfortunately killed on Coniston Water in England on January 4th, 1967, when the same Bluebird boat that he had driven on Lake Bonney flipped and crashed during a further attempt on his own world record. It was a very sad thing to learn that this great man who just a short time earlier had been in our town had lost his life in such a tragic way. I remember the night when he was killed, we were watching the TV in the lounge room at Barmera and the TV station interrupted its normal program to bring us a news flash about the accident. RIP Donald Campbell.
The pics above tell the story of the time Donald Campbell came to Barmera. The top shows Bluebird being rolled out of Bishop's Boat Shed to be readied for a run across the lake, Campbell is shown at different times as he partnered Bluebird on those runs over to north lake and back again. A bulletin board was erected on the town clock in Barwell Avenue and was updated to list when Campbell would be out with Bluebird and the Barmera locals always turned up in force to watch any world water speed record attempts on Lake Bonney.
An official video was made at the time when Campbell and Bluebird came to Barmera, it is a decent look at our town and tells the story of Campbell and his attempts to break the world water speed record on Lake Bonney. To watch the 15-minute video, click on the link below ...
Video | Facebook - Donald Campbell and Bluebird - Lake Bonney Barmera
Another story from the lake with a tragic end is that of Bill Flewellyn. He was not a local, he was a kiwi, but he married Barmera girl Peggy Caddy, and we sort of adopted him as one of our own when he settled in Barmera. Flewellyn was a daredevil so to speak and in January 1972, he flew a hang-glider around Lake Bonney for just over 15-hours to claim a world record. The hang-glider was attached to a speedboat and towed around on the lake from just on sunup to when he came down at sunset.
This too was an enormous operation of logistics and planning and drew massive crowds to the lakefront waters. As darkness fell on that Sunday evening and Flewellyn landed on the lake down in front of the yacht club the big crowd erupted, and the birdman was given a hero's return. He had flown in the ski-kite for 15 hours and three minutes, he covered 475 miles, and the world record was his. Bill was 29 at the time.
The sad part of the story is that Flewellyn was killed a few years later at the Brisbane Showgrounds where he was performing his kite man stunt around the show arena. A gust of wind had him misjudge a landing and he hit a grandstand wall at speed. Another sad ending to a Lake Bonney story.
Mum was an avid Blue Hills fan, this Gwen Merideth serial was on every day at 1pm, ran for 15 minutes each episode and over the years Mum must have listened to thousands of Blue Hills episodes. As a fun fact, this radio classic ran 27 years on the ABC and covered 5795 episodes. I guess it was the radio version of Days of Our Lives. And there would not have been many episodes Mum missed, my memory is that her daily life was time structured around being able to sit and listen to her show.
The introduction of TV in South Australia from 1959 was the death knoll for the radio serial, and it seems it died a slow death over the next decade. But they had served a purpose, and memories are a great thing to have. Other than Life with Dexter, Green Bottle was a serial I did enjoy at times.
My brother Rod and I had a few activities that we shared over the years but in general the two-and-a-half-year age gap meant we had different friendship groups, and we moved in different circles. In his teenage years Rod spent a lot of time in his room; he was a good student who studied for hours. He also always had a radio on and at night, we listened mainly to Victorian stations in particular to Rod Spargo on 3UZ from Melbourne.
At one point in 1964, from the radio listening we wrote away to 3UZ and asked for some station car transfers and other memorabilia including station DJ pics and info. We received some information along with the transfers. I remember Rod stuck them to his bedside cupboard.
Then from somewhere, we obtained a list of addresses for all radio stations in Australia and we sent letters to them asking for transfers and station advertising material similar to what 3UZ had sent us. Over the next few weeks, we received the replies, and I remember that most radio stations sent us what we had asked for.
In fact, we received so many replies that Rod and I made up a list of who we sent letters to so that when the replies arrived, we would open half to each to keep the balance. It was a time of great excitement. Each day we waited for Dad to come home after work with the mail to see what we had received. Not sure why we did this, but it was great fun at the time. I do remember that we collected other transfers from places like petrol stations, BP, Shell, Ampol, Mobil, Caltex and from any business that had them really. Just a boyhood phase I am thinking but one I remember we shared as brothers.
But mail was the big means of communication in this time, so all letters addressed to us at home came with having a stamp on the envelope. We carefully removed the stamps by soaking the section of envelope with the stamp attached in water and the stamp would come away from the backing. We would have family and friends collect used stamps for us so we had a good stream of stamps to work with.
Having a stamp collection came with lots of accessories, naturally a decent stamp album a must. And stamp hingers were a thing for attaching stamps into an album. The hinges were flimsy little things that fixed the stamp flat onto the album page. Stamps came in many shapes and sizes from across the world and I was particularly interested on Australia stamps. This was pre-decimal times so all Commonwealth of Australia stamps were in pounds, shilling and pence denominations.
I am not sure how we became interested in the stamp collecting but I did continue with it for a number of years and when I started at Glossop High School in 1967, I joined a stamp club as a student activity. That died a quick death, and this hobby time was at an end.
Ranch night at the Bonney Theatre was another shared time with Rod. Friday night was ranch night, even as younger primary school aged kids we were generally allowed to go off on these nights. It was a bit like a weekly ritual as I look back on it. Rod and I would meet up with some other lads once we got there.
But to make this ritual work, it started with Rod and I asking mum if we could go, Mum would always say, “Go and ask your father.” Once Dad said yes, which again was just routine, well give or take, then we would get ready and walk down to the main street where the theatre was. Here we would meet up with whomever was going to the ‘flicks’ on this night, I remember Geoff Dymmott being one regular who we would see, Des Richards and also other local lads who were allowed to be out on a Friday night.
Most nights we would wait until the Newsreel started and the theatre lights dimmed and then we would all sneak in through a second door at the back of the theatre and not pay. If you went in through the ticket booth side then a fellow called Vin Barnden staffed that door and naturally, you would have to have a ticket to go in.
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Anyhow, the ranch nights at the Bonney Theatre were a fun time and two movies were always shown so you had plenty of western adventure to watch. And when the show was over Rod and I would walk on home. I remember in the winter months Mum would have put a hot water bottle into our beds and it was a great feeling to climb into such a warm and snug bed after the cold walk home. Precious memories and thanks Mum for your loving care.
The local drive-in became a big attraction to us as kids once the ranch nights came to an end. The BonneyLine Drive-In was opened in Barmera on September 28th, 1962, by Wallis Drive In Theatres and catered for 200 cars. It would close in 1988 but later reopen and be known as the Riverland Drive-In.
Two movies would be shown, the interval break was important, toilet trips, sometimes spend a few minutes at the playground out the back of the canteen building and importantly, grab a bite to eat and some goodies to get you through the second movie.
Then of course as I got older and had my own car I attended under my own steam. Saturday night at the drive-in was a weekly highlight, take some mates, a few tinnies, chat up the chickie babes and generally have a great fun night. Sometimes we even watched the movie.
Barmera was a very special place to be at Easter time; the carnival came to our town. On the fringe of the town oval was the best sideshow and carnival assortment set-up that I ever attended. The carnival rides were extensive, bucking horses, the gee-wiz, ferris wheel, cherry plane and many more. As a kid, it was so exciting to be at this place.
It was like the Royal Show was in our town; in fact, it was better than the Royal Show could ever be. It only operated on Easter Saturday and Monday, but it was two days of great fun. The area was set up on Good Friday and removed on the Tuesday, in this time there was no Sunday trading at all and this carnival was no different.
We would save our pocket money for weeks and of course, Dad would make sure we had plenty to spend on the rides and sideshows. Food stalls were scattered around, donuts, chips, hot dogs, popcorn, fairy floss and boy they were all very popular, plus the place we knew as the Kiosk was just around the corner near the lake. Easter was such a busy time in Barmera as it was a tourist haven at this time of the year. People came from far and wide to be in our town.
Another special part of the Easter weekend was the community breakfast in the main street. On the Saturday morning a sausage sizzle and free breakfast was available to one and all, local radio station 5RM would have its outside broadcast van at the breakfast and broadcast live. Like Christmas Eve, the streets were closed to traffic, and the main street would be packed with visitors and locals alike. The town simply buzzed, as a kid, boom, it was just the best.
Trotting was another great feature of Easter time; the Barmera Trotting Club raced on Easter Saturday and Easter Monday. And a weekend long sailing regatta was an annual Easter event, and this attracted sailors and boats from right around the state, it was a brilliant sight to see the many boats out on the lake over the three days.
On an entertainment theme, another time I really enjoyed was each January when a family set up in Barmera with a trampoline complex and a mini golf course. Originally, they would be at the Barmera Oval near the old change rooms down the Lake Kiosk end. For a couple of the years they were in town the basketball courts down near the guide hall was the venue,
Names escape me here, but I seem to recall it was a family of four, parents and two boys who were young adult age. They had a good entertainment complex, and the trampoline idea was a winner with locals. It cost 20 cents to go and have a jump, reckon you had about half an hour in time and that gave you the chance to have great fun. The family only stayed about a month each year so as locals we made the most of that time.
I remember that on a Sunday night for example the crowd would number a hundred or so with people jumping and others just coming to watch. It really was a big attraction. And I learned how to bounce on a trampoline during this time. Well, not to just bounce but to do other moves including somersaults and belly flops and to this day I enjoy bouncing on the tramp.
During the summer months a water activity and entertainment that was extremely popular for locals and the many visitors to the town was leisure boat hire. A shed just on the caravan park side of the Lake Bonney Yacht Club was the hire point, my first memory was of a chap named Ron Stewart, he was a boat builder by trade, and the hire equipment was a part of his family business.
Originally the paddle boats were a wood construction but that eventually became a moulded plastic boat. Like everything in life change happened and progress meant the boat design was so much different.
The pic on the above left is from January 1990; this is a modern paddle boat at the time far different to the wood-built boats from the original paddle boat times in the 60's. But the spot on the lake is the same, just west of the Lake Bonney Yacht Club site heading towards the caravan park. Shown in the pic with me is my son Bradley James and family friend Lisa Naughton.
Surf boards as we called them were always hired, not that you actually surfed on the lake you paddled around, swam, just had fun with others and enjoyed the time. So popular were the hire boats that on weekends and in the school holidays there could be a decent wait time to hire a craft or surfboard.
A semaphore system operated from the shore by the boat shed, each hired craft had a number and when your time expired your number was played in the frame on the semaphore board. It all worked really well. I also remember that at times there was motorboat hire as well. It was not something I generally did, maybe because of cost, maybe a minimum age limit, not sure but the motorboats were not for me.
However, one summer I remember Greg Coombe, late 60's, who the son of a family friend of Dad’s, Darcy Coombe, stayed with our family in Barmera and he took Rod and myself out on a motorboat across the lake to an area near what later became Pelican Point. Here we caught what we all thought were wild ducks, the boat powered up alongside these birds, and we jumped in and caught them by hand. We took them home all excited about the catch only to be told by Dad that they were in fact waterfowls so back we went and released them. Look, embarrassing but it was fun at the time.
A memory from my teenage years that I am very proud of was winning what was called the Barmera Walk-a-thon at just 13; I remember this as a great sporting achievement for me. It was a 16-mile event, and I ran my way to winning against hundreds of competitors of all ages. It was a big event in our town at the time; it attracted competitors from all around the Riverland, the surrounding areas and from throughout the state. It's funny but I always knew I would win, well at least I thought I could win. I was never taken seriously about my thoughts of winning so it was like I had to do it just to make my point. And I believe I made a big statement.
On the day of the event, I was sent off in the second group, 10 minutes behind the lead group, there were so many competitors that I recall the race officials thought it better for safety reasons to split the numbers. The first leg was a 10-mile run along the Sturt Highway to the Berri Winery in Glossop and then returning to Barmera. By the time the race had reached Barmera around lunchtime I was up in the leading group, in fact I was within sight of the lead group of about seven runners despite the 10-minute time difference between the two starting groups.
The second leg was a 6-mile run along the Sturt Highway to Growers Service corner down on the Cobdogla Road and then back to the finish line on the lakefront at Barmera. I was fifth across the finish line and just over a minute behind the first competitor home. However, with the starting time difference then I was an easy winner. I remember the race officials being staggered when they realized that I was from that second group.
Neville Wright was the timekeeper and when he checked my time he said, “Jack, er, you’re from the second group that makes you the winner.” Well der Nev, but I knew how well I had performed on the day; I had achieved what I set out to do. The power of being positive and coupled with my competitive spirit it came as no surprise at all to me. It was what I had expected, and I wondered what all the fuss was about.
At the presentation the track announcer had no idea who I was as I guess the event organizers had not expected a nobody like me to win. So, I made my acceptance speech and went home, I suppose it was fair to say though that I had the last laugh. I was going home as the race day winner. I remember my trophy was a suitcase; I used it for years after that and every time that I did it reminded me of that day in 1967 when I upstaged the hot shots at Barmera. I smiled every time I thought about it.
I must add here that I enjoyed athletics as a teenager, and I ran for a couple of seasons with the Berri-Barmera Harriers competing against clubs from Renmark and Loxton. I know it's probably not really a childhood memory but it was from my formative years so I will continue.
But I guess my ability and probably love for running did start when I was a kid. Way back with my days at the convent school when I competed on an age group level at the Berri-Barmera School Sports Day. One year the sports day was held at the Barmera oval and the next year at the Berri oval. I did win my age group race for the years I remember competing.
Little Athletics as we know it today did not exist in my young days, running clubs were called Harriers. I remember being approached by Kevin Modra, a primary school teacher from Barmera and president of the local club, not sure how he knew I could run but he asked if I would like to have a try-out with the Harriers the following Saturday. I did attend at the Barmera oval having no idea really what to expect as I had never run at a club level. It was not something I had really wanted to do; I tried to stay away from any form of competitive running because being in the spotlight scared me.
I recall after my first run in a 100metre sprint that Modra came to me and said, “You must be holding back.” Obviously my effort did not impress him, but I still thought the comment to be odd. After all it was he who invited me to come down and have a go. But I was confident with the knowledge I was a distance runner and the longer the races became the better I would go. Sort of like the saying, “He who laughs last, laughs longests.”
In the mile race later in the morning I was an easy winner in the junior grade. For the record, I have a time of 4 minutes 26 seconds over the mile, and I ran that as a junior, a top time by any standard. And by the way Modra did get back to me on that first outing and offer his congratulations.
But surprisingly for me from my Harrier days when a history book was produced for the fifty-year celebration of Barmera I was listed in the book as record holder for junior running, my record listed was for 800 yards and not the mile. My best 800-yard time was good but nothing like my time of the 4 minutes 26 second over the mile.
Barmera and the Riverland were a great place to grow up, firstly as a kid and then as a young adult. As a kid we always had something to do, some place to go. Being a country town, it gave you extra freedom that I believe the city kids did not get. You were able to do kid things like fish, swim, ride bikes, go camping and bird nesting; many things that seem to be unique to the country way of life. You even walked to school and home again without fear.
Everything and everybody were close by, no hassles getting to or from anywhere in the town or surrounding districts. And we got to see the land and its people at work as the area was founded on the fruit industry. A small thing maybe but as a kid growing up it gave you an appreciation for hard work. Almost everyone in the area seemed to have a fruit industry connection.
But trips to the city were so exciting for a youngster, it was full of unknown and oh so busy, the big smoke was everything the country wasn't. The hustle and bustle, people everywhere, bumper to bumper traffic, traffic stop lights, neon signs, shopping, yeah, so much that we never ever experienced living in the country.
An interesting aspect when traveling the Sturt Highway to Adelaide from the Riverland in my early days was the punt crossings, at Kingston and Blanchetown. It made the trip to the city so much longer with what could be long waits at the punt landings especially in the school holiday times. In the early days, only one punt was at each site and only an average of eight cars would be transported across the river at one time. And you paid to cross on the punt; the operator would come to your car and a payment was required depending on vehicle size.
And if a semi-trailer was in the line to use the punt, then this further extended the waiting time. I remember a couple of incidents where the ferries sank with semi-trailers on board. I seem to recall that it was made law that two semi-trailers could not be taken on the same crossing after one of the sinkings at Kingston, which resulted in the loss of life. And my poor Mum was so afraid of being on the punt with a semi that she would not go on if there was a semi nearby. But I understand her fear, if you did happen to be on the same trip across the river as a semi, then yes it was a very frightening experience.
The pic to the left shows the Kingston on Murray punt in the early 60's, these punts were very simple and small and while they were a necessary evil for Sturt Highway travel, they were very time consuming and inconvenient for the road traffic.
Naturally there was not as much vehicle traffic on the road back in this time, but it was still a congestion issue crossing the river at the ferry points. Small punts and long crossing times was not a good mix for travelers on the Sturt Highway heading in either direction.
The other punt that we had to contend with was at Berri, I remember on a football day at Loxton the line-ups at this punt were long and crossing was slow. Again, in the early days only one punt was in operation at Berri. Another punt was eventually added and then longer punts were introduced. Berri now has a bridge that opened a couple of years ago.
You could see for miles all the way to the river and that is a memory and a look that has never been forgotten. The pic at the right was taken at the top of the hill not long after sunrise and while it is a pic from a later time it is added here.
And a stop at the Crown Hotel in Truro was always a part of this trip, it was a family tradition, and Dad and Mum had a beer or two at this iconic hotel while as kids, we entertained ourselves and probably had a glass of raspberry. Ah, great times and enough great memories to last a lifetime.
The Sturt Highway we travel today is a different route to the one we took back in this era. Not just with the two river bridges replacing the punt crossings but many towns are now bypassed meaning the road takes a much different line. That is quicker of course and the trip is now really manageable in time. Not sure how some of the towns survive without the highway and if that is better for society or not, I don't know. But progress is progress and we live with the fallout.
As my life has unfolded, I have grown over the years to love the city and its way of life and while I could never live in the country again I would not swap having grown up in a country town for any other way. It gave you the chance to be a kid and to develop so many learning skills that are still appropriate to this day. I believe the kids of today miss out on so much fun and learning that we simply took for granted back when we were growing up in the country. Times do change and I believe that I was born at a fortunate time so as to enjoy living when life as a kid was much simpler and safer than it is today.
In Barmera we had a small business we all called the Bacon Factory, it was built in 1952 for a company known as Murray Bacon Specialists. The factory covered three town allotments and spread over an area of 4,750sqft so it was rather a big place.
I have what is maybe a little odd but at the same time pleasant memory that attaches to this business. Every day the Bacon Factory whistle would sound at eight o’clock each morning for the start of a working day, at midday, at 1pm indicating lunch and again at five o’clock in the evening to signal knock-off time. As the Bacon Factory was on the corner of Lake Avenue and Hague Street it was not far from our home, so I grew up with this whistle being a timepiece.
It was a sound that we all knew so well, it really was a guide for what time of the day it was. I would hate to think how many times one of us would say “There is the Bacon Factory whistle, it must be such and such a time”. Unfortunately, the Bacon Factory burned down in an overnight fire during the early 80’s and the land is now part of a housing estate. But in my time as a kid growing up in the town the Bacon Factory whistle was oddly enough a part of my everyday life.
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Meccano sets were another favoured toy of the day. Lots of work required getting it together into a shape and design, but for as testing as it was, I recall it being fun. Many small and fiddly nuts and screws were used, yeah it took great patience to build with Meccano, but I always enjoyed the challenge. And while I didn't have a lot of this toy, I had enough to make it work.
And I had a favoured stuffed toy; it was a dog that I cuddled with on many nights. The dog was kept for many years but sadly time took a toll and like many of these stuffed animals from this era it fell apart and despite many repairs by Mum it eventually came to an end. But I remember my toy dog with much love.
Comics are hardly toys but another really happy memory from my early years is having a comic collection, this was another hobby I shared with my brother Rod. I am not sure how we first came by our comics, but I recall after we read them we would swap the comics with other kids in our area that also had a collection.
This way every few weeks we had a different set of comics to read. I remember my favourite reads being Disney based, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto and the likes. The Phantom was an action series comic I always read. And just as I do not remember how we came by the comics I do not remember what happened to them! But in an appropriate era, they entertained us for many hours.
So, with that positive look at childhood memories, what were the not so good childhood memories? No doubt I could write much here but hey, why spoil a good story. Somethings are probably best left unsaid. No really, it is kind of funny though how good memories can generally be easily recalled when we want them to be but with not so good and/or sad memories then they are often suppressed or even forgotten totally. Just human nature I guess, we forget what we do not wish to remember.
I do recall I hated drinking those bloody little bottles of milk at school that we would be forced to get down at morning recess during my primary school years. I hated it with a passion. In the summer months the milk would be delivered and sit out in the hot sun in the lunch shed at the Convent school and we would have to drink it regardless of the taste. It had to be off! At times we were even given flavored straws to use but why? Bad milk is bad milk; you just cannot disguise it! On a plus side, the milk bottles came with foil tops and I remember they made great decorations on the spokes of your bike wheels.
Another pet hate at the convent school time was the concert we had to be a part of at the end of each school year. For weeks we would be drilled and taught like parrots how to sing a certain song or act a certain part. I hated the routine and on concert night it was never any fun performing on the stage that was built in the lunch shed. I always felt like a fish out of water being a part of this concert. Whatever the reason behind that feeling I remember it being very real.
What else of the not so good memories? I remember I hated my parents smoking around me especially in the car. On a Tuesday morning, we would attend mass at the Convent and this meant an early start. I recall mum smoking in the car, winding down the window on freezing cold mornings and trying to get the smoke and fog out of the car in between coughing fits. Yuk? Thankfully both parents quit smoking and that was a game changer.
Swimming lessons during the Christmas school holidays I found annoying, very annoying in fact. We loved the water and swimming as kids but being forced to endure those bloody swimming lessons every summer in the school holidays was the pits! For me, they taught little in terms of safety and did nothing to expand on what I had already worked out for myself in the area of swimming. I could never fathom why we were forced into such a silly program.
I was a member of the Barmera Cub Troop for a time, but I hated this, I hated it with a passion. The group leader was a tough bloke with us cubs and as we were just kids, I thought his strict and overbearing manner was inappropriate. It was like he enjoyed the opportunity to belittle us; he delighted in our making mistakes it seemed.
The cub involvement came with having to wear a uniform on pack night, that did not sit well for me, even as a kid I thought it to be a ritual that was actual dangerous. We would have camps at times, that was ok but very strict and while I never fully understood the intent, looking back I see evil in what happened at times.
In the cub movement earning badges as rewards for different disciplines was ok, I did get a few different badges doing the things that interested me. Rope tying was a part I did enjoy, to this day knowing how to tie certain knots is a life skill, I did earn some reward badges for this discipline. And an annual fund raiser within the troop was Bob's for Jobs. I embraced this part of the time in cubs, doing odd jobs for family and friends in the tradition of what this scheme was meant to be. That worked for me. You did the job, collected your bob and moved onto the next task, the idea went on for a few weeks and at the end the bobs you collected were a part of raising funds.
At the end of my cub days, I had the chance to advance to the Scout Troop that was headed by Dave Fewster, but I opted out. I did go for a number of nights to scout meetings with Rod who was involved at the time, but I had no interest in going on after my not so good cub years.
When I started high school, I hated the bus schedule we had. Early to school and late home, it added over two hours to an already long school day at Glossop High School. After school, we waited for over an hour in the schoolyard to get transport home. In the morning, we walked to our stop by the old Barmera Primary School to catch the bus and I remember many a day that I just wanted to turn around and go back home.
Even the bus drivers were a put off. Our morning driver was a grumpy woman who always grizzled at you no matter what you did. I remember being late to the bus stop one morning and just as I ran to the bus door it closed, and this woman drove off leaving me standing. She must have known I was just about at the bus door, as she would have seen me running up but drove off anyhow.
Guess it made her day that I missed the bus; she was a grump of a woman. Gabe Baird was often the driver at night and while he was not as grumpy, he was just an unfriendly type. I remember that there was nothing I enjoyed about getting to or from the high school by bus. It added to my dislike of school in general.
At Easter, we would not be given eggs but instead we would get a block of chocolate. But how the hell would a chook lay a block of chocolate? They lay eggs don’t they? I found that to be confusing as a little kid and it would have been nice to get an egg sometimes. That is what Easter was about for a kid isn’t it, Easter Eggs?
Mum would tell us that the eggs were a waste of money, and you got more chocolate in a block. And then on cracker night, it was legal back when I was growing up to have firecrackers for home use, we did not get any fireworks but instead ended up with more chocolates or one year I remember getting a packet of Arnotts wafer biscuits.
So really my childhood was good meaning the not so good times are minimal. I am sure there were other things I battled with in the early days but thankfully they don't stick in my memory. Maybe now when something awkward in life happens, my mind drifts back and I recall this awkwardness was also something I disliked as a kid. But to be honest, it is not generally something I dwell on.
On that, I do need to say though, as a kid I hated eating silver beat, broad beans were not my food of choice, and I hated, really hated having short hair.
Finally, this is not really a bad childhood memory I guess; it is more a non-memory. The one thing that I do not recall from my childhood is birthdays. I find that to be odd, I have such vivid memories of so much from that time of my life, but I cannot remember one birthday. Not one. The first birthday that I have memories from is my 21st that I celebrated in 1975 when living in Tailem Bend. And for the record, I don't remember many birthdays since my 21st. I know that I hate birthdays to this day but probably for totally different reasons to those when I was a kid.
And there it is, that's my childhood memories from my very early days as a kid growing up in Barmera through to my teenage and young adult time. Memories can be funny, looking back on times and life events can be tricky, things that did not mean a lot at the time really do become amazing memories all these years later.
But I know my thoughts are my own, I am happy with that concept, and I know that all the happy and so happy memories I have shared are very real. I am blessed to have had the childhood I did and to take so much personal history from that time in my life.
Finding pics to fit this era has been challenging, naturally all pics shown here are not my own and I thank everyone who has contributed. And many have shared pics with me, that has helped make editing and formatting my Hey Shorty book so much better. But thankfully many of the pics I was able to find and source have added so much to my story. Barmera was a gem of a place to mold a childhood, and now after 50 years of life the history of my town and growing up here remains so strong.
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GROWING UP IN BARMERA THROUGH HISTORY AND PICS
From the time Barmera was a soldier settlement location through to this day almost nine decades later the town and surrounding districts has established some rich history. Built on agriculture and in particularly the fruit growing industries the district has become a gem and was a childhood home for so many of us. Over the decades things have changed so much and from 1954 I have been blessed to have lived with many of those changes.
Like any town anywhere change has been important, the world has changed so much and with that the way we live now does not resemble how things were at the time Barmera was settled. But memories are a great thing to have and while changes have been plenty thankfully, we have a personal understanding of how we were a part of that change.
BARMERA EARLY 1950's - THE BONNEY THEATRE END OF BARWELL AVE
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Barmera has many old buildings, and each has a tale to tell. Some are as old as the town itself, others built in later years, but all have a place to play in the history of Barmera. They were as a part of the town, and we remember them well.
The gateway to Barmera coming off the Sturt Highway from Berri was always the Mobil Roadhouse. Just over the railway line the roadhouse has been there for decades. A traffic island was added on the highway many moon back and a right turn into Fowles Street took you up over the hill past the Irrigation Office building and into the main street of Barmera.
Sprigg Bros car centre and garage was up on Sturt Street in the direction of the primary school. This was an original Barmera business for Tom and Bob Spriggs and later their sons worked at and ran the garage. In behind this building was a vacant lot, just dirt and dusty and it doubled as a car park with a couple of laneways, one ran across to Barwell Avenue and came out by the Bank of NSW building, and another exited on Bice Street by the supermarket. In the early days a walkway also exited onto Barwell Avenue by Rosenthal Motors.
Over the years the business structure of the town changed, as all towns do. Rosenthal Motors had a shop front in Barwell Avenue up near the Post Office for many years including my childhood time but would later move to a new premises on Tonkin Avenue as shown in the pic here. Riverland Crash was a business that came at a later time and Bridgestone Tyres was similar. Both had a good impact on the town, but it was in the 70's onwards.
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The Barmera Hotel has been around almost as long as the town itself. This building would be the best known in the history of the town, a few face changes across the years have meant a slight cosmetic change but the structure looks very much the same today as it did in the 50's. The BP Service Station at the bottom of Barwell Avenue has a long history, from my time we always associated the business with Alby White, he seemed to have the place for decades. I remember Allan Pickering owning the business but that was into the 80's.
The Westpac Bank building as shown here was originally The Bank of New South Wales, it is on Barwell Avenue between the deli and the laneway. In 1982 the Bank of NSW merged nationally with the Commercial Bank and was rebranded Westpac. So, this pic would be from the mid 80's. And check out the cars of the era, brilliant.
From my early days as a kid in Barmera Len and Vera Seyfang ran the local newsagency, the shop was on Barwell Avenue just up from Eudunda Farmers. It later moved down to the corner of Barwell Avenue and Laffer Street into the building that had been the Serv-Well store run by Bruce Garrard. Pendles Bus Service used the newsagency as a parcel depot and a stopping area for passengers. The Seyfang's were a very popular Barmera family and built a home on Nookamka Terrace living there from the 60's.
Ken's Barber Shop was around for decades, originally on Barwell Avenue down near Renfrey's Bakery and then moved over to Bice Street along from the Barmera Hotel. Ken Coats was always the owner and men's hairdresser.
On the corner of Nookamka Terrace and Sturt Street was the RSL Hall. Like many other buildings in Barmera this place has had a few changes to the facade and structure and looks like a different place today to the one shown in the above pic. But for all the years I was a kid my memory is that this place looked very much the same across all that time. The hall was used by the RSL as a meeting place, the members gathered every Friday night in recognition of all soldiers who had served or lost their life from WW1.
And it was a social hall where many cabarets and social nights were held, it was also a venue for weddings and parties for the locals, my older sister Veronica had her wedding reception here in 1963 and my brother Rod had his 21st birthday party in 1973. The RSL clubrooms was an iconic structure in the history of Barmera, it was always a special place of remembrance.
Nappers Bridge at north lake was on the Barmera to Morgan Road. This area was very popular for fishing in my early childhood days, and we spent time here as mates fishing, exploring and swimming. We would ride our pushbikes out to the area and have a long day of fun. The area was originally settled by William Napper, he built and operated the Lake Bonney Hotel in the north lake area from 1859.
My grandfather Henry Danvers worked on a Nappers Bridge upgrade when he first came to Barmera as a soldier settler after WW1. Henry was boarding at the McBride family tent accommodation on the lake front down from where the town was established, each day he and other workers would row a boat across to Nappers Bridge for their day of work.
With my connection to the McBride family and their cool drink and ice works factory from Barmera this pic is significant. The list of old labels for the cool drinks is a great memory and by chance in the second pic a bottle of their drink is on the table in front of me. The pic is May1st 1982, it was at my wedding reception on the day I married Sue Long. The reception was in the Bonney Theatre Hall and the bridal table sits in front of us.
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The Bill Flewellyn story and Barmera connection was one of great achievement that unfortunately had a sad ending. But the day Bill broke the world record ski-kite endurance record at Lake Bonney in January 1972 was a massive occasion for him and our town. On that Sunday Bill stayed aloft tethered to a speedboat on a 230-foot line for 15 hours and 3 minutes and covered 475 miles. The Bird Man of Barmera was now a national celebrity; we all applauded his brilliance.
Now as this chapter in my life ends for the Hey Shorty book, I add these pics from the time Donald Campbell came to our town. His attempts on Lake Bonney to break the world water speed record in 1964 thrust Barmera into the world spotlight. This is the day he left, a summer storm had ruined the chances of another run by Campbell in Bluebird on our lake, so it was time to pack up and leave. I remember being rather sad on this day, I watched as the Bluebird was loaded onto the transport trailer down on the lake front and just like that, Campbell and his boat drove out of town.
3 - YOU CAN PICK YOUR FRIENDS BUT NOT YOUR RELLIES
Given the day and how things worked way back in the 50's and 60's, being close to home base was the norm. Sure, we still had regular trips out of the area but day to day life was regimented, that was just the reality of life. Nothing wrong with that at all but it did mean we were sort of locked in our own little bubble,
My mother Joan was a Danvers and one of six children who would all eventually settle in and around the Barmera district. Her parents Henry and Winifred (pictured left) had married in January 1921, and they established and ran a fruit property on the outskirts of the township. This fruit block would be the family hub and over the decades it was the central location for all the Danvers family and offspring to visit and to gather. We were blessed in many ways.
Madge (Richards), Joan (Green), Sheila (Dymmott), Kevin, Geoff and Irene (Sander) collectively produced 34 grandchildren for the Danvers clan so it was destiny that in my early years many of my friends would naturally be cousins. Sometimes you had a choice of who was to be a mate but sometimes it seemed because of the family connection then that choice was not an option.
To further strengthen the family ties, my grandmother Winifred Danvers was a McBride and with a number of the siblings from her family settling close then our extended family just added to the fact that rellies were ever present in my childhood.
The plus from all of this is some of the early friendships made with my cousins still exist to this day. I really do treasure those friendships made way back in my early formative years. Because generally speaking the clan members were a pretty good bunch, but it could be at times overbearing to have so many family members involved in what seemed to be every aspect of your life.
Being a part of the large local Catholic community meant that at some stage, we would all attend the St. Joseph Convent School in Barmera. Because it was such a small school by numbers, the Danvers offspring clearly dominated the school and class size. With 34 grandkids and the McBride connection then it a given as to how the family dominated during my early school life.
The school was divided into the little room with grades one to three and the big room, which would cater for years four through to seven. So, it was hard to be removed from the family members in circumstances such as this. The rellies were classmates throughout the seven years of primary school life adding to the reasoning that family and friends were one and the same. We simply accepted this as the case.
I guess put simply growing up in such an extended family meant it was just an inevitable natural extension that any number of relatives would be friends and mates as we were growing up in Barmera.
The pics on the left are the Danvers siblings, the old black and white pic is from Veronica's wedding in February 1963 at the RSL Hall in Barmera, the colour pic is at Kevin's 60th in Barmera held at the Sander property on Maple Road.
And I guess it was understandable with so many relatives that a number of them would be around the same age as you. But that was how it was and as life rolled on, I am blessed to have such big family and to have had the chance to grow through life with this mob.
(To be continued)
4 - A SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
Veronica, my older sister had been a student at the school from when it opened in 1954 and my younger sister Jan would also attend the school from 1964. As a part of the Barmera Catholic community, it was natural that the convent school would be where we all did our primary school years.
My early school years understanding is not strong, but I do have some memory. In these early days I actually loved school but that would change and by the time my school days ended on November 26th, 1969, at Glossop High School I had come to hate the whole school concept.
Being a student at the catholic school was testing. The St Joseph nuns ran a tight ship, they were extremely regimented, and their method of discipline was harsh. It was not an easy time. But we did as we were told, we toed the line, we obeyed and an equilibrium was maintained. They said jump and we asked how high.
(To be continued)
5 - Get out and get a job - look when I was your age
A chance conversation with an old convent school classmate, Adrian Wundenberg alerted me to the fact that a job was up for grabs with the South Australian Railways at the Barmera Railway Station. Adrian was working there, as one of two Youth Porters and his information was that the other person, Doug Mason was leaving the job.
Joining the railways was never an option that I had canvassed. Sure, I guess every kid has a notion to be a train driver but for me it would have been nothing more than a fleeting thought. As a kid growing up, I would visit my grandparents in Snowtown on family holidays, I always had a fascination for the massive trains that rumbled through the local rail yards and spent hours watching and counting the cars on the trains. My parents I remember took me on a couple of train trips from Snowtown to Adelaide so as I could say that I had been on a train. They are great memories for me but that really was my only thoughts on trains and railways.
So, when the idea of applying for the Youth Porter position in Barmera was run by me, I guess I did not give it a lot of thought. Plus, I expected to encounter great opposition from my parents if I was to suggest leaving school. Somewhat as an afterthought, I dangled the idea in front of my mother and she suggested I run it past dad. I did that and again much to my surprise the reaction from dad was not what I expected. He was ok with the idea; he simply said that if I was able to get myself a job then I could leave school.
So, I made further inquiries about the railway job and was asked to attend an interview at the Barmera Railway Station. Now I found out the job I was being interviewed for was in fact at the Berri station with the idea being a shift to Barmera would happen when a position there became available in the following February. I went ahead and applied for the position and in December, I drove with dad to see the Station Master at Berri, Jack Snoad for another interview.
I will never forget his first words to me, he said, “You know you have to be a certain height to work in the railways.” And he did not even know that my nickname was ‘Shorty’! Anyhow the Station Master was a member of Rotary, and I remember my dad, who was also a Rotarian, talking with him about Rotary issues and I am guessing that I was somewhat the forgotten person at this interview.
As a result of this day, I was sent to Adelaide a fortnight later to sit an aptitude test and to have a thorough medical examination. Well, thorough is probably a bit strong, I remember as long as you had two arms two legs and only one head then you passed. The only detailed test was for color blindness but the joke for me was that I really had no idea of what I was doing.
It was not until years later that I realized the significance of the colorblind test and why this was a key for railway workers. But on this day in December 1969 I was confused, the flicking through pages in a book by the examiner and having me try to identify numbers and shapes as the pages flipped over. Yeah, I was puzzled by what was happening. It was part of the antiquated testing procedure but very detailed at the same time.
(To be continued)
6 - Moving on
I mean, here I was at 17 living at home in Barmera, work was going well, I had a girlfriend Sharon Morgan and we were rolling along fine, I had my own wheels, sport was great, I had a good friendship group, and life was hunky dory. Life was for living and I embraced all that it had to offer me.
A relieving fireman at Renmark in mid 1972 was a fellow named Terry Connolly, he was talking with me at the Barmera station one day when he was waiting to work on the 4-30pm train back to Renmark and the subject of cricket came up. We chattered about our personal achievements, and clearly, we had a mutual interest in the game. He was interested to learn that I had recently been chosen to play for a State Country 11 against a visiting city side. We talked about that for some time and somehow as conversations do, we changed tack and the cricket chat turned to talk about his life and sport in Tailem Bend. That was his hometown, Terry was stationed there as a fireman when he was not on the relieving staff and covering places like Renmark.
Somewhere in all of the talk, Terry suggested that I should look at giving some thought to becoming a railway fireman and for some reason it appealed to me. He explained the benefits of working in the locomotive side of the railways as opposed to the traffic section that I was now in. My railway days had been fairly sheltered up until now and I had never seen the railway workings outside of Barmera so I guess his thoughts gave me an insight into what may be ahead for me if I stayed in this job as a porter.
I remember that I had no interest in locomotive workings but from that conversation on that day, I made inquiries about a possible change of direction, and I had to move plenty of obstacles to even get to first base. Number one was that I had to be at least eighteen and a half to move away from home in the railway network. Secondly, the Barmera Station Master did not want to let me go despite his initial miss giving about taking me on back in January 1970 and then of course there was the opposition from my family.
(To be continued)
7 - Party, party, party – 21 today
However, Serviceton was a one-horse town, a railway town with little to offer in way of entertainment. It had a Railway Mess Room staffed by a rather arrogant manager known as 'Scudsie'. The mess only opened four hours each day in the evening, it was four hours to the minute, but sadly not really a drinker friendly environment.
So, the SA train crews had a standing order with the local storekeeper at Serviceton, a bloke named Graham Alsop, for him to taxi the crews back into South Australia to the Wolseley Hotel. We would all dob in and pay the taxi fare. And on this day in 1975 it was like an unwritten law that I take everyone who was staying in the barracks back to the South Aussie pub. What a day it was, I really let loose and celebrated with great gusto.
(To be continued)
8 - Who's Elvis Presley?
In fact, I knew I had to get this day right or it could be a long stay in the town. So, with great understanding I fronted for my first shift, August 16th, 1977, a 6am start on the day shunt roster. I made myself known to the local staff and followed the other workers to the locomotive we would use for the day.
We sat on board the shunt engine in the loco yard and the others chitchatted away and when the last bloke on the crew turned up, he announced in full voice, “Did you hear that Elvis Presley died.” Nobody said anything, we all just sat there, so to break the ice and be a part of the moment, I spoke up and said, “Who's Elvis Presley.”
Now, for as dumb as that sounds, I never expected THE KING, the Elvis Presley, this legend of rock to be dead, I thought this railway worker bloke was referring to a fellow worker or a well know local whom they called Elvis Presley. Wrong!
The fact was that the one and only Elvis Aaron Presley aged just 42 had died overnight at his home at Graceland in Memphis Tennessee. Well, I was ridiculed by the staff on the locomotive, and they must have been thinking, ‘who is the new kid, what a ‘drongo’. I spent two years working in the railways in Pirie and I never lived down that first impression, how could I? And you guessed it my nickname at work for those two years in Port Pire was Elvis.
Now I know I did not need to tell this story again to save further ridicule but even I can laugh at it now, I have moved on. Just like the Umpire Vernon mishap, I have moved on, really moved on and that awkward day is now just a bad memory, faded memory, a really bad memory but a faded one just the same.
(To be continued)
9 - Way out west where the rain don’t fall
I answered a newspaper advertisement in October 1978 to attend an information day that the company was having in Adelaide and from this day I made an application to join its workforce. It was a detailed application process, and it would be December before I knew that I could have a position with Hamersley Iron working on its railway driving ore trains.
Getting a position was one thing, box one ticked, now getting a start date was the next hurdle. I resigned from the SAR on January 9th, 1979, meaning I qualified for pro-rata long service leave. Long service leave entitlements gave you three months paid leave after 10-years in the SAR but it was an industry award once you had seven years of service you were given nine days long service for each full year worked.
So, as I had started with the SAR on January 6th, 1970, I decided to work past that January date to have nine full years' service. Once I packed up and headed out from Port Pirie I went home to Barmera to work on the grape harvest filling in time before the massive interstate move.
Finally in late March Hamersley Iron sent a Telegram offering a list of possible start dates. I remember the day the telegram arrived, I was working with a fruit picking gang at Barmera for Eric Haslam and my dad arrived in the early afternoon with the telegram. A worker at the local post office, Malcolm Hastwell knew the telegram was of importance for me and that a reply was required immediately so he contacted dad at his work trying to track me down.
Malcolm obviously knew our family well and he knew that dad would know where I was at that moment. So, from the start date options given by the company I selected an early May date and confirmed this with Hamersley Iron by return telegram. I worked out the harvest season in Barmera and then had a week break before packing up and heading west. This would be a game changer, a huge move and while it was daunting I embraced this time with great enthusiasm.
(To be continued)
19 - Cooking with gas
What you ask, ok, I will explain.
We were basically raised as a meat and three vegetable family and as a result our taste buds were never extended beyond what would become a fairly routine diet. The food that would be served was plentiful and mum was a great cook. Her meals were always great tasting, and I am sure very nutritious.
However, the staple family diet did revolve around the meat and vegetable idea. As such, I guess that I never got a liking for any other type of cooking or a liking for tastes outside of what mum dished up.
Of course, at the time of being fed by mum then I suppose I knew no different.
And in fairness to my mum the period in time that I am referring to was far different to now in terms of what is available from different ethnic cultures that have integrated their food and cooking styles into our daily diets.
Today the food products available to us barely resemble what was around when mum was cooking for me as a kid growing up. So much of what she made was from scratch, no packet mix or tin foods.
I do remember stock cubes being a part of Mum's cooking but have no idea of the flavors available.
Cooking salt was in bulk, well it came in a bag and was then dished off into a salt canister that in our house sat on a kitchen bench. All just so different to what we now have available.
So, it was not until I left home and had to fend for myself that I had to challenge the way I prepared my food.
To this day, I still use the cooking basics that Mum taught me all those years ago, but now I have learned to add my own touch to expand the taste of what she taught me.
From that I believe that our taste buds don't change rather they develop as we are introduced to new food tastes. Sometimes it is simply a matter of giving something a try and often I find I actually like what it is that I am tasting.
So Mum, yep she is a great cook; I love most of what she served up. She is a great roast cook, a great stew and mornay cook, a very good soup maker.
Her pea and ham and vegetable soup is easily the best I have ever eaten. Pumpkin soup was another of her best winter dishes, oh how good is that soup. Nobody makes pumpkin soup like Joan Green, and who ever tried her soup would never say anything other than her pumpkin soup was absolutely delicious.
Mum is not just a main course type of cook. She is always a great cook of sweets and many other dishes and treats.
She made the best homemade sausage rolls and pasties for us as kids, puts together a mean trifle, has the best of many things savory or sweet and is a whiz with cake and biscuits.
The kitchen table at home was a hive of activity on cooking days. Nothing was electrical with cooking utensils, the beater Mum used to mix cakes etc was hand operated. Maybe in latter years she progressed to a small power mixer but gee, that green wooden handled beater was a jack of all trades on cooking day.
Mixing bowls, cooking spoons, rubber scrapers, biscuit cutters, so many bits and pieces, all on the table and each played a part. Having the right cooking utensils was as important it seemed as the cooking ingredients. And naturally as kids our job was to lick the spoons clean at the end of the day and fight over who got to have the beater to lick clean.
All pastry was homemade, rolled out with a wooden rolling pin, each pastry sheet was perfectly rolled into a set thickness. Baking trays were plentiful, the pastry and raw ingredients all assembled and off to the oven in the wood stove to be turned into homemade pasties and sausage rolls.
These days were like food heaven. As a kid I loved it. Not sure who did all the cleaning and washing up but I guess we delegated that roll to the mother person.
Mum could cook anything it seemed, and she cooked it well. She was probably the complete chef really; she never made lumpy gravy or lumpy custard! Not too many chefs, trained or not can boast such a cooking record.
Her gravy was all home made using the meat juices and adding some flour and coloring. Mum never had the luxury of packet gravy, no way, always dark rich flavored gravey made the Mum way.
Hey, I am a gravy lover and yeah, guilty of crossing to the dark side and using gravy powder but I have never ever produced gravy as good as Mum made.
To this day I also love custard and I believe that I do so because I never had to eat lumpy custard. If I now come across someone who does not like to eat custard, it is usually because they associate it with being lumpy!
Custard aside, I have very fond memories of the simple things mum would serve up to us; things like her sausage meatballs, which were a Saturday lunchtime favorite. You grabbed a handful on your way through the kitchen after finishing work and on the way out to sport, put them in between two slices of bread, pour on the tomato sauce and ate until you were full.
Oh yeah, so good. Plain as but as good as. They were a Joan specialty.
And then there was fried fritz in batter. Something so simple but so good, I still love fried fritz to this day either with or without batter. Basic but oh so nice! Oh, yeah, Joan made great batter, I make my batter exactly as Mum did.
Friday night we would get home cooked chips served on greaseproof paper and we would be allowed to stay out and eat in the yard. To this day, I still love home cooked chips made just as Mum did all those years ago.
This was an era of homemade ice cream. Mum had these ice-cream dishes that went into the freezer full of the liquid mix and set into yummie creamy blocks. She would serve us kids on a hot day with milk flavored ice blocks wrapped in a piece of newspaper so as we could hold onto them.
Nutty biscuits that Mum makes are still just as good as ever and a favorite biscuit. Now they are known by this generation as Anzacs, that is good thing, but in the days of being a kid, we ate Nutties.
Other great biscuits I remember her making were Monte Carlos and another was called Cockles, I think?
Her nut loaf cake is second to none, her pumpkin cake is so tasty, the sultana cake she makes is the best I have ever had, and I assure you, I love sultana cake. I am not a massive lover of fruitcake but mum's I like, and the list could go on.
I must also give her a plug for the way she makes curried eggs, again she has the knack of presenting this delight and her eggs are eaten by all.
Oh, and bread and butter pudding, Joan was the boss of this desert, just perfect every time. To this day I love her B&B pudding, don't make it myself, don't like it made by anyone else, just like what my mum made.
However, for as good as her cooking is in so many areas it still comes out of the era when cooking was very basic. The staple diet did revolve around the meat and three vegetable idea!
And in her time of cooking, it was always done with dripping. How did we ever survive when the food was saturated with this greasy substance called dripping? All meat juices were just poured from the pan in on top of what was already in that tin and this mass of fats just grew and grew.
Then it would be used over and over and when not in use it was kept in a tin by the stove or in a kitchen cupboard under the sink. In the summer it was liquid, in the winter it was solid. Seriously, how did this dripping muck not kill us?
Today we cook with oil, but it is used sparingly and for things like greasing the surface of a pot or pan and not for saturating the food. Chips or fries as we now know call them do require a little more oil in the pan, but we have this block lard called Superfry, it is a solidified oil.
So, as said, for all of that, when I had the opportunity to cook for myself, I guess I had a great base to start from courtesy of what my mum had shown me.
I prepare meals that again follow in the tradition of what mum did, but I have simply expanded on the mix, the preparation, the contents, the cooking style and the delivery.
Hence that means an expansion in taste.
Savory mince is but one example. Mum would make us this stuff she called mincemeat for breakfast as kids, and we loved it. Golly it was bland and runny but always plentiful and we embraced the meal.
So, the savory mince I make today barely resembles what I grew up on. Yeah, I go with the mince base, but I have learned to add a couple of spices and sauces to the gravy, throw in some vegetables and it takes on the look of a main meal not just a breakfast dish. It is delicious and I eat a lot of it.
Tuna Mornay is another dish I tend to cook a lot. Again, using mum's basic recipe of butter, flour and milk as a starting base but then by adding extras it gives a more defined and detailed taste. Lots of pepper and some spice, vegetables, grated cheese in the mix and also as a top coating and walla, you end up with this creation that is so darn yummie. It is almost my favorite home cooked quick make meal.
Being a Catholic family, we never ate meat on a Friday. I remember Friday lunch for Dad was always a tin of salmon, plonked on a plate and somehow it became a meal. But salmon patties were also a Friday staple, not bad and always filling. Oh, they did need lots of tomato sauce but Mum was the salmon pattie queen of her day.
Put the mixture in the fridge for a time to set a little, then take it and craft the burgers by hand into whatever size suits, roll in a good coating of breadcrumbs, pop them back in the fridge for an hour and then it's time to cook. Delicious.
Oh, there is a secret ingredient or two added in the mix but to save my reputation as a tuna burger guru I must keep secret.
If Mum's patties were good, my burgers are simply the best.
The same Mum rule is true for a roast or a stew. I do as Mum did then simply by adding extra spices or ingredients at preparation time or during cooking time changes the overall taste. I love my roasts, probably Lamb is my favorite, chicken I like, and pork is not far behind.
And as I now have a stomach problem due to an operation that I had a couple of years ago I cannot eat a lot of red meat.
So, the roast lamb can be a bit of a battle to get down at times but I still try. Although as long as the softer red meats are well cooked and tender then I can generally eat it.
Because of the tummy problem, this means steak and the like are generally off my eating and cooking list. In fact, the tummy problem has in a lot of ways spoiled my liking of food. There is so much I cannot eat at all and even some foods that are ok one day may not be ok the next time I eat them. It is a bit of a bummer really.
But, that aside I believe I cook a mean steak.
When I worked in the railways, I was Fireman for a time to an older German gent, Allie Wilhelm and he showed me the art of cooking a steak. And I learned well so over the years I have enjoyed many a delicious piece of rump, scotch fillet or a T-Bone.
With what I learned I do not go down the quick cook and sear idea that the modern chef pushes as the ideal way to cook a steak. I am definitely a medium-well done man and do not enjoy a red steak at all.
My steak is cooked a little slower, I add some flavor as I go, sprinkle of pepper etc and I tend to slow down the cooking and let the juice become a part of the process. Sometimes it can even be a sort of braise method but for me it works well.
Now however with my tummy restrictions on red meat I have to be content to cook them for others who often comment on how good my steaks are.
Guess getting a decent cut of meat can make or break a steak, but cooking can also ruin the end result if it is not done properly. With a bit of prep and the right cook then the perfect steak is always possible.
Chicken has really become my go to meat of choice so I am guessing as time goes on then it will be a major part of my cooking menu.
But we didn't eat much chicken at all in my days at home as a kid, maybe at Christmas we had a chook. From that time of year, I do remember a few 'headless' chooks running around the back yard before they eventually found their way to the kitchen table after being 'plucked' in the hot copper in the laundry.
At home, the main meat types we ate were mutton and beef. Or rabbit in the earlier days. Rod and I would catch rabbits with our handful of traps and from an early age learned to skin and clean the rabbits for mum to use. She made a great tasting curried rabbit dish.
Mum was an expert at making stuffing, the rabbits were sometimes eaten as a roast meal with this yummy homemade stuffing that mum put together.
Sausages were often on the menu; crumbed sausages are a favorite of mine to this day again thanks to how well mum made this simple but tasty food. I often make crumbed sausages.
And then there was a curry sausage thing mum made, again so good. As a family over many years we all ate and loved her very tasty curried sausage meal. I now sometimes make what I call devilled sausage, yeah, it does stem from what she made way back in the day. But I must say, what Mum would make is much better than mine.
Another area that I have learned to change things up from what my mum taught me is the cooking of vegetables. I do not boil the vegetables until they become mash, as she tended to do.
No, I try different ideas like potato bake, honey carrots, fried cabbage and bacon, white sauce on my cauliflower and pumpkin and I try to keep the vegetables a little on the crisp side. Just makes them more defined and a little tastier.
I love a great variety of vegetables. I guess I am somewhat old fashioned, my veg of choice is probably very similar to what Mum cooked but with a couple of extras added across the years. I love potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, brussel sprouts, peas, corn, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli as a green.
The modern yuppie vegetables are not my thing. All different colored things that look and taste, well, bloody awful.
Potatoes can be prepared in so many different ways, Mum made great mashed spud, no lumps and always smooth in texture. I learned well. For me, I add more milk and butter than Mum did, it means a creamier taste. I add some spice, lots of pepper, sometimes some grated cheese and I always end up with a great taste. I am a whiz with the potato masher, lucky about that because there is a knack to mashing spuds.
Just on the mum thought with mashed potato, she did make a mean shepherd's pie with minced beef and lots of mashed potato as a topping. Yet another Joan classic dish. The beef would often be left over from say a roast, it too would then go through the hand operated meat grinder and the shepherd's pie filling resulted. It was certainly an era when nothing was wasted.
Yet another example of the Joan cooking ability. In latter years when she would get a side of lamb, the flaps were sort of superfluous, but mum would bone them, make this very tasty filling and from that fashion a seasoned lamb roll using the flaps. It was just delicious. The loaf was used as a hot roast meal or simply eaten as cold meat. Not a meal we had at the time of growing-up but one well remembered over the years that followed.
Potatoe Bake is a favorite for me, hassleback potatoes is something I have worked at and now get a really good product. Jacket baked potato is a regular for me and by experimenting with ingredients then these dishes just get better.
I will add that spinach or silver beet is not on my veggie to be eaten list. We ate bucket loads of the stuff as kids and for me, it cured my desire to have any leafy green vegetable from that time on.
And I believe that I am a good cook of fish. This is something that I have definitely inherited from both of my parents.
As a family, we have always been blessed with a lot of fish to eat, as fishing has been a big recreational and social activity for all of us across a lifetime in both fresh and salt water. Loved fishing, loved eating fish.
He seems to always get the perfect fillet regardless of the type or size of the fish in question.
Sometimes the enjoyment of a good fish meal is spoiled by the fact that bones have been left in the flesh. Makes eating difficult but Dad never left a bone and Mum always cooked the fish to my liking.
Guess Mum and Dad made fish the perfect meal. I always say that we are spoiled when it comes to fish as not only have we eaten a lot of it over our time but also, we always ate the very best. And I figure that as a consumer then I am very fussy with my fish because as I have said we were always given the best species to eat.
So when I began my own life as a single man then fish remained as a part of my regular eating pattern.
And unlike most of the basics I learned from Mum in cooking where I have changed things up, I have actually changed little however from what Mum taught me as a fish cook. The biggest difference between her style from my time as a kid and mine as a cook is that I rarely cook with batter; I like to eat battered fish when out for a meal but when cooking at home I prefer crumbed for baked fish.
I really do love a good feed of fish, smothered in lemon juice and served with chips or even with mashed potato and salad.
And I have learned that fish cooked on the bar-b-que can add something extra to the taste, fish wrapped in foil with salt, pepper and lemon juice added is a superb alternative to frying in it a pan.
Over my time as a ‘wanna-be’ cook, I have extended my taste for food to the point that I am now able to have a go at almost anything. I guess I alluded to the fact a little earlier that as Australia has become a multi-cultural society then we have embraced a number of ethnic food ideas and tastes and incorporated them into our daily diets.
A classic example is that once I would never have cooked a dish that required a rice base. I thought rice was the pits; well truth is I had probably never really tried it and just guessed that it was awful.
How wrong was I, now I love rice.
But when cooking rice it is make or break. I believe that doing something simple like taking extra time to wash and drain the cooked rice gives it a fluffy texture and a totally different taste to the glug some people dish up!
Years ago, an aunty of my wife, Margaret Hole from Naracoorte showed me the art of cooking good rice and how to drain it. I have been grateful to this day for her advice and now my rice is eaten and liked by all that try it.
And as rice is often eaten with dishes of Asian and Chinese origin then I have become a fan of these foods. My cooking smarts have not extended into cooking this type of dish, but I have had a shot at making a stir fry and that goes well. And I have tried a curry or two but really fail in getting the taste right, but it is something I am keen to explore. Watch this space.
Pasta is another dish that I simply did not eat for many years; I really did not like it. But a few years back I would go with a friend to the Fasta Pasta restaurants from time to time but I always ate fish or schnitzel. Then I was eventually persuaded to give a pasta dish a go and to my surprise, I found it ok and now I can handle pasta all be it in moderation.
I struggle with all the pasta types and all the different shapes so stay away from cooking the stuff but yeah, I do enjoy a dish of pasta. And I am also enjoying pasta added to some dishes like tuna mornay as example.
It is a product that I again did not eat but it has grown on me and today I love to cook Pizza or to order take-away.
And while I don't cook them I have a liking for spring rolls and dim sims. This further shows how diverse our food expansion has become with the ethnic influx.
I mean, as take-away once we ate hamburgers, steak sandwiches, chicken or schnitzel hot packs and maybe Chiko rolls but never really ventured outside these limited food groups.
Now, different, totally different and our choices are better, more diverse and to be honest some of the newer food types are actually not bad.
One area of cooking that I cannot get a handle on is with sweets. I simply do not enjoy cooking with pastry for example and as a result, my sweet cooking is negligible. In fact it is almost non-existent.
Somehow, sadly, I did not inherit my mum’s knack of sweet making! I really stink in the sweet cooking area, just not my thing. If I ever make a cake as example, which is rare for me to attempt, then it would be a packet mixture.
However, I do make great pancakes although having said that I will be buggered if the BI-LO supermarket chain ever closes down. I know that hardly makes sense as a standalone statement, but I have a reputation to protect here; certain people think that I have this secret you-beaut pancake recipe that turns out superb maple syrup flavored pancakes.
BUT all is not how it would seem? Thank-you BI-LO for that pancake mixture in the plastic container! Add water, shake the crap out of the mixture and the result is pancake bliss.
Another sweet that I do have a go at is scones but again I would be buggered if a certain manufacturer stopped making a certain helpful boxed mixture.
I do make jelly from time to time but again it is made from a packet by adding water, der, and a line of pudding called Instant Pudding is another often made desert. However, it too comes out of a packet and by adding milk, you make a likeable and editable product.
Oh yeah, I do eat a lot of fruit but again it often comes from a can so the hardest thing about its preparation is using a can opener!
Unlike my mum who in my days as a kid, made all of her own preserved fruit and jams.
I remember Mum making bucket loads of preserved apricots and peaches. Some of the fruit was grown on trees in the backyard and I'm sure if needed, then other fruit was sourced to be used in the preserving process.
Mum had this electric preserving machine and the whole kit and caboodle of jars, lids etc. A sugar-based syrup was made and added to the jars packed with fruit. Once full, the jars were sealed with these red preserving rubber bands and a clip was then placed over the lid to help with the sealing process.
I'm thinking it was about a 24-hour time frame once the machine was operating before the fruit was preserved. The clips were eventually removed and I'm guessing they stayed on a few days to make sure all the lids sealed correct.
It was very much a production to get the preserving job done. All hands-on deck to cut and prepare the fruit. But it was well worth the effort because it meant as a family, we had a cupboard load of fruit to eat all year round.
But the preserved fruit was so good just as it was, and I would often eat a whole jar for a meal.
And because fresh fruit was always plentiful in season, Mum also dried the apricots for later use.
The apricots were from our own tree, but they were cut and dried at Jack and Molly Huckle's block out on Maple Road. They grew and dried apricots on a commercial scale, but the Green family would go to their cutting shed after hours, cut our own fruit and Jack would add them to his overnight Sulphur Box load. Next morning, they would be laid out to dry in the sun and after a week or so once the apricots were dried, they were collected and taken home.
Mum stored them in an old pillowcase in the wardrobe in Jan's room and during the winter months we had the most delicious apricot pies made from the dried apricots. They just had a special taste about them, dried apricot pies were just the best.
And because dried apricots are so tasty as a snack, I'm reckoning that Mum's stash was always under threat from us kids as we helped ourselves to the apricots stored in the pillowcase. I still love dried apricots to this day.
On pie making day Mum would also make these very basic jam tarts. Any leftover pastry was never wasted, Mum simply fashioned the pasty into a base for jam tarts, baked them in the oven and as said very basic but we ate them by the truck load. A Joan special but so darn good.
Naturally with so much fruit available Mum also made her own jams.
The jams were special as well and again as a kid, I would hate to think of how many rounds of fresh bread covered in Mum’s jam and cream that I ate.
Cream from the top of milk: the cream formed like a skin on the milk, and you just scraped it off and used it as it was. So nice on the jam. Then later it was possible to get packaged cream and that still got a decent work out.
And in season we always had an abundance of stewed fruit. Apricots were always my pick of the stewed fruit and I certainly ate my share. Mum made great stewed apricots, naturally lots of sugar was added but I did and do eat them a touch on the tart side.
Sometimes we added this wafer type cereal biscuit to the apricots, and I remember that was a good touch. But the name of this stuff eludes me and not many others seem to know what I'm talking about let alone remember what they were called.
Stewed fruit is something I always make in season and while it is fairly basic to cook, I do like the product I make for myself.
For all of the fruit that Mum preserved and cooked, for some reason she never made things like tomato sauce. I mean, vegetables like tomatoes were grown in abundance in the town and district and many families did make their own sauce. They had their own family recipes and each year made and bottled sauce to use right throughout the year.
At that time in life, it sat well with me because I did not like homemade sauce. At the Green family home we always had Rosella sauce in a glass bottle and that was good stuff. As time rolled on, I have developed a real liking for homemade sauce, but it is not something I have ever attempted to make myself.
I do however have a memory of Mum making tomato relish, I am guessing it is something she liked but here my personal take is that it was not my go. Now however, not so, I love relish and eat lots of it but again, it is not something I have ever attempted to make.
And Mum also boiled her own beetroot, grown in the garden and cooked to suit. I hated the smell of beetroot as it boiled away on the stove and to this day it is not something I can eat at all. I have no liking and make a point of always saying 'no beetroot' if ordering a burger or anything that this awful goo might be a part of. But Mum cooked a lot of it over the years.
She also made her own mayonnaise. I don't remember watching her cook mayo and I don't really know how she made it, but it was another of the foods I did not like. But, and yeah there is a few buts in this food chapter, I now love mayo and eat it often. It is not homemade, nope it comes in a jar off the supermarket shelf.
Before I finish on the food theme, I must add about how different it was at mealtimes when I was a kid growing up at home.
The evening meal would always be served at the kitchen table; we all sat together as a family and ate. You would eat everything dished up and you would not leave the table without asking, “Please may I leave the table.” That is simply how it was at that time.
I can remember the odd times that we would eat in the lounge room. A Saturday night for example particularly in winter, we would get home from the football and mum might use the fireplace in the lounge to heat up our soup or to boil our saveloys on. We would be allowed to sit in the warm and eat.
Of course, as we got older and times began to change then we would sit and watch TV while eating but even then, it would only be on occasions, it was certainly not a regular thing.
In my early childhood and school days we sat together for breakfast but as we got a little older then starting times for our days varied for each of us so it was a hit and miss affair. I probably ate more ‘brekkies’ on the run than I did sitting at a table.
It was things like mince, the Joan style mince I spoke about, or poached eggs, baked beans even. I also remember eating fruit at times on my breakfast break, Mum would open a jar of preserves either apricots or peaches and I would have a decent feed.
And I guess lunch was hit and miss as well but if we were home as kids like during school holidays then lunch was similar to the evening meal structure, and we sat together to eat.
As a family we were never really a cereal mob at breakfast time. Maybe some Rice Bubbles or Corn Flakes every now and then and even the odd serve of Wheat-Bix but not often.
My memory is that the main attraction to breakfast cereal was the surprise you got from the box, I recall these plastic toys being a perennial fad and a favorite.
If we did have cereal, I remember it was always with scalding hot milk and I'm thinking I did not really like that, it made the cereal go mushy and even with spoons full of sugar it was not enticing.
Somewhat surprisingly I now eat cereal; it is often on my breakfast menu. And I always have cold milk and add fruit, I do not have sugar at all.
Scrambled Eggs is another breakfast meal I enjoy from my mum’s days but again making it just a little more like an omelette gives the dish a different taste. Add onion, grated cheese, cream maybe and not so much milk makes this breakfast dish a delight.
Oddly enough I do also remember eating some can food at breakfast and at other times of the day. Baked Beans of course came from a can, but I also remember things like Steak and Vegetables, Irish Stew and Sausage and Vegetables. The brand of the tin meals was Harvest. I am not sure at what time in childhood the can foods kicked in, I am guessing probably about my teenage years but that is a guess.
We did eat cans of soup, Heinze Tomato Soup from a can and again I'm not sure in what years we started with the soup from the can.
Oh, I must mention crumpets. They were always a favorite in the winter months, back in this era they were very much restricted to the cooler time of year, they were not available all year round. The two brands I recall were Golden Crumpets or another pack made by Gibbs. We didn't get crumpets a lot but often enough to remember they were always well received.
And another couple of Joan specials, one was what she called 'Mock Fish' which technically was potato not fish. The finished product was fashioned like burgers and fried in a pan, wasn't bad from memory and I will admit to having made this 'Mock Fish'.
Omlettes were another meal Mum taught me to make, once the basic egg mixture was ready then by adding the right amount of water helped made the omlette a success and cooking it covered but with a small hole to let the steam out worked. I do make omlettes now and always remember Joan as I tuck in and enjoy the food and recall how those small but useful hints work wonders.
So Mum, thank-you for all the meals cooked across the years, some very special memories that still continue to grow over time from how and what you cooked in that kitchen at Barmera. First with the wood stove and later with your gas top. You excelled and did all you could. Brilliant.
In fairness again, Mum did expand her cooking understanding in the years since I was a kid and flew the coup. As different ingredients became available and as shopping habits and selections changed then her meals did also change.
But really, as a kid growing up at home and eating what Mum cooked, the meals were very simplistic and probably boring by what we cook today. Hey, as said, Mum always cooked plenty, and always the meals were filling and tasty,
Now Mum, every time I cook it seems I think of you, I regularly smile when I remember what you taught me. My cooking is so different yet so similar. It is common for me to tell someone of why I cook the way I do and how I learned as a kid to have this love of cooking.
It came from my Mum.
That is so special for me, it ensures your memory will live on once you are no longer with us. Sometimes I wonder if you ever had any idea of the influence you had on me when it comes to having time in the kitchen.
Maybe you always knew how this would play out, either way I am so blessed to have this great common interest with you. Special memories indeed, now and always.
Joan Winifred Green, you taught me so very well. And I guess old habits die hard as I follow your cooking basics.
And with Mum covered what about my Dad? Did he cook, was he an influence?
The era I grew up meant that mums were the chief cook and bottle washer. And the Green family household was always along that theme. Dad was the hunter and collector, Mum the nurturer. And cook.
He loved them and I guess I ate them at the time without much thought. As life rolled on I do use mushrooms sometimes in my cooking but I never sit down to have a plate of mushrooms on toast as my dad did.
Lambs fry and kidney was another meal Dad put his touch on as a cook. My memory is Mum hated the stuff and the smell it produced when being cooked so I'm guessing Dad had free reign to cook for himself. The kitchen was his.
I will admit to liking Lambs Fry and kidney. For whatever reason I never cook the stuff, but I did eat the meal as a kid. With that noted, I have always liked steak and kidney, Mum made it in pie form, and it was something I enjoyed yet have never made.
Sometimes I will grab a steak and kidney pie from a bakery but I'm thinking it is somewhat of a delicacy in this day and age and is not a pie flavor that is sold everywhere.
White pudding was another food I recall my dad had a liking for. It was not cooked but rather came in stick form something like metwurst did. I'm guessing it was purchased from the local butcher, not sure. Look, it was ok but not something I lined up to eat.
An odd memory I have is that Dad loved pepper, white pepper, he covered his food with the stuff.
As a kid I was not big on pepper but as those taste buds developed I use a lot of pepper now. Both in my cooking but also on food. Maybe my dad was onto something. But I do prefer black pepper either from a shaker or black pepper corns out of a grinder.
I mentioned Mum being a great chip maker, she was. But Dad also made great chips, he seemed to prefer round slices of spud as his chips rather than what we now call fry shaped. Sometimes I cook the chips as Dad did and now as I write this, I realise he did have some influence on my cooking.
Now, Broad Beans, another Dad delicacy.
Well, broad beans and delicacy should not be in the same sentence, I mean they are foul smelling, crap tasting lumps of, yeah, I have no name for it. But somehow I did eat them as a kid. Guess I have no idea why but Dad and I would have broad beans as a feed. Strange that.
27 Music, Music, Music
That in itself was no biggie. I mean, I always loved music, I always knew I loved music and even at that early time in my life I had embraced many different musical genres giving a mindset that music was one of the things that made life and me tick.
But it is funny how one simple song can have such an enormous impact, and that Teresa Brewer track remains etched in my mind all these years later. Often, I remember that moment way back when and from that I marvel at how important that love for music has played out across all the years of my life. Music does impact in many ways, and I love that understanding. Music is a joy, it changes moods, and it adds so much in life.
(Click here for Teresa Brewer - Music Music Music) - Bing Videos
My love and appreciation for music is much different now that it would have been back on the day I embraced the Teressa Brewer masterpiece. Because a lifetime love for music has allowed me to learn so much about music itself, the artists who perform and the recording industry. I appreciate how darn good it is, how important it has been not just for me but for the world at large. Music makes the world better, how good is that.
Across the years my musical taste has never really changed, it is right to say it has grown, it has developed, I love what I love, simple as that. I take on board what the lyrics and the melody mean for me and that always gives me a great buzz. Sure, my personal appreciation for music has certainly changed across my life, it has grown significantly and that allows me to further engage the many genres and many musicians who have made and continue to make the music scene what it is.
My memory from the time of being a kid takes me to the point that I always gravitated to the source of the music. I would sit near the piano, get up close to the saxophone, love the squeezebox and the drums and I would get as close as I could to feel the music. Opportunities to embrace this thrill of music were limited, but whenever the chance presented, I was always that kid edging in on the musical instrument. Music, music, music, I loved it.
Growing up in a strong Catholic community meant my primary school days were at the local convent school. Music was a large part of that schooling; the Josephite nuns had a music room in the nearby convent, and as students we spent time there learning about music and singing. While not part of a school choir as students we did learn the art of harmony through the hymns we all learned and sang as a group. I hated what went on in that music room, some days it was brutal, the nuns were harsh but as I reflect on this time, I can see how valuable the learning was for my early musical grounding.
The radio, or wireless as it was called naturally played a big part in shoring up my musical feelings. Back as a kid growing up in country South Australia, we would listen to the radio every morning as we had breakfast at the kitchen table and prepared for the school day or playtime. The radio was a constant. It was an ear to the world with news and music and even the radio serial was big at that time, so it was our entertainment. It was a different era of course but the wireless was king.
Our kitchen radio on those mornings in the family home would be on the ABC. In amongst all the endless news and talk some music would actually be played. Not a lot, but some and I always found myself totally immersed in that music. So naturally I always enjoyed the songs played, the music resonated within me, it seemed I had an ear for the music, and it really did impact on many personal fronts. The music would bring such joy to my soul even if at this young age I had no idea what that actually meant in how it would play out across the years.
My early childhood memories of songs and music is a touch off center. I mean, songs like How Much is that Doggie in the Window, Tammy and a Jim Reeves hit called Bimbo. This song struck me at an early age because my grandparents who lived in Snowtown had a family dog named Bimbo, so somehow, I thought the Jim Reeves song was about that same dog. Strange, yeah, but hey, I was just a kid.
And another odd connection as a kid was doozie of a song about a fellow named Jimmy Finn. The name of the song I do not know but the lyrics included, “Poor old soul had a belly full of coal, and he coughed up lumps of coke.” As we had a lad named Jimmy Finn at the Barmera Convent School, I recall that I always relate that song with him. Yeah, again I acknowledge that's a bit odd, ok rather odd, but I did think the song was about our school mate. Look, I was still a young kid at the time, that was my memory, what more can I say?
But, as much as I loved the sounds from the radio the music on the ABC was not indicative of what the world was really listening to in the background. Almost behind the scenes of the ABC rock-n-roll was all the go, it was a new music that had taken the world by storm. And in many ways, I was oblivious to how the world of music now embraced this rock-n-roll craze and how it was making stars of this new group of wild rockers who belted out the tunes. Sadly, I did not know that.
So, for this country bred kid I was somewhat blind to this great new music. I loved how music hit the spot for me but as I look back on that time, I was really musically challenged despite my affinity to all it offered.
Because the ABC was not the boss of music, far from it, other than my childhood memories of those odd songs, the ABC was at best stuck in post WW2 mode and played The Andrews Sisters, Vera Lynn, Glen Miller and music artists from days past. And look, it was good stuff, nothing wrong with this music but times they were a changin' and changing dramatically. Even country music, which I now fully embrace was not something we heard much of, it simply was not played on the music platforms we got to listen to back in those early childhood days.
As times moved on into the 60's I slowly became aware of the big guns, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, the legend of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Stones, Cliff Richard, some Aussie talent and a host of others. But as a kid in Barmera, we were not really getting exposed to or caught up in this rock'n'roll era.
How could we, it was the 60's and we lived in a much different world. A somewhat isolated slower religiously structured world. Later, that all changed, thankfully, and on reflection the great rock'n'roll era that shaped modern music is now appreciated in all its glory.
But my initial music connection via the ABC was naturally very important, it did set the early pattern, it added to the foundation for my musical taste. Melodies impacted me, I loved how the music made me feel, lyrics were like stories, they made the music even better.
Yet with all of the understanding for my love of music, it is somewhat an odd reality that we did not really come from a musical home. Far from it.
Dad was not one for music at all, he just did not embrace it in any form. Other than the radio in the kitchen on the ABC of a morning we had no music in the house. I'm thinking Dad was probably tone deaf, he just didn't get the music vibe.
Sometimes Dad would sing and mess with a few bars of the Vera Lynn tune, 'We'll meet again' but it was generally at a time of fun, a time when he was simply joking about, sadly his musical interludes were nothing serious.
In fairness, Dad did not grow up with music. As a kid in Mundoora in the mid-north of the state there was no music in the Green family house. Dad had no way of getting to be influenced with any form of music right throughout his developing childhood days. Then even as has he ventured through his young adult life he was not impacted in any way with music so again he had no chance to be connected with how good music could be.
Even when he started his own family and we settled into life, music was not a priority and other than the ABC radio playing in the kitchen of a morning there was no other way for music to be heard. At home, we experienced musical blackout. And with his sensory issues I am guessing loud music was disturbing for Dad. Added to the absence of music at this time of life cars did not have radios meaning we never had any music playing on our many long family road trips. That is just how back then, life was so different.
Mum, she always loved music; she was a decent piano player and was the organist at our local Catholic Church for decades. Mum did love to sing, her voice was good, she just didn't do enough of it. But I always liked her voice. Sadly, at home in the earlier days she never had the chance to add her musical touch, so we had that music void as a family.
Then as times changed across the years, music did become a part of the Green family household, Mum and I shared some really good musical times, we actually had very similar musical tastes. I really do treasure what mum and I shared in music, but as I reflect, I do wish I had a better understanding at the time of how important these musical moments for mother and son would be. Often, as in any aspect of life, we do not embrace the moment as we could.
So, with no music in the house what was the roots for my take to music? Way back in the very early days of my life when we visited my Grandparents in Snowtown, music was always a part of that household, unlike it was at the time Dad was a kid. My Uncle Lance lived at home, and he had a Radiogram with a massive record collection so we would sit for hours on the couch in the lounge and listen to his records.
The music was old, like really old but I enjoyed sitting and listening as he played Mario Lanza or Bing Crosby or Louis Armstrong or Vera Lynn or Doris Day or Jimmy Shand, ok I admit I did not like Doris Day, but really it did not matter who it was I simply enjoyed the music that Uncle Lance would play. I could hear the music; I allowed the music to reach my soul, and it was a great grounding in allowing music to create this feeling of peace and calm within my being. Music as I now know can be an elixir in life.
My grandpop Eric Green worked at this time as a Tax Agent and his office was in the house at Snowtown. So, grandpop worked from home, he was always around, I remember he would waltz into the lounge through the top passage door as the music played and give us his interpretation of Bing or he would dance like Fred Astaire. Just brilliant stuff, magical times. As a kid I loved it, and it made me happy to see and be around happy people. Ah, music, yep it really did have the power to change the world and to provide such loving and lasting memories. It was easy to influenced.
So yeah, he loved his music. Despite not being able to read or write Lance could find any song or any record that you asked him to pick for you from his collection. His skill to associate colors or shapes with a particular record was legendary. We never really knew how he did it, how he identified a particular record but whatever the answer may be, he was a genius in this area. You could not trick him, he just knew what was what.
Lance enjoyed playing the music, I enjoyed listening, so it was a perfect fit. Every day Lance spent hours in the lounge playing his records, music was clearly very important for him. I often think of those days, and I smile at the thought of the fun I had, the fun Lance had, and he really did know how to light up a room despite his lack of mental development. Cyril Lancelot Green, one of life's gems, we all loved him dearly.
From that, I guess my ear for and understanding of music was born or at least fostered in a huge way at this time. Uncle Lance certainly never played country music, and he most definitely did not play rock music but in my formative years I had no idea how much these music genres would eventually impact and influence not only my love for music but my love for these certain types of music.
As the 60's evolved I had some exposure to live music. In the Riverland we were blessed with some extremely talented local artists and contemporary groups who entertained at cabarets and local venues. Listening to their music took me to that place in my understanding of how good it was to be around great music.
Some of these Riverland groups would contest The Battle of the Sounds, a nationwide talent contest that ultimately turned up some decent recording and performing talent. The contest had regional finals, then a state final and all state winners competed on the national stage. It was a big thing in its day, and the local groups gave it their best shot.
With my opportunity to listen to live music, thankfully it came as the musical landscape was shifting, not just for me personally but this new rock music was definitely changing the world. I was drawn in by the music these locals played, yes, the instruments and the vocals captured my attention and that's when, as a kid, I would sit, watch and listen, it really did sooth and entertain.
Our family was rather social mob, and we would spend time at venues with music. The beer garden at the local Barmera Hotel was a popular spot across the summer months and often music was a part of the time at this venue. It was a great place to hang out with Dad and Mum and on a warm summer evening on the weekends other local kids would be there with family and it was a great play time area. And once dark came, music, how good, win, win.
As footy tragics the Green family was a part of events that came with the social side to footy. The old Loveday Hall on a Sunday was often the spot for a day of activities and again, that always included live music. It was a really vibrant place with the footy crowd, lots of kids to hang out with, the adults had a fun time, music was always great and those Sundays in Loveday were just brilliant.
Rocky Page (pictured below left) would be the first noted local musician that I recall gaining my attention. He operated a local music school but was best known as a local country music guru. He was very well respected by all country music artists throughout Australia.
Rocky had a Sunday night radio show on our local commercial station 5RM. He loved and promoted country music so well at this time. He was a bit of a bumbler in presentation but my memories of listening to Rocky either live or on radio remains a real highlight in my musical journey.
Other groups and singers who were a part of the Riverland band and music scene included Krystal Keys, Pauline Najar and the Fieldhouse sisters from Loveday. And a younger brother and sister duo from Kingston, Ricky and Tammy Osypenko were a great local stage act. They did record some tracks for a record label in the early 60's and later made a name for themselves on the national TV music scene. At one point they toured with Slim Dusty as he traveled around Australia with his live music show.
Having this music at local venues to embrace was just so darn good. And it is something I have never forgotten, the artists were probably best described as minnows in the bigger music scheme of things but what they all added in their own specific and individual way was for me so important. I thank them all for being so musically productive, so entertaining and so very much available.
And watching these bands and performers up-close was an added bonus. As the late 60's into the 70's unfolded the dinner dance at local hotels had become a major form of entertainment. Theses local groups came into their own as they provided the music and entertainment. The dinner dance with this new so called 60/40 dancing was so exciting. It was a social revolution of sorts and music was the key to a long and fun filled night. Sit and eat a really decent 3 course meal, have a few drinks, and by 8pm the music was off and running.
How cool. And we all danced, as young blokes we certainly had the dance floor moves. Rock'n'roll had given us many new dance crazes with the twist being my favorite, but this slower paced 60/40 music was a young adults answer to prayer. We got to dance up close with the chickee babes and many a good night was the result of this form of dance. We still had a rock part to the night, great music to dance to and that added so much to our social development coming out of the teen years into that time as young adults.
Cabarets were also the go to form of fun; it was sort of like the dinner dance without the dinner food. And cabarets were everywhere, most towns in the country regions had a town hall and this was the cabaret venue for the most part. The Riverland area had a mixture of bigger and smaller towns, during this time the local community club was becoming an integral part of the social fabric, and they would offer meals and then a cabaret. Places like Monash, Berri, Cobdogla, Moorook and Glossop were venues we frequented for a cabaret night of social fun and music.
As time rolled on into the 80's and we started our own families these smaller club venues were an ever more important part of our social and music activities, they seemed more kid friendly, so they attracted the family groups. We definitely appreciated what they had to offer; it was a social life staple to have this type of venue available.
And so good was this local music collection that I would think some of that local talent as individuals and as bands could have made the big time given a different set of circumstances. They were good, really good but without the promotion and exposure that city bands and performers had at their call, the Riverland groups were right or wrongly content to keep us all happy at the different places they played. That's just how it was.
However, it didn't make our time with these musicians any less brilliant or less memorable. As locals we loved and embraced all they had to offer, they were all stars to us. This was such a fun time socially and life was for living. Music as always made things so much better and was always the centerpiece of social entertainment. We had so many good times listening to and dancing to their sound. we sort of became, well, groupies, I guess.
Mum eventually purchased a Gerry and the Pacemakers single ‘Pretend’ and it too took a hammering; it was a top song. Another 45rpm single she purchased was The Wedding by Julie Rogers, yeah, ordinary, not such a good song but it too was played over and over. Our cousin Robbie Dymmott sold us some singles from the early rock era that he no longer required, I remember hit tunes from Buddy Holly and Rick Nelson, and the collection of Green family music was up and running.
My older brother Rod then added a couple of albums, Elvis of course and The Animals is another I remember, mum added a few of her own, we collected a few more albums from Veronica and then it was my turn to start my own collection.
My first ever 45rpm was the Johnny Farnham hit Sadie the Cleaning Lady in 1968. I did get a Seekers EP around the same time; The Carnival is Over. I was still in school at the time, so money was not plentiful meaning it took time for my record collection to grow. But by January 1970 I had my first job working in the South Australian Railways as a Youth Porter at Barmera and now with my own coin I was able to set about increasing my record collection.
My musical taste was varied, Rock'n'roll was king of course, and I will admit it had my attention. Rock had been around for over a decade, and the stars of this era were like no other time in music history, just brilliant. Country music also appealed, and I have been a fan since this time in life, look, it is not for everyone, but it suited my musical ear. Hillbilly type rock also sat high on my music preference list. And Aussie music was booming, and I really took to the Aussie style, it was all happening so fast.
And by now I had taken the opportunity to invest in my own radio, a 'trannie' as we called them back in the day. So, I could now find my own radio stations on the dial and listen to music of my choice, at this time in history, radio was of course the big thing of the day.
In the Riverland we had Radio 5RM at Berri, a commercial station and in all honesty, it was ok for a hic country station. Good DJ's and decent music, for this country based 'hic' show it was all right, we loved it. Sure, it was all we really had but in an era when radio boomed 5RM went ok, battled way above its weight. We also had 5MV at Renmark, the ABC, and while this was not the best source for listening to music, the ABC did play that big part in our life and that point can never be dismissed.
Getting access to the city stations was a big step forward, the reception was questionable at times, you had to hold the radio the right way, pointed in the right direction to get connected to the airwaves. It could be a real battle, but it was all we knew. Then at night, the airwaves were conducive to us listening to a couple of the Melbourne stations particularly 3UZ, 3DB, 3XY and 3KZ. Our music world just kept on getting better.
With my trannie in hand, this meant I had music wherever I went, that was a big plus. I even used my new toy as a car radio, it was a touch crude but that is how it was. Music at home, in the car, at the lake, at the river, out the back, at work, so many places to listen to that radio. I was working in the Railways at Barmera at this time, and I had 4am starts four days a week so the trannie was a good companion during those solo early morning shifts. Ah, music, music, music. Teressa Brewer, take a bow.
But that radio was one of the best things I ever invested in my teenage days. It never left my side; it was my connection to the music world. I did have a minor incident at one point, I lost it, the radio I mean! That was a dead set bummer, I was cleaning my car on the footpath outside the family house in Barmera and it appears I had the radio sitting on the roof of the car as I cleaned inside my mini 850 and listened to music.
Sadly, and rather stupidly in a scatter brain moment, I must have then driven off with the trannie still on the roof and you guessed it, it was gone. Mum had me place a 'lost notice' in the local paper and bingo, a member of the Ian Warwick family found the trannie on the road near our house, and it was returned after they had read the lost notice. Oh so close, total disaster averted, and my trannie was back with me belting out the music that I so enjoyed.
On the record front, by now my collection had grown significantly, lots of albums but also purchased as many singles as I could afford. So much good music in this time, the yanks were killing it, the poms not far behind, just some great musical talent. And that Australian music was as good as anything. As a nation we produced some really great artists, we were punching way above our weight I always thought. Aussie music was really challenging anything the stars from oversees could produce.
And this was the era when mixed albums became a thing, a company called K-Tel would produce albums containing all the hits, so we didn't just get one artist, we got a great collection of the hits at the time. Album titles like, The best of the 70's as example, Rock's Greatest Hits, Country Classics so many titles and the music just rolled on, ah, fun happenings.
One such program came from the states and was played on the local 5RM station on a Saturday morning, American Top 40 with Casey Kasem (pictured left below). The show was three hours of brilliant entertainment, and it ran from 1970 to 1988. This was a not to be missed radio program full of the best music and so much musical and artist trivia shared. I loved the show, I learned so much.
The tapes could be a problem at times, they would jam on a spool in the machine and it was a very delicate operation to untangle the tape without damage. And a pencil was used to wind the tape back into the cassette once untangled. It could be difficult, but we rolled with the punches and just kept going, we learned to adapt because the music was so good..
But seriously, the early 70's, you gotta' love this time, it was a pleasure to be around and to be a part of these truly outstanding years. Times were slower, less complex and the music was the best. It has become a timeless era for music and get this, we were a part of it. The 60's laid the foundations for what the 70's produced, it just kept getting better and better.
And as the decade rolled on, by the mid 70’s I had started to attend live concerts, and this further added to my love of music. This world of live music was amazing, it was simply the best, it loud and oh so real.
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And live music at hotel venues around the city and state was enormous in this period of life. Young often untested musicians and bands came to play, and they were so entertaining, but these times were also a great social connection with the music as the centerpiece. It made living worth it, just the greatest days as a young adult.
But when Countdown hit the airwaves on Aussie TV on November 8th, 1974, it really meant we got to watch the who’s who from the world of music. It was something else again, great music presented so well, this ABC program would go on to be a cultural phenomenon.
TV production had come a long way in a few short years and by now we had changed from black and white television to color. That was a change of biblical importance and music on this new color TV phenonium changed the landscape of how music was presented through this medium. Color, lighting and a new understanding of using graphics made the color TV like a new marvel we could all watch. Yep, this was such an exciting time for a music fan.
And still on the TV theme, nighttime variety shows like the Don Lane Show were becoming regular viewing so again you would get to see some amazing performances by local and overseas artists. It added a different dimension to music by being able to not just put a face to the voice, but you would get to watch the stars in action although be it on the small screen.
It somehow made the music different, when you would hear a song on the radio you could now picture the artist and it was easier to get personally involved in the music. I have always been a great listener to the lyrics of a song, so I guess that has been a big influencing factor in the type of music that I enjoy. I have to be able to understand the lyrics, or I have trouble liking a particular track.
Music from my era was always about being able to hear and make sense of what was being sung about unlike a lot of the modern today music that just seems to be based on loud and repetitive rubbish. Modern music, in general, nah.
Maybe that is a sign of me showing my age, but it seems to me that today a lot of artists get by on looks and marketing rather than musical talent. If the artist cannot put together a good raunchy video clip for a particular track, then that track probably gets very little exposure through airplay.
I guess I went through a similar thing in my youth, older people, my parents included did not like or appreciate the music of my day insisting that their era had the best music. Maybe the word different would be a better one to use, saying things are better in a certain era could be subjective.
However, I do warm to most music although the modern techno’ beat is hard for me to like. It is as I said based too much on presentation rather than allowing the music or lyrics to do the talking. And it is so loud, so darn loud, meaning for me, that spoils the whole concept of listening to music. And rap, no thanks.
But back to my own music journey down through the years, as the 70's rolled on by now my record collection was huge, I was always on the lookout for albums and singles, and I had amassed a decent repertoire of music crossing many genres. And the cassettes were also plenty, in fact they had in many ways replaced the records because of the convenience of how and where you could play them. But at home I still loved the record player and spinning a vinal record. Ah, music, here I go again, how good was it to have this great love.
So, who were my 'go to' artists from my time listening to music? My Uncle Lance and his ability to light up a room with that look of sheer joy and happiness as he immersed in his music way back in the Snowtown days had really rubbed off on me and it did sow the seeds of how music impacts on life. And then of course that early listening love I found and nurtured for Rock'n'roll never left me, it was and is at the top of my list. It is hard to list my favorites in any order because there are so many, and over all the years the pecking order has changed.
But when I lived in Tailem Bend and became a shift worker in the SA Railways it meant I was often at home during the day, and here my music really filled my time. I would crank up my record player and listened for hours to music from my collection. Sometimes it would be repetitive but that was cool, I played the sort of music that really made me tick.
That is mostly good but sometimes it can be a touch sad if a song as example sets off a sadder memory. You might be listening to the radio and a certain song comes on, straight away the thoughts go to a particular time in life, either good or not so good but music has the ability to do that. Sure, that can be both good or sad but it is what happens.
Life at Tailem Bend and my South Australian Railways days ended and I moved on, next stop was a trek to Western Australia to work with Hammersley Iron in the Pilbara region. Isolation became a thing, hey, life was ok but starting my HI stint in Dampier before moving inland to Tom Price meant that in this era things were very different. I was 24 and had not known prolonged isolation like I would experience in the northwest of WA.
No local radio, well ABC from Perth on Short Wave and the only TV station was run by HI admin but was a day behind. What, you ask? The daily TV program was recorded in Perth, tapes flown to Tom Price, and we got to watch TV on delay. Yeah, seriously, what we watched was always a day late. Bizarre on so many fronts but, I guess, at least we had something.
This meant that music played an even bigger part in our daily life. By now most vinyl records were replaced by cassettes so that part of my collection was continuing to expand rather quickly. I had joined a Record Club and took full advantage of all offers and specials that headed in my musical direction. So, in northwest WA music was really our 24/7 go to, but I loved it, I could roll with that idea.
The Crushers footy club and the local pub Uncle Tom's Cabin helped socially dull the isolation and we made music the key to keeping our sanity. (pictured left from Tom Price - Uncle Tom's Cabin and the HI single man's quarters)
Not everyone had the same taste with the music of course but that was fine, over time everyone had a chance to play favorites and a happy mix was more than often achieved. And with my great personal music collection then my accommodation at 16/3 SMQ Tom Price always had music playing, and I mean always.
As time went on then of course, yet again, the music world was 'a changing'. This musical evolution had to happen; the world had opened up so much and artists and bands became available to everyone. With TV being such a powerful medium it was inevitable that more and more bands and performers gained international exposure.
And different musical modes like Motown as example were now helped with this massive advance in commercial exposure. Motown music was pitched to the world and not kept close within black dominated cities of the states. Sure, rock was still king, but these many other genres had caught on and became a staple for the music played in this era. And it just continued to kick goals, the artists of the mid and later 70's soon made their mark and we all loved the music.
I must add the Nanya Lounge and The Vines were two other Riverland disco venues in Renmark and Berri that rated highly but for the Barmera lads, oh, and gals, nothing was better than getting to the lakefront on a Friday or Saturday night at the Boulevard Disco.
And the 3am finish was a bonus. Andy Ralph spun the discs and we danced, oh yeah, how we rocked that dance floor, after watching John Travolta in the movie Greece we all became Travolta clones. And we drank, boy did we drink. But dancing was the attraction, disco dancing. A new genre of music was now the norm, but it had so much to like about it. Music, it just keeps on giving.
By 1983 I was now a young family man and while music was always at the centre of our social times, I often say that my musical taste died with disco, not my love of music but after disco, I mean, what could compete? Certainly not that doof doof, repetitive loud, er, rubbish and certainly not rap that came next. Yuk.
The 90's still gave us some good contemporary and rock artists with decent music but when disco ended, it was a tough era for me. Things changed in the music industry and for me, not for the better, I reckon that music had lost its way.
I'm also thinking this was the time when video killed the radio star. TV became the thing; radio sadly took a back seat. Music clips were all the rage and that changed how music was presented, packaged and sold. And live music in pubs and at gigs was no longer band orientated and again, for my way of thinking, that hurt how I viewed my music going forward, again I say my love for music remained, but for me, music lost its soul.
But sitting here writing this today I reflect back to the time when music became such a big part of my life, who I liked and who I really liked and who I listened to but never really had a connection with. And on an extremely positive note, thankfully as I reflect, I can now appreciate some of the stars and artists who I did not necessarily dislike, but they were not at the top of my favorite list way back when.
Starting with Elton John, I mean what a singer, what a song writer, what an entertainer he is, one of the all-time greats. But for years I struggled with him, guess it was his flamboyant nature I did not gel with, so I was dismissive of his music. Gee, didn't I get that wrong, now he is one of my favorite recording and performing artists, seriously, how did I get that so wrong? Elton is just brilliant, unique and a musical colossus.
Oh, another biggie, Michael Jackson, he really fits my thought of artists I battled with. This guy was no doubt a brilliant performer, a superstar in fact, one of the all-time greats, he produced some the best music of his generation, but he never had me on side. Not sure, something about the bloke I never could gel with. A musical superstar in so many ways but I am still not a fan.
And I will add The Spice Girls as a non-listen, no thanks, again not sure why given their international fame and standing but I never warmed to the group. Manufactured and did not have a lot of talent I am suggesting. Kiss never had my attention either in their heyday, I thought they were odd. Maybe as I have grown older, and I stress maybe, I have listened more to their music, sort of don't mind their sound now, but I struggled with them for a long time. David Cassidy and The Partridge Family enjoyed great popularity in their hey day but for me I never jumped on board.
The Beach Boys sort of fit in right here. Well, I always liked the sound of the Beach Boys, but I guess in an era with so many mega star groups I somehow let this lot slip by. I did listen to their music back in the day, but it was not until much later that I came to understand how good they were. Now, love them, the music of the Beach Boys is timeless, just the best.
Then from a slightly earlier era, The Bay City Rollers never had me hooked, not a fan but they were a phenonium in the music world during their time and had plenty of fans. Celine Dion, bit the same, I personally didn't get involved with her sound at any time, yet she was a star. And I never understood Alice Cooper and his music, again not my thing. Nor Bono and U2, just not my cup of tea, and I could never get my head around the punk rock, grunge and heavy metal bands. Oasis definitely fits that thought, yeah, nah, not for me thanks. And Black Sabath front man Ossie Osborne, scary dude, crazy man and I never headed his way musically, not sure about him at all. His music speaks to many but not to me. His sound just didn't gel.
Anyhow, there were others, lots of others, but some have found a way to redeem what I didn't initially like and now I can freely listen to their music. A few too many to name and I need to save some face here I'd imagine so I won't go any deeper with my views. But what and who I like in this day and age is certainly much different to what made me tick musically back in my younger days. Maybe that is odd, maybe not, but it is my personal music truth.
But I always loved Elvis, and I mean loved him, there was never any other way to say it, Elvis was king, Elvis is still the king, he was just the ultimate singer, the ultimate stage performer and he was a standout in my musical rankings. From that fresh faced southern Yankie kid who was always destined to be a star through to the time of his untimely and tragic death at age 42 Elvis Presley was in every way a superstar.
Personally, I appreciate the younger more clean-cut Elvis over the Elvis at the time when he reinvented himself as a live stage act. Hey, he was still a superstar in Vegas, that is a given, but I do like the early Elvis days probably more than his later years. Not sure why I feel that way, but that early Elvis lives so strong in my musical ratings. Of course, he just kept producing the hits and clearly the music from later in his life is still very special.
But for how brilliant he was with the singing and with the stage performances, hey, he could not act. But for as true as that is, I love Elvis' movies, I mean, I really do. I can sit and binge watch his movies; he made 31 in total between 1956 and 1969, starting with Love Me Tender and finishing with Change of Habit. Blue Hawaii is my favorite but there are plenty I like. In each of the movies there is some hidden gems with songs, sure some of those songs never became hits but so many are so good, and they add plenty to the movies he made.
Elvis was never an Acadamy Award winning actor, far from it but with his music being a major factor in his movies, he managed to be a big screen star. But no, his on-screen success was not because of his acting smarts.
With his music, how do you pick a favorite from his vast collection of recordings? Probably have to include Jailhouse Rock, Don't be Cruel, Are You Lonesome Tonight, Blue Hawaii, GI Blues, She's Not You, Love Me Tender, Teddy Bear, Return to Sender, Viva Las Vegas, Judy, In the Ghetto, Suspicious Minds, Don’t be Cruel, Always on my Mind, Kentucky Rain and Hound Dog to do the King any justice. But gee, that is really just scratching the surface.
Another string to the bow with the musical talents of Elvis came through gospel music, he was a great gospel music singer; it wasn't until years after his death that I got to fully understand that fact. He simply loved to immerse in the gospel songs, the old fashion hymns from the very roots of Christian music. Elvis had a strong faith, and gospel singing sessions became a regular outlet for him during many stressful and troubled times particularly during the Vegas era, he regularly shared this part of his life with many in his crew and entourage.
There is no doubt that Gospel music was such a huge part of his musical background, and it clearly helped shape his vocal talents. His version of Amazing Grace is as good as any; How Great Thou Art is another gospel classic he does so well, and the way Elvis sings The Old Rugged Cross is just brilliant. He nails gospel singing.
Elvis was just 42 years old. A shame really as he could have and would have gone on producing such great music and further boomed as a stage performer. He left way too soon and somehow that has always been a stumbling block for his fans the world over. We felt his death in deep personal ways that we probably could not have imagined. We never forgot Elvis, we never forgot the talent he had and how he impacted our lives in such meaningful ways.
Thankfully by then he had pulled the plug on his acting career. RIP Elvis Presley.
To this day Elvis is still the King, his music is timeless, and his songs are always played where decent music is played. Yeah, gone but never forgotten, no risk, Elvis, the best of the best.
On an unrelated point, I grew my hair long like the Beeales much to the disgust of my parents and mum would often say of my hair length, “The Beatles have nothing on you.” Not sure if this had anything to do with why I initially did not like the Fab Four. But yes, I am very happy to say that things quickly changed and as the lads produced hit after hit I had to ask, “How good were they?”
And Probably Lennon and McCartney are the best singer songwriters of my time. Hits like Hey Jude, Let It Be, A Hard Days Night, I Want to Hold your Hand, Rock and Roll Music, Help, Ob-La-Di, Ob,La,da. and so so many more super hits. The music of the Beatles is just as good in this day and age as it was back in the 60's and I believe that they really did change the face of music not only in their time but right through until this day.
Sadly, John Lennon was shot dead on December 8th, 1980, in New York, another very sad day in rock music history. What a talent he had been with The Beetles and later as a solo artist. Paul McCartney formed the band Wings after his time in The Beatles ended and he was a solo performer of great standing over the years. Both George Harrison and Ringo had recording success as solo artists.
There was a fifth Beatle, how unlucky was this guy Pete Best. He was the groups drummer before Ringo and while his time with the group was short lived, gee, he must wonder what could have been. George Martin, Jimmy Nicol and Billy Preston are three other names that are sometimes linked to the group at various times but are never remembered as being a real part of the Beatles.
And the Beatles came to Adelaide on Friday June 12th, 1964. Crowds estimated at 300,000 lined Anzac Highway as the fab four were driven from the Adelaide Airport at lunchtime into the city. The Beatles were taken to the Town Hall and appeared on the balcony in King William Street as the crowds massed below. It was an unbelievable scene and a great day in the musical history of South Australia and Adelaide.
Initially The Beatles were to miss Adelaide on their Australian tour, but local radio DJ Bob Francis amassed 80,000 signatures from SA fans as a protest and once this was known The Beatles made the trip to Adelaide. They played four short concerts at Centennial Hall over the two nights they stayed in our city.
To watch a short video recorded as The Beatles fronted at the Town Hall in Adelaide click on the link below.
The Beatles did star in a couple of movies, Help and A Hard Day's Night. I do remember somehow convincing Mum and Dad to take us to the Bonneyline Drive-In at Barmera to see Hard Day's Night. But it was a bizarre movie, and I could not follow it at all, it was strange to say the least. This is another left field addition, I do recall my dad coming to watch this movie, now that is the one and only time, I can ever remember dad going to the drive in. Not sure why he went, I do seem to recall it was shown on a weeknight, maybe a school night, perhaps that time slot had something to do with why Dad came along to watch the movie.
The pics here show The Beatles gathered at Abbey Road in 1969 before their famous pic taken as they walked out onto the road crossing. And Elvis with Johnny Cash in 1954, Elvis had played at the opening of the Lamar-Airways Shopping Center in Memphis Tennessee and Johnny Cash was in the audience, after the show he met Elvis for the first time.
So, with that understanding who comes next on the list of all-time greats in the music industry across my 50 years? How do you rate anyone with the likes of Elvis and The Beatles?
Simon and Garfunkel at their peak were simply sensational. What a blend of harmonies, not great stage performers as such, rather boring at times, but their music was spot on. If we talk about unique sounds, these two definitely fit that thought. Brilliant. But Paul and Art were not mates, far from it, they were very distant and antagonistic toward each other away from the stage and the personal differences meant they split as a duo way too soon.
Across the years they did reunite a couple of times for concert performances and for touring. That was a good thing, they still had it, and the music was just as good. Their classic hits remained classic hits. And Paul Simon as a solo artist did have a really decent career.
And a massive shout out to Jim Steinman an American composer and musician who penned some great hits for his close mate Meat Loaf. Steinman was instrumental in the success of the music for Meat Loaf. And on the other side of the Atlantic, the Welsh born Bonnie Tyler was another star to record and have great success with Steinman's music.
Sadly, the many song writers and talented musicians who helped form the great songs are unfortunately often overlooked. Naturally we all remember the artist or group who gave us the hit but, in the background, there were so many others who contributed to the success. The song writer, the studio and session musicians and vocalists who provided the backup, the sound technicians, the musical producers and the even the record labels themselves who market the stars all play such a big part. So many contribute to the success of any hit song.
Back to the music, naming stars is awkward, how do you name but just a few stars from the music world. People like Santana, Neil Diamond, Prince, David Bowie, B-52s, The Cars, Chicago, Jud Strunk, Harry Chapin, Harry Nilsson, Phil Collins, Leo Sayer, The Kinks, Beach Boys, Mummas and The Pappas, Doobie Brothers, Toto, Three Dog Night, Melanie Safka, and Suzi Quatro were all outstanding artists as solo performers or as groups.
Seriously too many to name them all, some better than others but so much talent in the group of entertainers. But for me, they are all loved, and each played a strong part in my musical journey and still rate as highly today as they ever have.
And at the times when rock was the new music, when it was just being accepted as a legitimate form of music, there were so many greats. Most I did not know about in their days of glory but thankfully I was fortunate to later discovered their music, and they became such an enormous part of this musical love I so enjoy.
The 1961 hit for Cliff Richard and The Shadows named The Young Ones was the title song to the movie of the same name, when released as a single the song went straight to number one in the charts. It was the first song to do this since the Elvis hit It's Now or Never. The Young Ones single stayed at number one for six weeks and remained in the charts for 20 weeks.
But this rock era was super strong with so many brilliant stars. Some I have mentioned, and others I have so very much enjoyed their music.
Fats Domino with Blueberry Hill and Jambalaya were played often as was the Drifters with Save The Last Dance for Me and Under the Boardwalk. Dion DiMucci had a number of great songs and my best two songs of his were Runaround Sue and of course the iconic single The Wanderer. Ricky Nelson fitted this era perfectly, great voice and brilliant entertainer. Danny and the Juniors scored a hit with At the Hop, The McCoys had Hang on Sloopy and Lobo made the charts with I'd Love You to Want me. and from the late 60's Percy Sledge gave us When a Man Loves a Woman.
Naturally Bill Haley and His Comets need a mention, they were so big as a group in the day, their music is Hall of Fame stuff. Formed in 1947 they continued as a rock band until the death of Haley in 1981. Between 1954 and the end of 1956 the group had nine top Ten hits. Rock Around the Clock was their best and is a rock icon song.
Carl Perkins, Tommy Roe, Eddie Cochran, James Brown, The Chiffons, Bobby Sherman, The Lovin' Spoonful, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Little Richard, The Everly Brother, Neil Sedaka, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Sam Cooke, The Chantel's, Duane Eddie, Brenda Lee, Johnny Burnett and Bobby Darin all stared as recording artists and stage performers. Yet another list of greats with music that is timeless.
The three stars were on tour in the states; they were lead players in the Winter Dance Party tour and had performed that night in The Surf Ball Room in Clear Lake Iowa. They had decided to take a plane to the next concert gig instead of travelling on the tour bus, but their flight crashed soon after take-off at 12-55am and all on board the plane, including the pilot were killed.
The accident and the death of this amazingly talented trio is remembered as one of the most tragic accidents in the history of the rock and roll era. In particular, Bubby Holly at 22 and Ritchie Valance 17 were really just starting to emerge as rock star royalty and it's impossible to imagine just how big these two young men could have become in the music industry. There is no doubt the world lost three rock music stars on this very very sad night in Iowa.
The juke box played its part in the earlier days of music listening. It was an invention ahead of its time, it provided us with music at our fingertips. It was all so simple, because as Terresa Brewer sang, it's as easy as, 'Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon'. Ok, that's a yankie term but here in Oz we loved the jukebox, all good cafes and pubs had one placed in a strategic spot and gee, they were very well used by all patrons. Drop in a coin, press the buttons that matched your song selection and walla' you got to pick the music. Or you listened for free to the selection someone else picked. Ah, the jukebox, such an important part of the early music days, so good.
And a pommie bloke who has been a gun performer over the decades and one who never seems to age is Tom Jones, He was a standout, a genuine star, great voice and brilliant performer on stage. Engelbert Humperdinck was a balladeer but like Tom Jones, he seems to have been around forever, these two Englishmen added so much to the musical world.
Outside the big guns, some of the Best from the British Band invasion of the rock era and beyond included Gerry and the Pacemakers, Manfred Mann, The Troggs, Dave Clark 5, Herman's Hermits, Freddie and the Dreamers, Mungo Jerry, The Who, Jefferson Airplane; The Small Faces and The Hollies. All brilliant bands.
And from a time of early heavy rock, I was ok with the music of some legendary groups like ACDC, Led Zepplin, Lynyad Skynyrd, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, T Rex and The Police. Not a bad line up in that lot of names, legends in fact. This heavy metal psychedelic type rock was a game changer for many and is still rated as some of the best music written and performed.
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The group made it into the Guinness Book of Records for attracting the largest ever crowd to a concert in Australia. In March 1967 the group performed at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne and over 200,000 fans packed into the space in the outdoor park to watch the concert. It would be remembered to this day and The Seekers as a collective rate this day as the highlight of their long and outstanding musical career.
But despite my love for this Aussie folk group the rock'n'roll brigade from the land down under still holds sway in many ways. We did produce great rock stars, many of them still perform to this day. We are blessed to have had such a great talent pool across all the years.
Country music has always rated very highly for me. Johnny Cash of course was a different artist altogether and far removed from being a rock star. But he was always my favorite Country and Western performer, I had many country greats that I liked but Cash was the standout.
And he was a friend to Elvis, both were a part of Sun Records in Memphis Tennessee before owner Sam Phillips sold Elvis off to RCA records. The pic below is an iconic shot taken in the studio at Sun Records on December 4th, 1956, it shows Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. The guys all happened to be, by chance, in the studio on this afternoon and joined in an impromptu jam session with Elvis on the piano. The pic has been dubbed The Million Dollar Quartet. One of the great musical history pics of all time.
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With so many hits to his name it's hard to name a few, so in no particular order I remember his hits, I Walk the Line, Don’t Take your Guns to Town, Rock Island Line, Boy Named Sue, Man in Black, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Ring of Fire, Orange Blossom Special and Folsom Prison. Cash also sang gospel; he excelled with his passion for God. And my most favorite Christmas song is Little Drummer Boy with the Johnny Cash recording of this tune the best I have ever heard.
Later in his great career, Johnny Cash was also a part of The Highwaymen with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. Cash died in 2003 but as the saying goes, for me, he will live on through his music. RIP Johnny Cash. Loved his music right through my musical journey.
Other country music stars that I always gravitated towards for their musical greatness include the legend Willie Nelson, also Marty Robbins, Johnny Houghton, Merle Haggart, Glen Campbell, Roger Miller, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Charlie Pride, Shania Twain, Conway Twitty and Waylon Jennings.
And from an era in my very early days the silky clear voices from the likes of Hank Williams, Tex Ritter, Slim Whitman or Jim Reeves produced some great easy listening country music. Jim Reeves was headed to greatness but was tragically another music star killed in a plane crash at age 42 in July 1964. Roy Rogers goes way back to before my time, but I do remember hearing and enjoying some of his country and western music. Even Gene Audrey could sing, well he sang country music, and he was noted for his great yodeling skill.
The later list of country stars like Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Ronnie Milsap, Tim McGraw, Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam and even back to Reba McEntire, Alabama and Brooks and Dunn, they are all good and definitely stars of country music. And while they rank in my list of good artists I do gravitate towards the earlier country stars of country and western.
He was more than just a recording artist and performer; he was a legend in his own lifetime. I did see Slim on stage a couple of times in different parts of the country, first in Northwest WA and then in Darwin. Slim died in 2003. RIP Slim Dusty, Have a beer with Duncan.
But Australia has produced domestic country artists of note. John Williamson, Chad Morgan, Lee Kernigan, Lionel Long, Joy McKean, Tex Morton, Johnny Ashcroft, Anne Kirkpatrick and Reg Lindsay being the best of a decent lot.
Away from country music, one of my all-time great singers was Burl Ives. He too is dead, he died long ago, and this will blow you all away, but I have no idea what year he died? Mmmmmmmm, I understand what you are thinking but what I do know is that I loved his music. His folk ballads had something special about them, easy listening and to me, powerful. And as a bonus, my mum loved Burl, so we often listened to him sing and chatted about his music.
He had hits like A Little Bit of Tear, Funny way Of Laughing, Pearly Shells, Goober Peas and I Love a Piano; he was just a superb artist. And he had another string to his bow, he could act. I remember I loved his performance of Big Daddy when he stared with a young Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman in the classic hit movie ‘Cat on a hot tin roof’. Thanks Burl, I really enjoyed your music.
Then as the 70's rolled into the 80's and the 90's a new group of stars emerged. Some I guess where hangovers from a decade before, but this new lot of stars were so important in my musical journey. They are still great to this day.
English born Aussie rocker Leo Sayer had many hits including Raining in my Heart, Moonlighting and One Man Band. Aussie Rick Springfield was mainly a songwriter but he did produce a gem for himself in Speak to the Sky, Carly Simon and You're So Vain, Bobby Bare sang Detroit City, Joni Mitchell I liked with Big Yellow Taxi, Barry McGuire nailed it with Eve of Destruction, Nancy Sinatra was on the march with These Boots are Made for Walking, I often bopped along to Middle of the Road as they sang Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, The Proclaimers for I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) and I’m on My Way, Foster and Allen had the magnificent classic ballad, Maggie and another of their hits that I really liked was I Will Love You All My Life.
Another Englishman Bryan Ferry hit the mark with Let’s Stick Together, Linda Ronstadt with Blue Bayou, John Fogerty had Rockin’ All Over the World as a hit after his split with Creedence Clearwater Revival. Don Williams sang I Believe in You, Mississippi had the hit Mississippi, Norman Greenbaum for Spirit in the Sky, Cyndi Lauper was a bit of a wild child in her heyday, but she could sing, and I loved her version of Girls Just Want to Have Fun.
Chris Isaak was good, enjoyed the Bobby Fuller Four, Hot Chocolate, Three Dog Night, Bobby Sherman, The Righteous Brothers had a unique sound and harmony, Barbara Fairchild, Peters And Lee, the Carpenters while not a massive fan they were a good mix, brother and sister duo Richard and Karen Carpenter had a number of hits. And an older French singer songwriter named Charles Aznavour also made his mark on the world as a decent entertainer.
I should have mentioned The Everly Brothers from the early rock days, and Rolf Harris was an entertainer of high quality from down under who made a mark on the music and TV entertainment industry from the 60's. Rolf was different, he was unique, but he was lots of fun. And Gordon Lightfoot I liked, a Canadian rock/folk singer and had some decent songs.
And Fleetwood Mac, their music is timeless, great group over a long period of time. Stevie Nicks led this band from the front, and her voice is unique, great vocals, just brilliant. And here I must add The Village People, what an iconic dance band that we all loved, what great music and an even better stage act. I am sure we have all danced wildly to The Village People music.
A couple of music groups that were tacked together and went ok included the Traveling Wilburys and The Highwaymen. Both groups had recording success and members from each group had a list of superstars who had earlier been solo artists or had make the big time with some other super groups. George Harrison is the example; post The Beatles success and worldwide fame he was a part of The Traveling Wilburys.
Debbie Harry fronted the group Blondie and had a string of hits with Heart of Glass and The Tide is High being the best. The George Baker Selection hit Little Green Bag was a favorite; and I do include Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass as a group I enjoyed. Procol Harum had a belter with Whiter Shade of Pale and Scott McKenzie sand about flowers in your hair in his hit song San Francisco and I like Silence is Golden by the Tremeloes. Lesley Gore rocked the charts with It's My Party, The Hollies hit On a Carousel was a favorite, Snoopy and the Red Baron charted for The Royal Guardsmen and Me and a Dog Named Boo was a decent hit for Lobo.
Superstar Olivia Newton John was a real gun; she had many hits but it really all started for her with Banks of the Ohio. ONJ was a star across her life and even starred on the big screen with co-star John Travolta in the acclaimed musical Grease Indian Lake by the Cowsills was clearly one of my better liked songs, also Melanie Safka caught my attention, her hits Look What They've Done to My Song Ma and Brand New Key were classics, Ned Miller Do What You Do Do Well is a song I have always liked and still do and Roger Miller had the all-time great his King of the Road, this song became an anthem for many who lived and travelled as the words in the song suggested. Daniel Boone gave us a hit with Beautiful Sunday and ELO had success with Rock and Roll is King.
Let's include Jimmy Osmond for Long Haired Lover From Liverpool, Bobby Darin 18 Yellow Roses, House of the Rising Sun by the Animals with Eric Burden out front is a hit still going strong, Leapy Lee had a hit Little Arrows, Bette Davis Eyes from Kim Carnes, Mac Davis with It’s Hard to be Humble, Joan Baez with her hit The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down, Doctor Hook for the classic Sylvia’s Mother, Anne Murray with Could I Have This Dance, Susan Raye who had two hits that I have great memories of, LA International Airport and Funny Face, Tina Turner after her days with Ike had the timeless dance classic Nutbush City Limits, oh what fun this dance was. Smokie had the classic Living Next Door to Alice, Billy Swan sang I Can Help, Janis Ian with Fly Too High, Bobby Goldsborough with Honey.
Those who rate an honorable mention for having given me some really enjoyable musical moments, in fact, many many really great moments include Sandy Posy, Paul Anka, Bobby Vinton, Tommy Roe, Franki Valli, Frankie Avalon, The Shangri-Las, Jackie Wilson, The Bachelors, Donovan, Harry Belafonte, Gary Glitter, Barry White, Rod Stewart, Peter Starstedt, Oliver, Cat Stevens, Billy Joel, ELO and Dire Straits. And a rock/folk group Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young had a lasting impact on the music world and culture.
And Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend Jimi Hendrix left this life way too young, but he left us with a magical legacy as a guitar great and musician. Bob Marley, the Jamaican born singer, songwriter, guitarist was a reggae artist, he is another who passed way too young in 1981. What could have been musically if these two stars had stayed longer.
Also included as an honorable mention include Guy Mitchell, Charlie Pride, Harry Chapin, Sunny and Cher, Petula Clarke, Aretha Franklin, Glen Campbell, Donny and Marie Osmond, David Cassidy, Arlo Guthrie, The Belamy Brothers, Bobby and Laurie and some crooners who had great success as musical stars and TV performers include Val Doonican, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Pery Como, Sammy Davis Jnr, Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis and Andy Williams. And then there are groups like The Pretenders, The New Seekers, The Brand New Seekers (just kidding), who at different times have made for good listening.
Mark King, Ray Cooper, Byran Adams, Midge Ure, John Illsley, Joan Armatrading, Paul Young, Rick Perfitt, Francis Rossi, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Phil Collins,and Howard Jones.
Wow, how good is this in the music history from an era when stars were stars for their music and talent. And how many millions of records would this group have sold collectively? As said, amazing.
With that pic noted for how many stars are gathered on that day, again here I come back to an Aussies theme, I would need to include Helen Reddy with I am Woman, The Mixtures for the Pushbike Song and In the Summertime, Paul Kelly with To Her Door, Karen Knowles had two songs I enjoyed You are the Reason and Why Don’t You Explain, Reg Lindsay with Armstrong, Slim Newton sang Redback on the Toilet Seat, Jamie Redfern from Young Talent Time for Little White Cloud and Redgum with Only 19. Maureen Elkner and Normie hit the heights with an off-beat song, Rak off Normie also known as the Newcastle song and Judy Stone had great chart success with 4,003,221 Tears From Now, loved that song at the time and it was one we snag with gusto.
Old 55 led by Frankie J. Holden and with Wilbur Wilde on Saxophone produced some great tunes with their best being Looking for an Echo. I watched Old 55 perform a number of times on stage and on the pub circuit and they were a great rock/pop band in their time. I really enjoyed the Peter Allen hit I Still Call Australia Home, what a great song and unofficial anthem and I guess to a lesser extent I Go to Rio was another good recording of his. On an interesting note, Peter Allen was at one time married to Liza Minnelli, she was a cabaret star and musical performer in the States and is the daughter of Judy Garland.
It would be unfair not to mention Johnny Young. We grew up with his weekly TV program Young Talent Time and while it was orchestrated awkwardness for the most part with music and chorography, he did help a number of good Aussie youngsters get a foot hold into the music industry. And Young Talent Time was a TV music staple across many years. Johnny Young himself was a hard watch; he reminded me of an American performer Liberace who had been another TV regular from the early TV and music mix.
And extending this music story just a little further I liked Abba, although sadly you could not admit that at the height of their fame. For some reason Abba were sort of 'off limits' for being a group you liked, I never understood why but that is how it was. Now of course it is regarded as fashionable or ‘chic’ to be an Abba fan! And that sits well with me.
Jerry Lee Lewis is another from the rock era who was a bright star, I loved his music, sadly his personal life and associated issues dragged him down and maybe we didn't get to see all he had to offer. He came through the Sam Phillips Sun Studio in Memphis Tennessee.
Sam always recalled that he knew this bloke was special right from the day her first recorded his music, Sam said, "My next star" as he listened to a demo in the studio. The pics on the left show Sun Studios and Jerry Lee Lewis sitting with Sam Phillips.
Patsy Cline was not just a great recording artist; she was a brilliant performer who helped launch the career of some other country greats. Loretta Lynn is one of the stars Patsy Cline introduced to the world of country music. Loretta Lynn would go on to have an outstanding time as a country music legend, she had many hits, for me probably One's on the Way is her best, Coalminers Daughter I really like, it was a massive hit for her and later became a movie, and I have to add I'm a Honky Tonk Girl, this is another of her great country tunes.
And I was a fan of another country music queen Tammy Wynette. Right from the day I first heard her signature tune, Stand by Your Man I simply loved her unique voice. Jeanie C. Riley had a monster hit with Harper Valley PTA, Juice Newton with Angel in the Morning gets a mention, as does Emmylou Harris who gave us Mister Sandman, a cover version originally recorded by The Cordettes way back in 1954.
Christmas Carols and the music around the season must be given a mention. The most traditional song I remember from the very early Christmas days is The 12 Days of Christmas and that is followed closely by Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. But Johnny Cash with Little Drummer Boy rates at the top of my Christmas music list, naturally Bing Crosby singing White Christmas is the best-known song around that Christmas theme. I love Elvis with his version of Blue Christmas, Brenda Lee and Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree is a perennial tune played the world over. Mariah Carey recorded All I Want for Christmas and this is somehow another favorite, not mine I must add, that is played every year.
Having grown up in a catholic family and strong catholic community means I really do like the traditions of the carols, songs like Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy to the World, The First Noel and O Holy Night are always a popular listen. And I guess Jingle Bells is the Christmas classic, most artists across all the years who sing carols or perform in the festive season have had a crack at this song. Jingle Bells and Christmas go together.
Being from that catholic background meant hymns were a big part of fellowship times. Our small church in Barmera never had a choir so the congregation sang the hymns to the sound of the church organ. For as basic and as simple as that was, I did love the hymns from the day. Now I call it Christian music and while the sounds have certainly changed some of the traditional songs are still sung. How Great Thou Art is always my favorite.
At certain times I have been able to tackle orchestral music, mainly because I loved hearing the different instruments in different arrangements. This music generally gets broken down into groups of instruments and identifying them in music was an enjoyment for me. I particularly like the woodwinds and the strings sections. Henri Mancini was probably the most noted arranger I remember from the orchestral group of musicians, but I also liked the big brass sound at times with a particular leaning to the trumpet and saxophone.
The great music from the roaring twenties still resonates, Al Jolson was a noted star in this era and he hit the spotlight with Swanee. And Jimmy Durante was another I remember, rather strange voice but in small doses he was ok. The Charlston was a dance craze song popular in this time, and many of the early dance tunes are still played in various versions. I loved the music of the era, somehow the tunes have remained relevant with me down through the ages.
Into the 40's and beyond the big band swing sound was the popular music. Without doubt Glenn Miller and The Andrew Sisters are my best remembered names to come out of this time and they continue to get a run particularly in the cabaret performing scene. But other guns who came from the big band era and still have their music played include Duke Ellington, Count Bassie, Woodie Herman, Dizzy Gilespie, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey.
Musicals and Broadway have always been a big part of the music scene. Tunes from the stage shows remain popular and I am guessing always will. Cabaret, Oklahoma and The Sound of Music hit the mark for me, I will admit to being a huge fan of the musical stage shows. West Side Story, Singin' in the Rain, Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady and more recently Cabaret are all gems, and I embrace this music and the entertainment it added.
And naturally music has always spawned some great dance crazes down through the decades. From the time when the Charleston music influenced dance to a new era in my years when The Twist was huge, music from American great Chubby Checker and The Twist went together like bread and Butter. Oh my, how much fun was this amazing dance, the dance floor rocked as we showed our moves and twisted and grooved like there was no tomorrow. The Twist was all the rage in its day, a dance for the young and old.
Tina Turner created the Nutbush with her worldwide hit, Nutbush City Limit and that dance is still popular to this day, it was a huge, it was a pheromonal craze and yeah, we embraced it with such gusto. In the 90's we had the Macarena, hey, I know it was not on the top of everybody's dance card, but it had a massive influence on dance moves over many years.
Bonanza sits well for me as a TV theme, loved the tune back in the day when this TV western was a hit and I still do bop a long when I hear it played. But there are many more tunes which are synonymous with the big screen or the television. I must add the F-Troop theme here, this was another TV western/comedy small screen show that was a family favorite and a must watch in the Green household. I still remember the words of the theme.
But wait, there's more. While that might sound like a grab from a Tim Shaw TV commercial it is really just allowing me to add here a couple more themes from the small screen that I always liked. The Beverley Hillbillies and Greenacres themes were catchy and memorable tunes and as a bonus, both were great shows. Funny, different. quirky and I liked them way back when and I still like them to this day. And even in life I sometimes use words from these themes when making jokes about something that is going down.
On the big screen the Bond movies always seemed to have such great soundtracks, at the top of that list for me is Goldfinger. Shirley Bassey had a hit with the movie theme, a great song by a really top recording and cabaret artist. And from the movie Sound of Music, I do admit to having a couple of Julie Andrews songs that I reckon go ok, I must add they are a touch quirky but not bad at all. And the movie itself, priceless, one of the very best.
Finally, a song that does not seem to fit any musical category is another Julie Andrews film offering from back in 1965, Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious headlined the Mary Poppins classic. Probably not a good song, in fact definitely not a good song but getting your tongue around the name is a great effort in itself. This is not about the music but as a kid it was a game changer when you could finally say that word for the first time. You had come of age.
Bing Videos Elvis Presley - Judy
Bing Videos Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising
Bing Videos The Seekers - The Carnival is over
Bing Videos John Denver - Back Home Again
Bing Videos Blondie - Heart of Glass
Bing Videos The Animals - House of the Rising Sun
Bing Videos Smokie - Ling Next Door to Alice
Bing Videos The Beatles - Rock n Roll Music
Bing Videos Cliff Richard - Lucky Lips
Bing Videos Cold Chisel - Khe Sanh
Bing Videos Bonnie Tyler - It's a Heartache
Bing Videos Buddy Holly - Rave On
Bing Videos Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Bing Videos The Drifters - Save the Last Dance for Me
Bing Videos Dion - The Wanderer
Bing Videos Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell
Bing Videos Daddy Cool - Eagle Rock
Bing Videos Elton John - Crocodile Rock
Bing Videos Dr Hook - Sylvia's Mother
Bing Videos Abba - Dancing Queen
Bing Videos Connie Francis - Lipstick on my Collar
Bing Videos Bill Haley and The Comets - Rock Around the Clock
Bing Videos Lloyd Price - Personality
Bing Videos John Farnham - Two Strong Hearts
Bing Videos Roy Orbison - Ooby Dooby
Bing Videos Beach Boys - Surfin' USA
Bing Videos Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Bing Videos Bee Gees - I Started a Joke
Bing Videos Judy Collins - Amazing Grace
Bing Videos Redgum - Only 19
Bing Videos Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire
Bing Videos Olivia Newton John - Banks of the Ohio
Bing Videos Neil Diamond - Beautiful Noise
Bing Videos Daddy Cool - Eagle Rock
Bing Videos Elvis - She's Not You
Bing Videos Colleen Hewitt - Dreaming my Dreams with You
Bing Videos Johnny Cash - Man in Black
Bing Videos The Dave Clark 5 - Over and Over
Bing Videos Ray Conniff - Happiness is
Bing Videos The Beatles Ob La Di Ob La Da
Bing Videos Ted Mulry Gang - Jump in my Car
Bing Videos Sam Cooke - Only 16
Bing Videos Creedence Clearwater Revival - Proud Mary
Bing Videos Chubby Checker - The Twist
Bing Videos Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill
Bing Videos Ricky and Tammy - Little Girl
Bing Videos Jay Livingston and Ray Evans - Bonanza TV theme
Bing Videos Middle of the Road - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep
Complete play list last updated Friday June 6th, 2025
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29 - These are a few of my favorite things
What do I like to do, what do I enjoy, what are my hobbies, what do I like to do to relax? What don't I like? Who don't I like? I have a very broad interest base in most aspects of life.
The best town or place I have lived or visited. Melbourne is my city; it is hands down the best. It is alive and has a buzz that never stops, great city. Put me in Melbourne and I am in my element.
The worst place I have visited, Coober Pedy, what a hellhole. Hot, dirty, dusty, no lawn or greenery. I was staggered at how bad it was. Loved the underground motel I stayed in, what a great concept but the town itself was a dive.
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What is the most odd thing I have ever done? Wow, that gives me plenty of scope doesn’t it! But I remember as a kid winning a food eating competition. Look, the back story here is funny.
Way, way back when the Barmera Monash Football Club had social Sundays at the old Loveday Hall, one day I was one of three kids who were asked up on stage by band leader and I guess MC Ross Hill to be part of this eating competition. We were each given a sandwich and the first kid to finish the sandwich was declared the winner. Guess it was a bit of fun for the adults who would get to laugh at us poor kids.
Anyhow, I remember looking at the sandwiches on the plate, two had pickles and one did not. I thought quickly and I said, “I hate pickles,” and with that I was handed the best sandwich of the three and of course, BOOM, I won. The prize that Ross gave me was two Violet Crumble bars. Odd but a memory that I often get mileage from when telling the story.
So, they are a few of my favorite things, now, what about my not so favorite things. What do I dislike?
I do not like smoking, never have and never will. It is a dirty habit that I never had an interest in. How we ever survived as non-smokers in the era when smoking was so common in the workplace, the pubs, the clubs, the car or anywhere you wish to mention I do not know. It made many a situation uncomfortable to say the least and what must it have been doing to our health?
And who ever thought that placing hand dryers in public toilets was a better idea than providing paper towel to dry your hands with. I hate those bloody noisy blowy hand machines that rarely work properly. Good old paper hand towel is the way to go!!!
I do not like Richard Charleton, Cathy Freeman or the Liberals. Oh, and did I mention Umpire Vernon?. Bastard.
I have no tolerance of ignorant people, people who do not have the vision and foresight to understand that the world does not revolve around them. My dislike extends to people that do not give up a seat on the bus, people who ridicule less fortunate groups like homeless people or people with mental health issues.
I dislike aggressive drunks and bullies, if you need to add alcohol to be an instant 'arse' then do not drink. I have no time for rude salespeople or for counter staff who do not listen to the consumer. And here in Adelaide, city bus drivers rank with lawyers as the pits of society.
I detest reality TV. It features desperate people who undermine what society is about. “You’re fired,” or “The tribe has spoken,” or “You are the weakest link, goodbye,” or “It’s time to go,” is hardly what humanity should be about towards each other. I do not think that society does itself any favors when it turns on itself as shown by reality TV.
And with music, reality TV makes stars out of contestants without them having done the hard yards. You earn stardom; it should not be handed to you after a month of TV exposure. It does nothing for bands or artists who build up a following through hard work like working the pub circuit or club circuit. Their following is gained over time by exposure to music fans, not by a handful of TV watching desperates with mobile phones who apparently vote for you.
My fears are many. Snakes, geez how I hate the darn things, and I mean hate, with a passion type hate. Sharks, no thanks, they scare me pointless, goats and elephants are not far behind and from the bird family, seagulls and plovers have history with me and they are high on my dislike list.
Scorpions and centipedes get a mention here, they are simply downright scary. I have history with this group of thugs and nippers, so no, not my kinda' thing at all.
And this final bit is not really suited to anywhere, but I do not know where else to add it. It is a funny side of a dislike, I guess. One day at the Convent school in Barmera when I was in grade six, Sister Leonie was asking the kids in the room questions to eliminate one kid at a time in a fun game we were all playing. The last kid left in was the winner.
The questions were many and varied and then came this question. “Who has the biggest nose.” To a tee, all the other kids said Johnny Green! I was shell-shocked; I had no idea I had a big nose. Ok, thank-you I do now but at the time, I was innocent to the fact. Bloody Catholic kids!
So, add Sister Leonie and all the catholic kids who were in the classroom that day to the dislike list.
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