A Trip Down Memory Lane

[Richie]

Ah back on topic considering properties my ethnic ol man bought a 1/4 acre battle axe driveway block on the north shore back in the early 60’s for $3k haha bloody Anglo territory whilst rest of the fam settled in Strathfield and Blakehurst.

Ours was a fibro two bed at Engadine. Lived in a large garage while it was being built.

 

[Richie]

My first wage having dropped out end of 4th form you know now called Year 10 was working for Clark Rubber $78 a/w.

I dropped out end of Intermediate Certificate had just turned 16 and my first job was working for a photographic retailer in the city centre as I happened to have an interest in photography having been the chief photographer at family gatherings. Think my first wage was about $70 a/w, but I was a diligent worker and a fairly decent salesman so that was raised to $80 after six months. After two yrs there I joined a photographic studio to learn how to be a pro photographer. But it never worked out. So I returned to sales, mainly department stores.

 

[Richie]

First car was a ‘71 HG 6cyc Kingswood for $600 as well.

Mine was a second hand blue Mini Cooper that almost cost me my young life when the brakes failed going down what we called the Alps of Coogee, Arden St the main drag that led down to Coogee Beach.

Check out how steep it is and my brakes went near the top. Luckily it was at about dusk when there was little traffic.

 

[LFC]

Richie thought it was called School Cerificate end of 4th form.
Your early start similar to mine dollar wise.
Hey a Mini Cooper, ducks guts rippa cars those days, couple mates got int hem putting on a bigger carby/Weber, used to hear the sucktion when in the passenger seat - they flew.
Whoah loosing brakes there, I seem to recall that hill my ventures around there, lucky lucky Richie you were blessed !

 

[Richie]

School Cerificate end of 4th form.

I left end of 5th Form.

 

[Richie]

Whoah loosing brakes there, I seem to recall that hill my ventures around there, lucky lucky Richie you were blessed !

Yes with divine intervention LFC. And amazingly I survived without a scratch but I was mentally fragile for a good while and did not get behind the wheel for 12mths. Never enjoyed driving after that to be honest.

 

[Richie]

Guys were the 70s the worst for male fashion. Or what. I called it the tasteless decade.


YUK!!!

 

[ashtongate]

Guys were the 70s the worst for male fashion. Or what. I called it the tasteless decade.
View attachment 2299View attachment 2300View attachment 2301View attachment 2303

YUK!!!

I never saw anyone in the 70s dressed like that.

Except maybe Don Dunstan.

 

[Richie]

I dressed more like this and ignored any of the other horror styles. Tho I could give or take the popular safari suit.

I was unable to afford designer clothes like these.

 

[ashtongate]

You looked like David Cassidy?!

 

[Richie]

You looked like David Cassidy?!

Not me, an online pic I found. Tho I wore my hair that length and wore disco heel shoes and even tried winkle pickers but preferred cowboy boots.

 

[grazorblade]

Grew up in Cairns the creek in our back yard connected to the local park and used to visit the park regularly when 6-12 when my parents thought i was in the backyard haha

Cairns smells of sea salt, bat droppings and stale beer and any one of those smells makes me nostalgic

My oma made her property in kuranda a shrine to the memory of a country that no longer exists (prussia)

My parents were hippies so my oma bringing prussian food and cheep chinese takeaway was a welcome relief from a diet of tofu and kambucca

 

[erogenouszone]

I used to ride trail bikes up and down the length of Lighthouse Beach at Port Macquarie for hours on holidays as a 8-14 year old, we liked the sand because we used to see when the bike hit powerband by the way the sand was ruffled. One year my older cousin got a Honda Odyssey ( dune buggy ) & I was able to drive up the down the beach at 70-80km/h an hour.

 

[Richie]

Grew up in Cairns the creek in our back yard connected to the local park and used to visit the park regularly when 6-12 when my parents thought i was in the backyard haha

Cairns smells of sea salt, bat droppings and stale beer and any one of those smells makes me nostalgic

My oma made her property in kuranda a shrine to the memory of a country that no longer exists (prussia)

My parents were hippies so my oma bringing prussian food and cheep chinese takeaway was a welcome relief from a diet of tofu and kambucca

Good to read your contribution grazor. Sounds like a great upbringing in the tropics. Oma being your grandmother? Wasnt Prussia once part of Germany?

 

[grazorblade]

Good to read your contribution grazor. Sounds like an interesting upbringing up in the tropics. Oma being your grandmother? Wasnt Prussia once part of Germany?

Half germany half poland. Was quite a story

My family came from east prussia and in the interwar period changed their name from a german name (koppe) to a polish one (polshinski) due to pressure. They saw themselves as ethnically german tho and moved to west prussia where they settled. They hid a Jewish neighbour in their home and when oma had dimentia she kept yelling out to hide "the bad people are coming to find them".

My great grandfather was conscripted to fight the russians but managed to escape and help the family flee to bremen. They were surviving without him by buying fish and smoking it and reselling it. Oma would tell stories of walking through bomb ravaged streets to go to the market. When they fled they jumped on the wrong train, an ammunition train, because they missed the passenger train. Lucky in the end because the passenger train got bombed!

In bremen they got teased for being "polarks". Even the teachers joined teaching my mum! After the war prussia got scapegoated for germans militaristic side and they decided not only that it would no lonher exist but that they would ethnically cleanse the prussians out of what became poland. Sending some to concentration camps, others to death marches, beteeen 500k and 2mil died. They then forced assimilation and moved polish people into the area to erase the memory

Incredibly someone from my extended family collaberated with the communists! Got very wealthy from it too. We reconnected her in the 90s well after the wall fell. The family had such a strong tie that even something like that didnt split them. They also didnt split when my aunt married someone who was gun ho about the hitler youth or when parts of the family converted to jw (i suspect a big factor was jws friction with the nazis). A catholic in the family built a kingdom hall but refused to step inside the building because they were catholic!

My family immigrated to Australia after Canada rejected them. My family were called nazis in a grand irony after being called polarks in germany. Oma and her parents reacted by leaning into their prussian identity whereas my mum felt embarrassed and tried to be as aussie as possible

 

[LFC]

wow what a fam history Graz damn impressive mate.
OMG hiding a jew which is so kind but wow damn risky back then, no wonder Oma had re occuring nightmares.
Can imagine the challenges I reckon worse than my parents who were kids but Nonna's/Nonno's and older relos would have gone through similar hurdles.
Just amazing thanks for sharing !

 

[grazorblade]

wow what a fam history Graz damn impressive mate.
OMG hiding a jew which is so kind but wow damn risky back then, no wonder Oma had re occuring nightmares.
Can imagine the challenges I reckon worse than my parents who were kids but Nonna's/Nonno's and older relos would have gone through similar hurdles.
Just amazing thanks for sharing !

One thing that struck me was just how tight nit the family is compared to mainstream australia. In the usa families get split over politics and religion but the family always stuck together no matter what. I think that is pretty typical of most cultures though, with aussies americand and brits being the outliers?

 

[LFC]

EZ very cool up there at Lighthouse beach, I used to frequent Cresent Head alot and we'd drive the dirt roads to all those back beachs, epic times oh the freedom.
Great place for hols.
Dune buggys, now haven't heard that one for sometime, VW motors alot of them, I was jealous never could afford one of those.
One mate had a Mini Moke, I'm sure Richie would recall those, could do beach bashing, dirt roads, went everywhere becuase it was very light.
Richie, that no brake episode - as they say, you saw God mate, not surprised you took quite soemtime to get over that - we didn't know what mental health was back then !

 

[Richie]

wow what a fam history Graz damn impressive mate.
OMG hiding a jew which is so kind but wow damn risky back then, no wonder Oma had re occuring nightmares.
Can imagine the challenges I reckon worse than my parents who were kids but Nonna's/Nonno's and older relos would have gone through similar hurdles.
Just amazing thanks for sharing !

Ditto. War films have been scripted along the same narrative in which your grand parents found themselves Grazor. They were strong and endured.

 

[grazorblade]

Ditto. Many war films have been scripted along the same narrative in which your grand parents found themselves Grazor.

yeah there was one featured in melbourne (the book thief) that reminded me of my family. My wife thought the author might have known my mother haha (mum was in melbourne for college and high school)