Memories of St Patrick's Day

When I was a kid, I remember Sydney would have a very big Parade on St Patrick's Day.  I am not sure if NSW was the first settlement in Australia and it being a penal settlement, but I guess the Irish (and the Catholics) played a large part in the settlement of NSW.  Having done a little Google, I see Sydney still has a St Patrick's Day Parade which is rather great to hear.

But my earliest memories of St Patrick's Day was when I was at Boarding School at Katoomba, NSW.  Of course being a Catholic school we had a holiday and we would be up bright and early for our day out.  The nuns must have been great organizers as we would head off to Katoomba railway station loaded with bags and bags of sandwiches and also large caterer's tins to make cups of tea.  There would also be very large bottles of cordial and also more caterer's tins to put the prepared cordial in for distribution.  

After boarding the train we would try to settle down and contain our excitement as we were then headed to Blackheath for our St Patrick Day at the Blackheath swimming pool.  I remember the rhododendrons at the swimming pool as they offered so much shade and such brilliant foliage.

Apparently the rhododendrons were planted to commemorate those who gave their life during WW1 and there are 77 trees to remember their sacrifice. 

We would help the nuns to set up camp, then off we would go to enjoy a full day of fun at the swimming pool.  

The nuns would summon a few girls to gather the rest of us up for lunch and we would all head over and collect our sandwiches and a glass of cordial.  We always called the lemon cordial "desert drink" as it was very thirst quenching on a hot day.  We only ever got this treat when we had excursions and picnics.

We were forbidden to go back into the water until we had an hours rest after our lunch and I just remembered something else.  As we got older we would never tell a nun we were menstruating otherwise we couldn't swim that day!!

After a good afternoon tea about 3pm of cups of brewed tea and fruit cake, we would start to pack up and do a quick look around for towels that may have been left behind.  I am sure many items would be lost on those outings, including bathers as we all had to change back into our "Saturday" clothes.  We only wore Saturday clothes (non uniform) on Saturdays and Church holidays.

A train ride back to Katoomba and we would walk past The Paragon which is still in Katoomba.  http://www.pittwateronlinenews.com/the-paragon-at-katoomba-by-george-repin.php

The Paragon displayed the most magnificent iced cakes and hand made chocolates in their window and we would all drool over those delights before being rounded up to return to our school.  I did last visit the Paragon as when in my 30's with my elder son who was about 16-17 at the time.  Unfortunately now I have heard the food isn't so good but the decor is still superb.

Boarding School - Woolwich NSW

My Sister Joan and I went to Boarding School. Two of them actually.  We went to a Marist Sister's College at Woolwich, NSW for just  a few years and then we attended St Mary's Convent, Katoomba, NSW.  There was another sister, Sandra however she lived with my Father and his family and there was no contact until I was 22 and a mother of 2 young children.  Back in the early 50's there was no such thing as a "single parent" pension.  If a woman was divorced and had children she had to work to earn money.  Like it or not, that was a fact.  Both Mum and my mother worked and once Mum started working for someone else as a dressmaker, then it became more difficult during school holidays.  My Great Grandmother also lived with us (Nana) and she probably found it difficult during school holidays to supervise John (Mum's son), Joan and myself.    My mother worked for the Metropole Hotel as a food waitress and the Metropole was one of the "swankiest" hotels in Sydney when I was a kid. 

Not much different in 1956

Back then only the very wealthy would dine out and many of the hotel guests would be from overseas or country people visiting Sydney.  I can remember one time Mother meeting Joan and myself at the Quay and taking us back to her work.  We were huddled into this small room (probably staff quarters) and we stayed there until she finished work.  Occasionally another waitress might call up to see we were OK.  Gosh, we kids were good when I think about it.  I guess she probably finished work about 11pm from the dinner trade and then we got a taxi home to Paddington.  Who knows.... maybe she and Mum had had an argument and Mum told her to make her own arrangements to pick us up from the quay.  But looking back on it, it was strange not to have gone straight home from the ferry ride back from school.

To get to Woolwich I remember we would get the Ferry from Circular Quay and the ferry would go under the Harbour Bridge.    Oh my, the terror I used to feel as we approached the Bridge and going under it that the mighty structure would fall on our ferry!!  We would get off the ferry at the Woolwich  wharf and we usually travelled on the ferry unsupervised by the nuns (as I recall) as the ferry would be full with Boarding students returning from school holidays.  One part of the school I recall was an area we used to call "Greenland" which was part of the college waterfront but so overgrown with greenery and bush it was forbidden to go there.  However of course we did.  I also recall one dessert we used to call Lane Cove Purified Mud which was ever so delicious and looking back it was chocolate mousse.  We used to have mosquito nets over the beds as it being right on Lane Cove river there were mosquitoes in abundance.

I made my first Holy Communion in 1954 at 6 yrs of age in the St Peters Chanel church and I remember being woken very early and I was happy not only to make my Communion, but it meant my Mother would be visiting us that day also.  Mum and my mother made my Communion gown and it was long, as were most of the girls and it had a very big bow on the back and also puff sleeves.  Back then, you had to fast prior to receiving Communion and we were woken at midnight to have a cup of hot cocoa and a slice of bread and butter.  Then back to bed until early waking time.  

Shopping in the 50's

How different shopping was when I was a kid.  No shopping trollies.  In fact there were no supermarkets, just the corner shop.  We went to different shops for different items as some corner shops only sold some grocery lines.  The kitchens were small and my Grandmother (Mum) only had an ice chest prior to her saving enough for a fridge, and that would have been the case for most of us in inner city living then.

Ice Tongs

Speaking of ice chests, I can remember the Ice Man coming and he would be wearing a leather apron and also had several sacks over his shoulder.  He would pick up the ice with big caliper type things and swing it onto his back and then deliver it to your door.  It was then up to Mum to have to lug this big block of ice to the kitchen to put in the ice chest.  We would get 2 deliveries a week in summer months.
The bread and milk were delivered.  We would wash out glass milk bottles after use and leave them on the door step, with payment.  The next morning we always had fresh milk and I can remember the cream on top of the milk and woe betide anyone who didn't shake the bottle prior to putting on their cereal.  Oh but that first bit of milk from the bottle was just so good, with thick, rich cream coming out first.
The bread and milk were delivered by horse drawn vehicles and we never saw the milko, but if the baker's horse dropped  manure out the front of your house, it was sort of unwritten law that the manure belonged to you. And many a time Mum would race out with a small metal dustpan and collect that manure for her potted plants.
Oh I do remember the smell of new baked bread loaf. And it was still warm and Mum would cut it with her bread knife (nobody else allowed to cut it as they didn't cut straight) and butter and jam for lunch.
Joan and I were often sent to the shops to pick up a pound of biscuits, or a pound of sugar.  And on hot evenings after dinner Mum would send me to the shop to buy a brick of ice cream as I was a runner and the ice cream wouldn't melt on the way home.
Looking back, there was little waste even in so far as packaging. The sugar, biscuits etc came in a brown paper bag after being measured whilst you were in the shop. The bags were then used to take lunches to school.  Ah yes, it was looking after the planet and "being green" back then.

Growing up in Paddington, NSW

I lived in Paddington, NSW until I turned 13.  My sister and myself lived with my Mother and my Grandmother in my Grandmother's terrace house and we went to boarding school in the Blue Mountains, Katoomba, NSW.  Neither Joan or myself were allowed to play in the street however we were permitted to go to Centennial Park but "never talk to strangers".  How strange back then when children were permitted to go to the Park as today it would be most dangerous. The park is 360 hectares and was a great place to learn to drive and also wash the car and picnic. My mother learned to drive there which was less hair raising than when Joan and I had to sit in the back seat and she would drive to my Aunt and Uncle's home in Waverly.

Centennial Park

My grandmother (Mum to us girls) let rooms in her Terrace house. Mum had her bedroom at the front of the house, ground floor.  John (her son who is 10 yrs older than me) had his bedroom in what would have been the lounge room in former (and later days) and partitioned to make it a private room.  Then we had Sergeant Ware, a copper at the local police station in Woolarah had a bedroom on the 1st floor.  We also had Mrs Smith who was a bit of a worry and tended to drink somewhat on the first floor also.  My mother, Joan and myself shared the front large bedroom, which had a balcony kitchen on the first floor.
There was a bathroom with a penny heater for hot water.  Years later when I moved back as a young married woman, Mum had saved jars of pennies and we still used them for the bath heater.  Downstairs was  an eat-in kitchen and a small room that was used as the family room.  The kitchen was a sort of lean to addition and outside the kitchen door there was a strip to take you to the "back yard" which was probably the size of a bedroom.  What helped to make the back yard so small was a lean to laundry, half of which contained a double cement sink and a copper (and later a washing machine).  The other end of the lean to was stacked and stacked with items Mum figured were worth keeping and also tools as she was a real whizz at fixing things.  In the backyard was a double pole held clothes line.  Gosh I loved hanging washing on that lime and hoisting the pole up and then pulling the ropes that worked the pulleys ....
Also in the back was an outdoor dunny (toilet) with a wooden seat and a pull chain flush.  As there was no toilet paper back then. Mum would get us girls, when we were home from boarding school, to cut newspaper into squares and thread them on a piece of heavy wire to hang in the toilet.
From the back yard was a gate to a walk only lane-way and sometimes going to the toilet was hairy as we were one street behind Oxford Street and the "Light Brigade" hotel and drunks might call in to use an outdoor toilet!  No light in the toilet and many a time we would call on either Mum or my mother to come out as door was locked and nobody answering.
I remember when Mrs Smith moved out (no doubt after another night of her coming home drunk) and Mum was tidying out her room and the top hallway was lined with empty bottles. And these weren't just long-neck beer bottles but spirit bottles.  Considering the only booze we saw in our house was when my bachelor Great Uncle Colin visited at Christmas and he brought home beer from the pub and on Christmas morning Mum would get him to bring home a Vegemite glass of brandy for the Brandy Sauce for the Christmas pudding, we were pretty shocked young girls to see this.  I sort of missed Mrs Smith as once she gave me a ten shilling note to help her up the back stairs where she had fallen and couldn't get up to get upstairs to her room.

76 Gordon Street

 I recently did a Google and found 76 Gordon Street had been on the market and it sold for $1.5M!!!

Some afternoons, Mum would sit on the front verandah on top of the gas metre box (in the corner by the window). Some afternoons she would shell peas for our dinner and Joan and I would help. She said it would be better if we whistled whilst shelling so we didn't eat the peas!  Other times we would just watch the world go by and talk about things that little grand daughters talk to their Mum about.  She was a great listener, my Grandmother.

When we lived in the Terrace the whole strip of 4 were owned by one lady who rented them out.  They were then all an awful oxide red colour with peeling paint but in the 60's were becoming very vogue and prices going up no end to live close to the city.