Record Your Memories
A story in the Melbourne Times Memories are made of this1 highlights the importance and value of people recording the story of their lives. CCHG has already collected stories from a number of people who might appear ordinary in everyday life but who have fascinating stories to tell about their lives, their jobs, recreations, school life and houses, migrating,or growing up in Carlton, remembering what the suburb was like 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago or more.If you have the equivalent of Aunty Betty in the Melbourne Times story, don't let that person die without telling their story. We have members who would be delighted to interview people if you don't feel confident. We are also delighted to receive stories if you have already collected them. Contact us now.
1 The Melbourne Times, 14 April 2010, p. 10
George recalls growing up in Henry Street North Carlton in the 1950s as an exciting time in many ways.
Being a dead end street, there was rarely a problem with playing football or cricket as we did not have passing traffic. One of the neighbours, Bert, was sometimes worried about us breaking his windows, so we would move down the street and continue the game. He worked at MacRobertson's chocolate factory, and sometimes brought home a box of Cherry Ripe off cuts that we got to share.
Outside the street, there was the annual Whittingslow carnival held at Curtain Square. It had music, rides and bright lights. My grandmother and aunties, who lived in Fenwick Street, would meet us there and we would have a great time. There was also Anzac Day. The men would form up at the intersection of Rathdowne and Park Street and march down to the hall in Princes Street where they had a service. Us kids would march behind and those who got to sit on the floor down the front were given food and drink. Then there was cracker night. Two in fact. We would spend the days before gathering wood etc for the big night. We tried getting trees from the cemetery but it was often too green to burn.
There was also the pictures at the Adelphi Theatre on Saturday afternoon. Sometimes for a change we would go to the Palace Theatre in North Fitzroy. Nine pence to get in, 3 pence for an ice pole. A great day out for a shilling. If you had extra money, potato cakes at 1 penny each on the way home were great.
On other days we would go yabbying at the Exhibition Building and when we got bikes we would ride to the Merri Creek to catch yabbies. The idea was to catch them on the Saturday and take them over to Zoo and sell them on the Sunday, I am not sure that it ever worked.
Then there was always the football. The grounds would let you in free for the last quarter. Sometimes we would collect the beer bottles and take them up to the bottlo and sell them after school on the Monday. He would pay 10 pence a dozen, as against 6 pence a dozen if he had to collect them from our homes. Soft drink bottles were somewhat prized as most milk bars refunded 3 pence per bottle.
What a busy life we had, I am not sure how we had time to go to school.
Rhonda remembers her grandmother teaching her to read from gravestones in the Melbourne General Cemetery and taking her to the public library to search for information when children were not usually welcomed in such places. She and her grandmother attended society weddings, Sir John Monash's funeral in 1931 and watched people going into the mayoral ball, all at least as far as the steps. It was novel entertainment. Her grandmother also taught her to cook so she could cook dinner for her grandmother's lodgers when she went into town to 'have tea with Lena'.
Audrey, born in a house on the corner of Macpherson and Amess Streets in 1912, remembered as a 4 or 5 year old standing at the door watching the blacksmith making horse shoes. The forge was in Amess St, next door to Condon's who ran a dairy. They had 3 or 4 cows, which her brother Ozzie took up in the morning before school to graze in Princes Park behind the cemetery where the tennis courts were later built. He collected them after school. The milk was ladled out of a can which sat on a board over the family bath. You had to take your own billy or jug and you could buy a cup of scalded cream for 3d. It tasted lovely on bread and jam.
Dinnie O'Brien was born in Springmount, a small country town near Ballarat, on 13 December 1905. In 1917 his parents' hotel was burned down and the family and their 13 children moved to Carlton. In 1935 Dinnie and his own family moved to 387 Station Street, North Carlton and bought a wood yard at 84 Neill Street. The business not only sold wood and ice but also moved furniture for people. In 1958 he sold the business and moved to 466 Canning Street. He then became the local bottle-oh and collected beer bottles in a horse and cart. He was extensively involved in charity work organising pony rides as fund raisers for local kindergartens and St Brigid's Parish. He was an avid Carlton Football Club supporter and a fan of Carlton, the suburb where he worked for over 35 years. O'Brien Place was named after him after his death, aged 80 in 1986.
Do you have a story we could use? Contact us with your recollections.