As a boy I have vivid memories of almost 80 years ago, of living in a western Queensland town some 600 klms from the Gold Coast.
There were only 2 Temp. Bloody hot and bloody Cold.
We had a wooden stove in our home in a special recess with enough room for us to stand behind the stove. Great to get warm in winter. Water was by way of Bore water and drinking water from a rainwater tank, always on the eastern side of the home.
In the peak of winter, our water pipes would be frozen so we had to fill up the kettles, pots and a bucket with the rain water for the breakfast cuppa etc, and for a morning wash before heading off to school.
Perhaps some homes in Australia are still experiencing similar situations.
Who can remember the Ice chest... Hanging meat safe.... water bags for a cool drink. Milk delivered daily to the front door and poured into a dipper. ( Container)
Hot water for bathing was via a copper fire down near the washing shed and then bucketed up to the bath room. Well a small room with only a bath. no sink.
Movies of that era show people using elevators and the decor of the homes were sort of out of our world.
No home phone. only allowed one Radio per household.
Mum was a stay at home mother.
And best of all, we would have been embrassed if we had been dropped of at school in a car.
Boy the list can go on and on, but we loved our life style of the day.
Boy am I glad to have been part of that experience.
Were you lucky enough to have been living back in those days.??
Years ago on ABC RN someone was talking about how their grandparents lived in the outback. A wattle & daub "house", tin roof & dirt floor, with plenty of drafts. You would get 3rd degree burns sitting in front of the fire place while icicles formed on your back!
We are getting soft!
__________________
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50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
milk man with horse n cart. Trams. Puffing billy trains. Bot belly stove. Wood heater for bathing. I loved that the house was about 3 or 4 foot off the ground and when the bath got emptied it just went straight on the ground under the house. How good was that? Myer xmas windows. Ekka. boiler washer And wringer. Ice man. Hire tv had to put in 2 bob for a few hours. 6 pense to run the boiler washer. Tv tax with frank thring scared the daylights out of me with him on tv saying have u paid Yet N who could forget the outhouse using yesterdays paper square. We must have all had black bums.
It is also lovely to enjoy what we have now. Phone, internet, car, big supermarkets. Lots of gadgets to make our life easier. Air conditioning. Better health. I am only here now because of pharmacutical medications I am sure.
Remember and tell grandkids with love but Live for today and tomorrow. Enjoy.
-- Edited by the rocket on Wednesday 5th of June 2019 03:10:03 PM
My parents tells me that before I was born, they lived in the Blackbutt Yarraman QLD area. Dad was in the forest cutting down trees.
The home they had was a sort of shed about 4 mtres x 4 metres the roof was iron sheeting and the bottom half of the walls were also iron sheeting with wheat bags cut and sewn together to cover the top half of the walls.
Dirt floor and camp oven cooking. and tree branches with plenty of green leaves as a broom.
But that was part of life in the 1930"s.
I have memories of living in a house not in the ""Shack""
You are probably more lucky to still living now with modern medical and science, how good is it to live now, **** the old days cheers blaze
I too grew up in the 40's but in Ipswich & not the bush, so our accommodation was a little bit better. Ours was a rented workers cottage near the famous Ipswich Railway Workshops but it too had the stove recess with the wood stove. Never saw a lick of paint in all the years that we were there. A nice boutique reno these days.
We bathed in a stand in tub (I've still got it in the back shed) until we got modern and had a 'bath room' and that's all it was except for the modern & surprisingly efficient chip heater or 'choffer' for hot water.
Of course for many years we had an ice chest until we paid off a Waltons (aka Wallmart in USA) Kelvinator fridge. Had home deliveries of Ice Milk Bread & the occasional clothes prop man & a Fisho, many using a horse & cart. As a youth I got after & before school work with most of them.
As for medical facilities .. we knew all about preventative medicine with doses of Olive Oil (from the chemist) and caster oil weather you needed it or not. A common cure for a sore throat was a few drops of Kerosene on sugar. Condies crystals were a good option for bathing infections. Blue Bag (used to whiten washing) for stings. Friars Balsam for sores & hot jars to draw the heads out of boils.
We had it all including home made crystal sets for radio reception. The front & back doors were always open to let the breeze in. No security problems in our area.
A few years ago now i had a patient come in with a broken arm after a fall, from memory he was nearly ninety years old.
As i was treating his fracture i noticed his hand all the fingers were crooked, he told me it was a result of a ox standing on his hand while cutting logs way down in the gippsland forest, he rolled up a ball of paper then wrapped his shirt around the hand for a few weeks until the pain went away.
i said to him why didn't you go to hospital ? his reply was " it would have taken a week on horse back and he would have lost to much money"
Things have changed a little.
Pomme.
When we had our ice chest, up till around 1955, my Dad would bring home the ice on his push bike, almost a full spud bag, hung over his left shoulder, while riding up hill and then down again from the iceworks. Didnt get a fridge , nor a car until 1956.We also had a chip heater for the bath until 1960.
Maybe those who miss the past so much should come over here to Southern Africa plenty of locals still live that way in fact they would probably think that some of the things that you describe would be a luxury.
Maybe those who miss the past so much should come over here to Southern Africa plenty of locals still live that way in fact they would probably think that some of the things that you describe would be a luxury.
Cheers BB
In my case it is 'reminisce' rather than miss.
It was a much less complicated life than what is is now.
I can recall when Mum would have our dessert ready which was usually with our hot sunday lunch ... of roast mutton and vegs. I used to jump on my bike with a billy can and go up to the local corner store and get some scoops of icecream and then race home so we could enjoy the dessert.
Also the icecream use to come out to my town in containers packed with ""Hot Ice"".
When we put the hot ice in water it would bubble and create a sort of smoke screen.
How about 3 pence or 3 cents worth of chips. It was enought to feed 2 or 3 of me and my mates.
I confess. ......Forgive me FATHER for I have sined. The 3 pence that mother would give me to put in the plate at sunday school stayed in my pocket.
That 3 pence use to get me a hot pie and a one penny icecream
I can just recall the farthing.... but vivid memories of the half penny.
And broken biscuits from the corner score a bonus.
Even had groceries home delivered.The shop assistant would call in at home riding his bike ... write down the list of items we wanted and deliver the next day also on his bike. Some of the more reputable clients use to buy now and pay later.
Apples were 5 for 2 shillings and Potatoes 5 lbs ( pounds for less tha 2 bob.
I can recall when Mum would have our dessert ready which was usually with our hot sunday lunch ... of roast mutton and vegs. I used to jump on my bike with a billy can and go up to the local corner store and get some scoops of icecream and then race home so we could enjoy the dessert.
Also the icecream use to come out to my town in containers packed with ""Hot Ice"".
When we put the hot ice in water it would bubble and create a sort of smoke screen.
How about 3 pence or 3 cents worth of chips. It was enought to feed 2 or 3 of me and my mates.
I confess. ......Forgive me FATHER for I have sined. The 3 pence that mother would give me to put in the plate at sunday school stayed in my pocket.
That 3 pence use to get me a hot pie and a one penny icecream
I can just recall the farthing.... but vivid memories of the half penny.
And broken biscuits from the corner score a bonus.
Even had groceries home delivered.The shop assistant would call in at home riding his bike ... write down the list of items we wanted and deliver the next day also on his bike. Some of the more reputable clients use to buy now and pay later.
Apples were 5 for 2 shillings and Potatoes 5 lbs ( pounds for less tha 2 bob.
Ahhhh!!!! yes memories.
Jay&Dee
Yep, I can recall all that stuff ..
But I had no church money to pinch. Never got pocket money & we didn't go to church much although I did get kicked out of Sunday School for mis-behaving with the girls.
I had multiple jobs to make a shilling .. Paper sales at the railway workshops @ 4d each, Saturday evening paper deliveries on my bike, bulk milk deliveries in a few streets in my area before school. Had a short stint of delivering ice. The boss had tongs but I had to make do with a square of chaff bag with a slot cut thru to insert my hands. Did up dodgy push bikes for resale. Even got into strife for undercutting the clothes prop man by riding into the bush & bringing home forked saplings to sell to neighbours.
All this gave me a good stake to go playing pool at the Ritz Pool Hall, against the drunks after their Saturday morning booze session. (Pin Pool, Kelly Pool, Killer, one game with small skittles placed around the table - can't remember much about it). We'd look after the tables while the operator sat in the corner playing poker to make a quid. He was still sharp enough to stop us gyping him though.
The Ice cream arrived at our town in a soft green canvass cylinders carried in the guards van of the daily trains.
The candy cigarettes were a favourite for us until we discovered pith cane to smoke. Basket weaving classes were popular. No Nicotine issues.
I used to get the strap for opening up the half loaves of bread, eating the soft centres & closing up the loaf. Dumb or what. But the hot soft bread was hard to resist.
-- Edited by Cupie on Thursday 6th of June 2019 03:53:17 PM
I can recall when Mum would have our dessert ready which was usually with our hot sunday lunch ... of roast mutton and vegs. I used to jump on my bike with a billy can and go up to the local corner store and get some scoops of icecream and then race home so we could enjoy the dessert.
Also the icecream use to come out to my town in containers packed with ""Hot Ice"".
When we put the hot ice in water it would bubble and create a sort of smoke screen.
How about 3 pence or 3 cents worth of chips. It was enought to feed 2 or 3 of me and my mates.
I confess. ......Forgive me FATHER for I have sined. The 3 pence that mother would give me to put in the plate at sunday school stayed in my pocket.
That 3 pence use to get me a hot pie and a one penny icecream
I can just recall the farthing.... but vivid memories of the half penny.
And broken biscuits from the corner score a bonus.
Even had groceries home delivered.The shop assistant would call in at home riding his bike ... write down the list of items we wanted and deliver the next day also on his bike. Some of the more reputable clients use to buy now and pay later.
Apples were 5 for 2 shillings and Potatoes 5 lbs ( pounds for less tha 2 bob.
Ahhhh!!!! yes memories.
Jay&Dee
Yes, i remember them. Groceries on the tick and i learnt if i did not put money in the church bowl or if i did not pay the tram fare i could get a streets golden gaytime icecream
After reading all this its nice to look back at what it was like,makes One appreciate how much better it is now and how good we have it in this great country we live in ,we could reminisce about the old days camping in our tents with there wooden poles,now were travelling in modern vans with there own bathrooms ,I only had one pair of shoes as kid and lived in a Fibro house. Young people today will never hnow how much better they have it....
After reading all this its nice to look back at what it was like,makes One appreciate how much better it is now and how good we have it in this great country we live in ,we could reminisce about the old days camping in our tents with there wooden poles,now were travelling in modern vans with there own bathrooms ,I only had one pair of shoes as kid and lived in a Fibro house. Young people today will never hnow how much better they have it....
