David Grant YHS 1957 emailed - Our little group had the best turn up ever and we are going to make sure a lot more turn up next time.
(Photo attached) L-R: Jimmy Demetrious, Keith Grant, Zenon Miltiadius
I recently found an old photo of my father taken outside his shop which was on the new library site next to the picture theatre, next to Brian Langdon’s shop. He repaired everyone’s shoes and Peter Cleverley’s grandfather, who lived in Fairfield just down the road from the Presbyterian Church, used to work at home and repair those shoes that dad couldn’t fit in. Mrs Bill Woods used to work in the shop and Bill would always be in the shop for a talk. Mrs Fairclough (Joyce I think) was the next to work for my father. She had the end of her finger cut off whilst playing with the machines. After she left, my mother worked in the shop...and, of course, I worked there to pay for the pound note I lost (David is going to tell us the story of the lost pound note in the next newsletter). The old shops were demolished to make way for the new library and dad shifted into a shop in Garden Street in 1954. Zenon Miltiadus bought out my father in late 1956 and Dad returned to "working" for the SEC. As a result, we had to move out of our house (because the house went with the shop, even though we had been living in it years before dad opened the shop!) and we shifted to Newborough. I had one term at East Newborough before returning to Yallourn High School to be terrorised by Mrs Parsons. Zenon is still alive and lives at Lakes Entrance. Jimmy and Zenon were both Greek Cypriots. I learnt a lot about how things are done in Cyprus such as if you drink coffee all day, you only have to think about work. They used to take me to Meadows Cafe every Saturday morning for coffee. I was their excuse for taking longer that usual for morning tea. They didn't tell me about how to make bombs etc. I found that out when I served with the United Nations in Cyprus in 1970 and 1971.