Helen Fischer (Hender) YHS 1967
More Memories of Yallourn...
Most of the houses in Yallourn had a front fence consisting of wire with a wooden rail on top - this was great for us kids to walk along the fences! In winter, walking to school when it was cold and frosty, the frost would build up on the wooden rails - we used to scrape this off with gloved hands and try to make "snowballs" and throw them at each other. Did anyone else do this??? All the kids would wear gumboots to school and change in to their slippers to go in to the classroom. Long navy raincoats with a hood were also the fashion of the day - but they really kept you dry from top to toe, they were sooo practical! Remember the "bakelite" wireless in every kitchen? Every morning over breakfast (8.00am) would be the kids breakfast show. The announcer would read out the birthday names and tell them where to find their presents. After this, they would play a cartoon of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig etc. In the lounge room you would find a "radiogram", it was a record player one side and radio the other - underneath you could store your "78" records, it was crafted to be a nice piece of furniture. After dinner one would retire to the lounge room to listen to the night programs - I can remember listening to Amos and Andy. Then came "Television" - my photo of our first "telly" ....................... Retro is very fashionable at the moment - all the young 25-30 year olds are buying this type of old furniture. We were there when it was brand new!!!! Remember the chrome and laminate tables with the vinyl and chrome chairs?? Out went all the lovely wooden tables and chairs and every kitchen you went into had the new kitchen settings - ours was green! There is a retro cookbook out which I bought for nostalgic reasons as all the photos in it were things we grew up with including my mum’s Sunbeam mixmaster (which I still have today - my girlfriend’s hubby has just reconditioned it and said it should go for another 50 years!!). This book has photos of all the old style packets of cake mixes, mixed fruit etc that we used to have in our pantry. How could anyone forget Jardine's Milkbar! As you walked in on the right hand side was a wall of biscuit tins. You used to buy biscuits by the bag. The shop assistant would get down the tin of your choice and weigh the biscuits on the scales and you would take them home in a brown paper bag. You could buy broken biscuits really cheap! I was lucky enough to be able to buy my lunch once a week. I would have 2/- to spend. You could buy a 1/- worth of chips or 4 potato cakes for 1/-. Pies and pasties were 1/-. Cream cakes - I loved cream cakes - my favourite being the long donuts with fresh jam and cream were 3d, I also loved the apple turnovers filled with fresh cream. Donald Duck icy poles were 3d so if you had 6d to spend, you could also have 3d of mixed lollies as well (that was usually at the pool in summer). It is a bit sad to think we were in the era when Fanta and Cottees passionfruit drink (later to become Passiona) were launched! I always have great memories of "Guy Fawkes" night. The night used to erupt to the din of crackers. My brothers used to love the penny bungers but I hated their loud noise! I much preferred the tom thumbs. The night after cracker night you would hear about all the letterboxes that were blown up! My dad used to buy all the pretty fireworks - skyrockets, Catherine wheels and all the ones that would explode into colour. I loved the sparklers as you could run around the yard in the dark with them (and pretend you were a fairy - well I was only little!) Remember when Smoky Dawson used to come to town??? He used to put on his western show at Kernot Hall. How good were the SEC picnics - lollies, ice-creams topped off with a visit from Santa and a Christmas present.
