A thread on this forum about 50's & 60's memories would be interesting & we would definitely contribute to it.

Definetly not the stack of Toys or goodies the younger generation today have and dont appreciate .My bag of marbles as well as halfe a dozen smallcowboys andindians boughtr from the woolies of yesteryea where you could seperate the cowboy or indian from the horse..kept usentertained for years!!..
Scooters!!??, go bum some bigger ball bearings from the local garage that were to be tossed out , an old banana crate and a few offcutts from local sawmill , some old nails from the old mans shed , a hammer and a good imagination made the scooter as wellas the billycart used fro scrounging beer bottle which we got a haypney for lol..
Mindyou coke bottles were the go if you could lay your hands on !!! they brough you sixpence each!!!!, which made it worthwhile doing the rounds at the odd buliding site etc lol..
Worst offence we as kids could get ourselves a good kick in the acehole for was getting caught puffing away on a durry :).
And if we strayed further than that the local Bobby would give us one hell of a good kick in the butt before dragging us around to face off with the old man , Gawd Forgive!!!! as he or his hand kicked like a mule ..
Would never ever think of saying NO to the old man or our Mom....
Weekends we had a quick brekky and were off all day either scrounging bottles as previousely mentioned , wading through the eel infested creeks or swamps chasing golf balls for pocket money or down the beach getting burnt to a cinder lol and back home just before dark for a good bath and a warm meal lol and if the weather was good and the fish on the chew we would ride our bikes beyond the black stump n back fishing the jetties or break walls for fish and how that fish lasted all day in a wet hession bag without ice as we so much dont dare not to use today is beyond me lol...
But we look back now and say "Feck those were the years ey "..
No locked doors or windows especially barred windows as so many do nowadays in the cities , no hearing of elderly people being bashed or robbed and you dare not to stand up in a bus or train to hand your seat over to the elderly and you might as well skip town or you will be found :)!!!tracked and punished accordingly :)..
No such thing as unemployment except for those that didnt want to work with the local Steelworks or Gov railways being the biggest employment agencies whether it be a lbaour worker , apprenticeship , shunter , fireman and the listy could keep going on n on so long as you didnt mind rocking up for that medical and a job was garunteed!!..
yep those were the years fer sure :).....
We ate fruit that was in season and only when in season and bloodywell tasted like fruit not prefrozen crap thats been sitting for who knows how long in a cool room somewhere and even thoughit may look like and apricot , Plum , Peach or Nectarine it certainly does not taste like one thats fer sure!!!..
Tomatos that tasted like Tomatos !!!!!....
And what about the good old Drive Inns lol...
Who owned an FX Holden , a Mark 1 Zephyre :)????Beutifull Dreams :)....
Your first ever crush , who sang the song "Your cheating Heart " willl make you weep , youlll cry n cry and you'll try to sleep lol...
No probs camping beside the old creekbed or river on an old tarp for a night or two with a nice campfre burning ey..
And whos had the privellege of camping beside Australind in Bunbury again sleeping on an old tarp , after having dragged for Prawns and Blue swimmers without getting shooed away!!..
Yep them were the years allright lol...
And i could go on n on but will leave room for others to add their memories to this post ..
Onya Hako for starting it :)..

Hmm.
You wouldn't want my younger yrs. till 13 or so
when I started working.

Born during second war, Brain kept memories I'd rather forget as a child.
in area of England that got most bombing. Almost every day.
We were 98% of all heavy. Steel, Coal mining, shipyards. industry in UK.

I was NOT a nice person. fight anything that stood still. Even under 10.
Stole and destroyed everything not fastened down.

We mostly lived in street gangs once mum went to work or let you out.
and had physical wars with adjoining streets kids.
Weapons being. Mainly.
the broken slate tiles of bombed roofs around you.
No Fathers mainly. A lot dead.or didn't come back. Mine bolted.
Mums too busy trying to keep home (when you had one) together.

I was a piece of s==t should have been put down.
Luckily I saw it. so went on fishing boats at 13 to work.
get money and away from environment.

Army at 17 yrs. Lots of punishment. Army style.
Too independent for my own good.
But grew up.
Hopefully to a half normal person.

That's only the edges of it.
Not all were like me. but a lot where.
Blame the environment. Yep. Blame everything else. Yep.

in reality. we had nothing. going nowhere. doing nothing.
It was a mix of all.

Till some of us woke up.
and did something about it.

Others I knew later after getting more civilised.
Same town. parents more affluent. nice homes. good jobs.
Different lifestyle in same time\area.

That's when I said. No way.
My kids will never live here. AND they didn't.

I've been back several times since.
Same town same streets same people
SAME Whinging.
Some never been outside of the town
In their whole lives.

You wouldn't believe it.

Thank god for wheels is all I can say.

Nowadays. Just a bad memory. and reminder to look after what's yours.

And unfortunately.
This is not dreaming. Hence my sometimes attitude.

You in Australia don't know how lucky you were.

and WE as Australians, with lots Aussie born Grandkids are nowadays

Let's have a happy one next. OK

I can't remember back that far !!! Also, I don't have Facebook...

The Belmont Bear wrote:

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I remember having marbles, matchbox cars, yo yo s, toy soldiers, home made billy carts, bicycles that you would wear out your rubber thongs by pushing your foot against the back tyre to control your speed downhill. I remember playing cricket on the road and having to move the fruit box wickets if a car came (which wasn't that often) I remember staying out late on hot summers nights playing hide and seek in the dark with all the other kids in the neighbourhood. I remember building club houses in the bush making a campfire and cooking sausages over the flames or roasting potatoes in the ashes. I remember bungers, rockets, Catherine wheels, blowing up cans and the odd letterbox and large community bonfires on cracker nights. I remember watching shows on the old black and white TV like The Lone Ranger, Whiplash, Superman, The Rifleman, Daniel Boone, Wagon Train, Voyage Under The Sea, Get Smart, the Beverley Hillbillies. I remember my dads old FJ ute with a plywood canopy that had an old car seat bolted in the back for the kids. I remember walking the 4kms to the beach through the bush every day in the school holidays, picking up our surfboards from a local resident who let us keep them under his house, spend the day surfing, probably a couple of scallops and some chips maybe even a chiko wrapped in old newspaper for lunch, then making sure that we were back home before the sun set. I remember a mate pinching one of his dad's big fat cigars which we shared on the walk and got quite sick. I remember getting a job as a paperboy delivering the Sunday papers round the neighbourhood on my pushbike for a couple of bob a go. I remember we had one of the only telephones in the street and the neighbours would sometimes ask to use it when the local phone box was out of order. I remember the hour long journey on an old government double decker bus to get into town so we could go to one of picture theatres that were along Hunter Street. I even remember us having a crack at playing Aussie rules in the backyard but no-one knew the proper rules or how to play so we just went back to playing rugby league or soccer. I can remember lots of other stuff too but it's probably time to let someone else have a go.

---

 Yo Been there also :)!!!!

Cracker night - Dad letting off the crackers on the lawn in front of our house. Sparklers were the only things we were allowed to touch.

Did anybody collect the photos (for want of a better word) of cars or aeroplanes that were inside the wrappers of the Cadbury chocolate blocks? There were books to stick the photos in with information. The bigger the block of chocolate the bigger the photo.

I remember we once came up with a great criminal conspiracy to put the slide out drawer from a box of Federal matches up the coin return off a phone in a public box to catch any coins that someone might try and eject - never got anything though maybe those crooked PMG guys got to our stash first..

I grew up in a street full of boys....no sheilas at all except for baby ones so very male orientated with plenty of aggressive role playing. School was all male as well.
We used bunger guns for gang fights - a penny bunger inside an old pushbike pump body with the wick out the hole in the end, marble or another bunger on top of the first one.
With one of these you could really cause damage. We also had peashooters which were fashioned from wood and bike tubes....shot peas with some force, also some were lucky enough to own a Daisy airgun which could shoot either pellets or potato. Always had a shanghai in the back pocket with rocks in another - streetlights were a favourite target.
Summer was great for catching locusts/cicadas and staying out in the street till about 9pm.
We fished in Cooks river around Canterbury and caught eels which no Aussie would eat but we gave them to the migrants who loved them - used cord then wrapped around oyster bottles. In the grassy parts of the river we would trap finches. Walking past Huttons bacon factory you could hear the screams from the pigs as they were 'despatched'.
Lots of old diggers then and many clearly suffering from shell-shock - our house backed onto the railway line and 2 jumped from the train to suicide.

Good Luck.