[Helen Mary]

Many yesteryears​

I thought I would like to write about some of those things about how we live many years ago and how life has changed for the better with simple everyday improvements that we now take for granted and perhaps our younger members will appreciate life more.
Now I speak as an 85 year old female living in country Western Australia but I am recalling life way back seventy five years ago when I was a ten year old female residing for some time with my mother and younger sister staying at my aunties home in Bunbury Western Australia.
Now this is about the toilet which was a little wooden building up the back yard which was serviced by a large cylindrical container under a wooden seat across from the side wall to the other side and the necessary hole in the centre where we sat and went about our business. We never called it such a grandiose name as ‘toilet’ but was always referred to as the ‘dunny’.
Now everything that dropped down into that container remained there and was built up over the week when a council employee would come and open the little trap door in the back of the dunny and pull out the container and replace it with an empty one. It was your fear and dread that perchance you should be sitting there one day when the man came to remove the container and replace it with the new one placing the old full one on his shoulder as he took it out to the truck in the street out the front. You would be terrified that you could be sitting there one time going about your business when the dunny man came to change it over.
And there was nothing available like our bought toilet rolls. Once a week the newspapers that had been delivered daily would have been saved and then diligently cut into little rectangles about six inches by six inches and then all joined together with a piece of string pushed through a hole in one corner and then the bundle hung on a nail in the said dunny. Believe you me, the toilet roll that we now buy and take for granted are so much gentler on your nether regions than that scratchy paper.
And from the sink that was on one side of the house, it emptied from the plug hole out through the wall and into a tiny open drain of bricks from where it flowed all the way to the front of the block and out into the street. I can remember the drain all being full of green growths and slime etc as the water from the sink gradually wended its way out.
And this same procedure was repeated on the other side of the house with water from the bath and shower over the bath (no special shower recesses then) completed its journey along a similar open brick channel out to the street. No electric hot water but a chip heater that you lit up to supply warm water for your bath or shower.
This was the procedure for all the houses in the area and the way in general how life mostly was in those times.
And the dunny man was also often tortured by young boys in the district as they would go up to his big tray loaded with full dunny pans and being pulled by a couple of horses and they would put a rope behind several of the pans and tie it to a light pole and when the dunny man set off all the dunny cans would be pulled off the tray and spill onto the street and you would hear the guy swearing away and threatening what he would do to them if he caught up with them
Things were sure different then and every one had some chooks in their backyard for the eggs and always had a vegie patch somewhere about their yard for potatoes, pumpkin and peas and whatever. Neighbours swapped vegies with one another when they had too many which was very friendly and lovely.
You did have the local proprietor from the closest store come around once a week and take your order for other foods which would be dropped on the kitchen table the next day even if you weren’t home. You never locked your front door ever and it was always open so anyone visiting could come in and make themselves a cuppa.
The milkman called every day I think and you left a billy out on your front doorstep and he would ladle the required amount into your billy from a big container he had on his truck
Things have changed so much now but I thought I would just write and say what life was like those many years ago

 

[Sethia Soliman]

SUCH a lovely post. Thank you for sharing this with us, @Helen Mary

 

[Dougal]

Many yesteryears​

I thought I would like to write about some of those things about how we live many years ago and how life has changed for the better with simple everyday improvements that we now take for granted and perhaps our younger members will appreciate life more.
Now I speak as an 85 year old female living in country Western Australia but I am recalling life way back seventy five years ago when I was a ten year old female residing for some time with my mother and younger sister staying at my aunties home in Bunbury Western Australia.
Now this is about the toilet which was a little wooden building up the back yard which was serviced by a large cylindrical container under a wooden seat across from the side wall to the other side and the necessary hole in the centre where we sat and went about our business. We never called it such a grandiose name as ‘toilet’ but was always referred to as the ‘dunny’.
Now everything that dropped down into that container remained there and was built up over the week when a council employee would come and open the little trap door in the back of the dunny and pull out the container and replace it with an empty one. It was your fear and dread that perchance you should be sitting there one day when the man came to remove the container and replace it with the new one placing the old full one on his shoulder as he took it out to the truck in the street out the front. You would be terrified that you could be sitting there one time going about your business when the dunny man came to change it over.
And there was nothing available like our bought toilet rolls. Once a week the newspapers that had been delivered daily would have been saved and then diligently cut into little rectangles about six inches by six inches and then all joined together with a piece of string pushed through a hole in one corner and then the bundle hung on a nail in the said dunny. Believe you me, the toilet roll that we now buy and take for granted are so much gentler on your nether regions than that scratchy paper.
And from the sink that was on one side of the house, it emptied from the plug hole out through the wall and into a tiny open drain of bricks from where it flowed all the way to the front of the block and out into the street. I can remember the drain all being full of green growths and slime etc as the water from the sink gradually wended its way out.
And this same procedure was repeated on the other side of the house with water from the bath and shower over the bath (no special shower recesses then) completed its journey along a similar open brick channel out to the street. No electric hot water but a chip heater that you lit up to supply warm water for your bath or shower.
This was the procedure for all the houses in the area and the way in general how life mostly was in those times.
And the dunny man was also often tortured by young boys in the district as they would go up to his big tray loaded with full dunny pans and being pulled by a couple of horses and they would put a rope behind several of the pans and tie it to a light pole and when the dunny man set off all the dunny cans would be pulled off the tray and spill onto the street and you would hear the guy swearing away and threatening what he would do to them if he caught up with them
Things were sure different then and every one had some chooks in their backyard for the eggs and always had a vegie patch somewhere about their yard for potatoes, pumpkin and peas and whatever. Neighbours swapped vegies with one another when they had too many which was very friendly and lovely.
You did have the local proprietor from the closest store come around once a week and take your order for other foods which would be dropped on the kitchen table the next day even if you weren’t home. You never locked your front door ever and it was always open so anyone visiting could come in and make themselves a cuppa.
The milkman called every day I think and you left a billy out on your front doorstep and he would ladle the required amount into your billy from a big container he had on his truck
Things have changed so much now but I thought I would just write and say what life was like those many years ago

The dunny man was on the FBI's Most Wanted List because he was Bin Laden,

 

[Connie B]

Many yesteryears​

I thought I would like to write about some of those things about how we live many years ago and how life has changed for the better with simple everyday improvements that we now take for granted and perhaps our younger members will appreciate life more.
Now I speak as an 85 year old female living in country Western Australia but I am recalling life way back seventy five years ago when I was a ten year old female residing for some time with my mother and younger sister staying at my aunties home in Bunbury Western Australia.
Now this is about the toilet which was a little wooden building up the back yard which was serviced by a large cylindrical container under a wooden seat across from the side wall to the other side and the necessary hole in the centre where we sat and went about our business. We never called it such a grandiose name as ‘toilet’ but was always referred to as the ‘dunny’.
Now everything that dropped down into that container remained there and was built up over the week when a council employee would come and open the little trap door in the back of the dunny and pull out the container and replace it with an empty one. It was your fear and dread that perchance you should be sitting there one day when the man came to remove the container and replace it with the new one placing the old full one on his shoulder as he took it out to the truck in the street out the front. You would be terrified that you could be sitting there one time going about your business when the dunny man came to change it over.
And there was nothing available like our bought toilet rolls. Once a week the newspapers that had been delivered daily would have been saved and then diligently cut into little rectangles about six inches by six inches and then all joined together with a piece of string pushed through a hole in one corner and then the bundle hung on a nail in the said dunny. Believe you me, the toilet roll that we now buy and take for granted are so much gentler on your nether regions than that scratchy paper.
And from the sink that was on one side of the house, it emptied from the plug hole out through the wall and into a tiny open drain of bricks from where it flowed all the way to the front of the block and out into the street. I can remember the drain all being full of green growths and slime etc as the water from the sink gradually wended its way out.
And this same procedure was repeated on the other side of the house with water from the bath and shower over the bath (no special shower recesses then) completed its journey along a similar open brick channel out to the street. No electric hot water but a chip heater that you lit up to supply warm water for your bath or shower.
This was the procedure for all the houses in the area and the way in general how life mostly was in those times.
And the dunny man was also often tortured by young boys in the district as they would go up to his big tray loaded with full dunny pans and being pulled by a couple of horses and they would put a rope behind several of the pans and tie it to a light pole and when the dunny man set off all the dunny cans would be pulled off the tray and spill onto the street and you would hear the guy swearing away and threatening what he would do to them if he caught up with them
Things were sure different then and every one had some chooks in their backyard for the eggs and always had a vegie patch somewhere about their yard for potatoes, pumpkin and peas and whatever. Neighbours swapped vegies with one another when they had too many which was very friendly and lovely.
You did have the local proprietor from the closest store come around once a week and take your order for other foods which would be dropped on the kitchen table the next day even if you weren’t home. You never locked your front door ever and it was always open so anyone visiting could come in and make themselves a cuppa.
The milkman called every day I think and you left a billy out on your front doorstep and he would ladle the required amount into your billy from a big container he had on his truck
Things have changed so much now but I thought I would just write and say what life was like those many years ago

How I remember those days. When we first married we were the only ones inthe Street who had a refrigerator.Allothers had an ice chest. Bakers would leave bread in the bread tin. Oh they were the days

 

[Luckyus]

Many yesteryears​

I thought I would like to write about some of those things about how we live many years ago and how life has changed for the better with simple everyday improvements that we now take for granted and perhaps our younger members will appreciate life more.
Now I speak as an 85 year old female living in country Western Australia but I am recalling life way back seventy five years ago when I was a ten year old female residing for some time with my mother and younger sister staying at my aunties home in Bunbury Western Australia.
Now this is about the toilet which was a little wooden building up the back yard which was serviced by a large cylindrical container under a wooden seat across from the side wall to the other side and the necessary hole in the centre where we sat and went about our business. We never called it such a grandiose name as ‘toilet’ but was always referred to as the ‘dunny’.
Now everything that dropped down into that container remained there and was built up over the week when a council employee would come and open the little trap door in the back of the dunny and pull out the container and replace it with an empty one. It was your fear and dread that perchance you should be sitting there one day when the man came to remove the container and replace it with the new one placing the old full one on his shoulder as he took it out to the truck in the street out the front. You would be terrified that you could be sitting there one time going about your business when the dunny man came to change it over.
And there was nothing available like our bought toilet rolls. Once a week the newspapers that had been delivered daily would have been saved and then diligently cut into little rectangles about six inches by six inches and then all joined together with a piece of string pushed through a hole in one corner and then the bundle hung on a nail in the said dunny. Believe you me, the toilet roll that we now buy and take for granted are so much gentler on your nether regions than that scratchy paper.
And from the sink that was on one side of the house, it emptied from the plug hole out through the wall and into a tiny open drain of bricks from where it flowed all the way to the front of the block and out into the street. I can remember the drain all being full of green growths and slime etc as the water from the sink gradually wended its way out.
And this same procedure was repeated on the other side of the house with water from the bath and shower over the bath (no special shower recesses then) completed its journey along a similar open brick channel out to the street. No electric hot water but a chip heater that you lit up to supply warm water for your bath or shower.
This was the procedure for all the houses in the area and the way in general how life mostly was in those times.
And the dunny man was also often tortured by young boys in the district as they would go up to his big tray loaded with full dunny pans and being pulled by a couple of horses and they would put a rope behind several of the pans and tie it to a light pole and when the dunny man set off all the dunny cans would be pulled off the tray and spill onto the street and you would hear the guy swearing away and threatening what he would do to them if he caught up with them
Things were sure different then and every one had some chooks in their backyard for the eggs and always had a vegie patch somewhere about their yard for potatoes, pumpkin and peas and whatever. Neighbours swapped vegies with one another when they had too many which was very friendly and lovely.
You did have the local proprietor from the closest store come around once a week and take your order for other foods which would be dropped on the kitchen table the next day even if you weren’t home. You never locked your front door ever and it was always open so anyone visiting could come in and make themselves a cuppa.
The milkman called every day I think and you left a billy out on your front doorstep and he would ladle the required amount into your billy from a big container he had on his truck
Things have changed so much now but I thought I would just write and say what life was like those many years ago

They had the fastest vehicles i.e. upwards of fifty pisstins also the expression as flat as a shit carters hat.

 

[Mummabunny]

I remember one New Year's Eve - it was probably New Year's Day, very early in the morning, the dunny man, dressed in a suit, obviously having been celebrating, hoisting his 'work' onto his shoulder while raucously singing "I'm in the mood for love"! Another memory of the dunny man was later, when I was married with small children, being asked by my son, "Why can't we have some of that - everybody else is?" Needless to say we had progressed to a sceptic tank by then.