[Elaine46]

When I think of my childhood, the most joy I get , is thinking of the norm.
A typical afternoon. The carefree joy of just being a kid and playing with my friends.
It might be cliche….. but its true , life was simpler and safe back then.
Let me take you back to the late 1950s.

Coming home after school, opening the front door and being hit with the aroma of fresh baked cupcakes and treats, dumping my schoolbag and grabbing a cupcake and racing out the back door before mum caught us.
All us kids from the neighbourhood would then play games out on the street ( hopscotch, countries and rounders ) until the sun went down and we would start to hear our mothers call dinner time.

 

[Liag]

Sitting around the fireplace with family and friends in our ski lodge in Perisher Valley, in the days when, if you wanted to ski down a hill, you had to climb it first

 

[Ivory]

I experienced what could be best described as an impoverished childhood. We relied on the veggie patch for our vegetable intake and excess vegetables were preserved. Protein collection was one of my jobs, although it never felt like doing jobs. We set rabbit traps, catching both rabbits and hares, put out yabbie traps in the church dam and went mushrooming, with the best picking ground being the local catholic cemetery. If we saw Wally, the local grave digger come into the cemetery we got in quick, didn’t want anyone trampling the mushrooms! Cleaning the rabbits and hares was a job that I really didn’t want to do but I could earn threepence per skin which was an amazing windfall as we received no pocket money.

It was quite a demanding period of time but I learnt a lot, and when we weren’t doing chores we were up to mischief. My greatest joy was stuffing preserving jars with sand and a penny banger. We would clamp on the lid, light the fuse and then duck. Sixty years down the road that practice appears quite dangerous.

 

[Christine H.]

I think I was about 4 years old, there was a small creek across the road from our home and I went fishing. I had a fishing line with a sinker and hook with some red meat on it. I walked across the road over the bridge to a little pond area, I threw the line out till the meat landed on some weed growing on the bottom of the pond.
I laid back on the raised bank, looking at the sky enjoying the quiet. Then suddenly there was a hard pull on the line, I looked and saw an eel on the hook and a yelled my head off, "help help" I screamed. My father and brother ran over to me, where they pulled in the line and I proudly walk home carrying my eel still on the hook.

 

[novezar]

My best memories as a youngen was, & I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned, was none other than "Cracker" night & the bonfires. Celebrating 'Empire Day", 24th of May.
My dad loved buying the biggest you could get. We always let the sky rockets off last.
Another trick was, where my sister, brother & self would go & watch all of our neighbours let theirs off first.
There were quite a number of kids all about the same ages living close by.
When they were all finished, we'd go home to let ours off.
Because we knew we had the best lot of crackers than the other families.
I really think that both our parents enjoyed the night just as much as us 3 siblings.
Great times were had.

 

[Miss muffy]

9 of us 5 girls 4 boys all close in ages mum legally blind so definitely very little money lived in run down rentals from Redcliffs Kerang Shepparton Yarrawonga wherever there was work for dad as a pastry cook, but as kids we had a lot of fun (and always a yummy pie)when there is no money for toys or bikes we did our own thing we had each other and made up all sorts of games from building cubby houses out of scraps of material to climbing trees and pretending we were either looking out for pirates or the frontier Indians our favourite game cowboys and Indians , at one stage when we lived in Kerang the Lodden river was not far from us so we run across the very quiet highway and straight down the bank of the river and try to stop before plunging in , needless to say always one in the river would be pulled out holding a long stick with siblings pulling the other end we had very little but always had a lot of fun Santa always bought us what we needed not what we wanted and to this day we are all very close and always there for each other oh and a stray dog or 2 was always taken in , also dad used to quite often bring a swagman that was down on his luck home for a meal as well , the good days when we felt safe going to the milk bar or walking a couple of miles to school (no money for bus )we all survived

 

[Lindy Pegler]

My father died suddenly in 1964 when I was 10. So it was before then. I remember holding his hand and walking along the street near Port Kembla Harbour. Ships would come in from all over the world bringing sailors in the merchant navy of all creeds and colours. Some very dark African men in sparkling white shirts were walking towards us on the path. We didn't see many people of colour back then and I really wanted to stare at them as they were so unusual and fascinating. My father rested his hand on my shoulder. He said gently that we must not stare at them. They were visitors to our country and we must not make them feel uncomfortable. He said they were just as good as we were. Just different. That all made sense to me. I had many beautiful, wise moments with my father which thankfully a lot of them I can remember. But over the years this vivid picture in my mind and the understanding it has brought me in life has kept my father's wisdom alive and meaningful.

 

[Shellface]

As a kid..only girl,three brothers....the boys had a cubby house up high in the juju tree.
I was not allowed.
But one day I managed to climb up and get into the cubby house.
But... I was too scared to try and climb down..,.
I screamed for help from mum.
She helped by saying...well if you don't climb down.,the flying foxes will get you tonight.....I got down...never went back up.the boys are welcome to it!!¡!

 

[JeweloftheSea]

At aged seven I never knew you had to buy a postage stamp and pay for it before posting a letter. So I wrote a letter to my Auntie on a piece of paper and glued an envelope around the sheet of folded paper and drew a fake stamp. I heard all about it from my mother when my Auntie had to pay a fine for receiving my letter. Yes, I am an artist now and have sold a few canvasses.

 

[Migjet1]

I have many wonderful childhood memories but one of my favourites was when my parents took a child from the orphanage in Edinburgh for each of the school holidays and they took us to wonderful places so that she could experience being with a family and going to different beaches, camping grounds and holiday resorts. Her name was Margaret and my parents did that for several years until we came to Australia. They had four other children in the family and Margaret became the fifth when she was with us.

 

[Vicko]

Standing with my sisters at an early age at the end of our farmhouse kitchen table and my grandmother teaching us how to bake cakes and making biscuits.