A Journey Through Time Chapter 2

A Journey Through Time Chapter 2
The Early Years I was born in Glebe on the 21st June 1930 during the great depression, my mothers maiden name was Clarice Lillian Levings. Mum was a country girl from Dubbo, in her childhood, growing up in the bush, she would help her father kill and skin rabbits to help put food on the table. Mum later on in her life become a tailoress for a firm of tailors in the city. Much to my amazement I have a strong memory, as a eighteen months old child of going from Glebe to Maroubra Junction by tram with Mum and Dad, to see the wreck of the coastal steamer the “Malabar”. In 1931 it had gone aground on the rocks about a mile along the coast from South Maroubra Beach. Dad carried me all the way to the wreck. Dad was named Alfred Thomas Wetherall, he was a city boy from Glebe. Dads trade was chrome plating. He worked for Woodward and Thurston in John’s Street, Glebe, many years later Dad purchased the factory. They named me Kevin Alfred, the next three years we lived in Glebe until about 1934, I also have a painful memory of falling off our 1st floor balcony in our terrace house in Glebe, during this period my mother would leave me at a church hall on her way to work; there I was looked after until mum finished work. I hated it, I would sit there all day on my own. We then moved to Snape Street, Maroubra, then a few years later we made our final move to 86 Boyce Road, Maroubra Junction. When we moved to Maroubra I had a lady looking after me while my parents were at work, but she could not control me. I started roaming the streets, climbing down into the big concrete storm water drains and walking hundreds of yards underground. In our backyard there was a large tree, the lady looking after me would chase me with a strap to try and control me. I would climb the tree and refuse to come down. Saturday mornings I would go with the older boys in the street to the milk depot on Bunnerong Road to the horse stables. There they would bag the horse manure, then place the bags onto their billycarts, they would then go around the streets of Maroubra selling the manure for sixpence a bag. During the depression we were lucky with both my parents working. I can remember my mother cooking meals for those families not as fortunate as us. Looking at old photographs, I seemed to have the best of toys like a tricycle, a pedal motorcar and a pumped up tyre scooter which very few children had. Around this time my parents entered me in a children's contest which was run by a Sydney newspaper, I finished second and I still have the photographs from the contest in my top draw. After school the kids in the area would all play cricket, football or marbles and we would play in the park, on the street or in someone's backyard. We were forever inventing new games or dreaming up new adventures to keep us busy until dark. There was always someone to play with or something to occupy our time. We did not need TV's, video games or personal mobile phones to entertain us. At school we played all sorts of sports and games and I would knock around with a number of kids at school. We had plenty of fights at school and would go behind the school buildings to wrestle, fight and punch each other out, and learned to get over it, no political correctness in those days. After dinner the family would sit around the wireless listening to the plays, tell stories and just use our imagination. We would walk to friends homes either knock on their door or just wander around the back to play. We would build our own billy carts, then race them down the steepest hills in Maroubra, pushing each other to see who could be the fastest. There would be cuts, broken bones and broken carts, no-one to blame but ourselves. The milkman and the baker would deliver their goods to your house with their faithful and reliable horse and cart following them down the street and the fruit and vegetable man would sell his freshly grown produce from his cart in the street. We even had the man selling freshly killed rabbits with the blood from the rabbits still fresh on his jumper. Legend has it this is how the mighty South Sydney Rabbitohs got their name. There was even a man that sold clothes props. In those days you would use the limbs from trees to hold your clothesline up. The days of refrigerators and freezers were just a dream and our meat and goods were kept cold and fresh in the icebox. The iceman would deliver our block ice to the back of the house and place the block of ice straight into our ice box. In 1937 my mother’s sister Beatie married Perce Boardman at the Presbyterian church at Marourbra Junction where I was the page boy dressed in my blue suit. The reception was held in our home as there was very little money around and no one could afford anything else in those days. This was exciting for me as I had a brand new Uncle. Perce was your true Aussie battler, never having more then two pennies to rub together. He would go to the local Pawn broker and pawn his only suit to generate enough money, which would allow him to rent a horse and cart from the stables at Newtown. With his newly acquired horse and cart Perce would be down at Paddys Market very early in the pre dawn morning to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. With his cart full he would sell his goods around the streets of South Sydney. There were times during the School holidays when I would jump up on the cart with Perce and ride the streets around the area helping him sell his goods. These were great times. Perce treated me like a son and I was very proud to ride the streets of the area with my Uncle Perce. <Previous Next>
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