| Form One Merbein 1967 |  |
| Posted: Saturday, 15 August 2009, 4:14 PM | |
| Hi Pam, Love to meet you at the Parade (Friday). Suggest old Bowrings ex Elders now Pitstop Motors. I have to go to Melb Sat, so will miss all the rest of the festivities, but am enjoying it all so far. Joan Ely | |
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| Charlie and Mrs Ely | |
| Posted: Saturday, 15 August 2009, 10:21 AM | |
| Charlie and Mrs Ely lived next door to us in Box St with their daughters Margaret and Joan.Charlie had been born under Bow Bells in London and maintained his cockney accent to the end.My first memories of Charlie were in the days of six o'clock closing. Charlie would go down to Merbein Pub to refresh himself after a had day in the paddocks at the Research Station. He would walk up the back lane to home passing dad who would be in the wood heap chopping wood. Charlie would greet dad as Mr Cameron and head into his property to chop the wood also. Charlie would be chopping away then Margaret and later Joan would be heard to yell out "Dad teas ready" Charlie would reply with " Alllll right" and put down the axe and head up for tea.Charlie was a great gardener and would always have something exotic that he had brought home from the Research Station. As kids we loved the cotton bushes and would have to have some seeds to plant. Charlie also had a lippia lawn and swan bushes that we kids loved. We would pick the swans and float them on water. Charlie would come in and professionally prune our fruit trees.When we went on holidays Charlie would come in and feed the pets and water the garden. We had a pet galah and when would come home after 3 weeks down the beach the galah would have a smokers cough for weeks a perfection imitation of Charlie's cough.Charlie also had an extensive vegetable gardens with all kinds of vegetables. I'm sure he supplied the Ely kitchen and many other families with vegetables. On hot nights the glow of Charlies's cigarette could be seen as he watered his beloved garden.When Margaret was at home and sleeping out in the sleepout on the verandah dad when he went out to get the Sunraysia Daily, would throw a stone on the galvanized roof to get her out of bed to start work at Tellefsons.Charlie always referred to Mrs Ely as the missus. Mrs Ely had gone deaf as a teenager. We rapidly learnt to go in the back door at Ely's and you would have to tap Mrs Ely on the shoulder to get her attention. We also learnt to look Mrs Ely in the eye and speak clearly. She was really good at lip reading and nothing escaped her. Mrs Ely was really good with her hands and would always be making something. She was well before her time with recycling and would often make useful items out of recycled materials. I have a very much cherished duster that Mrs Ely made out of recycled bread bags. Cards were also a highlight of Mrs Ely's week she would tell you in great detail of the card games that she had played down at The Legion Hall. Les Barnes called her "Fridee" as she slways went over to see Mrs Barnes across the road on a Friday.On one memorable occasion Dad was chopping down our gum trees on the boundary fence of Ely's. Charlie was helping him and one limb inadvertently landed on Mrs Ely's Hills Hoist taking in out. Charlie in the usual Charlie style responded to Dad's apologies with " She'll be right"With the passing of Charlie and Mrs Ely I knew that it was the end of an era. They weren't going to make wonderful people like them again.Diane Cameron | |
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| Greg Norman /customs contact. | |
| Posted: Friday, 14 August 2009, 10:02 PM | |
| Hi Greg, Don't think you will remember me but maybe my fam? We left Merbein when I was 17yrs and moved back to Melb. My dad worked for the customs dept and worked with Bill Sheridan at the winery. I remember his lovely daughters! We lived in Commercial St, between Sharp's shop and the High Sch. My dad was Jack Bodddington. He played golf at Merbein and was good friends with Tom and Nance McCarthy, Telfer fam and McCleary fam. I attended St Joe's in Mildura with my older brother Ken and younger brother Allan.... and my younger brother Ross, Our Lady's in Merbein. We lived opposite the McMullen fam and the Lee fam. great to read about all the old Merbein days in the 60's. This message board is a great idea! cheers Elaine (Boddington) Upton | |
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| More memories of the 50s and 60s. | |
| Posted: Friday, 14 August 2009, 5:11 PM | |
| Diane Cameron's latest blog also brought back memories for me of mum sweating over the Fowler's Vacola unit on the stove at night. It also reminded me of my father making huge annual batches of ginger beer. These would be bottled and placed under the house (under my bedroom) to cool. Frequently in the still of the night a bang like a rifle shot would ring out as yet another bottle exploded and smashed under pressure. The sound would frighten the life out of me and nearly cause me to fall out of bed. When school ended each day, time would be taken up with riding your bike, kick to kick footy, cricket, reading and swapping comics, yonny fights and other kinds of mischief. Radio during the day consisted of listening to 3MA (which I think operated from 6:30am till 10:30pm). At night there would be serials such as "No Holiday For Halliday", "Life With Dexter", "Randy Stone's Night Beat", "Gunsmoke" and so on. If you went home for lunch during the day, mum would be sitting glued to "Blue Hills". I'm still haunted by the theme music from that to this day. 3MA was great if you liked country music........however if your music taste was of a more contemporary bent you listened to 5RM (which relayed 5KA from Adelaide); or at night 3UZ (from Melbourne) or 2UE (from Sydney). Television didn't actually come to the area until, I think, 1965. Prior to this a large forest of seemingly 100 feet high antennas sprouted up. People would proudly invite you to their homes to view the new craze and we would sit around for hours watching snow and listening to static. Every now and again a very fuzzy picture would appear with just a little less snow. Great excitement. The town saw lots of visiting circuses and entertainers at the Civic Hall. Once a year the Coomealla Variety Entertainers would hold a concert there and this was very much looked forward to. As I got older we ventured to The Ballerina in Mildura which would close at the very late hour (in those days) of 11:00pm.The house band (I think they owned the building) were The Rhythm Rockets. I still think they were a great band to this day. Every now and then they would have a feature band from Adelaide or Melbourne. September, October and November were, to me, the best months of the year. Firstly there would be the SFL finals (in which Merbein usually featured), followed by the Mildura Show and finally the big one, bonfire night. Great days indeed. Bill Dorrington | |
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| The 1940's | |
| Posted: Friday, 14 August 2009, 12:28 PM | |
| I enjoy reading the messages but they also make me feel my age! Apart from Richard Newland there doesn't seem to be anyone form my age group. I was there from grade 2 to form 2 (1943 - 49). Richard listed some of the names.have they shifted, died, or just don't use a computer?? Perhaps some of their descendants could post some information, it would be great to hear about my form classmates & I'm only soory I can't get to Merbein for the celebrations. Being retired is such a busy life! Barbara Gatliff (now Wellock) | |
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| Bottling Season | |
| Posted: Friday, 14 August 2009, 12:26 PM | |
| Summer time in Merbein saw the Fowlers Vacola unit taken from the garage and placed into production. Initially we had the unit that was place on the stove but the later invention of an electric fired unit saw us moving with the times.In our backyard we had a peach tree, an apricot tree, a quince tree and a walnut tree. These were the first items to be bottled.Bottling day was a big event dad would get out the wooden stool he had made at Frankston High School and place it at the sink. The sink was filled with water and we would peel and cut all the fruit ready to be packed in the Fowlers Jars. Dad being in the hardware department at Bowrings we had all the sizes from the small ones for bottling passionfruit through to the really big family sized one.This was a very social event as we peeled and cut and packed we would be chatting away with dad.The trick to the Fowlers jars was to wet the new ring to place around the neck of the jar. The lid was then placed over this and two metal clips to hold it firm.The bottles were then place in the unit and a thermometer was inserted down the side so you could tell when it had reached the required temperature according to the Fowlers manual. The bottles when cooled would have the clips removed and they would be placed on the top shelves in the walk in pantry. We would then have fruit until the next bottling season.To supplement our supply of fruit we would go out to Ian Kneebones for delicious plums. Then around to Gran Heraths for peaches. She would instruct dad to take the very highest fruit so that she would be able to reach the lower fruit. We would hear the ABC news from the paddock as Mr Herath was deaf.Often people would drop in dip tins full of fruit for us to bottle as well.As I buy canned fruit I remember the good days of bottling. Fruit being plentiful in Sunraysia bottling was the only way practical way to go. Many families were reared on bottled fruit.A great family occassionDiane Cameron | |
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| Life in the 50's and 60's | |
| Posted: Friday, 14 August 2009, 10:22 AM | |
| Life in the 50's and 60's in Merbein was a great era. Times of full employment and Bob Menzies as the Prime Minister. As a child I thought the PM's job was for a lifetime as Bob held the position seemingly for ever.In those times we hadn't heard of greenhouse gas and the ozone layer. The only Ozone we knew of was the Ozone Picture Theatre in Mildura.At 46 Box St we had the chip heater over the bath to heat the bath water. The wood stove in the kitchen and the wood heater in the lounge to heat the house in winter.Wood was easily obtained at the farm at Morkalla . Mallee roots and murray pine for kindling were plentiful. Dad spent many hours splitting the mallee roots and the pine. The heat thrown from a mallee root was incredible.Mum applied the stove black to the wood stove to keep it sparkling.On the verandah we had the wash house complete with the copper which also required firewood to heat the water and the double concrete troughs with ringer. To keep the clothes white Reckitts blue bag was dunked in the rinse water. The clothes were put in the copper and a copper stick was used to move them around and to transfer them to the rinse water in the concrete trough. They were then rung through the ringer and put on the clothes line with wooden dolly pegs. These pegs were handy for kids as they could be made into dollies with the application of hair a far and clothes.Home delivery was the way of the time. We had our groceries delivered from Bowrings and placed on the kitchen table in a box. Meat was similarly delivered by McSwains butchery. Occassionally someone would knock on the front door selling Murray Perch, Red Fin or a pair of rabbitts wrapped in newspaper. Milk was delivered on a horse float - the horse knew the round and would stop and wait as the pint bottles of milk were placed on the verandah. Cream also came in bottles. The Rawliegh's man would also call with his case full of lotions and potions to sell to mum. Rawleighs Ready Relief was great to ease the congestion of colds and Man or Beast would heal most injuries. He also sold household products such as Vanilla etc.Packing was minimal as biscuits, flour sugar, chookfood and dog food came in brown paper packaged by weight as ordered.Evening entertainment was provided by the wireless. As kids we would listen to 3MA Sunshiners the kids club. We were members and had our badge to prove it. When it was your birthday you would listen to hear your name announced. Later in the evening you would listen to such delights as "Life with Dexter" and "Chicken Man".Also to keep us entertained we would read or play board games. Amazingly children were not allowed to borrow from Merbein Library in the early 60's.Weekends consisted of football on Saturdays in the winter as we followed the Magpies to all games. After the football we would go home and prepare to go to the Drive In. The 16th St Drive In was a new innovation in the district and you had to get in early to get a spot. This often entailed queuing down 16th St for quite sometime. My cousin Googs Gooch worked as one of the storm troopers at the entrance gate resplendent in white overall with a large belt and boots. We kids went in our pyjamas as half way through we would fall asleep and it was easier to cart us to bed when we got home.Sundays consisted of church and sunday school in the morning and then home to a roast dinner for lunch.At school we did impossible computations with the cumbersome pounds, shillings and pence shortened to LSD for the purpose of the headings of the columns. We also learnt amounts of length such as feet, inches and yards and the improbable amount of perches and rods. These amounts appeared on the back of all exercise book under the improbably named table of Avedepois. Along with weights such as ounces shortened to oz, pounds shortened to lbs and stones.Coins were commonly referred to as treys for thruppence, zacs for sixpence, bob for a shilling and two bob for 2 shillings.Notes were referred to as 10 bob for the 10 shilling note, a quid for the pound note, a fiver for the five pound note and a tenner for the ten pound note. Goods were often priced in guineas a guinea was one pound one shilling. A legacy of the poms!As I finished primary school with Jack Cross instilling all these computations and amounts in me, I and lots of others couldn't believe it that Dollar Bill was telling us of the start of decimal currency in Australia on the 14th Feb 1966. We began High School in Feb 1966.All through Primary School we were also subject to a quarter pint of milk a government funded school supposedly introduce to supplement our diet and turn us into strong Australians. Imagine a crate of milk standing in the summer for several hours before being given to us!In the summer if you needed ice you would go to Petty's Dairy insert a two bob in the slot and a block of ice would slide down the shute. A hessian bag was provided to convey it to the waiting esky.In these times I was subject to language of a bygone era. Mrs Ely would always refer to something that pleased her as bonza. If we kids were playing up dad would threaten to spifflicate us. Blokes were reffered to as codgers.Times fondly remebered. Life was simple. | |
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| Form One, MHS, Class of 1965, part II | |
| Posted: Friday, 14 August 2009, 9:24 AM | |
| It's not alzheimer's! I didn't include my name in the previous post. I'm looking to catch up with members of our class, who began at Merbein High in 1965 and/or ended there in Form Five 1969. Perhaps on Friday 21 or Saturday 22? Pam Cupper | |
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| Class of '59 Luncheon at the "Gateway" hotel | |
| Posted: Friday, 14 August 2009, 2:05 AM | |
| Ken West and I have done our utmost to contact everyone in our form, however, it was a huge task in a very short space of time . I personally would like to appologize to those that we were unable to trace, however if you are one of those people and will be here on the 16th please don't hesitate in coming along. Hope to see you , Joy. | |
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| Teacher time line. | |
| Posted: Thursday, 13 August 2009, 4:55 PM | |
| For those who started prep in the same year as me 1963 I thought I would go through the teachers names particularly as I just read that Hazel Dowlsey is in a nursing home. Prep was Miss Carter, (Rex was a villain then and demanded his share of attention); Mrs Dowlsey, (with an accasional visit next door to 'Fatty Bradford" for some reading. Good with the ruler between the schoulder blades. Put the fear of god into some). Mrs Anderson, (tight skirts and long hair), Mr. 'Pop' Nicholls, (had the odd smoke at his desk and none batted an eyelid), Chris Hope, (young and learning. Put a snake snake through my plait and then had to unravel it, had students stand on tip toes with their nose in a circle on the blackboard. Never today); Lorraine McGregor, (great on the guitar and fabulaous ballads like 'Green Back Dollar' and the song where a baby was murdered down by the river saiya [unsure of spelling]); John Sherwill (invited those without televison to watch the walking on the moon at his house) and Ron Neville got a guernsey in there somewhere after that. Don Matheson always welcomed us into the 'school shop' and was very patient as we chose lollies by moving from one end of the counter to the other, choosing 'one of those, and one of those and another one of those!' I rode my pony to school a few times and Don allowed me to keep him in the back yard of the shop until it was time to ride home. Lunch orders often a nip and a cream bun. (not the healthiest selection). Then the big transition to Merbein High. Laurel Donaldson. | |
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