Memoirs - Page 8

The only living areas in which I resided as part of the family were:

1. Perhaps - no personal recall or knowledge - 270 Bridge Road, FOREST LODGE;

2. 205 Bridge Road, GLEBE (a heavily trafficked thoroughfare/link between the inner Western suburbs and the City - via PYRMONT and its bridge). I assume they moved there - a bedroom and a bed sitter apartment at street level - shortly after I arrived. There were several flats on, I think, three levels and we shared bathroom, toilet and laundry facilities with the several other flat dwellers. I remember (often) being bathed - with my brother - in a large aluminium tub (provided compliments of Vic AITKEN) in the centre of our communal room which served as a lounge/dining/sleeping area as both Vince and I were terrified of going to the (upstairs) communal bathroom and being at risk of being locked in there, alone and forgotten. The laundry facilities [basement level] were very basic and the one seater toilet was "way down" the back yard (and, of course, Unisex - a term unknown in those days)

3. 5 Albert Street, ERSKINEVILLE (on the borders of NEWTOWN and MACDONALDTOWN - each of which sported railway stations, as did ERSKINEVILLE itself). This residence we "inherited" from sister Margaret and her husband Victor who, with their two sons (Glenn & Lindsay) moved - upwardly mobily - to the newer suburban area of BIRRONG (near BANKSTOWN) in about 1946/47. Here we had, as renters, a master (front) bedroom and a second (which Vince and I shared); a dining room/ kitchen, a laundry (sporting a large copper for clothes washing and for heating bathwater) and a cubicle bathroom - all of these on a single level. The toilet was, once again, at the rear of a small and short backyard but, catering for only four people in the one family, was an unheard of (user-friendly) luxury. Whereas, in the Glebe, Bridge Road was a four lane freeway, heavily and consistently trafficked by cars, trucks and buses. Albert Street, ERSKINEVILLE, was by comparison somewhat quieter, less formidable and small. On the opposite side of the narrow street to us, however, was a noisy and much used railway line. Vince and I continued to commute to FOREST LODGE (St. James') to complete our education to Intermediate level.

[Mum, by the way, eventually moved on-neither upwards nor downwards - to a similarly appointed semi-detached cottage in 57 O'Connell Street, NEWTOWN (again as a renter) in the late 50's/early 60's where she lived until her death in 1974. The move followed many attempts over a long period by her landlords' agents to have her change residence (for their purposes) which she had successfully resisted.

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