Keysborough-Early 70's
Without Prejudice
It was to be our home for almost 20 years. After that would come many moves. Many years getting back to "normal". But in those days Keysborough was "The Place". We lived in a brown brick house that was originally a "Spec Home" by Larwin Shiff. We paid more than the $14,000 original price as we changed a few things and added an ensuite, taking the total up to $17,000. We moved in on April 10th 1973.
My boss at Target Chadstone gave me the day off and B picked me up from there and we excitedly drove to Keysborough, to our brand new house. B had a small factory in Cranbourne, Hi Line Engineering and made gates and fencing.
He also did welding jobs and on site installation of fencing. he had a local apprentice, Mark Parker, who was funny and young and hard working.
B and I held the girls up to their new house, Debbie was 2 and Yvette 1. The house at Parkland Court situated in a court, safer for the girls we thought when we saw the land. In those days the 70's, Dingley was the "Posh" suburb and Keysborough and Springvale South the less wealthier suburbs. More working class, blue collar. We had one neighbour, a childless couple but there were frames going up all around. Our backyard was just land as far as the eye could see and had a great view of the Dandenongs.
The house was small by todays standards but to us it was heaven and lots of mud, mud everywhere. Luckily we had no carpets, just boards. I wasn't happy at them as they were noisy and cold in winter and for the first winter we had no installed heating and survived with a kerosene heater. I was at work full time anyway for the first winter and stopped about September of that year. I felt the girls needed me more and B was earning good money.
I had my licence by then and could drive everywhere in my powder blue mini that I bought for a $100 from our next door neighbour, Serge. The house was basic and humble, 4 bedroom, lounge, family room off a tiny kitchen, en suite to main bedroom. the kitchen was orange and the curtains de rigeur were Purple satin in one, teal green in another and our lounge room ones, heavy slub green. Mission brown painted trim on all architraves.
Parkmore Shopping centre was not yet complete when we moved in so the closest shops were Dandenong. Dandenong being the upmarket place to shop as it has Katies and a Woolworths with a cafeteria. My girlfriends, also with little kids, used to meet me there and we would have something to eat as a treat. None of us had time in those days to be watching our weight, we were too busy chasing children around. We would have the pie and chips with gravy or a sticky bun.
There were loads of us stay at home Mothers in those days. Robyn, a teacher, Syl, who worked afternoon shift at W.D. and H.O. Wills, Syl had not long returned from Holland with her hubby and 3 boys, after a year spent over there. Laurie, who was my ex husband's 1st girlfriend/Fiance. She and I were good friends and still are as I am with the others. My two sisters in law lived locally too. Karin who was married to my brother and Pauline, B's sister.
Sandra of the childless couple had a baby as well, Serg's wife, Paula, was Italian, Carol worked as she was lucky enough to have a Mum that minded her kids. Soon in Parkland Court we were surrounded by young couples with small kids. So many kids and they all played together in the bowl of the court. We were at the 11 oclock of that circle, Sandra and Chris at the apex. They had the most magnificent grey cat that visited us daily and became our adopted pet for years.
We were so busy in those days rasing kids and never getting out. So the women of the KPR decided to try and raise funds for a "Freedom Club". A place we could all use to get a break from the children and volunteer time back minding others children. Baby sitting was done that way by the KPR ladies, so the idea evolved from there. The baby sitting scheme was a scheme where you banked hours up by minding another families children. then you could "withdraw" your hours by someone minding yours. It was a great scheme and worked well as we were all cash strapped in those days.
Creches at that time were virtually unheard of and unthinkable for me anyway as B hated them. It was my job to take care of the house and the children. No dummies, no creches.
I was the youngest of the "Club" at 21 with 2 little girls, Robyn was 10 years older, Syl 9, both way more sophisticated and worldly than me. Laure was 5 years older and definitely the "Glamour Puss" of all of us "Motherly Mums". She had flamimg red hair, long, and percing blue eyes and always tanned herself, all over, as much as possible. Syl was a "wog", ( she called herself that ) of Slovenian birth. Syl was the wildest of all of us. Robyn was the most sensible. I just trailled along and began changing my manner and dress to be part of the group.
We all decided to help Robyn with the Freedom Club. I became a fund raiser and the job was such fun. Laure and I worked tirelessly as did a new member of the group, Sharon. Sharon had 4 kids before we all did and had her hands full with her eldest. Hadyn her oldest son had heaps of problems so she was always tired as we all were. My MIL had said,
"You're tired for 10 years after you have kids"
She was so right. we were perpetually tired and at times were operating on "empty", a tiredness from kids and begging for just 24 hours of sleep. Sleep being more precious than money or sex. But we enjoyed each others company and met up regularly at Woolies or Katies, the hall that we held the Freedom Club in while we awaited funding.
We met up at the public innoculations at the same hall and were saddened to hear years later our laughing jolly Doctor who gave our babies their needles had suicided. But we were all just young women, Mothers and Wives too early, missing our teenage years and they were to come back to haunt most of us later.
There was another sort of Club operating we heard at that time. None of us were involved but heard through the grapevine that a Wife Swapping Club existed in Keysborough. this filled us with delight as we knew most of the people involved and were suitably disgusted and thrilled at the same time.
It was the 70's, remember? We were still coming out of the 60's, the "free love" generation. Most everyone smoked in those days. Syl gave us free packets from her work, B smoked and kept an ashtray next to the bed so if he woke in the night he could have one. I didn't smoke. I was perpetually pregnant for years, four in total and had 4 girls under 6 by the time I was 24. I made B give up and I ironically took it up at 28. Hash and MJ was easily had as well but was too expensive for most of us.
If the English Boys came over we all had some but it seemed to do nothing, alcohol being cheap and much more fun. I didn't drink in those days, not a drop and still am pretty much like that. not liking the taste or the calories too much. B spent a lot of time with the English Boys at a hotel in South Yarra, nicknamed Maisies and would drive home absolutely legless.
Long hot summer days beckoned us that year. We young wives all sunbaked and smoked, turning our stretch marked bellies to the sun. Oiling ourselves in baby oil. Syl saw her back fence neighbour kissing a man on the back step who wasn't her husband. It was the Summer Of Love and the Eagles "Lying Eyes", we heard that a mum at the Freedom Club regularly had sex with other men and her hubby used to peek in through the window to watch.
we were scandalised. We knew this girl and from then on looked at her in a whole new light. Laure and I had the strictest husbands who were both emotionally cold. She rid herself of hers first in our club but that was yet to come.
Laure soon grew bored with the stay at home Mum bit and enrolled herself and me in a 10 week course at Monash Uni. A "Stay at Home Housewives" course. for two hours a week we were able to attend and do a different activity each time and then whatever was our favourite we did for another month. the corse was free and included havinf the children minded.
We were rapt at being accepted and went together. We did Tennis, Golf, Archery, Pottery, Yoga, Swimming, and we enrolled again and did it all over again, so happy to be just ourselves for two hours a week. Not just wives and Mothers. Laure and I were wicked Mothers, anyway. We once did duty at the Freedom Club in Keysie Hall. Laure wanted to watch a particular episode of The Young and the restless that day.
We were all addicted to our daytime soaps in those days and there was no such thing as taping an episode, the technology probably existed but we couldn't afford it. So Laure crept up to me and whispered,
"Pretend you are sick, we can go home to your place and watch the episode and come back. I'll tell them I have to take you home"
I nodded in agreement and we pulled it off, staying well past our tv episode and snuck back in when it was time to pick up our kids. We were greeted suspiciously by what Laure called the "Mumsy Mums", she said they had the soft bellies and fat track suited bums and looked like they cooked cupcakes and ate most of them.
Laure was always on a strict diet, she said she had been enormous as a child, which we found hard to believe. She ate like a bird. She was very active as was I and we played tennis regularly and tanned our legs. We both had no time for the "Mumsy Mums", once we had been to Monash Uni. We dressed the same, Peaches flared jeans and rope espadrilles with midi tops or flared skirts with rope espadrilles or cork platforms.
I worked part time at KFC in Dandenong and wore the cork platforms to work and the grease and acids on the floor ate through the cork and pieces fell off in chunks much to my horror.
To be continued......
It was to be our home for almost 20 years. After that would come many moves. Many years getting back to "normal". But in those days Keysborough was "The Place". We lived in a brown brick house that was originally a "Spec Home" by Larwin Shiff. We paid more than the $14,000 original price as we changed a few things and added an ensuite, taking the total up to $17,000. We moved in on April 10th 1973.
My boss at Target Chadstone gave me the day off and B picked me up from there and we excitedly drove to Keysborough, to our brand new house. B had a small factory in Cranbourne, Hi Line Engineering and made gates and fencing.
He also did welding jobs and on site installation of fencing. he had a local apprentice, Mark Parker, who was funny and young and hard working.
B and I held the girls up to their new house, Debbie was 2 and Yvette 1. The house at Parkland Court situated in a court, safer for the girls we thought when we saw the land. In those days the 70's, Dingley was the "Posh" suburb and Keysborough and Springvale South the less wealthier suburbs. More working class, blue collar. We had one neighbour, a childless couple but there were frames going up all around. Our backyard was just land as far as the eye could see and had a great view of the Dandenongs.
The house was small by todays standards but to us it was heaven and lots of mud, mud everywhere. Luckily we had no carpets, just boards. I wasn't happy at them as they were noisy and cold in winter and for the first winter we had no installed heating and survived with a kerosene heater. I was at work full time anyway for the first winter and stopped about September of that year. I felt the girls needed me more and B was earning good money.
I had my licence by then and could drive everywhere in my powder blue mini that I bought for a $100 from our next door neighbour, Serge. The house was basic and humble, 4 bedroom, lounge, family room off a tiny kitchen, en suite to main bedroom. the kitchen was orange and the curtains de rigeur were Purple satin in one, teal green in another and our lounge room ones, heavy slub green. Mission brown painted trim on all architraves.
Parkmore Shopping centre was not yet complete when we moved in so the closest shops were Dandenong. Dandenong being the upmarket place to shop as it has Katies and a Woolworths with a cafeteria. My girlfriends, also with little kids, used to meet me there and we would have something to eat as a treat. None of us had time in those days to be watching our weight, we were too busy chasing children around. We would have the pie and chips with gravy or a sticky bun.
There were loads of us stay at home Mothers in those days. Robyn, a teacher, Syl, who worked afternoon shift at W.D. and H.O. Wills, Syl had not long returned from Holland with her hubby and 3 boys, after a year spent over there. Laurie, who was my ex husband's 1st girlfriend/Fiance. She and I were good friends and still are as I am with the others. My two sisters in law lived locally too. Karin who was married to my brother and Pauline, B's sister.
Sandra of the childless couple had a baby as well, Serg's wife, Paula, was Italian, Carol worked as she was lucky enough to have a Mum that minded her kids. Soon in Parkland Court we were surrounded by young couples with small kids. So many kids and they all played together in the bowl of the court. We were at the 11 oclock of that circle, Sandra and Chris at the apex. They had the most magnificent grey cat that visited us daily and became our adopted pet for years.
We were so busy in those days rasing kids and never getting out. So the women of the KPR decided to try and raise funds for a "Freedom Club". A place we could all use to get a break from the children and volunteer time back minding others children. Baby sitting was done that way by the KPR ladies, so the idea evolved from there. The baby sitting scheme was a scheme where you banked hours up by minding another families children. then you could "withdraw" your hours by someone minding yours. It was a great scheme and worked well as we were all cash strapped in those days.
Creches at that time were virtually unheard of and unthinkable for me anyway as B hated them. It was my job to take care of the house and the children. No dummies, no creches.
I was the youngest of the "Club" at 21 with 2 little girls, Robyn was 10 years older, Syl 9, both way more sophisticated and worldly than me. Laure was 5 years older and definitely the "Glamour Puss" of all of us "Motherly Mums". She had flamimg red hair, long, and percing blue eyes and always tanned herself, all over, as much as possible. Syl was a "wog", ( she called herself that ) of Slovenian birth. Syl was the wildest of all of us. Robyn was the most sensible. I just trailled along and began changing my manner and dress to be part of the group.
We all decided to help Robyn with the Freedom Club. I became a fund raiser and the job was such fun. Laure and I worked tirelessly as did a new member of the group, Sharon. Sharon had 4 kids before we all did and had her hands full with her eldest. Hadyn her oldest son had heaps of problems so she was always tired as we all were. My MIL had said,
"You're tired for 10 years after you have kids"
She was so right. we were perpetually tired and at times were operating on "empty", a tiredness from kids and begging for just 24 hours of sleep. Sleep being more precious than money or sex. But we enjoyed each others company and met up regularly at Woolies or Katies, the hall that we held the Freedom Club in while we awaited funding.
We met up at the public innoculations at the same hall and were saddened to hear years later our laughing jolly Doctor who gave our babies their needles had suicided. But we were all just young women, Mothers and Wives too early, missing our teenage years and they were to come back to haunt most of us later.
There was another sort of Club operating we heard at that time. None of us were involved but heard through the grapevine that a Wife Swapping Club existed in Keysborough. this filled us with delight as we knew most of the people involved and were suitably disgusted and thrilled at the same time.
It was the 70's, remember? We were still coming out of the 60's, the "free love" generation. Most everyone smoked in those days. Syl gave us free packets from her work, B smoked and kept an ashtray next to the bed so if he woke in the night he could have one. I didn't smoke. I was perpetually pregnant for years, four in total and had 4 girls under 6 by the time I was 24. I made B give up and I ironically took it up at 28. Hash and MJ was easily had as well but was too expensive for most of us.
If the English Boys came over we all had some but it seemed to do nothing, alcohol being cheap and much more fun. I didn't drink in those days, not a drop and still am pretty much like that. not liking the taste or the calories too much. B spent a lot of time with the English Boys at a hotel in South Yarra, nicknamed Maisies and would drive home absolutely legless.
Long hot summer days beckoned us that year. We young wives all sunbaked and smoked, turning our stretch marked bellies to the sun. Oiling ourselves in baby oil. Syl saw her back fence neighbour kissing a man on the back step who wasn't her husband. It was the Summer Of Love and the Eagles "Lying Eyes", we heard that a mum at the Freedom Club regularly had sex with other men and her hubby used to peek in through the window to watch.
we were scandalised. We knew this girl and from then on looked at her in a whole new light. Laure and I had the strictest husbands who were both emotionally cold. She rid herself of hers first in our club but that was yet to come.
Laure soon grew bored with the stay at home Mum bit and enrolled herself and me in a 10 week course at Monash Uni. A "Stay at Home Housewives" course. for two hours a week we were able to attend and do a different activity each time and then whatever was our favourite we did for another month. the corse was free and included havinf the children minded.
We were rapt at being accepted and went together. We did Tennis, Golf, Archery, Pottery, Yoga, Swimming, and we enrolled again and did it all over again, so happy to be just ourselves for two hours a week. Not just wives and Mothers. Laure and I were wicked Mothers, anyway. We once did duty at the Freedom Club in Keysie Hall. Laure wanted to watch a particular episode of The Young and the restless that day.
We were all addicted to our daytime soaps in those days and there was no such thing as taping an episode, the technology probably existed but we couldn't afford it. So Laure crept up to me and whispered,
"Pretend you are sick, we can go home to your place and watch the episode and come back. I'll tell them I have to take you home"
I nodded in agreement and we pulled it off, staying well past our tv episode and snuck back in when it was time to pick up our kids. We were greeted suspiciously by what Laure called the "Mumsy Mums", she said they had the soft bellies and fat track suited bums and looked like they cooked cupcakes and ate most of them.
Laure was always on a strict diet, she said she had been enormous as a child, which we found hard to believe. She ate like a bird. She was very active as was I and we played tennis regularly and tanned our legs. We both had no time for the "Mumsy Mums", once we had been to Monash Uni. We dressed the same, Peaches flared jeans and rope espadrilles with midi tops or flared skirts with rope espadrilles or cork platforms.
I worked part time at KFC in Dandenong and wore the cork platforms to work and the grease and acids on the floor ate through the cork and pieces fell off in chunks much to my horror.
To be continued......
