Child Brides Two
Without Prejudice
In the 70's there was a group of us. All really young mums, that listened to our husbands and breast fed our kids. After we found that being a stay at home mum was a lot of boring work and our hard working husbands not much fun we decided to rock the suburbs. It was the time of the Eagles and Lying Eyes, The Young And The Restless and Mary Kay parties.
I was 19 and already had two babies when we moved to the arid market gardens of Keysborough. Dingley was the Upper Class Suburb then and we couldn't afford the prices. Springvale South was a little upper and Keysborough came a lowly third. Its the other way round now, mainly due to the Asian explosion that now sees Keysborough as a target market. mainly due to its close proximity to Haileybury College.
We were the second house in our court to be built and out of the back window the beautiful Dandenongs could be viewed. There was no Parkmore Shopping Centre. Believe it or not Dandenong was the shopping capital then. We caught the bus along Cheltenham Road smiling at surly bus drivers that had to help us with our enormous pushers.
We met up at Coles Cafeteria with our kids strapped in and feeding them hot chips which we blew and blew on and fed the morsels to our little chicks like Mama Birds. Then we would go around Katie's and anything I hated you could guarantee Laurel my best girlfriend would love. She was a stunning red head with the bluest eyes and was my husbands ex fiancé and four years older than me.
She had a sense of style that was like nothing I had ever seen. weird colours and different shapes and I followed it slavishly. She looked like Christine Keeler with her red hair and stick thin figure. She said she had been an enormously fat kid but I found it hard to believe.
I had fallen in love with her house the first time I saw it. All honey coloured polished boards and muslin curtains. Paper lights and Indian coloured rugs. I was heavily pregnant with my second child when we first met and have stayed friends forever.
She alone made my life bearable most of the time. An only child from wealthy family who lived in Carnegie, she was used to the finer things in life and was as down to earth as you could get in contrast. She was married to the nazi, which is what we called her husband. He worked as a Dog Catcher for Prahran Council and often pretended to be a cop for his own amusement.
She was soon fed up with him and one time he came home, demanded coffee. Laure knew she had no milk and not wanting to stir his ire, filled his cup with breast milk and made sure she only told him after he had finished it. He was nasty. once she told me he rubbed his sons nose in his nappy as if that would somehow stop him at 18 months from pooing in it.
Then more neighbours moved in around us. Sylvia, the Slovenian with her stunning Dutch husband,Robyn, the Teacher, who was the oldest of us all. I am still friends with all of them and. My Sister In Law, Karin, who lived in Noble Park and my husbands sister, Pauline who also lived around the corner.
We raised money for The Freedom Club, a new idea for stuck at home Mums, to have two sessions of freedom from kids every week. Professional child care was unheard of then.vee loved our kids but felt like our brains were turning to mush.
To be continued
In the 70's there was a group of us. All really young mums, that listened to our husbands and breast fed our kids. After we found that being a stay at home mum was a lot of boring work and our hard working husbands not much fun we decided to rock the suburbs. It was the time of the Eagles and Lying Eyes, The Young And The Restless and Mary Kay parties.
I was 19 and already had two babies when we moved to the arid market gardens of Keysborough. Dingley was the Upper Class Suburb then and we couldn't afford the prices. Springvale South was a little upper and Keysborough came a lowly third. Its the other way round now, mainly due to the Asian explosion that now sees Keysborough as a target market. mainly due to its close proximity to Haileybury College.
We were the second house in our court to be built and out of the back window the beautiful Dandenongs could be viewed. There was no Parkmore Shopping Centre. Believe it or not Dandenong was the shopping capital then. We caught the bus along Cheltenham Road smiling at surly bus drivers that had to help us with our enormous pushers.
We met up at Coles Cafeteria with our kids strapped in and feeding them hot chips which we blew and blew on and fed the morsels to our little chicks like Mama Birds. Then we would go around Katie's and anything I hated you could guarantee Laurel my best girlfriend would love. She was a stunning red head with the bluest eyes and was my husbands ex fiancé and four years older than me.
She had a sense of style that was like nothing I had ever seen. weird colours and different shapes and I followed it slavishly. She looked like Christine Keeler with her red hair and stick thin figure. She said she had been an enormously fat kid but I found it hard to believe.
I had fallen in love with her house the first time I saw it. All honey coloured polished boards and muslin curtains. Paper lights and Indian coloured rugs. I was heavily pregnant with my second child when we first met and have stayed friends forever.
She alone made my life bearable most of the time. An only child from wealthy family who lived in Carnegie, she was used to the finer things in life and was as down to earth as you could get in contrast. She was married to the nazi, which is what we called her husband. He worked as a Dog Catcher for Prahran Council and often pretended to be a cop for his own amusement.
She was soon fed up with him and one time he came home, demanded coffee. Laure knew she had no milk and not wanting to stir his ire, filled his cup with breast milk and made sure she only told him after he had finished it. He was nasty. once she told me he rubbed his sons nose in his nappy as if that would somehow stop him at 18 months from pooing in it.
Then more neighbours moved in around us. Sylvia, the Slovenian with her stunning Dutch husband,Robyn, the Teacher, who was the oldest of us all. I am still friends with all of them and. My Sister In Law, Karin, who lived in Noble Park and my husbands sister, Pauline who also lived around the corner.
We raised money for The Freedom Club, a new idea for stuck at home Mums, to have two sessions of freedom from kids every week. Professional child care was unheard of then.vee loved our kids but felt like our brains were turning to mush.
To be continued
