TAKE A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

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My mind is overflowing with memories of my old mate Steve whose funeral service was held just yesterday. I spoke his eulogy talking about memories of him from 1973, and organised his Wake afterwards.

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Penny, Steve's sister, and Steve acting out Monty Python skit.
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Steve and Dave paddling for deliverance.
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Steve and old friend Julie
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me and Steve
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Steve and his cat Poosh who's adopted me.
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Grier said:
My mind is overflowing with memories of my old mate Steve whose funeral service was held just yesterday. I spoke his eulogy talking about memories of him from 1973, and organised his Wake afterwards.

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Penny, Steve's sister, and Steve acting out Monty Python skit.
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Steve and Dave paddling for deliverance.
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Steve and old friend Julie
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me and Steve
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Steve and his cat Poosh who's adopted me.
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Lovely pictures Terry, very touching too. Seems like you both were very good friends. May he rest in peace ❤️
 
Grier said:
My mind is overflowing with memories of my old mate Steve whose funeral service was held just yesterday. I spoke his eulogy talking about memories of him from 1973, and organised his Wake afterwards.

View attachment 2956

View attachment 2948

Penny, Steve's sister, and Steve acting out Monty Python skit.
View attachment 2949

View attachment 2950

Steve and Dave paddling for deliverance.
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Steve and old friend Julie
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me and Steve
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Steve and his cat Poosh who's adopted me.
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Very moving. Thanks for sharing, Terry. It's good if one can look back on a long and close friendship.
 
I have another memory as a child.
We went to a jumble sale and were given some money off our mum to buy some cheap toys, when we got there my brother took my money off me, and I went around the jumble sale helping myself to the goods as I thought my brother was paying but he wasn't, he'd kept my money 😆
 
What were your first jobs. I was taken out of school end of Year 11 because my mother never felt I'd make university. She had been arranging with one of my fathers brothers who worked as a journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald for him to take me on as a cadet. I hit the roof and told her I wanted to learn photography as she knew I had a strong interest in that as I had been the photographer at family dos since I was 15. I had my way, eventually and at 17 my first job was in junior sales at a photographic store in the Sydney CBD where I stayed for two years but I craved more than just sales so I joined a photographic studio to learn the art from the ground up. I saved and bought an expensive camera and began processing my own prints. I loved this job but my joy was short lived when a year later the studio had to close. The same year my prized camera was stolen and I lost interest in photography.
 
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After the 10th form I completed an A-level course and trained as a metalworker in one of the most toxic places in East Germany. Aged 19, there was a time span of three months each before and after my military service during which I worked in industry, now in my home town, as a machinist manufacturing electric motor casings in three shifts. I drilled holes and cut threads (tapping) and operated a rotary swaging machine.
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Those were my first monthly wages I earned. I had also worked as a gondolier and, later on, I sorted mail at a distribution centre. I was 21 when I was discharged from the army.
 
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My first job was with my father who ran a pub just south of Belfast. Dad paid me on an hourly basis and encouraged me to save. I did all sorts of jobs around the pub from stocking the bars, washing and collecting glasses, washing dishes in the restaurant's kitchen and at thirteen I was serving behind the bar during quiet times.
With my savings I bought a Brownie camera and a "solid state" portable radio. I didn't know what "solid state" meant then but it sounded impressive. 😊
 
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Richie said:
Gondolier work where in Venice? Was the E G Army compulsory?
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Yes, military service was compulsory. The alternative was to spend the same period of time in jail. For some there was another possibility: If you and your family were Christians by tradition, you could resort to being a conscientiousness objector which meant that you would still have to serve for 18 months but were exempted from using weapons. You'd work as a construction worker basically. And you'd be a pariah as you said, Craig.

Not in Venice but in a nearby landscape park which included being a park guide, too. I go there once a year - down memory lane as it were. That's what they still look like but there'd be more people in the boat than today.

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One of my other loves is music so I found work in hi fidelity music sales. Firstly in a suburban store near home and then in a major department store in the Sydney CBD. I can still recall responding to a customers request and putting the latest hi fi (see below)to a booming level to get the full effect. While at this store I also joined their drama group, my first taste of what was to become my first love, acting. We even toured with our productions. Great days.

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Richie said:
Sounds like a contented job Thomas.
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It sure was. The best job ever. I loved the park anyway and had known everything about it before I took the job. I had to cycle 13 km one direction each day but it was summer and they used to be different. I love this thread as it brings back the loveliest memories.:thumbsu:
 
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Richie said:
One of my other loves is music so I found work in hi fidelity music sales. Firstly in a suburban store near home and then in a major department store in the Sydney CBD. I can still recall responding to a customers request and putting the latest hi fi (see below)to a booming level to get the full effect, from hard rock to classical.
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Richie said:
While at Grace Bros (yes same as Are You Being Served, but ours was the original the Brits pinched it) I also joined their drama group, my first taste of what was to become my first love, acting. We even toured with our productions. Great days.

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That's great, Craig. Back then you could've sent me the latest vinyls, real treasures that I still have including a record player from my late FiL which his wife wanted me to have. What's your collection like?

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In my early years I was mad keen on music too, but that was then. Now I take the easy path with great DAB radios and a big choice of music from classical, folk, pop, rock, grunge, punk, smooth, ... My go to stations are 6ix with sixties to eighties music and the ABC News channels.
Meanwhile my collection of vinyls, cassette tapes, CDs and USBs just gather dust. Most of my old cassette tapes have perished but the vinyls are fine. I started my vinyl collection with LPs from Moody Blues, CCR, Simon and Garfunkle, ... in the late sixties.

my old vinyls with well worn covers
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the last of my dying cassette tapes
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CDs
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more CDs
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My newish micro system.
the usb stuck into its front has 1000 songs on it.
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I am a bit of a magpie with certain things, and it still smarts that my dopey middle brother put all my elder siblings' big collection of 78s out in the sun as he painted our outhouse shed. Everyone was warped and I tried but couldn't save any of those classic records. Doris Day, Buddy Hollie, ... all melted and lost forever. 😫

Having dealt with two funerals this year the home clean outs were arduous and many, many things were just dumped, given to charities, friends, relatives, put on the verge, in the sun, for anyone to take, and they did, even dumping some on their own rubbish replenishing the junk pile. 😄

I'm sure when I fall off this mortal coil, my grieving daughters would dump a lot of my stuff.
That stuff includes my family's memorabilia, pics, medals, certificates, my mother's face powder case still smelling of her....
My pushy sidelings made me the archivist so I do my best as hopefully the next gullible volunteer will do too.
I won't mind. Then there's the books.... burn them!!! no, joking...🤣
 
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Almost all my music these days comes from either downloads which I add to my offline library or by burning CDs to disc then playing them on my PC. With both I now have a large collection of Classical Music, Big Band, piano, the 60s surf and Brit America invasions bands plus my fave Aussie groups over many decades such as LRB, INXS, Air Supply, Icehouse and Savage Garden. Iva Davies and Icehouse still perform, they must be almost as old as me. So instead of putting a vinyl record on a turntable to get my music fix I now pop a disc into my computer or click on the music of my choice.
 
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Richie said:
Almost all my music these days comes from either downloads which I add to my offline library or by burning CDs to disc then playing them on my PC. With both I now have a large collection of Classical Music, Big Band, piano, the 60s surf and Brit America invasions bands plus my fave Aussie groups over many decades such as LRB, INXS, Air Supply, Icehouse and Savage Garden. Iva Davies and Icehouse still perform, they must be almost as old as me. So instead of putting a vinyl record on a turntable to get my music fix I now pop a disc into my computer or click on the music of my choice.
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Good you're moving with the IT times like me Craig. Between me and my old Dad we digitised all our old home movies including his 8mm ones. All nicely on many sd devices now. I'd previously let a muso digitize most of my vinyls giving me all the files, which he kept copies of too no doubt. 🙄
 
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