Marrickville

I was born in Petersham Hospital, in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville on 28 May 1945.

It was 20 Days after the cessation of war in Europe (VE Day) and two months before the end of the war in the Pacific - VP Day.

I was the youngest of my siblings - at that time:

• Maureen Ellen b. 1938

• John Michael b. 1942

• Helen Margaret? (a.k.a Babe) b. 1944

We lived at 300 Parramatta Road (now called the Great Western Highway), Ashfield, an inner suburb.

I have fleeting memories. Up the road was the Peak Freen Biscuit factory on the corner of Frederick and Parramatta Road. We would ask for "Broken Biscuits" because they could not sell them. We were never refused.

Probably the staff would go out the back and break them. 
They would give them to us in a big brown paper bag full to the brim.

Mum and Dad must have made a motza from resales.

The site is now a Bunnings Hardware store.  The iconic clock tower is still there and working.

First Memory

The kitchen in the flat at Ashfield was in the back flat.

I remember drinking tea with milk and dunking our biscuits.  I put the cup up too high and the hot liquid went up my nose. I cried.

Babe said "naughty tea - because it had milk ...black tea". This is the reason why, today, I do not drink tea with milk.