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| 22 SECOND AVENUE BERALA N.S.W. |
In those War time 1940's when I was a little bloke and had blond hair ( why does our hair keep changing colour? Blond, Brown, Grey - oh well!) there wasn't a lot of money around but enough to feed us fairly well.
Things were delivered to the door, the Milkman with his Horse (! True!) and Cart came plodding by very early in the morning taking the Billy Can from the Front Verandah filling it from the Tap on the back of the Cart pressing the lid home and returning the full can to the Verandah. If we wanted cream, a note was left with the Billy and the "Milko"would leave a litle tubby jar with a waxed cardboard sealing lid.Once a week we would leave out the Milk money ,in cash of course, with that day's Billy. Exciting Huh?
Later each morning the Baker ( the word being suitably short did not need a familiar abbreviation) would drift along the street in his little red Ford Van (English Ford of course Vintage about 1934) and there was variety yes indeed there was! You could have white bread or nothing, and you could choose a Square Loaf or a Round Loaf (Now called High Top) . Boy! How I loved the smell of that hot fresh bread ( the bakery was only a block away and Brand Name bread was unknown.In the early 1950's we really got with it and the Baker announced that he would be introducing Vienna Milk Loaf to his product range.My favourites were the convex first slices of the newly broken Square or Round loaves - that was living! Especially with Cheese ( which only ever came into our house in the pale blue KRAFT box which in latter years we would never deign to buy- muttering insulting words like "soap!"
Less often, perhaps twice a week, the ""Ice Man "came to refill the Ice Box . It resembled a small wooden ( if your imagination is that good) refrigerator with a smaller top box for the block of ice and a larger section underneath it for the food to be chilled - not a great deal of room - for milk, meat .butter etc.The whole thing was only about 4 feet high.And never forget to keep the drip tray at the bottom emptied - or it would overflow onto the lino/Feltex/brand new wall to wall carpet. Then, in the dawning of a new age, we obtained a Hallstrom "Silent Knight"gas refrigerator. which stood on four legs and caused a frenzy of home ice cream making for a year or so.
Ah! I nearly forgot the ""Rabbitoh!"No, not a man from South Sydney but a usually scruffy looking man with a horse and cart who, at very irregular intervals would go about calling out "Rabbitoh!"to announce his presence. We would occasionally buy one - rabbit that is , but his irregularity meant it was hard to fit him into meal planning and, in ice box days anyway, hard to keep things fresh. Finally, the Government's use of the Myxamatosis(?)Poison in , I think 1948, to kill off rabbits in plague proportions , also killed off people's interest in the product. ( Though I notice Masterchef is doing its darnedest to bring it back to life!)
Not everything came to the door. We had to walk one block away to Fitton's grocery shop, and to the adjoining Butcher Shop.For a time there was also a Greengrocer but that didn't last . Visits to the Fitton's took place every few days since what we bought had to be carryable in either a string bag or a shopping basket.. From about 7 or 8yrs. I was trustable with the simpler purchases, but still would dissolve in confusion if Mr. Fitton questioned something on Mum's list.Meat purchasing was Mum's exclusive province. For Greengroceries we had to go to Lidcombe , the Berala Station shops had a greengrocer, but we didn't seem to favour them.Through the War years, and until the Labour Government was voted out in 1949, we had the added complication of Ration Cards - introduced during the War emergency. But the Socialists just could not kick the habit, always believing that they knew better, and now was not the time to kick the habit. They had 23yrs in Opposition to re-adjust their thinking!
There were three other services to the door of our home (four actually but I refuse to discuss sewage)
There was the occasional man with horse and cart calling out :"Props!.". These were long, stripped- clear thin
tree trunks with a fork in the end. They were used to push out and up,clothes lines stretched across the backyards of homes , ensuring that the lines laden with wet clothes did not droop to the ground. The other two services were financial. The first was the Insurance contribution collector who came weekly and acknowledged receipt of the amount on a pocket sized card. The last service to the door also featured a card
to record payments , but I 'm hanged if I can remember exactly what the name of the business was , but I have a thought that it was a finance arrangement, with an organisation based at Auburn whereby one could make advance payments and could then present the card to make purchases at several stores in Auburn. I wish I could remember that name, but the brain waves flash up then fail when about to deliver the info.It was an interesting operation in the days before Credit and Debit Cards - an example of the struggle to gain a measure of "credit" facility in shopping.
So, there you have it1 Pre supermarket , and pre Shopping Mall shopping in the then Western suburbs of Sydney.
The number of these" to- the- door" activities ( except Milk and Bread) seem to me, likely to have had their origins in the desperate times of the Great Depression - not long before, and never ended until World War II got well underway.
How lucky we are now!
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