CHILDHOOD 1940s FEEDING THE FAMILY

22 SECOND AVENUE, BERALA

Okay! Okay! So you're very clever and you've already latched on to the discrepancy !! 1940s in the heading but the TV Antenna shows the picture is after 1956 -first transmission of TV in Sydney and after about 1959 in our case, when we first got a PYE TV set. Oh! And you've noticed the oval Stop light lens and fins on the Vauxhall Cresta I bought second hand (1963 Model) in about 1967 (?) Go to the top of the Class and please sit quietly while I get on with the story.

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. 

Of course, during the War years, what one could buy was closely controlled by Rationing Laws which the Labor Government tried to keep on even after the War.This was part of the reason for its ultimate fall. Rationing affected such things as Meat, Flour, Sugar, Clothing and Petrol and many more. The Ration Book gradually crept into my consciousness as I saw Mum struggle with it in the nearby "Corner" Grocer Shop and Butcher Shop. The Coupons from the book would often be shared with and from relatives in cases of particular need.
 The Grocer's Shop was not overly large . All the stock was behind the Left Hand and Right Hand Counters. Packaging of goods was minimal, and many things were bought from bulk containers the weighed in the hanging "Daytona" scales or on the Benchtop Weighing Scales by the same manufacturer in the USA. We went to the Grocer's and Butcher's shops with "string bags" (in effect a net forming a moderate sized bag and usually a wicker bag with a plywood base. As I got older , I came to these shops with a note from which I did the shopping.And from time to time I would run errands for my Grandma Dixon around in Third Avenue  who could not get out because of her illness.

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. It was later replaced by an American made Crosley Electric Refrigerator, marvellously well made which lasted until Dad's death on 11th May, 1992.