Memories of Saturday
trips to Sans Souci
1961 – 1972
I was born in January 1961, the sixth grandchild of Reg and
Bessie Powell of “Ralvona”, 530 Rocky Point Road, Sans Souci.
Most of my memories of Sans Souci relate to my grandparents’
backyard and walking down to Doll’s Point and Sans Souci.
We use to travel from Greenacre to Sans Souci every
Saturday. Initially it was up to 4 bus
rides. Greenacre to Punchbowl, Punchbowl
to Hurstville, Hurstville to Ramsgate, then Ramsgate to Sans Souci. I think once I was able to walk from Ramsgate
we stopped taking the last bus, and more importantly this meant we could have a
neenish tart to eat as we walked along Rocky Point road.
I remember on one bus ride to Ramsgate I had somehow pushed
my elbow between the seat and the metal bar on top of the seat. As we went to
get off the bus I could not remove my elbow – after a bit of pushing (by mum
and the driver) it came free. I don’t
think I got a neenish tart that time.
In later years on the way back to Greenacre one of the bus
drivers use to let me open and close the doors at each stop, this required the
pulling and pushing of a metal bar that protruded from the side of the bus
beside the driver’s seat.
My brother, Stephen,
and me in the backyard.
Behind us you can see
the start of the vegie garden.
I can remember always playing the backyard, there was a
large wooden chair on the left side of the yard that I don’t ever remember
anyone sitting in but there is/was a pic of me and my sister and brother
sitting in it. On the right hand side
was the gardens, and I do remember playing in the first area that was
surrounded by flowers. Further behind were
the vegetable gardens that supplied the veggies we took home every weekend. In the main garden area there was a wooden
cut out of a little girl holding a watering can along side two rabbits. My grandfather had made these. It was also here that I played with the
wooden pull along train that he had made, it was painted red, green and yellow
(if my memory serves me correctly) and I think was made for my brother but I
think my cousin Robert and I played with it just as much as my brother did.
Also in the backyard was my grandfather’s shed. There was two areas of the shed plus the
garage directly attached. The first was
where he made things, toys, furniture for our cubby at home, and even furniture
for his home. I remember all the tins
with the lids nailed to the bench and he’d un-screw the tins to show the
different size nails and screws within.
He was an incredibly handy man, and made many things for all of us
grandkids, and I am very please to think I still have some of those,
particularly the stools he made for us so we could clean our teeth at the
bathroom sink. The garage was am area
you did not go into but I remember later that this is where my grandfather use
to paint, and I can see a bench against the wall where he would keep his paints
and the latest painting he was doing.
Very pleased to think I own one of his paintings and it is in my home.
Next to the shed was where the garden tools and lawn mower
were kept. He was an avid gardener, and
I remember the little bush at the front of the house as you walked around the
side. He clipped and shaped it to look
like a bird. When you came along Rocky
Point Road you had to step down two cement steps to enter the front yard. There was a marvellous trimmed tree in the
front yard before you stepped up on the front porch. On the porch there was a wooden seat
(perhaps made by grandfather) and a side bench under the electricity
board. I believe my grandparents sat out
there every afternoon and watch the world go by as the sun set.
When we arrived in the morning we’d walk around the side of
the house to the back door. Have very
little memory of ever entering through the front door. My grandma would be in the kitchen already
preparing lunch. She’d be there standing
beside the green and yellow stove that stood on iron legs. In my eyes it looked like it had never been
used, it was so shiny and clean. We
would quickly kiss her then run out the back and down to grandfather’s shed
which much more exciting than being indoors.
Off the kitchen was an alcove that had a wooden lounge seat
and the morning sun would come through here.
I can remember spending more time in that alcove than anywhere else
inside the house – I don’t think we were allowed to play in the other rooms. The lounge room had a piano, that I never saw
any one play, but I do remember being held up to look inside the lid at the top
and see the wires move as the piano keys were played. I think my grandfather held me while either
my sister or brother played with the keys.
Also in the lounge room was a coffee table that had a curved piece of
wood that supported the table – I can remember driving my matchbox cars up and
down and under this curved wood, but making sure that no one saw me do it.
Up the hall was the second bedroom, where my mum and aunty
Joan had grown up. I can remember holes
in the wooden walls that I could put my finger through, the mattress on the bed
being so old that a pillow had to be in the middle of it so you could sleep
level on it, and a picture on the wall above one of the beds of my grandparents’
wedding day. The dressing table and
wardrobe were painted grey I think.
The front room of the house was my grandparents’ bedroom,
and my first thought of this room was that it was dark. The room was dark and the furniture was
dark. There was a big wooden bed, two
wardrobes and a very large dressing table that had my grandmother’s cut-glass
dressing table set on it along with a ivory (I think) hand mirror. My thoughts on these are “don’t touch!” This was a room rarely gone into. We hardly ever used the front door so there
was no reason to head up the hall to where the bedrooms were.
Coming out of the kitchen you descended two steps to the
back verandah where my grandfather sat and smoked his pipe. I can still see him sitting there after
lunch, slowly packing his pipe and lighting it.
I do remember him allowing me to open the tobacco tin and rub the
tobacco in my hands then push it into the pipe.
I found this pic and I
am pretty sure this is the brand grandfather smoked
– I can remember those empty tins in his
sheds!
With one of these old tobacco tins he had cut a hole in the
bottom that he would push his finger through.
Inside the tine was cotton wool that had red paint or something on it
splashed on it. He would bring the tin
out to us to show us the severed finger he had found.
Off the verandah was the laundry, and in the laundry was the
bath. I have no memory of ever having a
bath there, but in the laundry there was an old boiler that Grandma used before
getting a washing machine – actually am not sure if there was ever a washing
machine. Also there was a washing board (maybe two) and I can remember trying
to make music from this – I said trying!
Stepping down from the verandah you turned to the back of
the laundry and here was the toilet. I
use to think how terrible it was to be so far from the house but my mum told me
that when she was a child living there it was down at the back fence and when
the dunny-man use to come to empty it (once a week I was told) my grandmother
would run out the back as she heard him enter the front gate. She’d go and hold up the washing line so as
he carried the buckets back it did not splash on the clean washing.
The back fence was made of tin and I remember climbing it to
watch any cars go along the back lane way.
Near the fence was the old incinerator where grandfather burned the
rubbish and also an area where he would put the grass cuttings. This was surround by a wood and tin
structure, the wood painted white and the tin red. He’d pile the cuttings and the vegetables and
create mulch for the garden. My mum told
me that the wood and tin fence was built during the war (1940) as the entrance
to an air-raid shelter my grandfather started to build. He was an air-raid warden during those years,
and he was setting an example by building his own. Mum said that he had actually built it big
enough to be used but two things stoped that happening. My grandma refusing to go in it and it
filling with water after the first storm.
I have a memory of watching my father swim in the baths at
Dolls Point. Standing there with
someone, I can’t remember who, holding my hand while my father floated on his
back in the water below. We had walked
out on the wooden walkway that went along side one part of the pool area that
jutted out into Botany Bay. I am
assuming that I would have been 4 or younger as I am certain I wasn’t swimming
and I don’t think I learnt until I was 5.
Walks down to Dolls Point happened all the time, to climb in
the Rocket-ship that was there in the playground. To build castles in the sand
by the water. I can remember being down
there a lot, and also there during school holidays with my cousins.
The Sans Souci Punt landing at Taren Point on the day of the Captain
Cook Bridge Opening in May 1965. I am
fairly positive that’s Uncle Bob’s Holden station wagon still on the punt
waiting to get off (not the first holden, the second!).
In 1965 the Captain Cook Bridge opened across the Georges
River, from Sans Souci point. I can
remember walking over it on the day it opened. Prior to that we would catch the
punt across to Taren Point when my grandfather would drive us to Kurnell to
climb the sandhills. I can remember take
cardboard boxes so that we could slide down the sandhills. I have a memory of my grandma doing this; I
assume she would have been in her early 70s.
As I grew older my walks around Sans Souci were by myself –
I can remember walking down to Kogarah bay.
There was a small wharf there that had a petrol bowser at the end of it
and I use to stand there and as the small boats came up they’d ask me to hand
down the hose and turn the bowser on as they filled up the tank. I have no idea how they paid for the petrol,
there was no one else around or any gate or office. I assumed an honour system.
Near where grandfather and grandma lived were a few
shops. On the corner of Russell Avenue, I
remember a barber’s that was adjoined to the Toyer’s house, then Mrs James’
place next to my grandparents, then Mrs Boss’s on the other side. There were traffic lights on the corner and
across the road was a news agents that sold lollies and possibly ice creams,
the ice cream that came wrapped in paper and you’d be given two pieces of waver
to put each side of it – or perhaps that was from the shop down the bottom of
Russell avenue.
A antique store opened just past the newsagents in the last
few years and I can remember climbing under my grandparents’ house to get an
old wash basin and jug and taking it over the road to get money for it. I have no idea how much.
In January 1972 my grandparents celebrated their 50th
wedding anniversary – the day, the 28th, was a Friday, I am not sure
if we were still on school holidays or whether it was the next day but I only
remember my brother Stephen and my cousin Robert being there. If it was a Friday my sister would have been
at work, and I can’t remember if my cousins Rhonda, Glenda and Lyndall were
there. I can remember the neighbours and
friends coming in to offer their congratulations. I am not sure if it was that night or the
Saturday night but we had a party at our home in Greenacre for the anniversary,
and the whole family was there.
By now my grandparents had both been unwell and it was
decided they needed to be admitted to hospital a number of times. I believe they had both had heart conditions,
though I only remember my grandmother being in hospital at Kogarah. We went up there from Sans Souci to see her
on a Saturday afternoon, my grandfather, my mum, my sister Jenny and
myself. Two things are vivid in my memory;
firstly my grandmother lying in the hospital bed and not knowing who I was and
the look on my grandfather’s face as we left the hospital. When my grandma didn’t recognise me my mum
had sent me outside. I was standing
outside crying and a lady asked me what was wrong and I told her. She told me that it was alright that my
grandma definitely knew who I was. When
my mum came outside she told me that she was going to stay with grandfather
that night and I was to go home with my sister.
The look on my grandfather’s face as he and mum left was a look of
despair. He loved and lived for his wife
and the thought of losing her was devastating to him. Even at the age of 10 or 11 I could see that,
and I sensed but probably did not fully understand what he was thinking and
feeling.
I am not sure if it was after this time in hospital or after
grandfather’s time, that they came to stay at Greenacre for a while, living in
our back room. I think this was the sign
that they needed to be looked after and that they could no longer live at Sans
Souci.
I think this was taken in 1972 – Grandma and me on the front lawn.
The house was sold on July 25, 1972 (my grandfather’s 78th
birthday) for $14,500, and they moved to a Nursing Home at Hammondville in
western Sydney.
The weekly visits to Sans Souci were over.
So very poignant - thanx for sharing
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