The Greengrocer

My Piling System was so high that I was forced to do something about it yesterday.

One of the newspaper clippings that I unearthed was an article from 1958 about Penn's Hardware in Kings Cross, a very different institution from the huge hardware stores we have today. I remember my parents going to Penn's and have a memory of kitchen walls being painted Wedgwood Blue with paint from Penn's.

When we lived in King's Cross I remember shopping with my mother, Elsie, for our fruit and veg at the Greengrocer's next door to Penn's on Darlinghurst Road. My interest in this picture is not in the shops but in a customer on the footpath. my mother.

Elsie Curry (nee Duncan) at the Greengrocer's

Mum is the cardigan wearing lady in the middle of the photo with the slim ankles and good posture.

This photo dredges up so many memories of the shops we used to visit. The Cash and Carry was the forerunner of today's supermarket, the delicatessens where we used to buy small bricks of ice cream before we had a refrigerator and Repin's Moka coffee shop where Mum used buy beans to grind for her coffee.

From the Archives - September 27 2010

 On this day we remember my Father-in-law, James William Ball, with a post from 2010.

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James William Ball 1918-1990

 

Remembering a gentle man, James William Ball, who passed away 20 years ago today on 27th September 1990.

James William Ball and Daphne Gillespie

James William Ball - Firefighter

James William Ball - Grandfather

Trove Tuesday - Oak Vale

The relationship to me is complicated but Lynn Izard who wrote the following letter is the daughter of George who was was previously married to my Great-grandmother, Catherine Molloy. 

Having just discovered that George and Catherine had a daughter, Mary Isabella Ellen Mary Izard, in  Mitttagong in 1901 I took to Trove with a simple search "Izard Mittagong" to see what I could find on the family. I haven't looked at the Izzard/Izard branch since 2011 so was pleased to be rewarded with many hits which I need to follow up.

I particularly enjoyed reading this letter to a Children's page from Lynn as it describes the area in which my Great-grandmother would have lived with George prior to her death on 1904.  

1924 'GUMBLOSSOM'S WEEKLY CHAT.', Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1932), 23 October, p. 46. , viewed 22 Sep 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123251444

From the Archives - 13th September 2010

 Reposting this 2010 post 20 years after the Sydney Olympics.

Apologies that some links within the post are dead.
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Monday, September 13, 2010

Ten years ago - 13 September 2000

I have just been reminded on a current affairs program that ten years ago was a special time in Sydney. In September 2000 our city hosted the Olympics.  It was a magical time in our beautiful city, there were crowds everywhere but the atmosphere was one of bonhomie.

At that time I was a teacher at MLC School in Burwood and had volunteered months before to chaperone a group of our students who would be performing in the opening and closing ceremonies of the games. Together with the students I gave up  a number of weekends and evenings to attend rehearsals at venues around Sydney including an abandoned airfield at Schofields. 

I had in 1999 entered the lottery to buy tickets for the sporting events. After the ballot we found ourselves several thousand dollars poorer but armed with tickets to athletics, hockey, water polo, wrestling, kayaking, table tennis, tennis amd more. The tickets were shared amongst members of the family ; we had what would today be called a staycation. Our youngest daughter had been lucky enough to get, through university, a paid position with SOBO at the Tennis Centre.

Mr Geniaus, Mate and Hornsby Mayor at Pennant Hills Torch Relay Function

On this day 13th September 2000 I have written in my diary "to MLC to collect Opening Ceremony tickets". As a volunteer I was given two tickets to the Dress Rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony.  Following that I attended a local Torch Relay Function "to Torch relay celebration at Pennant Hills.  It's hot and dusty and we can't see a thing from the VIP area!!"

I had also managed to procure a couple of extra Dress Rehearsal tickets so with Mr Geniaus and a couple of our offspring we set off by train  to  the Opening Ceremony Dress Rehearsal at Stadium Australia.

I recorded my impressions of the Olympics in a series of posts on a listserv to which I belonged. In the coming days, as Australia remembers, I will repost these on my Geniaus blog.