Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2010 - December 15 - The Holiday Happenings!

With the madness of current Holiday Happenings I haven't had time for an Advent Calendar post for a few days. I didn't just want to just write about the  preparations and functions we attend today but wanted something  from the past that typifies what we do in Australia over the holidays. Fortuitously a link to a pertinent video arrived on my RSS feeds this morning.

As our weather is hot and the long school holidays coincide with Christmas many Australian families flock to the beach for annual holidays. I have previously blogged about our journeys to Ettalong, NSW. As a teenager I lived a afew hundred yards from Coogee Beach in Sydney, I spent most of my school holidays swimming and surfing with friends and getting burnt to a crisp.

The delightful video, Summertime, that I can't seem to embed in this post has been prepared from a series of glass plate negatives and set to music. The photos tell a story of summer on Coogee Beach around 1900. Although the imaages are old, the buidings have disappeared and the beachfront promenade has been updated the people enjoying the beach today still engage in the same activities that people did over 100 years ago.

Please watch  Summertime.

Sisters by the Sea

In last years Annual Swimsuit edition post I shared a photo of myself on a family holiday at Ettalong, NSW. For this year's offering for the 95th EDITION OF THE Carnival Of Genealogy I am going back to the scene of many happy family holidays and posting a photo of myself with my mother, aunts and a close family friend.

In her teens and early years Mum,her four sisters and Roma, the family friend pictured, lived in Kensington with my maternal grandparents. As my grandmother also had a couple of male boarders it must have been pretty crowded in their four bedroom home. From photos in the family album I see that trips to beaches around Sydney figured prominently in their social lives. Once they were married they carried on the tradition of trips to the beach with shared family holidays in January to Ettalong and later Port Macquarie.

In the photo below taken in January, 1956 are (L-R) Eileen Duncan, Mary Duncan, Lillian Duncan, Geniaus, Elsie Duncan and Roma Hambly posing at Ettalong Beach. As an only child I relished the family time shared on these holidays.

Carnival of Genealogy, 74th Edition Annual Swimsuit Edition

Swimsuits, known in Australia as swimmers, bathers, cossies, boardies and budgie smugglers, are an integral part of an Aussie wardrobe. Geniaus has about half a dozen in her wardrobe plus a collection of old cossies in various sizes for visitors who may want to take a dip in the pool when they are visiting.

Swimmers feature prominently in Geniaus' family albums. For this carnival I am posting a photo that is not so old. It's a photo of Geniaus on her annual summer holiday to Ettalong around 1955.

In early January Mum, Dad, Geniaus and a few aunts, uncles and a cousin would pack the luggage into Uncle Jack's big Vauxhall and head to Woy Woy by train then to Ettalong by bus (Uncle Jack and family travelled by road) where we hired a cottage in Booker Bay Road close to the beach. Holiday activities included fishing in a boat we hired for the duration from Anderson's Boatshed, lots of swimming and canoeing in the calm waters at Ettalong and excursions in Uncle Jack's car. We would all pile in (no seat belts required in those days) and visit the big smoke in Gosford and the surfing beaches in Terrigal and Avoca.

We would eat lots of fresh local seafood: fish caught by the men and local prawns and oysters from the local co-op. We did not eat out but shared casual meals prepared by Mum and the aunts.

As only children my cousin and I revelled in the times these holidays that allowed us to interact with our extended family.