Joan Caroline Hope (nee Lemin) b.1923 lived in West Heidelberg from 1929 to 1952.
My childhood in West Heidelberg was a carefree one. There were many paddocks around us and plenty of space to play. The gum paddocks were our favourite places; we often took our lunch there and spent hours making huts. In spring the girls made daisy chains and picked wild flowers. I remember the early nancies and the tall purple chocolate flowers. In summer we picked shivery grass which Mum put in a vase with flowers.
There was always plenty to keep us occupied. We played cricket and football, flew kites, and explored caves. We went mushrooming across the paddocks and hid the small mushrooms under cow cakes to collect when they were bigger, then forgot where they were! We fished at Darebin Creek, although I don’t think we ever caught any. We stained our fingers purple picking blackberries which grew along the banks of the creek and mulberries from the trees that grew down by the Yarra River at Horsehoe bend.
The boys used to go bird nesting and always had a collection of blown eggs in a cotton wool lined shoe box. Then there was the making of kites: finding the right pieces of wood for the frame, covering it with brown paper and making a flour and water paste to glue the paper on. We used string decorated with pieces of rag for the tail. We spent many happy hours flying our carefully made kites.
Now and again some of us would accompany our neighbour Mr Henry to bring home his draught horses and the Jersey cow that had been let out to graze during the day. We would clamber up on the horses and the poly cow and they would plod home to their stables.
My dad worked at the Gas Works down on the Yarra on the other side of Banksia Street and when he was on day shift we’d sometimes walk down after school to catch tadpoles and then have a ride home in the jinker. Dad loved his garden, it was a show piece, and people would call at our place on their way to the cemetery to buy his magnificent dahlias and roses. He used to collect cow manure from the paddocks around us for fertilizer and we’d go to help him, each with a chaff bag to gather the dry cow cakes in. The cart would be loaded high and going home at dusk we children would perch on top of the load and sing at the top of our voices.
Our parents both worked hard. After meeting the house payments there wasn’t much left but we were better off than many others. Some children came to school without shoes and with only bread and dripping for lunch.
In winter the children at our school (West Heidelberg State School) were given cocoa at morning recess. The Mother’s Club ladies were rostered to make the boilers of cocoa with milk supplied by the Government. Some mothers also volunteered to make soup. They cooked it in big kerosene tins and two big boys carried it between them to the classrooms on a strong pole threaded through the handle.
On the way to school on frosty mornings there would be ice on the puddles and we would make slides about eight feet long on the wet onion grass. At night our mum used to wrap oven trays in newspaper and slide them into our beds to warm them.
During the summer months Mr Blackbourne would water the street trees for the Council. He drove a cart with a large tank on it and would use a hose from the tank to water the trees. This was a slow job and when he would sit in the shade we youngsters would sometimes join him; he was a favourite person to us.
We learned to dance at the Social and Euchre Card night held by the school Mother’s Club once a month on a Saturday night. Some of the parents and friends played cards in one room while others enjoyed dancing to music from the piano. We were encouraged to join in the Barn Dance, Pride of Erin, Charmaine, Gipsy Tap and others. Supper time was really something, home made cakes of all kinds, always with plenty of fresh cream. Another lovely part of growing up in our community!
From: Looking Back: Heidelberg and Rosanna in the 1920s to 1940s edited by Marion Lemin
