| Oxford Street, opposite CoFA and Victoria Barracks |
When my father was demobbed in December 1945 he now wishes he'd had the guts to set up a cycle shop. He'd have been a natural. During the '30s, and up until he enlisted in the AIF in September 1942, he had been a member of the Hornsby District Amateur Cycle Club. He had the right build, lanky and wirey. He had the right temperament: dogged.
But he didn't. By then he had a baby son, and a wife. But the main reason was that it had been drilled into him by his mother, not to spend beyond his means. If he wanted something, he had to save for it.
Things are different nowadays.
Work out which one my Dad is by comparing the ears! Back row, right.
11 comments:
Julie, beautiful post. Love the images.
I am sure your father did very well despite not opening up a bicycle shop.
My father stayed in the Navy after serving in the South Pacific during World War II and had a career as a Naval Officer, followed by working for a aerospace company. He was the first person in his family to have gone to college, as his father was a coal miner and steel mill worker who died of tuberculosis in the 1930's.
We owe so much to the hard work and sacrifices of our parents, and your post today is a fitting remembrance and memorial
Wonderful tribute to your father, Julie. I can see by the photos he was a natural cyclist.
-- K
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
Lovely post Julie.
Have a great weekend, hopefully a cool one!
Very interesting post. They all had quite prominent ears in that group shot. :)
I tried the ear trick but quite a few of them had remarkable ears.
I picked top left. As Jim says, lots of prominent ears there.
Fantastic trubite to your dad. I think your dad is in the top left hand corner of the photo, am i right? :-).
Yes Julie that was definitely another era. My Dad always said the same about people who borrowed money to buy their own home, he called them bank homes! How things have changed!!
I picked out your Dad
Your dad is top right hand corner, for sure. But the ears didn't help, because they all had them. That must have been one powerful Aussie gene.
What to do when you demobbed was a big choice for people to make. My Dad chose to go back to the farm and my Mum had to give up the rewards of being a Lieutenant in the Army to follow him to make babies, bake cakes and milk cows. I've got the rather tense letter that passed between my parents on the subject. It's hard to imagine my parents as 20 somethings trying to understand what is means to be married even though they had been married for four years. Also imagine two regular incomes turning into irregular farm income governed by the in-laws!
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