Walking Away.

Old Cat.

It’s Me Or The Dog.

Number 20

When I was a very little bloke, one of my greatest joys was to run out and open this gate so that my dad, who rode his bike to work every day, could ride effortlessly through and into the yard without having to step off his bike. I had already unlocked the side gate so he would sail on through to the shed in the back yard where he stored his bike. I’d be diligently closing and locking gates behind him as he went.

It seemed like an important job to me at the time.

Dad arrived home at about the same time every night. Working men did that back then. He was a union man and that meant that you gave the boss a good days work and when it was time to go home, you went home!

A few years after my dad took this shot [this is an enlargement of a larger, wider shot] he pulled this fence down and built a shorter, more ‘modern’ fence. Personally, I like this one, and as fashions go, a lot of the houses in the area are putting back the original fences………. everything changes, everything goes in cycles………. and everything stays the same.

If you look very closely, you can see that one of the horizontal wires on the gate has been bent down. That is probably because I liked to swing on the gate when my dad wasn’t looking.

The house is still there but my family no longer owns it. It is now about eighty years old.

Every couple of years I drive up that street just to remember what it felt like to live my younger life. Every year it changes and becomes less and less like the street I remember. This is not a bad thing. Everything has its time.

Number twenty Erin street will always live in my heart.

Hop On.

 

For some reason this shot makes me feel strange. Not bad strange — just strange — kinda sad — not sure why. I love photos that you can disappear into. Amazing that there are no cars on the roundabout — pure fluke — only took one shot — was drinking coffee and talking to my wife and walking the dog — a long way from where we live —- still not sure why it makes me sad.

Socks.

A lot of things have changed since I took this photo.

Some of those socks have gone missing.

The deck has been replaced.

The ancient ‘walk around phone’, that my son is using was eventually ‘put out to pasture’.

The possum that made the scratches on the wall above the washing machine has been evicted from our roof and now lives in a possum box on the side of the house.

The roof has been replaced as well, but it is just out of sight in this shot.

Two and half grandchildren have begun their existence.

All of our children have moved out of home, and a second dog moved in.

We lost a neighbour and are about to gain a new set.

A lot of things haven’t changed though. We still live here, in this amazing little tumbling down house and we are very happy…………… oh yes…….. and the ghost moved on………. he loved the house as much as we do, but he had to go.

1956

It’s May the 8th 1956.

It’s my birthday and I have absolutely no idea who some of these people are.

That’s my first girlfriend on my right.

In about two years time we will get into trouble for playing doctors and nurses.

I love her ‘space ship’ party hat.

I remember being reasonably miserable on the day, although I look happy enough in this shot.

The girl in the back was my next-door neighbour.

Her dad had a station wagon and it was a great cubby house when he wasn’t actually driving it.

I’m wishing I knew who the other kids are but my mum is no longer around to fill in the blanks.

Thanks for throwing the party mum……. every little kid should have a birthday party photo.

I’m guessing the boy on the far right grew up to become stock broker or a used car salesman.

The little girl next to him became a cook in a big hotel and had five kids; non of whom still talk to her, but they will be there when the Will is read.

The boy on the far left would have become a doctor and specialised in plastic surgery, if he had not been drafted and went missing in action in the Vietnam War.

Me?

I grew up and did many things including making shit up about people in very old photographs.

You Will Come Back. Won’t You?

Taking the dogs for a walk presents certain challenges. I like coffee. But, if I’m on my own I have to attach the dogs to something while I order. When Honey was young, and the only dog in the house, she once dragged a cafe table into a Bakery because I took too long coming back! These days, now that there are two of them, and one of them is Zed, who is part dragon, they attract a lot of attention; mostly from children and little old ladies……. and Zed hates children and little old ladies, so leaving them tied up can be a bit stressful. The photo above is one of the few place that I can leave them for a few minutes without much chance of incident. On this particular day no one died and coffee was consumed. It’s one of life’s mysteries that the best coffee is always in the places where I cannot tie the dogs up without precipitating world war three.

Shacked.

Part Of The Band.

 

This bloke was making his own music and entertaining the crowd. I love the small details.