More 'Remember These?'

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At our weekly trivia night last night my friends and I were discussing some memories of bygone days. These were some of the things mentioned, plus a couple that came to mind afterwards . . .

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Silkworms

Remember having silkworms as kids? Watching the moths lay eggs, watching them hatch, turn into silkworms and make their silky cocoons. . . and nothing else. We didn’t use the silk cocoons, just kept feeding them mulberry leaves. Here’s what a commercial operation looks like:

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Mulberries

Speaking of mulberries, remember eating them from the tree? Great taste but you always ended up with stained fingers that hardly anything would remove. I only found out as an adult that a crushed green mulberry rubbed over the stains gets rid of them.

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Chokos

What didn’t taste so great, we all agreed, was chokos, the green vine and fruit/vegetable (?) that grew over most fences and outdoor toilets. They were cheap and plentiful although it’s been many years since I’ve seen any. In the words of Crocodile Dundee, you can live on it but it tastes like shit.

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Passionfruit

Unlike chokos, passionfruit vines and fruit were a delight. Kerrie recalled with longing eating ripe passionfruit that had crept into their yard over the fence.

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Milk

My friends and I all had unpleasant memories of having to drink school milk, delivered at 9.00am and kept in the sun until morning recess. They could make us drink it but they couldn’t make us like it.

The free milk scheme was in place as a Commonwealth scheme from 1950 to 1973, aiming to improve child nutrition and boosting calcium intake. Studies had shown inadequate post war diets, milk an sun light (“go play in the sun and get brown”) were seen as the great panacea. At least they were until 1973 when the government cut the milk program as a means of reducing spending, to the great relief of a million Oz school kids.

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Swimming in the creek

Another remember ? . . . swimming in the local water hole. 

Some years ago as I drove towards South Creek at Windsor I told my kids that I used to fish and swim there when I was young. When I saw the creek it was putrid and quite polluted. “You used to swim there???” they asked.

Does anyone swim in creeks and rivers any more?

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Goodnight

Back in the early days of TV broadcasts, TV stations logged off at 11.00pm or midnight and said good night to viewers. Here is the Channel 7 sign off. Does anyone else recall it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNxFu_uDRAI