1968!

My last post was about an old school uniform that I wore in my Grade 11 and 12 high school years. Well it just so happens that years ago I also found a diary that I wrote throughout 1968. I actually thought that I had thrown it out years ago. I toyed with writing about my life then by taking excerpts from the diary but then couldn't find it. Must have thrown it out after all, I said to myself and thought no more about it. 


But late last year I just happened to come across this tricky little artifact in a drawer and thought that 2018 might be a perfect time to write about what life was like for me 50 years ago.
When I reread some of the pages recently I wasn't particularly impressed with my 16/17 year old self. I seemed to be quite 'preoccupied with boys' and I reckon I was quite boring. Lol. But reading pages in the last week, it was interesting to note background happenings to my life. It was certainly a 'different time'; so different to the world my girls grew up in in the 1980s/90s!



So what sort of things did I get up to in January 1968?
It was still school holidays here of course as those long summer holidays here are December/January.
January 4 that year was the first anniversary of my father's death, but it only rated a single sentence in my diary entry...interesting?
I wrote about the weather being hot and that on January 1 I sunbathed for the first time in a 'two piece', and got sunburned down one side of my body. I remember these togs being 'hand me downs' from an older friend and they were yellow...and I thought I was just sooooo cool wearing them! Lol 😎.
On another day, a friend of my mother and her 3 children took mum and I for a day trip to the beach...Redcliffe. I wrote in my diary how we discovered we were swimming near a sewerage outlet with all sorts of 'things' floating by...eewww! 😕😕😕. I went on to write that we washed ourselves off and went to Shorncliffe beach where we got stung by sea lice. At least nowadays  those beaches on the peninsula  no longer have sewerage outlet pipes going out into the sea. Just as well!

In those days, town ( Brisbane central business district) was a shortish tram ride from my suburb. Suburban picture theatres had gradually been closing up through the sixties, so we tended to go to 'the  pictures' in the city. On January 4 that year I had an outing to the city...first an organ recital at the City Hall and then in the afternoon, I went to the movies. I don't mention who with but I wouldn't think that I  was on my own. The movie was 'Georgy Girl' starring Lynne Redgrave.


I'd forgotten all that until I read it in that diary! Lol. Reading on in that entry I saw that there was a tram strike for a few hours that day and that I was late home waiting for the tram staff to come back to work. Looking back, I think I know the reason for that short strike. It would have been announced that trams would be scrapped completely in 1969 and replaced by buses. There would be no conductors on the buses so the union was fighting for all the men ( and a few women) who would be left without jobs when the trams were taken off.
Here's an old photo of the main road through my suburb in the 1960s and there's a tram in the middle of the photo. Trust me when I say, that other than newer models of cars on that road, this road and the building on either side were still the same in 1968!

Source Brisbane Images BCC-B54-15239

Facing the other way...wow! You could park your car at the side of the main road then! 😮

Source Brisbane Images BCC-B54-15236

Source Brisbane Images BCC-B54-15237

Other entries in the diary talked about my love of sewing. I would often make a dress especially for a Saturday night...often beginning the process of cutting out on Thursday or Friday night and sewing up on Saturday! But the styles were usually simple shift dresses with just some bust darts for shaping. I used my mum's old 1945 model Singer with its knee control and just straight stitch. But that machine and I made many outfits, from nighties to ball gowns, from shifts to jackets!



An entry in early January 1968, I describe how I was making a shoestring dress, but sad to say, I have no recollection of what it was like etc...lol
On Saturday, January 6 1968, it seems I had a busy day. Firstly in the morning, I went into the Valley (Fortitude Valley, once considered a must go to for shopping!), specifically to go to the free disco called TC's which was in the department store, TC Beirnes. That morning  Tony Worsley ( Aussie pop star of the 60s) was performing and apparently a pop group known as the National Reps. I do remember loving these performances and being so close to pop stars. :-)

In the afternoon, according to my diary, along with a number of other students from my high school, I stood outside the Enoggera Catholic church to catch a glimpse of my geography teacher Miss Mudge at her wedding to the maths teacher, Mr Mahony...oh lordy, such memories! I still see this couple occasionally at the local shops or school reunions!

In another entry I wrote about visiting a friend's home and being entertained there by her dad playing the rolls on their pianola. We would gather around the pianola and sing all the old songs with great gusto. I thought my friend and her parents were so lucky to have a pianola and I vowed to buy one 'when I grew up and got rich enough to buy one! lol. A few years ago I realised that I could afford one, but I decided I didn't want one after all. How fickle am I lol!!!
I think that throughout this year, I will tell you more about the year I turned 17.
(Do you know, according to my diary, I ironed for people to earn pocket money...it seems I had about 6 clientele ( mum's friends, neighbours, married daughters of neighbours who worked fulltime and wanted husband's long-sleeved shirts ironed; seemed to be quite a nice little earner.)