Growing Up

A Memory of Cattedown.

We moved to Cattedown in 1952 when I was 8 years old, to Tresillian Street.
My first memory is of the Coronation celebrations and a resulting street party, when we received Coronation Mugs, had bicycle decoration contests and street games.
How I escaped getting into serious trouble is still a mystery to me because we (the boys in the street) used to roam around the wharves and quarries fairly late at night, and trespass on various properties. We'd round off the evening at the fish and chip shop at the top of the sreet, hanging around till we ran out of ideas!
In the summer, we swam down at The Battery across to the Mayflower Steps and back. This was our challenge. We always went in a crowd as we were scared of the Coxide boys.
Occasionally we would make war with the kids from Mainstone Avenue and hurl stones across the railway line at them. My parents would have been devastated had they known. (They had their suspicions several times due to lacerations on my head!).
I went to Prince Rock Primary School where Mr Cross was the headmaster. Miss Goughman was my first teacher and I was in love with her.
I joined the Life Boys and Scouts at Embankment Road Methodist Church and went to the International Boy Scout Jamboree in Sutton Coldfield in 1957.
We all became much more civilised as we grew into our teenage years and I won a place at Coburg Street Boys Selective School. I was a member of Laira Sailing Club which I believe is no more. Soon the pop music scene was full on and dances in the town centre were the things to go to.
I remember family names in the street such as Balls, Opie, Carkett, Lane, Everett, Lakey, Richardson. My elder sister married her childhood sweetheart from the street and they now live at Plympton.
I left Cattedown and joined the Merchant Navy in 1967 and have lived in Sydney for 41 years. I have fond memories of the Cattedown and Prince Rock areas.
Jeff Smith