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| 1957 - at the court in Caufield with mates . I am at right! |
1952
My introduction to tennis was in January 1952, at the
YMCA's Camp Buxton, Shoreham.
Tennis was one of many optional activities for us boys on our ten-day stay at the Camp. The Camp is long
gone, but the remains of the court are still evident in the bushland reserve which was created after subdivision.
1952
I continued with my tennis at a local court in Auburn,
with a mate on Saturday mornings.
1957
More tennis, on Sunday mornings, with another mate, at the Faversham Rd Tennis Courts in Chatham.
1957
Still more tennis, with some of my Trainee Technician
mates at Caulfield. We met at a mate's house, which had a court in the back yard!
1962
In that year
I was working at tge Deepdene Telephone Exchange, About 200 metres down the road were pubic tennis courts. Some of us used
to go there during lunch breaks for an hour or so
1994
After a break of some 32 years, I took up tennis again.
I was working in the CBD then, and there were courts on the roof for hire by Telstra staff. We used those courts two or three
times a week during the lunch break - they had showers and a sauna!
1996
Our
work office was relocated to another part of the CBD and the roof-top activities finished. However, not far from our new office
were the public East Melbourne Tennis Courts, in easy walking distance across the Treasury Gardens, so two of us we hired
those courts once a week, over a operiod of several months.
1997
I left Telstra and the tennis events became only pleasant memories
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| 2011 - modern bowling centre |
TEN PIN BOWLING
1950s
When TV forced most of the movie theaters in Melbourne
to be closed down in the late 1950s, some were converted into Ten Pin Bowling centres.
1960
The American tenpin bowling craze came to Melbourne
in 1960, with Box Hill, Fairfield, Hawthorn and St Kilda among the first centres. After the initial novelty wore off,
investors suffered financial difficulties and a number of lanes closed. But careful marketing and catchy slogans such as 'bowling
brings out the swinger in you' saw the sport 'striking' back by 1967. In recent years, tenpin bowling has generated
new interest, sparking the opening of new lanes at Southbank, Richmond and Prahran.
1964
I was working as a Technical Officer in the CBD, managing
the maintenance of telecom services and PABXs.
One of our areas of responsibility was the new (1962) grandiose, Southern Cross Hotel, in Russell
St, built on the site of the famous Eastern Market..
The management of this establishment issued us with vouchers for free meals in their staff dining room,
at any time, in return for priority attention to any equipment faults.
The Management, there, also had us on tap whenever a visiting dignitary or foreign delegation was about to
come to that big grandiose hotel;. We were asked to check out all telephone services to the suites to be used by these visitors,
to make sure that everything was in good working order.
In the basement was Melbourne's first Tenpin Bowling centre, which we visited fruently during the week, using
our free passes!
I left this work area in 1965, being promoted to full time study at RMIT and this meant an end to the City
bowling!
1970
I continued with occasional bowling at the adjacent suburb
of Box Hill, next to the railway station. The centre is still there, known as the AMF Box Hill Bowl and is
quite popular.
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