Mum managed a confectionary and dressmaking business from the shop, and it
was also the office from where where Dad ran his Grumento Paving Company.
I went to the Minona St free kindergarten in Auburn during 1943, then made
a nuisance of myself at Auburn Central State School from 1944 to 1952. My first
girlfriend lived in the street behind the bakery, and her mother and grandmother
ran the furniture store in Burwood Rd
Our shop was central to the main shopping centre strips – I worked after
school in three chemists in various times – Landmann cnr Burwood and Auburn Rds,
Buscombe in Auburn Rd, And Higinbotham’s on cnr of Auburn and RIversdale
Rds.
Our shop was the meeting place for my school friends, who would gather in
the laneway next to the bakery, to play soccer and cricket! Everyone would then
adjourn to our small backyard with their bikes and scooters, for
refreshments!
I frequently visited the Glenferrie and Camberwell Junction shopping
strips.
In the school hols, we rode down to Gardiners Creek in Auburn South and
caught yabbies. In Auburn Park, we collected large green caterpillars from the
peppercorn trees. We scavenged the rubbish dump next to the Auburn Hotel for
cigarette cards! We would ride down to the Hawthorn Baths in Glenferrie, where we all learned to swim.
At Auburn State, I was the captain of the footy team in 1952 and played in
the Saturday morning Hawthorn FC team in the metropolitan league – training
nights were on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the seniors. we borrowed a footy and
boots from the property room at Glenferrie Oval.
Also at Auburn school, there were the egg drives - our beat was well
into Camberwell, crossing Burke Rd, to the chagrin of the schools across the
border. Very sad...
I was Dux of School in 1952, and was awarded a Victorian Government
Scholarship for the yesrs 1953-54-55 at Camberwell High School.
I learned to play the pianoforte
from age six. I had two teachers at different times, both in Auburn - Miss Harris and Miss Hunter.
The Bakery Precinct.
The baking was done mainly at night, as customers liked to have fresh, nice
warm bread delivered to them in the mornings. The factory was large, with huge
wooden fired ovens, later replaced by flatplate designs. I spent time inside the
factory, learning how bread was made – yeast and flour would come in from the
grainstore next door.
The Bakery had a shop, where I would be sent on weekday mornings to
purchase warm bread and rolls for our lunches.
Our back yard was quite small, and a disused laneway ran past our back
fence, adjacent to the northern brick wall of the Stables. We dug up that
laneway and converted it into a vegetable garden, well supplied by rich steaming
manure fresh from the stables!
Those Auburn Days
are now long gone, and I remember them well.
