(no subject)
Unless I cook my Nan's roast potatoes on Christmas day, its is'nt really Christmas. When I was cooking, I had a sudden flash of memory, of walking from the newsagent on Lyons Road in Drummoyne with my grandfather, to his house in Budd Street.
Pop would go up to get the paper and I'd go with him, my eyes poring over the comic books and magazines. I distinctly remember the covers of Planet of the Apes comic books with their painterly style and staring in awe wondering how that was achieved because it looked so real.
So I went on google maps and took a walk down there. It is completely unchanged though my grandparents house is now a two storey. They sold it in the 1980s or 90s because the long steep driveway was so hard on my Nan's legs ( which I have inherited). Walking with Pop was always nice because he would always point things out and make conversation. I took the sudden flash of memory as meaning that he was saying hello on Christmas.
Next door to their place was a huge dark Edwardian home which was where Mrs McKinnon lived. She lived there alone, a widow, and if my grandparents were at that time in their 40s or early 50s then Mrs Mckinnon must have been well into her 60s or 70s. We would all get a turn to stay at Nan's in the school holidays and I do recall being invited in with Nan for tea at Mrs Mckinnon's. She was very grand but also very sweet and listened intently to everything you said and would then smile and say very slowly, "Well I never!" .
The house was large, dark airy and cool with an enormous backyard. The dark furniture I know now to be Edwardian and was probably all of the same that she had bought brand new when she married. She did have at least one son that I know of and had been widowed a long time. People didn't throw all of their furniture out and replace it every time a new catalogue came out like they do now. I'm sure that my love of Edwardian furniture comes from first seeing that cool, dark old house and its deep dark brown lacquered interior. On Googlemaps the house all appears to be in it's original state.
Next door to her place on the corner was another house and in their yard pressed right up against the fence was a big cage in which lived a noisy cockatoo. We would all pass and yell out "Hello Cocky!" as we turned the corner to go down to the park in the afternoon and play on the swings or run off some of the enormous and delicious Christmas lunch my Nan would have cooked. Nan's dog Jody would jump into the bay at low tide and roll in the black mud and absolutely stink! They had a cat called Tammy who may have blessed us with an appearance but he kept to himself when there were too many noisy kids around. Over the fence was Len who was always tinkering in his shed with an old car or boat.
Amazing how scent of roast potatoes can transport you back in time.
Sad to see that a lot of these 100 year old Edwardians are being bulldozed in Sydney now, for apartments or second dwellings. They occupy huge lots and are not currently fashionable or seen as having much heritage value.