VA: Doris Evans, nee Morgan. 
Interview by Valda Arrowsmith on the 11th of September 1997 on behalf of
the Nunawading and District Historical Society, at her home 25 Alexander Street East Ringwood.
Mrs Evans lived in Casella Street, Mitcham, from 1926 to 1950.

Thank you very much Mrs Evans for agreeing to do this interview for the Society. We all enjoyed so much reading your article in the retirement magazine about your early life in Mitcham.

Would you like to talk a little to us about the memories of that time?

DE: I feel that we should do this, older people if we can, write about our lives because the young people of today live life so very differently to what we did.
They have entertainment that we never dreamt of.
We didn't have much in those days, entertainment.
I didn't even have the wireless until I was about 14, when wireless was in vogue. So that when I was a small child there was nothing much at all. We just made our own entertainment somehow.

VA: And it was about 14 that you came to Mitcham.

DE: That's right, about 14 and a half I was. 

VA: You told me about your father building the house.
Would you like to tell us about that again?

DE: Yes, well we lived in Burnley before we came to Mitcham.
My father decided we'd better get out of there because I'd lost my brother and sister, one was twenty and one was twenty-four, with the dread tuberculosis.

My father thought we're too close to the city and of course there were no cars in those days so that was nothing to do ...- no pollution that way.
But he felt that the germs may be in the house, and he decided to go to the country, which was Mitcham. He was still working.
He bought this land, just two blocks of land, actually, first.
He had the frame of the house built and the chimney and then over two years (he went there in 1924, bought the land) and over two years he'd go up most weekends and finish the house., took two years to do it and then we moved to Mitcham.

VA: Now how would he come out to Mitcham, by train?

DE: By train.

VA: And the building materials?

DE: Oh, he must have had the building materials delivered apparently.
He did that over two years and then we went up to Mitcham.

VA: Quite a feat because I guess the train service wasn't all that good then either.
 
DE: No.

VA: He must have been a very well organised man.

DE: He was and a very determined man.
He decided that that's where we'd go and we went and we loved it.
And when I was a child, I used to do a lot of walking, of course, because I didn't have any transport and I could never ride a bike.
So, I walked everywhere, and I used to walk through, where Yarran Dheran is now, all that was just open land and for Sunday afternoon walk through there or down Casella St to Quarry Road and along to the creek. 

And I did enjoy those walks.
Come back with gum tips or heath, pink and white heath, and things.
And it was lovely. Really enjoyed it.

VA: Well, your father's decision must have been a good one because you all enjoyed it and your health's been good.

DE: Yes. That's right.

And in fact, we used to walk right down to Quarry Road and along to Mitcham Road and right up to Whitefriars (seminary).
That sort of thing and back. 
It was a long walk.
And the friends came up to us, we'd do a walk like that, you know, and they'd love it too.

VA: Yeah, yeah. Really bush, as you said.

DE: So, then I went to work for a grocer in Mitcham, J. and Hands? (Grace?), actually.
And this was during the Depression, of course, in the 1930s, or late 1920s and 30s.

VA: Do you recall just where that shop was?

DE: Yes, it was on the - what's that side, the main shopping centre, but it was down at the other end towards Ringwood.

Oh, yes, it was a shop and a house there, and the people lived there.
And I worked there for four and a half years, fifteen shillings a week.
And the fourth year I was there, seventeen shillings.

VA: Yes.

DE: It was only one good thing.

I loved it. I liked meeting the travellers and serving the people and that sort of thing.

But it was a long day, from 9 until 6 and 9 o'clock on Friday night, 1 o'clock on Saturday, so I had no time. Very little time for relaxation.
Because during that time my mother took a stroke.
It wasn't a very, very severe one.
But she couldn't get down and scrub floors and that sort of thing.
And I was a teenager then and I was the last one left, and two sisters had got married.
And I'd come home Saturday afternoon and go through the house, scrub the house which I wrote about in the Reporter, that sort of thing.
So, I had no time for any other relaxation.

VA: No, you've lived a really hard life in a way.

DE: Yes, my daughter thinks so.

VA: Always had to work, always working.

DE: Yes, and then the Graces? sold out to someone.
And these people knew nothing about business at all.
So, they kept me on for six weeks to introduce them to customers and that sort of thing.
But within two years, because this is in the middle of the depression in the 1930s, he just closed the door and walked away.
See, people did that.
Couldn't sell it.
So, after I left their employment, I went to work in the city in Coles.
That was very hard too because all those long hours.

VA: And the travel on top.

DE: Yes, and the travel. So, I didn't continue there very long.

DE: When I was 21, I opened my own shop in Mitcham.
Opposite on the - where the hotel is- that side.
And again, I was the last shop down.
So, it wasn't in the main part of the shopping centre.
On the wrong side of the road as it were. 

VA: It must have been near where the St John's school was?

DE: Yes, near there. 

DE: And I didn't keep that open - about 18 months, I suppose.
Again, I had to - I sold my stock to the only other grocer in town.
And shut the door.
I couldn't make a go of it.

VA: It was hard times.

DE: Very hard times and people would come in and they were used to booking up their groceries. Book up their groceries.
And next week they'd come in and pay perhaps ten shillings off the account.
And book up more groceries.
And this was going on all the time.
I found it too difficult. I couldn't pay my - I had to pay my suppliers.
And so, it just didn't work out.
So, I closed that and for two years I was going around with my little black book to get two shillings off this customer or two shillings off that one. 
They'd see me coming and they wouldn't be home half the time.
It was too difficult.
I just had to let it go.

VA: Well, full marks for trying.

DE: I thought I knew everything you see.
I knew the travellers and that sort of thing.
I thought, oh, I'll make a go of it.
But no, I didn't do that.
And a few years after, of course, when I was 27, I was married.

VA: Are you going to tell us how you met your husband?

DE: Yes, well, I was managing a confectionery shop in Mitcham, on the corner of Mitcham Road and Whitehorse Road.
And my husband worked at the hotel.
He was a barman there.
And he smoked at the time and he'd come over and buy his cigarettes from me.
And that started our romance.
He'd walk me home, you see. 

VA: Lovely

DE: That sort of thing
And we only knew each other for 15 months, and we were married.
And our marriage lasted for nearly 60 years. Well, just on 58 years. 
We were married in 1938, at the Church of England in Whitehorse Road, Mitcham.
We had a wonderful marriage, had a daughter and a son.

VA: That's wonderful.
Being in those positions you've talked of, you must have known pretty well all the people that lived in Mitcham.

DE: Yes, now.

VA: Are there any particular names and personalities that come to mind?

DE: Yes, I can tell you that.
But first of all, I'll tell you this.
In the years that we lived in Mitcham, in 1930s we'll say, the population of Nunawading that included Blackburn, Tunstall as it was then, and Mitcham, was two and a half thousand. That was the population then.

VA: Incredible

DE: Amazing, isn't it?
Yes.

VA: No one could ever envisage, could they?

DE: And Ringwood would used to be called Sleepy Hollow.
It's been amazing changes there.

VA: It really was the bush.

DE: It was.
Yes.

DE: And I used to walk my daughter, push the pram, in all different directions.
One direction was from our place in Casella St.
And, of course, it was up hill all the way as you know, to Vermont.
And back, that was one direction.

DE: Another direction was - when the rates had to be paid, I would push her right up the street down to Nunawading, it was Tunstall then of course, to pay the rates at the Shire Hall there. 
And push her back again.
I did a lot of walking.

VA: That Shire Hall would have been when they were in a house, would it?
That got burnt down. We hear about a Shire office.

DE: I can't remember that.
There were the Shire offices there.

VA: It's the present one that's there now.

DE: Well, I'm not sure.
It was on the left-hand side.

VA: I think it would be.
Because I think they was built in 1926.
So that's right.

DE: Yes, on the left-hand side I know it was.

VA: Yes, that building is still there.

DE: So that was quite a walk.

VA: It certainly was.
It was pretty rough tracks I'd imagine.

DE: Absolutely.
And of course, Casella Street was all ruts, you know.

VA Was Burnett Street made?

DE: No, not in those days.
Again, I'd go that way with the pram sometimes for a different one.
Instead of going up Thomas Street, I'd go Burnett Street.
Because up and down, you know.

VA:I have been told quite a few of those streets in inner Mitcham were made during the Depression to create employment for people on the sustenance.

DE: Yes, I think. Possibly,  they were.

And another thing about it too during the Depression, it was not unusual, in fact, it was quite usual to go up the street and find perhaps half a dozen men just sitting down in a row, smoking, unemployed you see.
Well, in some of the streets, it happened two or three men just sitting on the footpath.

VA: Very hard times.

DE: Very hard times, yes.

VA: Yes. So, you were going to tell me about the people?

DE: h, yes, the people.
Well, my bridesmaid lived in Mitcham.
She was Beryl McCallum in those days.
And it's hard to remember some of the names because I'm getting old now.
There were two doctors in the town, Dr. Cochran - Dr. Stanley Cochran, and Dr. Amanda Lee, but she was a wonderful doctor.

VA: I've heard people speak very highly of her.

DE: She was very, very, very, very, very well loved.
She was, you know, she'd called any hour or almost of the day or night, you know, on call all the time.
She was married and had two children, John and Margaret.
Yes, and she would come anywhere, too.
Now when I was having my first child, I was very sick.
It was morning sickness, all day sickness, it was.
And my sister took me home to her place in North Brighton to try and get me back on my food. I was so low.
And she got in touch with Dr. Lee, and she came all the way over there to see me.

VA: Oh, that is wonderful.

DE: Yes, she was a wonderful person. And so, that's good.
There wasn't much entertainment in Mitcham those days, of course, it was during the Depression.
We had a dance now and again in the Memorial Hall in Whitehorse Road
And sometimes pictures on a Saturday night, part of the time there was nothing.
But somebody had started it up again. You'd have pictures again, you know.
There was very little entertainment for young people.

And so, then a girl came out from England and started up a guide company, Girl Guides. And I joined.
There was nothing much else to do and I joined, l liked it.

She was married very soon after she came about 12 months after, I think, a Mrs. Haddie.

VA:That's right.
I know Mrs. Haddie.

DE: She still alive.
VA: Yes.
DE: And it was lovely, you know.
I loved being a girl guide and my friend, Beryl, was McCallum, was a girl guide with me.
And there was Rose Ireland. And Violet Dale.

It's very hard to remember.
It's a long way back.

VA: Yes, yes.

DE: And we had these broad-brimmed hats, you know, and she used to have them meeting on a Friday night.
And there'd be young people up the street, you know, they used to make fun of us going past with their big hats because it was unusual, it was nothing like that ever in Mitcham before.

VA: No.

DE: Something to tease the girls about, you know.
That was very nice.

VA: Oh, you enjoyed that.

DE: Oh, yes.

VA: Oh, that's tremendous.

VA: Now you would have been in Mitcham and seen two World Wars.
Do you recall the effect of that on the community.

DE: Well, you see, the memory of the first world war, I wasn't in Mitcham then. That was in 1918, that's when I started school.
And I was in Burnley then.
And I can just remember the welcome home soldiers banners across the streets and that sort of thing.
And people gave parties for the men coming back from the war, you know, and that sort of thing.
I can just remember that, Because I'd only be about 5 (years old)I think
But the second world war, of course, I have memories of that, my brother went, he enlisted, went to war and came back a nervous wreck, a physical and nervous wreck.
But anyway, yes.
And I remember all of a sudden seeing American soldiers around Mitcham, and you know.

VA: Oh, really?
They got out this far.

DE: Oh, yes, maybe.
Yeah, now and again.
Yes.
Most unusual, you know.

VA: Yes.

DE: And they would dress differently and all that.

VA: Yes, yes.

VA: And the end of the war celebrations were they different in Mitcham and do you think were they there by this time were people moving out to celebrate more?

DE: Yes, I think.
The trains were packed at the end of the war, all the day or the night, 
that the hostilities ceased. 
And people were packed the trains and went into the city.

VA: Yes.

DE: And I was one of them.
My husband, we went in the train and walked around the city, you know.
Everybody was dancing in the streets.
Not everybody, a lot of them.
Dancing in the streets and cheering.
Melbourne was alive, you know at night

VA: Yes, yes.

DE: Yes, the relief was tremendous.
Yes, and at the time, the very day, I was shopping in Camberwell. 
It was a nice shopping centre, then.
And all of a sudden there was silence, you know.
And the shops were all shutting their doors. 
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning.
And I thought, well, what's the matter, I wonder? What's the matter?
Shops were shutting. A lot of people in the street.
A lot of people on the Camberwell station when I was going home.
I couldn't make out what it was, it was the end of the war.

VA: Celebrations had started.

DE: Absolutely yes.
I was there when it happened, right there.

VA: Oh, it's wonderful.
Now, you did mention about after your marriage building your own home.

DE:Yes, we did.

My father gave us two blocks of land because he owned the block that his house was built on and the one at the back, and five blocks between Casella and Collina Street.
And they called that Tourella Street.

I'm sorry, what did you want to know about that?

VA: Well, then you built the ... He gave you the land and you built...

DE: Yes, we had the again, the same as my father did.
He said, get the frame built and the chimney done and then we'll finish it off between us.
But unfortunately, my father didn't live long after that.
But we were able to get a loan to build the house because we owned the two blocks you see.

VA:Oh, Yes

DE: And so, we got a loan and built the house.

VA: And you did a lot of work on it yourself or did you bring a builder in?
Oh, without the guidance of your father, I guess it was difficult.

DE: Yes, it was.
We had an old pensioner really that was a carpenter and he helped my husband finish the house.

Yes, yes.

VA: And that was a lemon grove your father established on those five blocks.

DE: Yes, that's right.

VA: Were the streets named at that time.

DE: Yes, they were.



VA:Oh, you see, you don't know how the streets got their name.

DE: Well, the people that owned them first, they were, I'm sure they owned them.
It was a private sale.
McDonald was their name. An estate agent.
And next door to the estate agent office, Mrs. McDonald had a drapery shop.
And they sold the land to my father for 10 shillings a week.

VA: Oh, well.

DE: Paid it off

And she named Casella Street, Collina and Tourello Street.
Yes, she named those.

VA: Oh, yes.
Oh, that's it...
We're also collecting how streets got their names.

DE: Yes, well, I know that she named them.

VA: Yes.

DE: So, she might have had connections, perhaps in Italy or somewhere.
I don't know.

VA: It sounds very like that.

DE: It does, doesn't it?

VA: Yes.
And what shop did she have in Mitcham?

DE: She had on the same side as the hotel.
I was a little bit further down.
She owned the shop that I rented actually.
Yes, it was an estate agent.
And she had the drapery shop there.
And then she had this empty shop, offered it to me for 10 shillings a week.
That was the rental.
I managed to pay the 10 shillings a week.

VA: Right

DE: And yes, I tried hard to make it pay.
I used to pickle onions and I had a big bowl on the counter of pickled onions that I did.
Made marmalade, homemade, you know.

To try and build the business up.

VA: Yes.

DE: But too difficult

VA: No.
The times were against you.

DE: And you know, I used to have Peter's ice cream sent up by train.
They didn't deliver it as far as Mitcham in those days.
They sent it up by train in a big cask filled with ice and salt Petre.
To keep it cold.
And I had a young boy about 14 and he had a little hand cart.
And he'd go around and bring the ice cream back for two shillings.
And I had a few customers about half a dozen I suppose that wanted the groceries delivered.
And he would deliver them in this little hand cart.
Again, two shillings for doing that.

I'll go back to when I worked at Hand's shop.
He did deliveries with a horse and cart you see
And of a Saturday afternoon sometimes he'd be going right out to Park Orchards.
That sort of distance quite a bit and he'd deliver the groceries there.
And I often went with them for the drive. It was wonderful.
A horse and cart out that way.
A few scattered houses.
It was a lovely afternoon.

VA: I'm sure it was.
Do you remember the Antonio brothers?

DE: No, I don't.

VA: They were most generous of course in giving their land on the corner of Steep creek. I just thought you might have known them.

DE: Of course, I knew about Schwerkolt's cottage.
And I can't remember her name now but I did know the granddaughter.
One of the granddaughters. I can't remember her name.

VA: Of Schwerkolt's.

DE: She was one of the teenagers when I was a teenager.
But I forgotten her name.
These things happen, don't they?
They certainly do because it's a long, long while back.
I've had an interesting life really.
All sorts of things have happened.

VA: Yes, you really have.
And how did you come to write, to do or put down all these wonderful memories?

DE: Well, the thing was, I had recently, this was about nearly 20 years ago,
I had lost my sister, and we were very close and I was very upset about that.
And then, I could see there was something wrong with my eyes.
I knew there was something wrong because of...oh..
I just knew that it was not a case of just going and getting a pair of glasses.
I had to see a specialist.
So, I went down to Ringwood and saw the specialist and he said, oh, you've got glaucoma.
And he gave me drops to take, and I said, oh dear oh dear. 
I thought, I'm not going home to worry about this.
I'll do something.
And I had seen a little ad in the local paper about this writing group at Ringwood.
Yes, in Bedford Rd.
That's what I'll do.
I'll try and join that group.
I'm not going to just live the rest of my life be a worry that I've got glaucoma.
While I can still see, I want to do something.
I rang the man and I said, I wanted to join this .. could I join it?
I asked the only thing is I'm 70.
And whoever was there said, Oh, that's nothing. We've got some 70-year-olds

VA: Oh, well, there you go.

DE: So, I went down there and joined.
The first day I went there, Thought it was so interesting.
So, I started to write.
And I've still got glaucoma, but it's kept at bay by drops.
Which is marvellous really.

VA: I'm really pleased to hear that.

DE: But that's why I joined, and I lost my sister.
I felt very depressed.
Then I was told that I had glaucoma.
I said, well, I'm going to do something.

VA: Yes, you've got a strong spirit.
Wonderful.
Had you had that feeling that you felt you could write, or was it..?

DE: Yes, occasionally I'd write a poem over the years, but very occasionally, because I didn't have time.
I've always lived a very busy life.
I had businesses and that sort of thing.

VA: Oh, yes.

DE: So, yeah, I was always very busy.
And I didn't have time.
Then I had time, you see.

VA: It's just wonderful, because you're giving people so much pleasure.
You know, as I said, that article went around all our members and it triggered memories for us.
You know, I had a picture suddenly of my dad chasing a chook around the back.

DE: Yes, well, that's a sort of thing.
You see, my mother kept chickens and ducks.
And I think I said in that article, we used to pluck them, sell them at Christmas mostly.
Because I used to help the pluck them, and it was a horrible job.
But we might have half a dozen orders, you see.
And it was a job and a half to pluck them.

VA: Yes.
And your daughter, you have two children?

DE:Yes, 

VA: And she went to Mitchan Primary School.
Yes, she did, and that was when the school was where Coles is now.
Yes, yes, yes.

DE: And she didn't let the long walk, which was a long walk from Casella Street, to Mitcham.
And, she came home for lunch, you see.
So, it was four trips a day.
Oh, great.
She didn't like it.
So, she had a trike, a big trike, and a three-wheeler.
But it was a big one.
And she used to take that trike and ride it to school.
And she wouldn't take it into the school yard because she would have been teased, you see.
So, she used to leave it at Davin's Dairy, which Mrs. Davin let her.
Remember that. 

VA: yes. I remember Mrs Davin.
 
DE: And she used to leave it there and call in and just ride by the tank at the back.
And she didn't get teased.
She used to get teased if she put it at school, you see.

VA: She stands resourceful like her mother.

DE: Oh, yes, she is.

VA: Yes.

DE: And the writing is being appreciated sometimes because now I go to only once a month to U3A writing group at Croydon.
And it's very interesting.
I was reading a little article I had written out one day, and one of the ladies said, 
Oh, could I have a copy of it?
And I said, yes, she could.
She wanted to put it into the Herb book.
She belonged to the Herb Society.
And it's printed in there.

VA: Oh, wasnt that nice?

DE: Lovely really.
It's being appreciated.

VA: Yes.

DE: Some of the time any way.

VA: It must make you feel very good about it.

DE: It does really.
It's a little bit of glory for me, I suppose, in the last years of my life.
And I want to do something.

I don't...I have to rest a lot because I have a heart problem.

But I can go up to the meeting, my daughter drives me up.
And meet others.

Hear their writing, you know.
And read my little bit out.
It's lovely.

VA: Oh, that's wonderful.
That's wonderful.

DE: Yes.

Yes. When we went to Mitcham in 1926, we had no electricity in our street. 
They had it, of course, in Whitehorse Road and few of the streets, you know.
I think they had it in Thomas Street, but didn't extend to our area at all.
In fact, we didn't even have the water on first.
We were two years without water.
We had a tank.
Then they put the water down, which is marvellous.
But we had no electricity for ten years.
So, we'd come up from Burnley where we had electricity - no we had gas light there.
I can remember the chap on the bike coming with his big pile to light the gas lamps, you know.
And then we went to Mitcham and had no electricity or anything else.
We had just lamps, Kerosene lamps.
We had a big one in the dining room to light up that.
And the little thing on the wall in the kitchen, you know, just a little lamp.
I wondered how my mother ever did the cooking by the little lamp.
But I did a lot of fancy work for my box and that sort of thing.
By little lamp light or even candle light.
And, you know, it was marvellous when we got the electricity on.

VA: It'd make a big difference.

DE: It did 
VA: Yes.
And did your father and mother put modern appliances as they would be then into the house when that happened, like a ..., you know, a gas and an electric stove or...

DE: They got an electric stove. Yes, very late in the day.
So, not long actually before we left Mitcham.
I mean, we had an electric stove.
We thought it was marvellous.
But most of the time we just had the fire stove in the kitchen.
And in the little lounge room, we had just a little fire grate, you know.
We used to burn coke in that.
And during the war we had coke, which was very inferior and terrible.
And you'd have to riddle it all the time to make it burn.
But my mother was a wonderful cook with that little old stove.
You know, fire stove.

VA: Women got very knowing about them - in managing them.

VA: And did you have a Hot water service towards the end?

DE: No, no, we didn't have hot water service.
We had...
My father had built this outhouse or wash house out in the back yard.
And it's quite a big building really.
And he had the bath down one end, the cold water tap over that.
And the copper down the other end, that had to be lit.
It used to be...
It was no such thing as a shower every day like people do now.
About once a week, the copper would be lit up.
And the bucket underneath, we would get a bucket full of hot water, 
take it down to the other end of the room.
Tip it in the water, back, another load, you know.

It was hard work, you know, really.

VA: It was.

DE: And it was pretty awful in the winter, we used to have to take our coats outside 
in the winter, to come back in, you know, with a coat over us.

VA: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

DE: Wasn't too good in the winter.

VA: No, I'm sure not.
What about the the sewerage. Did that come in while I was there?

DE: No, I don't think it did.
No, it didn't.
We still had the night man coming.

VA: Mmm.

DE: With the thing on his shoulders, you know, with the thing on his shoulders, 
the container on his shoulders.
That was horrible.
And I never, never really got used to the toilet down the back.
It was right down the backyard, of course.
And there was a little candle there in the candlestick, of course.
And the newspaper, cut up into squares, and hanging on a nail.
And then if we ever got a bit of tissue paper or something, that'd be on another nail.
That was special.

VA: Yeah, it is.

DE: I used to hate going down there in the dark.
There was always a box of matches there with the candle 
and you'd lift that up when you went down.
And I was always afraid of spiders.

VA: Yes.
It was a really common thing, I think. Wasnt it.

DE: Yes, I never got used to it.
No.
Then when we moved from there, we went up to Kallista and we had the septic tank.
I thought it was wonderful. Wonderful.
No more down the yard.
That was hard, really.

VA: Yes.

DE: My mother must have noticed that, because we had sewerage in Burnley.

VA:Oh, yes. That would be a big change for you, wouldn't it.

DE: You never got used to that.
It's the only thing you could do.
They were all down the backyard.

VA: Well, that's just the way it was when you came out into, well, once again, the bush.

DE: Yes, that's right.
Everybody was the same.

VA: That's right.

VA: You wouldn't have had many neighbours around you, I'd imagine.

DE: Well, a few.
Opposite. There was neighbours there.
Markby their name was.
And then we had a Mrs. Maxwell opposite. Another house.
Not a lot of houses.
But there's three or four on the right-hand side.
On the our side, because it was beyond our land, you know, and there was a couple of houses right down the hill.

VA: I was going to ask you, there is.., on the same side, that you would have lived on.
The last house in the street appears to be a very old house.

DE: Could be too.
There was an old house there.

VA: It's very close to the street.
Almost how people used to build them. More like inner Melbourne. Someone has come out.

DE: Yes, that's right.

VA: You don't recall who lived there, or was that there when you came?

DE: No, it wasn't there when we came.
I cant remember. Who was there?
No, no.

VA: It's just quite interesting.
It's interesting that it wasn't there when you came.

DE: No, it wasn't.

VA: It looks as if it could have been there at the turn of the century.
You know, it's one of those types.

DE: Its a little old house.

VA: It's been done up, but it's history must be quite interesting.

DE: Now, there were two houses down there, I remember.
One was Andersons, their name was.
And they.., Mr. Anderson and his son used to make brass candlesticks, there.
How they did it, I don't know. 
Just one of the houses then. But I dont know who was in the other one.

VA: Oh, that's interesting.
And were there many houses along Burnett Street at that time?

DE: No, not a lot.

VA: No, but Austin Street had been made.
You'd cut up there a bit, would you?

DE: Which street

VA: Austin, which runs between Harrison Street and Burnett Street?

DE: Wasn't there when we were there.

VA: So, that was all bush really.

DE: It was.

VA: That you went through to get up into Mitcham.

DE: Colina Street had a couple of houses, not a lot.

VA: No.

DE: And Burnett Street had a few too, but it was mostly bush.

VA: Yes.

DE: And Harrison Street, well, when we were there, they planted all the trees along there, and they were little trees, and I watched those trees grow, and they're still there.

VA: They're beautiful, the pin oaks.

DE: Yes.

VA: Oh, that's interesting.
So, you saw them planted.

DE: Yes.
And there was a little church, a Church of Christ, it was, in Harrison Street, because it's not there now.

VA: No.

DE: We belonged to them .. that church at the time, and my daughter used to go to Sunday school there as a little kid.

VA: Oh, yes.

DE: No longer there.

VA: No. Oh, that's interesting.
Because I live in McDowall Street.

DE: Oh, yes.

VA: So, I knew that church quite well.

DE: Yes.

VA: It was there when we came to live in Mitcham

DE: Yes. Because you came you said in 1950. Didnt you?

VA: Yes. Yes.

VA: And then you left.

DE: Yes.

VA: You would know Mrs. Dawe, that lived in Dawe Road.

DE: I think so. The name rings a bell.

VA: I don't? think she was there a long time.

DE: Yes. And there were some people that lived in Harrison Street.
What's their name, I've forgotten their name.
They used to have a cow.

Yeah.a cow

DE: And the girl used to bring around milk to anybody that wanted it , you know, fresh from the cow.
Oh, right. So she'd deliver it about.

DE: Yes. That was in Hawtin Street.
Getting up near Doncaster East Road, but I've forgotten which house.
I cant remember the name?

VA: Yes. Yes. Oh, my goodness.

DE:Yes.

VA: Yes, Well, that's hard for young people to imagine these days.

DE: Yes. Young teenager used to bring around a cow.
They were 7th day Adventist people, I remember.

VA: Yes.

DE: I can't remember the name.
And, she used to deliver milk too.

VA: Yes.

DE: Goodness.

VA: Well, as you said in your article, life was easier in that regard.

DE Yes, when you had things delivered.

VA: Yes. When all your supplies were delivered.

DE: Yes. And of course, the grocer, most of them did the same thing. I think. 
They'd go around to the houses, to their customers, and get the order, and deliver it the next day. Because that's unheard of now.

VA: Isnt it! Yes.
Well, we wouldn't want to go back to the hard times that you remember.
Certainly, some of it would be quite nice to have.

DE: Yes, that's right.
And they always had a chair in those grocer's shop, that sort of thing, for people to sit on, you know, there was always a chair there.
And I used to like measuring up rice and barley and all these sorts of things into the .. and sugar.

It was in the bag. It had two pounds, one pound.

VA: Yeah.

DE: It started off one pound of sugar.
Of course, you can't even get that now.

VA: No.

DE: And another thing I used to love, is to have a box of butter, you see, 
and the butter pats in a bowl of cold water.
And you dig the butter out and make up the half a pound or the pound.
I used to love doing that.

VA: Yes. 
So, you get very expert at guessing the exact weight I imagine.

DE: Yes, that's right.

VA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

DE: So, the thing you just do a few - ready for the customers, you know - and the next day 
come at it again. Its on a marble slab.

VA: Oh, yes. Yes.

DE: So, those sorts of things come back to me.
And they were interesting.
I used to like doing that. And you kept busy doing that between customers.

VA: That's right. There was always something to do.

DE: Yeah.

VA: Did you keep the papers?
Were you a general store?

DE: No.

VA: Was there a local paper?

DE: Yes.
And in those days, there were no libraries, no free libraries like they are now.
But Beckwith's was a newsagent shop there in Whitehorse Road.
And I keep saying Whitehorse Road because that's what it was then.

VA: Yes, I think most people still call it that actually.

DE: Yes.
And they had .. down one end of the shop they had a little library,
 and you paid sixpence a book.

VA: Oh, yeah.

DE: I often paid me sixpence because I was always a reader.
Yeah. And he mostly kept westerns, you know, Zane Grey's, that sort of thing.
A few other books, you know.
So, I read up on all those.

VA: Yes.
You could get most of your supplies, like your household requirements and that in Mitcham.

DE: Oh, yeah.

VA: And you'd go out to shop very much.
Would you?

DE: No.
Well, I mean there was a green grocer, butcher, newsagents.
Yes, and a bakery - a bakery now.
Their name was - let me see, their name escapes me.

VA: Would that be Barelli's?

DE: Barelli's. Yes, Barelli's.
Yeah. So, everything was there that you needed.
And the post office, of course, Markham's was the post office.

VA: She had like a general store, I believe.
Is that right?

DE: I don't kmow whether ...
I don't remember it being a general store, but she did sell a few things.
Not groceries. 

VA: No. Gifts more.

DE: Yes and she had the girl Markham, I've forgotten her Christian name.
She was interested in photography.
She had my daughter's picture in the window for a while.
Yeah, she had a few pictures in the window.

VA: Yeah.



Vic Collections Item: AV0028
Transcription date: 14/03/2024
File: Arrowsmith_1.txt
Interviewee: Doris Evans, Nee Morgan
Interviewer: Valda Arrowsmith
Interview date: 11th of September 1997
Place: Doris' home 25 Alexander Street, East Ringwood.
Commissioned: Nunawading and District Historical Society - Oral History Project