In about 1953 our family moved to our “new house” at Fulham. The house was actually old, built about 1900. Outside the front fence was a hitching post where people had tied up their horses in the old days. In front of our house there was a row of trees which had pods like Chestnuts. Tapleys Hill Road was a normal two way road lined, most of the way, with market gardens though diagonally across from our house was a vacant block completely covered with reeds. The River Torrens used to empty into wetlands around the area before the Breakout Channel was dug.
The southern boundary of our property was in the middle of the creek and when the creek was high enough, the boys sometimes swam in it. About half way down our back yard there was a big log lying across the creek and we used to stand or sit on that to get into the water. Once Mum tied a rope around me and lowered me in to teach me to swim. I’d seen Mike scramble out of the creek and put salt on a leech that was sucking blood out of his calf so I kept my legs kicking frantically believing that would stop any from getting on me. The moment I stopped kicking I got out of the water, I’m sure it did absolutely nothing to help me learn to swim.
One year the water started drying out when there were lots of Redfin Fish in the creek and we had great fun scooping them up and putting them in buckets of water. We also watched Swallows frantically zoom about under the Stanford Bridge when we went too close to their nests and babies.
You didn’t know that about Nana, did you?
Musings of a Retiring Person 