I hated Brookton so I asked Bet to find me somewhere to live in Perth. At the age of 16 I arrived in Perth and stayed at a family house in Shenton Park. I found a job at Castrol Oil in Wellington Street filling up 4-gallon tins of oil from a 44-gallon drum. I purchased a pushbike and rode from Shenton Park to work and back.
As time went on the next episode was a new job with Goodyear as a clerk in the accounts department and then on to a motorbike a Triumph 350cc twin, also new residence at a house in Como with a nice family. I gave the S.P. bookmaker at the Como Hotel bets for the old lady I stayed with, then on to the next residence, board with a family in West Perth. The lady’s name was Mrs Yates and she had 6 children and no husband. Three girls she had were named Faith, Hope and Charity and one of her sons named Earl became a very good mate of mine. He was of the same age as me and I switched jobs to go where he worked at Roland Smith and Company. My job was in the Manchester department and Earl worked in the despatch.
I then swapped motorbikes and got myself a Tiger Hundred Triumph twin 500cc and I loved it. I then swapped the Tiger Hundred for an upgraded model and that was great. I met some different guys with motor bikes namely Stan Craig from Ireland with a Matchless motor and Ray Lindsay with a A.J.S. We shifted into a boarding house in North Perth near the Rosemount Hotel and had the use of a kitchen. We did not cook but had meat and custard pies for breakfast and mixed grills at the Greek Cafes in Barrack Street Perth City. Two other guys joined us namely Ron Conduit with an A.J.S and Colin Fraser with a B.S.A. and side box. We had many great weekends and often we would ride hundreds of miles to and from country towns. I remember Perth to Kalgoorlie and then on to Geraldton and back to Perth. Then next weekend to Albany and around the Great southern Districts
In1952 I decided to return to Brookton. Bet found a job for me in Pingelly at the International tractor and machinery shop run by Bill Hodges. I rode my motorcycle from Brookton to Pingelly and back every day. I enjoyed the work and they were good men to work with. One day I noticed a beautiful girl coming out of a mixed business shop and I thought to myself I love to meet her. Her name was Josephine Lawrie and she was one of ten children and the pick of the litter. At the Pingelly hall Saturday night dance I introduced myself. Well you wouldn’t want to know but she took a fancy to me. So I shifted to Pingelly into a boarding house just down the road from where she lived. I asked her to marry me and after saying to her father Bill Lawrie will you give me permission to marry you daughter and the answer was yes we decided on a date. Not long before this I sold my motorbike and purchased a second hand Vauxhall six-cylinder car from a family in Brookton.
We were married on 19th February 1955 at St John’s Anglican Church in Fremantle and the reception was held at Jo’s brother Ern Lawrie’s house in Ruby St. North Perth. Bet and Bill Coote, my grandmother and lots of Jo’s family were there and it was a great event. We went to Bridgetown for our honeymoon and toured the south west and back to Perth. Next step was to find accommodation and Bet had a friend who knew a friend called Mrs. Maidment who had a bedroom with the use of a kitchen in Tate Street West Leederville for rent and we shifted in. Also in the house was Max Maidment, her son and Dinny Shine, an S.P. bookmaker who took a lot of bets on Saturdays and the phone never stopped ringing. I remember Bob and Hazel Hawke lived in the next street and I used to see Bob on his motorbike with Hazel on the pillion seat.
I found a job at York Flour Mills in Perth bagging flour but that did not last long. I wrote a letter to the Swan Brewery seeking employment and I had an interview in August and gained employment as a storeman at the Swan Brewery, Mounts Bay Road. It was a good job and the conditions were excellent. The bar opened 6.00 in the morning for the night shift knock off but the men coming to work joined in for a few beers before starting work. The bar then opened at 10 for smoko, 12 for lunch 3 for afternoon break and 4.30 for knock off.
We had our own barber who cut our hair and I was in charge of selling crayfish that drivers brought from Geraldton. I was there for 4 years and then I was relief clerk for the clerks who went on holidays. I learned so much about how the administration and brewery worked that I felt I needed a change.
Now going back to Tate Street Jo was pregnant with Mark so something had to be done about accommodation. I found a 2 room with kitchen in Subiaco so we shifted. I went to work every day and Jo who had given birth to Mark walked him to the clinic and the streets of Subiaco waiting for me to come home. She then became pregnant with Dave so I had to find different accommodation and we shifted to an old shop front in North Perth with 4 rooms. A truck driver from the brewery lived at the back and we rented it off him. Well you would not want to know Jo became pregnant with Beth so new accommodation was required. We became eligible for a Housing Commission house in Cloverdale and off we went and Beth popped out.
We coped very well at Cloverdale and Jo’s brother Bruce lived a few doors down so we had company and Bruce and Aileen had 3 children about the same age as ours so all good. I worked on the milk delivery cart with Sam Martin starting at 2.00 to 5.00 every morning and then home to have breakfast and off to work at Swan Brewery. Sometimes I had to wake Sam up to go to work, as he was a slack bastard. Then I got a job at the races on Saturdays with Maclarty’s Horse Transport picking up the fees for the transport of the horses to the races. So I worked at the Brewery, the milk cart and the races but it was all good. The boys grew up and started school at Cloverdale School and Beth was in her first year in 1964 when I applied for the job of office manager at Swan in Darwin. I was successful and so we had to shift to Darwin.
We rented our house and spent the night at the Manning Hotel and away we went to Darwin. The flight was with M.M.A. airlines on a Fokker Friendship and I remember at the airport while we were waiting to go a guy yelled out any seats left and the attendant called back Sorry Ocker the Fokker is Chocker. The trip was uneventful except Jo went to the toilet in Kununurra and as she sat down some frogs were in the toilet pan and she freaked out We landed in Darwin and were met by a Swan Brewery person and driven to the Darwin Hotel for a few nights until our new house was ready. The children went to Darwin Primary for a week and Jo escorted them across.
The hotel made them up cut lunches to take to school. I settled into work as the office manager and we shifted into our new house in Bishop Street fully, furnished rental 1 pound a week. The wages were 37pounds 10shillings per week. The children were enrolled at Parap Primary School and Jo found a job at a baby clothes shop in Parap and was home by time the children came home.
All went well and we all loved our life in Darwin. I purchased a new Holden Hydra glide Sedan for Jo to go to work in after she obtained a drivers licence. I tried to teach her but it did not work so she had lessons and passed with flying colours.
Three years later in 1967 we decided to take a trip down the centre and over to the east coast as I had 8 weeks leave accumulated.