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Bonnie’s Laurie Allen Tribute
My Space
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My
Grandfather Albert Percival who was listed missing in action in the First
World War. Never did come home, listed as Missing In Action. His name on
The Villers-Bretonneux memorial wall in France is
all there is.. Killed in a battle in Pozieres in
1916. All I knew of my Grandfather as a little girl was his name in gold
lettering on the memorial wall at my school, Albert St State School. It was
also on the memorial boards at The Brunswick Town Hall and the former
Brunswick RSL.With three small children at home, to me this is the true meaning of a hero.
City of Brunswick certificate presented to
Alberts wife Mary in 1920. I really would love to see his name on the
memorial wall at The Villers-Bretonneux Memorial wall..or better still it would be
wonderful for his remains were
found, one can only hope…. |
Welcome to my space, my little
piece of the world wide web, my
footprint of a good life. Looking at the search queries that come into
my website I have come to realise peoples interest in the past is amazing, people
are so interested in days gone bye, so I thought I would add a page on to my
Laurie Tribute dealing with a few areas of my life that may be of some
interest to others, a few memories I hope. My
family are Brunswickians from way back, my mother
& father grew up in Brunswick as
their parents did, All around Edward St, Albert St and Barkly St, I
spent most of my childhood in Brunswick in the days when kids played in the
streets, sailing icy-pole sticks down the gutters, my mother always said we
kids were so healthy because we played in the gutters, brought up in the
gutters of Brunswick, I heard my mum a few times tell other mothers “Let the
kid get dirty, it’s healthy”. I would
ride my three wheeler bike around the back lanes, they were my private little
roads, or push my pram with my many dolls around the streets, the world was a
safer place in those days, it was even safe to be riding down the back lanes
bordering on darkness. These were the days when there was always the latest
fad, and every kid in the street would have to be in on it, skippy, hoola hoops, swap
cards, jacks, hop scotch and the only time we were not out in the street
playing was dinner time and bed time, and of course at school. On Christmas
day kids would be out in the street showing off their new toys, it was like a
tradition, I haven’t seen a little girl playing with a pram and dolls for
years, how sad. Down the street a little bit In Edward Street the Briggs
circus people lived, I can remember seeing Andy Pandy and Chief Little Wolf
quite often, wow that was famous to me, then came television, with the
neighbourhood kids watching the Mickey Mouse Club, all sitting in front of
the black and white telly with our ears on, the wonder of it all, this was so
much better than listening to Biggles and the
adventures of Noddy on the radio. Then of course the highlight of the week
was Saturday afternoon, going to the pictures at the Empire theatre. There wasn’t much
money in those days, I guess you could say we were brought up on the rabbit,
my dad used to go rabbiting every Sunday with our dog Timmy, he would come
home with a mega amount of rabbits strapped to the bumper bar of the car, he
would skin them, clean them and then distribute them amongst friends,
neighbours and rally’s, he supplied them all with their weekly meat, I think
my lovely dad helped a lot of people through these times with his weekly
donation and some times especially in the mushroom season we kids would tag
along and we would often come home with a car load of mushrooms also to be
shared around. Then there was my Uncle Andy who supplied
all the kids in the neighbourhood with bikes, he would go to the local tip
and find old broken bikes, bring them home, fix them up and give them to any
kid who wanted them, every kid around the Edward St area had a bike and he
was also famous for taking in any hungry dogs, made the front of the local
paper for that one, upset the establishment a bit there, which he tended to
do a bit. He was a free spirit with a kind heart. I think I was so lucky to have such a
wonderful childhood and I often think, how lucky were we to
be around in the best of times. The 50’s had to be the best place to
be as a child and the 60’s was definitely the best time for a teenager. I
still love Brunswick, I wish I could afford to live there now, I believe my
mum & dad paid 5,000 pounds for the little single fronted, 2 bedroom house in Edward St, things certainly have changed. |
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Alberts
three children Charles, Victor ( My Dad) & Albert growing up in Brunswick. |
In
memory of my Dad who passed away in 1995, Victor Major of 2/2nd
Field Regiment of Artillery, Second
World War, the best Dad in the world. Thanks
to my sister Shirley for this photo, I appreciate it so much. |
This
is a photo I found amongst My dads photos, I think
it is of the Brunswick Football Club as I know he played with them for a
short time. |
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Baby Bonnie |
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After witnessing the
birth of triplet goats without fainting I was given the honour of naming this
one, so she was named Danielle (after Laurie’s song Danielle). Laurie thought
this was rather cool. |
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Albert
Street State School to Brunswick Girls School School was not my most favourite place to
be, not being the smartest and I feel just not ready to learn, my yearning
for knowledge came much later, I would be holding back by saying I hated
every minute of school. I
started out at Albert Street State school just plodding along because I had
to, I don’t think I really learnt much from school, I know I learnt all
common sensibility from my parents. I managed to
scrape through State school to go to Brunswick Girls school, in those days Brunny Girls as it was known didn’t have a very good
name, even having a headmistress quoted in the local paper what she thought
of the girls and it wasn’t very nice but I couldn’t see it, we were so tame
and so innocent, I think the biggest trouble I ever got into was refusing to
wear regulation school shoes and moulding my school hat into a cowboy hat,
how I hated that straw hat, how radical was that? I Went to a school reunion
in 1984 with my old school friend Miranda, we had been told previously that
Lindy Chamberlain had actually gone to Brunny Girls
for one year, well we checked the school photos and sure enough she was there
at the same time that we were but being in a different class and as she only
spent one year there I couldn’t remember her, but I am sure she was lovely
just like all Brunny Girls…. We were all nice
girls. A little querie
in case some one who visits has an answer…. I was
at Brunny Girls for three years, one of these years
our class was told that no one from that particular class was going to be
able obtain a copy of the class photo because some one was poking out a
tongue (another radical) well at the reunion that Miranda and I attended we
saw that school photo and surprise surprise…. not a tongue to be seen, a
group of little angels, I have often wondered why a Head Mistress would tell
such a lie. Today both Albert
Street State and Brunswick Girls school are gone, pulled down and made into
housing estates, when I read they were going to pull down old Brunny Girls I went along and took a couple of photos, it
was rather sad to see the broken windows and papers all over the school yard,
at least at this school I did have a few nice memories. History Of Brunswick Girls School later
named Brunswick East High School. 1924 to 1984 The School was planned and built during
1922-24 for girls in grades 5,6,7 & 8 at a cost
of 16,609 pounds 16 shillings and 4 cents, there were 475 girls enrolled. The
school was officially opened on July2 1925. In 1969 Brunswick Girls School
became Brunswick East High School |
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I took these photos of Brunswick Girls just before
they demolished it. |
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Are
you out there….Fay Sims, Judy Farrow, Paulette Cooper and Kay
Rust. Laurie would just love you
to get in touch with her and catch up on old times. Email Laurie on worfie51@yahoo.com.au Former student of Brunny Girls Suzanne
Reaburn ( 1962-1965) would love to hear from friends Christine
Tucker, Cynthia Constance, Lorna Blakely, Gillian Fox and Pam Black… .Email Sue on rosini2@bigpond.com |
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PMG to Telstra After doing a Receptionist
Telephonist course I kept getting told when going for jobs that 3 months
experience with the PMG was required, so I thought I would go along and get
that 3 months experience, I stayed 31 years, seeing a lot of changes through
the years. I started at The City West Exchange in Little Bourke Street on
trunk lines, working in various areas from payphones, trunk calls, emergency
to early morning calls. I can still remember the first time I connected a
trunk call while still in class, we didn’t have a telephone at home so a long
distance call was a rather big thing to me, I couldn’t wait to get home to
tell my family that I actually spoke to someone in Geelong. In those days big
changes were yet to come, my clock on card (D Number) was number 400 and I
was right in the middle of the clock on board so there were a lot of
operators in those days, mainly women. Women in those days had to leave when
they married and as most of the operators were women and one worked their way
up through seniority, most of the supervisors were unmarried and had
dedicated their whole lives to their job and they took their jobs very
seriously. In those days an operator could not sit at a position for more
than three hours without a break and had to ask a supervisor if they could go
to the toilet and there were times when the operator would be timed for
natures calling. Times had Already changed a little, I was told that not long
before I had started a lady had to be wearing hat & gloves to enter the
building, I am sure glad that one was changed. These were the good days when
giving service was number one priority, with manual exchanges, it would be an
every day thing for an operator to weave all over the country from one
exchange to another simply to connect a call in a town just outside Melbourne,
time was not an issue, there was a lot more satisfaction to the job knowing
you were allowed to give service. An operator was there for the customer,
helping sometimes confused people with what day it was to helping with advice
on how to bake a cake, the operator was a link for lonely people too, just the sound of a voice at times helped them through. A
number one rule in those days was that an operator was never allowed under
any circumstances give out her name, for security reasons which sounded reasonable,
a safety issue. The turnover of staff in those days was amazing, coming and
going all the time, like me I guess girls were just there for the experience,
there would be two or three classes on at any one time, then they would stay
a little while and off they would go, I was in a class of about 8 and after
3months I was the only one still there so there were probably thousands of
operators that passed through the old City West Exchange. When the rules were
relaxed and women could be married a lot of them came back but there was
always a huge turnover of operators. When
the PMG changed to Telecom, time became a bigger issue and that meant that
the pressure on the operator had changed, the service was changed from
quality to quantity, the satisfaction factor was slowly diminishing and more
often operators were being abused for not giving the service the public were
used to, I guess we were always considered to be a semi-public service
department. Things didn’t get any better when Telecom changed to Telstra. Telstra was
computerised and the big move to The Lonsdale Exchange for early morning
calls and redirection, time for a bigger change for me, I transferred to the
Preston Exchange which was Directory Assistance and Service Difficulties.
This was a huge change for me and a lot of learning, for me Service
Difficulties was hard, a lot to learn but I got through it. Things changed so
much in those days, from the operators having to introduce themselves with
their names, I guess there was no longer security problems, the world
suddenly became a safer place ….have to think a bit on that one…. and timing
of calls to the extreme, 30seconds to introduce yourself, find out the
information from the customer, search for the number and deliver the correct
information with politeness while knowing there was someone on the ready to
pounce on you when you went over the time that was set and this would change
from day to day depending upon complaints from the customers, there was a
short time 18 seconds was the time being pushed. There were a lot of mega
stressed operators at that time and friendly discussions with management was
the order of the day, I was one who didn’t believe in the time pushing and
the way that operators were being treated so I guess one could say the
managers office had become a very familiar place to me, 31 years had taught
me to stand up for what was right, so I guess you could say I went for it,
gave it a good shot but unfortunately or fortunately for some the operators
days were numbered. Sometimes I was asked why after thirty something years I
was still just an operator, well to me there was nothing wrong with being
JUST an operator, I preferred to stay a worker, maybe this was the Brunswickian coming out in me, my whole family were hard
workers and I could never have played by the management rules for
supervisors, making out reports on my fellow workmates for a couple of extra
dollars was just not for me, so I remained just an operator and happy with my
job until near the end when hardly anyone seemed to be fulfilled with their
jobs. When the time for operator culling had come around I was quite happy to
go, the beginning of the end to operators had begun. Today customers talk to a computer if they
can get past the mass amount of menus and prompts and if you are lucky you
might get someone you can actually understand, I think that’s what they call
progress, I call that a disgrace and I am sure everyone was much happier when
it was a real person within Australia on the other end of the phone whose job
it was to provide service to the customer, operators who cared about the
service they gave, everyone was happy. Maybe customers should stand firm and
demand the return of the operator, and insist operators be allowed to give
the service they the customer pay enough for, a telephone exchange to me is a
great starting place for young people starting out in the big world of
employment, something the young people of today could very well do with. Over the 31years I spent as a telephone
operator I met many many people, some I am still
close friends with, I hope maybe this page will bring back some memories to
some former switch bitches or hello girls out there, heres to the good times
and there were many..
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City
West Telephone Exchange |
The
Lonsdale Exchange |
The
Preston Exchange Any
former Prestonites who would like to be included in
our yearly get together ,email me with your name and
email address and I will send you an invite
when the next one is on… Dinner,old friends, memories
and a lot of laughs bonnie@laurieallen.net. |
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Bonnie and Nancy @
Skygate88 Melbourne-The Edge 2008 Thanks to Magic 1278 for the tickets to Skydeck 88
Contact me… bonnie@laurieallen.net
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