I was born on 16th March 1943 at St Anne’s hospital in Maylands. My first memory is of Orange Grove. Mum and Dad bought a five-acre property on the corner of Maddington Road and Grant Street. The original dwelling was a weatherboard shed with a tin roof. As time progressed a brick and tile roof was attached to the shed.

We moved to Orange Grove in 1946. Originally Orange Grove School was a single room building with a community hall being used to house the upper grades. Later, a new two-room school was built in Kenwick Road which housed 1st- 6th Standard whilst infants remained in the school building.

Life was very simplistic at Orange Grove, once a week the hall would double as a picture theatre, a dance venue and a Paddy’s market. Dad caught the bus to work with Uncle Ernie and later purchased a car. There was a shoppers bus twice a week which we caught with Mum to take us to Perth.

Our closest shops were at Maddington, two miles away. It was my job to ride a bike there to buy our essentials. The ride was easy going in but the east wind would blow often making headway more difficult coming home.

After going to infants in the original school I graduated to the big school in Kenwick Road where there were three classes in each room.

The community spirit at Orange Grove was incredible. It had its own football club (Pop was Vice Captain and I was the mascot). Dances were held in the hall and I can still see the pig’s trotters which were supplied for supper. One of my jobs was to spread sawdust on the floor to make it easier to dance on.