I was thinking of the old days at Warragamba, late 40's to the dam opening in 1960 when as pupils of Warragamba public school we marched to the dam, the school band playing.
Today it is not the same dam, the wall has been raised and new spillway added, nothing like the original structure at all. My mates and I playing in the dam precincts during construction, sometimes being chased by workmen, we were buggers, but had the fun we made. No TV 'til 57, we had radio serials in the evenings, I had a crystal set in my bedroom and lay in bed at night listening to serials; we had regular blackouts so out came the Kero lanterns, one of the worst hailstorms when nearly every house in the dam suffered some damage, smashed windows; and that bush fire of 57 also.
The bread and milk came by horse and cart, and ice for the old silent night fridge. No hot water, but the old chip heater did the trick, and the Metters or Bega stove in the kitchen and copper in the laundry for wash day, pegged up on the clothes lines in the backyard, no hills hoist then. The Waltons man used to call, girls saved up the labels from Lan Choo tea packets to get enough of them to earn free things for their 'glory box', the radio licence man used to knock on the door, and we made billy carts to race down the streets. And fishing for mullet in the basins, caught lots of carp too. School plays, the flicks and vaccinations in the town hall...and when TV came out, watching it in the window of the local Electrical shop,'til we got one from H.G. Palmer. And then the TV repair man would call in often to replace a valve. High school came and that meant the daily return trip in the old Double decker bus we nicknamed the 'wrecker,' to Penrith High, then to Nepean High at Emu Plains when completed; ah yes the good old days at Warragamba.