1950s Mind's Eye

My home life was very confusing for various reasons that I will not go into right now. The local 'hang' for kids was the council playground; Woolloomooloo Council Playground, it was my out ..

1951 'starring' in a short doco about the playground

I sported orthapedic boots (which were fashionable not!), throughout the day - at nights, iron splints were strapped with lengths of bandages to my little twisted legs.

I'm walking in my mind's eye down Brougham Street on my way to the playground in the 50s, pausing outside the varying Terrace Houses along the way listening to the latest tunes broadcasting from the radio ..

Teresa Brewer's screeching version of "Boll Weevil" offset by Doris Day's lilting "Que Sera Sera", but it was the upbeat "Tzena Tzena" that would start my heart racing. These songs gave me the basis for my quest for musical knowledge. Doris Day "Que Sera Sera", Tzena Tzena", the Barry Sisters version that I first heard in the '50s, however, The Weavers featuring Pete Seeger did an excellent job of it, a sign of great things to come. What a magnificent banjo player he was, such an inspiration during the '60s. (Research has conveyed to me that "Tzena Tzena" 'was not originally a Hebrew folk song.)

Humming "Que Sera Sera" I would close my eyes and imagine what it would be like to be part of the world of music world, a place I mistakenly imagined where one could escape from the horror of ‘homelife’. I later joined this world – far from escaping the horrors of homelife, I found a world of drugs, disloyalty, dishonour and deception.

Back home again - tea (dinner) at 5 on the dot, always 5 on the dot. Back to reality; as portrayed by my family.

Doris Day "Que Sera Sera"