Farewell to the family home
The house in which I grew up is gone, but life goes on ...
I received a phone call from my late Mum’s neighbour to say that the Debritz family home is all but gone. Workers have been removing asbestos sheeting for the past couple of weeks, and at the time of writing only the frame is left. “It’s sad, mate,” was his assessment. And he’s right.
That fibro house stood for nearly 75 years. My parents built it with help from my Dad’s tradie mates. It was made from fibro because that was the miracle material after the war, and my mother had worked as a clerk at Wunderlich, the Gaythorne-based manufacturer, and was able to purchase it at a time when timber was in short supply.
That house served us well; its three bedrooms accommodating six of us for quite a few years. My Mum lived there until the last weeks of her life. It was the second of just two houses she’d called home (the other being her parents’ home, opposite the aforementioned fibro factory in the ironically titled Bellevue Avenue.)
I’ve lost count of the number of places I’ve rented or owned over my adult life, so that house, which my siblings and I sold last year, was special.
I hope the new owners, a young couple who plan to build their dream home on the site, get a good three-quarters of a century out of it, too.
BACKYARD BLISS?
On the subject of old houses. I spotted this structure in the backyard of a home during one of my close-to-home country drives. No prizes for guessing that it’s a (presumably former) dunny, but how many of them are left intact — and why? What is there use in a modern, fully-indoor-plumbed world?
Also, can anybody confirm or otherwise that it has a tiny satellite dish attached to it? For internet access, perhaps? Intriguing if true …
(A closer inspection suggests perspective may be playing tricks and the object belongs to a house beyond the back fence.)
SHOP ’TIL YOU DROP?
I went to my local (smallish) Woolies and discovered that they’d run out of hand sanitiser and the only people wearing masks were old people (like me!).
When I was finished, the queues at the staffed checkouts were so long (and the operators so slow) that I reluctantly went to use the self checkout — where the very pleasant overseer apologised for the lack of full-serviced options because several staff members were off sick.
More reason to have santiser on tap and at least a suggestion that people wear masks, I would’ve thought …
FEEDBACK
Matt agreed with the points I made recently about urban design: “Yes! More high density housing and commercial near train stations. And while we’re at it improve building codes and design standards so that those apartments are more liveable.”