A Gord song for Dad(29May1929-25Apr2017)

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

Forgive me the self-indulgence, but I would like to dedicate the Lightfoot song "End Of All Time" to my beloved father Lee who passed away this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laEGTv_T6qU

[Affair on Touhy Ave.]

Sorry to hear that but I'm glad he lived a good long life.

[formerlylavender]

Sorry to hear about your Dad's passing Dave. My heart goes out to you. May he rest in peace.

[charlene]

condolences to you and your family Dave.. hugs from Toronto...

[BILLW]

Please accept my condolences on the passing of your Dad.

Bill :(

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

To: Affair, Lavender, Charlene and Bill

Many thanks for your kind messages. We held Dad's funeral and wake a few hours ago and it was a wonderful celebration of his life.

[joveski]

sorry to hear, Dave. hope he had a good life

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

Joveski,

Thanks for your condolences. Yes, Dad had a good life. He was born and raised in your suburb, Preston. Saturday 13May2017 would have been his 88th birthday. (I wrongly put "29May" in the original title.)

[joveski]

Joveski,

Thanks for your condolences. Yes, Dad had a good life. He was born and raised in your suburb, Preston. Saturday 13May2017 would have been his 88th birthday. (I wrongly put "29May" in the original title.)

good to hear. what street in Preston if you remember?

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

Dad was born and raised in Wallace St, Preston. They were the days of horse and cart, marbles, billy cart racing and catching yabbles in Merri Creek.

[joveski]

ah, i went to preston west primary school in the 80s. wallace street is very close by!

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

Dad went to West Preston State School, which I understand was the original name of your primary school. In 1999, he wrote down some memories of his schooling:
"My first schooling was at a kindergarten held in the hall of the Baptist Church on the corner of Cramer St and Gilbert Rd, but when I turned four I went to West Preston State School, left there after grade 6 in 1939 and then to Coburg High School in Bell St in 1940. The state primary school seemed mostly to be staffed by elderly ladies, none of whom had any sense of humour, and one or two younger teachers, who gave us some hope that school was not all bad. Sport was virtually unknown, but we played cricket and football in the gravel-surface playground, which was (and still is, at a recent sighting) a very barren place in which to bring up young children. We played alleys on the gravel and a game played with great interest in late spring was 'cherry bobs', where the stones of cherries were thrown into a small cavity excavated in the ground, aimed at your opponent's bobs which were placed in some geometric order. To hit one was to win it, not to hit was to lose the one which had been thrown. The school building externally is barely changed from more than 60 years ago, except that some rather nice open upstairs verandahs now are enclosed, just to make the architecture even worse, presumably. I doubt that cherry bobs is played there these days, lacking somewhat in sophistication, but maybe alleys survives?"

[joveski]

nice story Dave. did your dad turn up to the 100th centenary celebration in 2005 at the school? a lot of old faces turned up that day. a 98 year old lady was there got a special speach devoted to her and she got a plaque. after the speech, her response to the current principal was "who are you?" :) i saw lots of old faces that i havent seen seen since since 1983 - the scary thing is, we still remember eachother when we had a name tag on our chest. i'm actually one of the admins on the schools facebook page. the front ground was covered in hard sand - not it's all turf!

www.prestonwest.vic.edu.au/images/library/Lightboxes/Homepage/runningtrack1.jpg

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

Joveski,

No, Dad didn't attend the school's 100th anniversary celebrations. I doubt he was aware of the centenary year.

That photo of the running track etc looks very different from how Dad remembered the place!