My parents Ken and Merle Hills and myself and siblings first lived at Mount Coxcomb.
Mum and Dad then bought the shop and house (across the road) at Upper Lansdowne around 1958. The shop sold groceries, smallgoods, sweets, petrol etc, and was also the post office with a mail run and a bread run as well. A lifeline for the community!!
When we moved in, there were 8 of us: Mum and Dad and 6 kids, my youngest sister was not born until 1962 at Possum Brush.
I started school in 1959, my 3 older brothers were in 2nd, 4th and 6th class, and my 2 older sisters did correspondence as they were high school age and there was not a daily bus to take them to Taree and back. The older girls were a big help in the shop, when not doing lessons!!!
Our house was between the school and the church. As there was no electricity connected to the church, an electrical cord allowed the church to use electricity from our house. Unfortunately, on one occasion, when it was getting late and we were all turning in early, we forgot about the shared power and inadvertently turned everything off and went to bed. The church was suddenly in darkness!!
We had a big yard, so like many others we had a horse, a skewbald named Patch. She had a foal called Trigger, and they loved it when my brother Terry took them out the front of the school where the grass was sweetest.
The only memory I have of the hall was at Christmas time. We would all dress in our best clothes and head off to the hall to wait for Santa Claus to arrive. The hall was resplendent with decorations and a gigantic Christmas tree, and there beneath the tree was a sea of wrapped presents. Santa did come, and every child (there were many) received a gift from Santa. This was followed by tables of amazing Christmas fare, music and dancing. The highlight of the year for hardworking families!!
Our family sold up and left Upper Lansdowne around October 1961. Times had been tough for many of the local families, many had large families, and my Dad could not see families going hungry so had allowed them credit at the shop. Eventually he could no longer cope with the huge amount of debt that was owed to the shop, and had no choice but to walk out, writing off their debts!!
