Eleanor Roosevelt:

The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Weekend Part Two - Memory Lane

Saturday morning my brother Krys and I decided to go back to our old home town Kerang. He had not been back since we moved to Bendigo and it had been a few years for me also. So this was our journey.



First stop was Durham Ox. We decided to go via Boort back to our First Home Lake Meran.

This is lake Meran... Without the water. It was actually vey sad to see as every summer and most weekends we would go here to ski and play. We would ride our bikes after school and get dad to come pick us up once he had finished work. This is where we learnt to swim. Most of our lives we grew up around water, going back here reminded me how much i really do miss the country and how much i hate having neighbours, and not being about to just ride/drive down the road for a dip...
This is the Jumping tower, minus a few pieces of equipment. There use to be a huge metal tower on top of this that we use to jump off. It actually looked really small and CJ and I were both like "we use to jump off this?" CJ is holding a sign that says Shallow Water... heheh what water??? This tree was CJ favourite Tree. He use to hide in the hole in the tree. Hehehe it was so funny because the hole is so small now.... The play ground... it was still the same.... i hated that wizzy dizzy thing... it made me sick so i never went on it!!!
This was our HOUSE at lake meran...... it was really sad to see it, as the paddocks now have sheds in it, which is where we would drive the car and motor bike around. We had a channel that ran through t he paddock and both CJ and I had a look to see if the plank of wood was still there that went from one side to the other that we would cross to get to the damn and also that would jump off to go swimming.. It had gone. Its funny because i keep saying that i don't remember alot about my child hood but going back there really opened up our minds and we were saying :oh remember the tree that you got stuck up and remember the tree that you fell out of, and dad, your vegetable garden.. hehehee i will never forget that. Dad loved his veggie garden it was his pride and joy until one day he came home and the cows and gotten into it.. heheheThis was really awesome to see our first primary school Dingwall!!! There was about 10 children that went to this school it was awesome. The toilets where outside under some trees where the magpies lived. CJ said to me remember when we use to put buckets and pans on our heads to go to the toilets so that magpies wouldn't get us.. hehehehe..... This was our play wall at the back of the school. I remember on our last day at school we all got plates and cups and smashed them on the wall to say goodbye..... We even had a pet cow at our school....
This is my highschool well the sign anyways. CJ and I went to different highschools so i gave him a tour. It was funny i remember where all the rooms where.... where we use to hang out at school and hide from the teachers to have a fag.. heheheh those where the days. Everything has changed alot... but the atmosphere was still the same..We then headed to our Primary School St. Joesphs.... WOW this school has had one huge make over since we been there. I remember that we did pavers and wrote our names on them. but i couldn't remember if we did one or not, so for about 20 minutes CJ and I were walking around looking at the names laughing and remembering people and then he came across ours...... 1993 was a long time ago..... trying to remember if i still had the bowl haircut then :) This is St Joe's from the front.. it didn't look like this back in my day :) And to get from the school to our hall you use to have to go outside.. well now it is all covered in!!!!

Westblade Ave: Has this house had a make over or what!! A huge one.... The garden was different, there was a pergola out the back, and the garden at the front has changed.. There use to be a tree in the front yard.. which has now gone.. We had a little look out the back as the lady who lived at this house drove off just as we pulled up, and CJ could see the tree that he planted was still there.. :) There was some fond memories at this house i remember... Hehehehe i won't say to much dad :) hehehe Next was off to the egg park, as we called it.. This is the egg below. I never went in this either as it made me sick.. we played here on the equipment for a bit.. was heaps of fun....... The water tower which is at the egg park also... It doesn't look as big as it did when we were little... The it was down the main street. This is the clock tower....

We went into safeway to buy some goodies but also to see if we could see anyone we knew... both our hearts where racing, but to our disappointment we didn't know one person who was walking around or even working there :) Then it was back on the road to Bendigo.

Thanks for coming CJ it felt really good to go back to our old homes and see them and to know that those fond memories are still there, and to see the changes that have occured whilst we have been gone.

For another 10 years Kerang. Its good bye!!!

4 comments:

Chris H said...

Always mixed feeling going back to a hometown.... how sad sad sad about the lake being gone, that is just amazing to see.... NO WATER ANYWHERE! I think I would cry my eyes out if that had been my childhood lake!

Wanna_B_slimmer said...

Funny feeling going back to childhood places... can be quite eerie...
I have a few that I will never go back too... ugh... makes me feel ill just thinking about it..
love the pics.. sounds like a very rural place...

Jadey said...

Have they rebuilt the store at Durham Ox? I drove past the morning after the fire. So glad the Ox is till there or there would be nothing of that town.

I love the country and have family just north of Swan Hill.

The Candid Bandit said...

Even after you told me you did all this the pictures really made it!

Awesome post Ness!