Migrantweb.com Hostels Forum

[Phyl]

Hi Len,
This is just a short memory . I have put it under East Hills but I can't really remember where it happened ,maybe it was Villawood . Villawood keeps popping into my mind.
My late husband loved food and as he was carrying a lot of weight I decided to put him on a diet. I did well too but he didn't lose any weight. One day I was in the hostel kitchen and one of the cooks came up to say hello. In his conversation was an interesting sentence:
" Mrs Hobbs, your husband just loves his food, he has a liittle bit here and a little bit there"
I tell you what was the use. From then on diet was not on the agenda
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Kind regards,
Phyl

[barkly]

Phyl

When I lived on the East Hills Hostel there were so many complaints about the food - must have been from whinging POMS - that there was what was referred to as a Food Riot - or Strike. The food was pretty basic - but we should also remember nutritious and when we left Engalnd in 1952 there was still rationing.

I remember only three things about the food - it is where I got an absolute hatred for macoroni cheese; when I got hepatitis A - and was only allowed to eat boiled potatoes with salt - how I still love them; and why I hated the school cribs - always plastic cheese.

Terry

[Phyl]

Yum I love macaroni cheese. and spuds and you should have had something else in your cribs. I loved cheese dishes but not so keen on raw cheese. and all that cholesterol
As you say though, the meals were nutritious and I did eat many of them myself especially when my boys wanted to eat with their friends .
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Kind regards,
Phyl

[phil]

hey, dont knock the food- my mum used to work in the canteen,
anyone remember the packed lunches for school ?
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phil

[Len]

[phil]

you had one all this time !, lol,
that sure brings back memories
6 sandwiches, piece of fruit and bit of cake if i remember rightly ?

p.s len ,love the site !
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phil

[Steve Mc]

I remember the school lunches.
I actually remember swapping sandwiches and stuff with other "non-hostel" kids at school...they seemed to think it was cool to eat like us foreigners.

[richardhallford]

[GinaKate]

I remember those packed lunches, I hated them, all I wanted was a shilling to buy some chips. I didn't mind the fruit cake, that was edible, but we mostly got madera cake, it was always so dry. Roast beef sandwiches, four slices of white bread, butter spread on and then scraped off again, and a lump of fat, if you squinted you could just detect a bit of meat. The pigeons got mine.

[Ann Ainsworth]

Iremember the packed lunches and having to write your order on the bags on a Sunday afternoon for the whole week!! Does anyone remember cheese and "liverwurst" sandwhiches? i think it was some kind of piccallili!! And the jam sandwiches we're always pink because the jam soaked through the bread!

[richardhallford]

Ann, I remember the liverwusrst sanny's well. Actually I enjoyed them, (after I had taken the cheese out, which was in good shape come lunch time) I didnt mind them at all. Also, the pink squishy jam was something I had forgotten. But again, I enjoyed them.

[Olly]

My sister remembered a little ditty that used to be sung when we were on the hostel and it's sung to the tune of 'My Old Man's A Dustman'.

They say on Heathcote Hostel
The food is very fine
A pea rolled off the table
And killed a friend of mine

Don't know if there were any other verses - it's all we remember.

Olly

[richardhallford]

Olly, funny you should mention that. I remember a little ditty that was sung by a young child that was shown on the "All our yesterdays" program, hosted by a guy called Brian somebody. It was a british show. It was about songs about local features and this one was the co-operative store. That used to be a supermarket during and after the war. this was where you took your ration book too and the song was about that. (I am too young to remember that) There were several verses, all gone now from my head, but the first one went.
" We sent her for butter, oh then oh then,
We sent her for butter, oh then oh then,
we sent her for butter (remainder of thewords in this linethis are gone from my head)
Down at the co-operative store"
Anyone remember this? Ive been trying to get the song since I was about 9 when I heard it. Richard
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East Hills Hostel Aug 1966 to 1968. Nissen Huts 81 and 83d

[Phyl]

Hi All
Those dittys were also sung in the NZ Airforce.
Here's a couple more verses :

They say that in the Airforce the beds are mighty fine ,
But how the heck do they know ,they haven't slept in mine.

They say that in the airforce the shoes are mighty fine
You ask for number seven they give you number nine.

Each verse had the chorus after it as follows,

So I don't want no more of airforce life
Gee ma I wanna go but they won't let me go
Gee ma I wanna go home.

So guess you just change the name of the place you are singing about.
There were other verses including the one posted by Olly but can't think of them at the moment and of course other ditties too.
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Kind regards,
Phyl

[GeoffT]

Oh, how I remember those crib liunches. As has been stated, plastic cheese or sticky peanut butter, a piece of fruit and a piece of madeira or fruit cake packaged in the brown paper bag with name on it. As I spent a fair amount of my school time wondering around the bush surrounding Heathcote Rd. Hostel with a couple of Irish boys, names long forgotten, these lunches were consumed long before they became stale. We would explore all over the area, including the army Holsworthy live fire area across Heathcote Road, where we would collect the 7.62mm black rubber blank rounds ejected from the SLR rifles. Little did I know that a few years down the track I would learn to strip and re-assemble those very same type of rifles.
Speaking of truancy, I definately recall getting six cuts of the cane across the hands on a regular basis at East Hills Boys High, and on cold mornings my fingers would turn blue. I reckon if I had been given the opportunity at the time I would have gone back to the UK like a flash.
My the memories are flooding back.
Geoff.
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Heathcote Rd Hostel 8/5/65 - 1966. Residing in Victoria since 1973.