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A picnic like no other

ONE of the grand traditions of Adelaide and South Australia every Easter is the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival. It is recognised as the biggest annual picnic race meeting in the world, and although ostensibly a race meeting, Oakbank is more. It’s an event in itself, with a festival atmosphere, carnival rides, picnics and lots of other […]

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Burger King Poster Adrienne Peel

When Burgers Were King

‘ The burgers were better at Burger King,’ writes Bob Byrne of Adelaide’s initiation into the US fast food fad – complete with waitresses on wheels ADELAIDE’S first taste of American-style fast food happened in 1962, when Don Dervan – originally from Washington D.C. – opened his first Burger King, on the corner of Anzac […]

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Photo courtesy of Mort Hanson. Many posters remembered their particular ‘bank' day at school and how we would take our bank books and 6d or 1/- to deposit on the day.

School Savings for that Rainy Day.

When Mort Hansen shared this photo (below) and some memories last year of the old school bank days, he created quite a deal of discussion on the ARW Facebook page. Mort wrote; “Here’s my school bank book from 1971. There’s still $1.40 in it! I’m guessing the surfboard is about the only thing a school […]

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Photo from the Advertiser. We were happy to settle for an FX or FJ Holden, Ford Consul, a Zephyr or Prefect.

Your First Car, a Rite of Passage

I came across a fascinating newspaper article recently which asked the question: “Do young people of today still think of a car the way we baby boomers used to?” When I was a young teenager in the early 60s, owning a car was a rite-of-passage into adulthood. I was just 16 when I sat for […]

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Photo from the State Library of SA. The South Australian Hotel at the very height of its fame. Photo by Max Dupain, taken in the early 1950s

The ‘South’ – Gone but not Forgotten

On June 26, 1971, The South Australian Hotel in North Terrace closed its doors for the final time, marking the end of an era and bringing to a sad conclusion almost 100 years of Adelaide social and community history. During the last year’s 50th anniversary celebrations of The Beatles’ legendary visit to Adelaide, “The South” […]

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Kenny Peplow sent in this photo from "about 50 years ago, this is how we went on the family holiday"

Are We There Yet?

Do you remember childhood holidays with the family in the 50s and 60s? They generally included long road trips by car, sometimes with a caravan in tow, and the only entertainment was provided by mum, usually sitting in the front seat next to dad, as he drove the car on to the destination. Unlike today […]

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Photo from Museum Victoria and shows four young girls sitting in a circle on an asphalt surface, playing with sheep knucklebones in a government school playground in 1954.

Simple Fun and Games.

Before iPads, iPhones, tablets and Wii, kids could make up a game with almost anything, including knuckle bones collected from the Sunday roast! Growing up in the 50s and 60s, the games we played and the toys that we played with were not as expensive or as sophisticated as those of today. When I see […]

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Photo courtesy of Elaine Hall. One of the large floral displays on Adelaide's Flower Day in  the 60s

Adelaide’s Flower Power

ON September 30, 1948, The Advertiser reported that: “For Adelaide’s gay National Flower Day tomorrow, the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting cool weather with southwesterly winds and occasional very light showers. The 100 exhibits on North Terrace and King William Road will be floodlit tonight to enable about 450 women volunteers to complete the arrangements […]

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Photo from the Advertiser. The 5AD Dog House Club badge from 1959.

Memories of the 5AD Dog House Club

For many years the Adelaide commercial TV channels, 7, 9 and 10, each held a telethon to raise money for charities in Adelaide. Stories from The Advertiser six decades ago show how the community rallied to support the 5AD Good Friday Appeal for the then Adelaide Children’s Hospital. Brad Crouch, chief medical reporter for the Advertiser, […]

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Photo from State Library of SA. Whenever we went to town in the 50s and 60s it was always in our Sunday best.

It Was Sunday Best When ‘Going to Town’

There was a time when people always dressed in their ‘Sunday best’ whenever they ‘went to town’. Here’s a photo (below) of the Adelaide Town Hall, taken in 1962, during the Festival of Arts and is from the State Library of South Australia’s collection on photostream. The thing that strikes me about this photo is […]

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