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Archive | October, 2014

Don Dunstan waves from the Pier Hotel balcony to the big crowd waiting on Glenelg beach for the predicted tidal wave

Adelaide’s Tidal Wave. The One That Never Happened

Adelaide made world headlines briefly back in 1976 when Melbourne house painter and amateur clairvoyant John Nash, reported he’d had a vision in which Adelaide and its 800,000 inhabitants were obliterated by an earthquake and tidal wave. Mr Nash claimed that doomsday would be between 10.30 a.m. and noon on 19th January. He was so […]

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Photo from the Holdfast Bay History Centre. Magic  Mountain was likened to a 'giant dog dropping'.

Magic Mountain, Memories From the 80s and 90s.

Remember Magic Mountain the theme park at Glenelg that opened in 1982? Strangely, it was never a major tourist attraction to the area but was very popular with locals who loved the rides, especially the giant water slides, said to be the largest in the southern hemisphere at the time. One of the main criticisms was […]

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The panel vans would back into the parking bay at the drive-in and everybody knew that “when the wagons a-rockin’ don’t come knockin’”!

The Shaggin’ Wagon – Cars From Our Youth

The ‘Urban Dictionary’ defines the shaggin’ wagon as “A pimped out 60’s – 80’s van usually comes with a couch, waterbed, strobe lights, lava lamps. Used for the specific purpose of getting laid and/or high.” Shaggin’ wagons were basically panel vans, painted in bright colours, fully decked out with a carpeted cargo bay (some had […]

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John Niarhos shared this photo; "Remember these in the local deli"?

The Coca Cola Yo-yo Craze… Remember?

Do you remember the yo-yo craze that swept Adelaide (and indeed Australia) back in the 60s and 70s? There would be very few baby boomers who, as teenagers in those years, didn’t own at least one Coca Cola yo-yo. Not surprisingly, I’ve found that many have kept them as tokens and souvenirs of their childhood. […]

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Photo of the Largs Pier in 1982, taken by Ken Charlton from the Department of the Environment

The Pub That Rocked. The Largs Pier

It was in the ’70s and ’80s when the Largs Pier Hotel began to establish its reputation as an important meeting place for some of the truly great Aussie bands of the day, such as Jimmy Barnes and Cold Chisel, AC/DC, The Angels and Lobby Lloyd and the Coloured Balls. All played there in the […]

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An old fashioned valve mantel radio similar to the one we had at home in the 50s

When The Wireless Was King.

Remember when we all sat around the kitchen table each night to look at the wireless and listen to the radio serials? It’s almost impossible to imagine that scene now, a family sitting down together to watch the wireless, but most Baby Boomers will probably recall the scene from their own childhood, in the days before […]

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Photo supplied by Andrew Heslop. The old Red Hen at Semaphore

Recollections of Semaphore and the Train

When Andrew Heslop: Social Entrepreneur, Commentator & Community Advocate shared a photo and some recollections of growing up in Semaphore in the 70s on the ARW Facebook website late last year, it brought back some wonderful memories for many people. Andrew wrote; “My grandparents lived at Semaphore and I mostly grew up with them, listening […]

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Photo from National Library of Australia; nla.pic-an 24679811-v.•	The Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Mr. J.S. Philp, watches Frank Patten of the Beulah Park Ampol service station refuel his car during the Handicapped Children's Week Appeal, South Australia, December, 1955 [picture]

Service Station Attendants, A Bygone Era

Remember when you would pull up at the local petrol station and an attendant would rush out to fill the tank, check your oil and tyre pressure and wash the windscreen? Then he or she would take the cash inside and bring back the change. Back then you did not even have to step out […]

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