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This is an extract from a booklet written by Charlie Hutchins in 1989 where inhabitants of Portsea give an impression of the life and times of the suburb in the1920's and 1930's, a neighbourhood that had great character and a wonderful comradeship.
I was born in Bishop Street at the beginning of the First World War. My father was killed and we were left destitute and had no means of survival or moneys to help us. A one-legged man by the name of Martin offered us sanctuary at his house.
This was in Ranwell's Court, and my mother and two brothers and myself had a room there. This man was a chair maker and he toured the streets looking for chairs to mend, these of course were chairs with cane seats. Sometimes my mother would go out to assist him. These were hard times and very often I would go to Miller's and queue up to get two pennyworth of stale cakes which was all we had to eat some days.
When we went to school we used to go to the soup kitchen and we also got tickets for dinners at the church hall. This of course helped us a lot. Whatever handouts came along were very welcome.
I used to go to the Kent Street Baptist Church Hall for Sunday school. Here we would receive a stamp card which, if properly filled enabled me to go on an outing in the summer. We never had any songbooks; the words were on banners suspended from the ceiling. Sometimes we would get a Magic Lantern Show.
I can remember playing buttons, a favourite game with girls, at a place where I should not have been. My mother came looking for me and chased me home waving her cane. As I ran I dropped my buttons down the cellar grill of Treadgold's factory. I suppose they may still be there. When I got home it did not stop me from getting a caning.
My mother married again, a Mr. Spry, who kept the greengrocers and coal-store in Kent Street.
My brothers and I went to Victoria Park on the days we were not at school. We used to take a pennyworth of cold chips with us and used to get a drink from the water tap in the park. We were not allowed home until evening.
Later I helped in the shop during the evenings. When I left school I worked all day from 8 am until 9 pm and also from 8 am until noon on Sundays. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I went with my stepfather to the market, which was held in Commercial Road, to buy vegetables to sell in the shop. All this for a wage of 5/- (25p) a week, out of this I saved 2/6d for my clothes.
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