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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.
As a young girl my mother, two brothers and me went to live with my grandmother who lived in Ranwell's Court, Portsea. It was a small house of three rooms and a cellar, and one of a group of three. Outside was a small area of grassland, and a big walled pit into which all the rubbish could be thrown.
There was only one toilet to share among these three houses and only one water tap, both standing outside in the yard. It meant I had to go outside to wash in all weathers and I was frequently frightened when I was in the toilet, with the men banging on the door and shouting at me.
The houses backed on to the back of Kent Street Baptist Church. There was a ledge along the wall and my brothers sat me on it and left me there. I kept on crying and calling out, but, had to wait until a man came and got me down.
I can remember when a man kept a monkey in Meeting House Alley. This monkey got away and went into the house belonging to the mineral water firm of Murtough's. The monkey must have run through the house and he suddenly appeared at a bedroom window. He sat on the windowsill and had obtained a pipe from somewhere, which he was pretending to smoke.
These were hard times and many times I was very hungry. Some mornings I would sit on the steps of one of the houses waiting for peopled to finish breakfast, then they would come out and offer me the crusts. I can also remember a warehouse which had a rubbish pit at the side, and I used to go there and look for pecked fruit.
Saturday morning I used to go with my brothers along the foreshore collecting pieces of wood to store for the fire.
We all eventually went to live in Prince George Street and I went to school at Kent Street Council School, now John Pound's Community Centre. Apart from alterations, which affect the entrance, the building is still the same.
After leaving school I went to work for Timothy Whites, the chemist and hardware firm. I worked at the warehouse at Chandos Street and had the job of preparing the boy orders. These were orders that were received by telephone and the requirements were parcelled up and delivered by boys on bicycles. I worked from 8 am to 6 pm and on Saturdays 8 am to 1 pm. I earned 8/- a week.
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