If ever a decade could be described as one of change, it was the 1960s. It was the era of the Cold and Vietnam wars, and Australia was changing economically and culturally. As the excitement of the rock’n’roll music of the ’50s began to dim, the world discovered the sounds of four lads from Liverpool, […]
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 […]
Remember the incredible freedom we had as kids growing up in Adelaide in the 50s, 60s and even the 70s? Once school holidays arrived our parents would rarely see us as we took off for adventures, down the beach, dive bombing off the end of the jetty, swimming in a creek or river, sledding down […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
When we were kids we built our own billycarts. There were no plans or instructions to be followed, just a set of four wheels, two per axle, an old apple crate, a wood paling from somebody’s fence, a bolt some nails and a bit of rope. The most important part was the four wheels. Back […]
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 […]
