Case Study Research

Conducted on: 3 May 2012

Present: Natalie Styles

                Kathy Styles

Context: Casual conversation

                Notes taken on iPad.

                Prompt questions were used to start the conversation

                Language and turn of phrase have been maintained

Of note: Kathy is Natalie’s mother

Relevance to Research to Project:

My research focus places emphasis on the importance of the background in the progression of narrative and my honours project will be a short animated film that highlights backgrounds that are based on the real setting of Ashfield/ Croydon in Sydney. One of the things I have come to realise throughout this process of research and the creation of the film is that in order to be the focus of the film, these backgrounds must have a sense of authenticity. This is particularly important given that the location is a real place and that I am looking to capture significant changes that occur over time in the community. This is why talking with a long term resident of the area who has witnessed the change and growth in Croydon and Ashfield will be invaluable in establishing the essence of place that will be critical in my interpretation of inner Sydney.

Background Information:

Kathy was a long term resident of 2 Walter Street Croydon from 1947 to 1967. She left the family home to marry and returned in the late 60s to the area to live with her husband in Thomas Street Croydon. She later left the area to live in other parts of Sydney then interstate to Canberra and currently resides in Brisbane. Kathy has returned to the family home in Croydon on numerous occasions from 1960s through to 2005. She has the unique position in being both a resident and later an outsider with insider knowledge of the area and is therefore perfectly placed to give an overview of what Croydon was like when she was growing up and then how it has later changed throughout the decades as she returned to visit her parents.

Kathy as a Young Girl at Croydon

Prompt Question:

What do you remember about the suburb when you were really young?

Hmmm, probably my earliest memory about Croydon is walking to school with my sisters, we would wear our hats and our gloves oh and we didn’t have bags, we carried little suitcases, Globites they were called. I always loved school. Everyone walked in those days, all the school kids would walk and we would pass adults heading to the train station to go to work. The streets were pretty busy with people, not cars. This would have been in the 50s, so cars were still pretty novel. I remember a time when we didn’t have a car, then we got one when I was about 10 (approx. 1957). It was a dark blue Vauxhall. I remember that car well because we always, without fail had to go on a long Sunday afternoon drive.

Our week was very much a routine. We had school all week and then after school we did our homework then if it was summer we would be out playing with the neighbourhood kids and our cousins, everyone lived so close by in those days, until our mum called us for dinner. The weekends were the best. Saturday was the day we had pretty much to ourselves and in the afternoon without fail we (my mum and sisters) would head up to Ashfield to the King’s Milk-bar right next to the picture theatre. We would be allowed to have a big packet of honeycomb in a cellophane packet and an ice-cream in the pictures. Always a double feature on a Saturday afternoon, I remember that.

Then on Sundays, we always went to church, don’t look at me like that, we did. Well it was mainly for the community social aspect of it all rather than any great religious motives. It was just the ‘done’ thing, everyone went to church. The morning was spent in church and while we were there mum would’ve had a roast in the oven so that when we got home the Sunday roast was ready. It would be a full meal- roast lamb with vegetables. Afterwards we would all pile into the Vauxhall and head on the obligatory Sunday drive. It was a small car, usually it was a hot day and after a big meal it was hard not to feel a little queasy. Add to that a sister with car sickness and you could say that it wasn’t my favourite time of the week.

The family, with my mum getting 'the look.'

 Prompt Question:

Tell me about the gardens, the houses, what was Walter Street like when you were young?

Well, it was pretty much the same as it is now. Our house was the only one that faced the street. I used to play with all the neighbourhood kids. I remember that it was a very open community. We would spend all day outside playing, when we weren’t at school, we’d play cricket in the street. We had a fruit crate as a wicket and if a car came through, which was rare, then we all moved to one side to let it pass. We always left our front door open, you could smell mum’s cooking. She used to cook everything, but the best things were rock cakes and ANZAC biscuits. She had a big old stove and would bake in it all the time.

She used to sew everything too. That was the way back then. And it wasn’t uncommon to see groups of girls from one family all wearing the same style of dress or from the same fabric, cheaper in bulk. They pretty much did everything themselves back then. She also used to make our hats, she was a milliner by trade and you never went out without a hat.

We always had dahlias in the front yard, but the backyard- where the hills hoist is now- was all vegetables. And that’s where we used to get our vegetables from. I can remember we used to collect metal milk bottle caps and thread them onto string and hang it over the gardens to stop the birds. All of the seeds came from the vegetables we would eat, mum would save them and then dad would plant them- a cycle of sorts. Money was always pretty tight. We had a little fox terrier called Loamie. Pretty much everyone had a fox terrier in those days, they were hardy little dogs and were never fed tin food always just the scraps off the table. Mum and dad used to breed her and then sell the puppies, it was another way of making money.

It’s funny when you think back to what it was like growing up. So many things have changed. Even small things like the hills hoist, I remember we always had a clothes prop and you had to kick a brick underneath the prop to keep it upright against the weight of the clothes. Things were harder, I mean domestically at home. The chores really were chores. I remember the prop man going from house to house selling props and yelling out. We had a lot of traders that would go door to door- like the ice man who would yell out, ICE, and carry huge blocks of ice with an ice pick for the old ice chests. I remember that from my grandmother’s house. I remember that we had an old fridge, a big one with rounded edges and a large metal door-handle, it was a Pope I think. The kitchen was different too. It was all cream and green and there was a wall between the kitchen and, what is now the living room, that used to be my brother’s room and us three girls were in the back room.

Oh and the toilet. Oh I remember that. Used to be out the back near the shed and it was a nightmare at night. Scary, not for any other reason than that we were kids. We had a chokoe vine growing over the side of it.

On the way to school.

Prompt Question:

When did the area start to change and how did it change?

Well I know that everyone looks back to their childhood and says ‘those were the days,’ but it really felt like it was. The houses and the base of the suburb remained the same, although little cosmetic changes were added, like in the 60s when the Italians and Greeks moved in they added things like garden sculptures and columns, things we had never seen in the neighbourhood. Then again in the 70s and 80s when the Vietnamese moved in they brought their own style with them and it all sort of added a layer on top of the existing houses that had always been there. I guess the area really started to go downhill in the 80s. Crime was really high in inner Sydney and I remember that Mum and Dad put bars on all their windows and doors and were vigilant about locking up at night. When we would visit, we couldn’t park in the street without the car being vandalised or stolen- the car was taken twice when visiting in the late 80s early 90s. Graffiti was a big problem too.  

Kathy as a Teenager at Croydon

All the shops in Ashfield from my childhood and young adult life have gone. In fact not just gone but the actual style of shop has changed. Almost every single shop is Asian, usually Vietnamese. And the majority of the population is Vietnamese. I suppose that’s what happens to suburbs, they change as the older generation passes on and people move away. It’s starting to change again too, yuppie professionals and trendy pubs. But all the old houses, the mosaic tiling, the iron pressed rooves in the strip malls are still there, I think it’s all historical preserved now. Looking back is interesting. A lot of memories. A lot of change. Always change.