Flora & Kerry Wright - 1954

Flora & Kerry Wright

1954

This is my favourite photo of Mum and me together. It's another photo that I can remember being taken, even though I was only 4 at the time. My mother, Emily Flora Wright (known as Flora) nee Glover, was then 43. It was taken at the home of friends of my parents who lived at Manly Vale in Sydney, not far from where we lived at Narrabeen. Their surname was Susans. I can't remember their first names. I have a distant, peripheral recollection that they were a good deal older than Mum and Dad. My parents seem to have parted company from them not long after this photo was taken and I have no memory of ever seeing them again, even though their names were sometimes fondly raised in conversation. 

On the day this photo was taken, I remember we had afternoon tea with Mr & Mrs Susans in their heavily draped, dimly lit  home. Late in the afternoon, someone suggested photos be taken and we went outside to the western side of their house, where this photo was taken. The setting sun was low on the horizon, shining directly into our eyes, causing us to squint. I can still remember being unhappy about having to look into the glare of the setting sun, while Mr Susans took the photo. I must have made my displeasure known to Mum, because she is holding my hand in an endeavour to have me wave cheerily at the photographer. 

This photo remains my most loved and cherished image of Mum and me together. Nearly 40 years after it was taken, on Mum's 80th birthday in July 1991, a similar photo was taken of us together. In that photo, our roles had been reversed and I was the one positioned protectively behind my mother. She was terminally ill with inoperable cancer at that time and passed away shortly after the photo was taken. I will post that 1991 photo here in due course.

Kerry Wright - 1953

Kerry Wright

1953

Even though it was so long ago, I can still remember this photograph being taken of me, Kerry Wright, by a Sydney street photographer. I was with my mother, Emily Flora Wright (known as Flora) nee Glover, on one of her shopping expeditions to Sydney. 

I remember we were walking through one of the city's shopping arcades, most likely either the Strand Arcade or the Imperial Arcade, when it was taken. The arcades were beautifully ornate shopping precincts from another era. They were like dazzlingly opulent, gilded microcosms of Victorian London, plonked down in the middle of drab, 1950s, antipodean Sydney. They contained  a rich quantity of highly polished brass in abundance, and lots of beautiful, stylishly decorated shop windows. I loved the double-doored, caged antique elevators that carried shoppers between the different terraced levels. It was an era prior to the advent of  the modern escalator. They were lively places, filled with the noisy hustle and bustle of people hurriedly going about their business, all dressed in their finest and perfumed with their best cologne, as people did in those days when visiting the city. Mum and I would have traveled into Sydney on the 190 double-deck Wynyard bus, from our home at Narrabeen on Sydney's Northern Beaches. It was a one-hour bus trip. Mum visited all the major, glitzy department stores on such shopping expeditions - David Jones, Anthony Hordern and Mark Foys, using  the arcades as short-cuts between streets. 

But I digress. To get back to this photo, I remember Mum and I had just entered the arcade. Mum was walking briskly ahead of me, when I noticed a window display that attracted my attention. I remember it was a women's boutique with dressed mannequins displayed in the window. A £6 price-tag can be seen in the background. The street photographer who took this photograph has captured me in the process of pointing at the window display and calling to my mother to come back and have a look. The selectivity of memory never ceases to amaze me. It's incredible that I still remember so much detail, after so many years. Alas, what's even more amazing, in a worrisome way, is how much I've undoubtedly forgotten of far more important events that have transpired during the intervening years.

Kerry Wright - 1953

Kerry Wright

1953

Here I am on my tricycle in the garden of the family home at 10 Mactier Street, Narrabeen, on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Dorothy Shiels & Kerry Wright - ca.1955

Dorothy Shiels & Kerry Wright

ca.1955

This is the earliest photo I can find of me with my cousin, Dorothy Shiels, who is also my Godmother. Dorothy is the only child of my Aunty Glad (my mother's older sister) and Uncle Eric, Gladys & Eric Murrell. 

In this photo, we are at South Narrabeen beach in Sydney, not far from where we lived, in nearby Mactier Street. Mactier Street terminates in the Pacific Ocean at its eastern end. I lived at the eastern end of the street, only a short walk across Pittwater Road from the beach. Dorothy lived a little further away, at the western end of the street, near Narrabeen Lake. Because of its close proximity, I seem to remember spending most of my summers, and a good deal of the rest of the year, on South Narrabeen beach. It was my equivalent of a park or playground. I loved the beach, as a child. 

In this photo, Dorothy and I are sitting near the waterline, going by the wet sand we're sitting on - and a tiny wavelet can be seen at left. I'm looking out to sea. I have a glob of white, zinc cream on my nose, to protect it from sunburn. The view is looking southward along the beach with South Narrabeen Surf Club in the background, where my brothers were life savers (lifeguards) and beyond that can be seen the escarpment of Collaroy Plateau.

Flora Wright, Gladys Murrell & Kerry Wright - ca.1952

L-R: Flora Wright, Kerry Wright, Gladys Murrell

ca.1952

This photo was taken in about 1952. That's me, Kerry Wright, in the middle. Holding my hands is my mother, Flora Wright (L), and her sister, my Aunty Glad, Gladys Murrell (R). It was taken at my childhood home, 10 Mactier Street, Narrabeen, on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Mum and Aunty Glad were both very resourceful, resilient women, with strong personalities. They had an enormous influence on my upbringing. I would sit and listen to them chat for hours and never tire of what they had to say, occasionally intruding with an opinion of my own. When I did so, I was always listened to and made feel as though I had made a valuable contribution to their conversation. This was the case throughout my life, not only when I was a child. I continued to enjoy sitting in on their chats right up to the time they passed away. They had remained close throughout their lives and died within only a few short weeks of each other in 1991. I miss those chats.

Robert, Alan & Kerry Wright - 1951

L-R: Alan Wright, Kerry Wright, Robert Wright

1951

Here I am in the middle, aged 2, with my brothers Robert (R) and Alan (L). We are in the yard of our family home at 10 Mactier Street in Narrabeen on Sydney's Northern Beaches. It looks to be a lovely, bright, sunny day. From the appearance of our shadows (we're facing east), the photo was taken about 11 a.m. Alan seems to be making an attempt at preventing me from bolting towards the photographer, probably Mum or Dad. Mactier Street runs east to west, with the western end skirting Narrabeen Lake and the eastern end terminating in the Pacific Ocean at South Narrabeen beach. In this image, Mactier Street is located off camera to the right. There's a steep hill about half way along the street, part of which can be seen in the distance. In the background is one of the four coral trees Dad planted in the garden. The trees had grown considerably larger by the time I came to know and remember them. Our funny little house has long since been demolished and Dad's beautiful trees sadly went with it. An apartment building now stands at Number 10.

Flora Wright, Gladys Murrell & Kerry Wright - 1950

L-R: Flora Wright and Gladys Murrell

with Kerry Wright in pram

1950

Way back in the dim and distant past of the 1950s, people dressed in their very best when visiting the city, even if it was only on a day-time shopping trip. And here's proof. This photo of my mother, Flora Wright (L), and her sister, my Aunty Glad, Gladys Murrell (R), with me in the pram, was taken in Sydney's Martin Place. The iconic northern facade of the GPO (now Westin Hotel) can be seen in the left background.

Mum and Aunty Glad would have taken the 190 double-deck Wynyard bus to "Town", from their home at Narrabeen on Sydney's Northern Beaches. They are both stylishly dressed, complete with hats and, in Aunty Glad's case, a fur stole. I am shocked to see they're not wearing gloves; though, that may be a pair of gloves Aunty Glad is holding in her left hand. Gloves were de rigueur fashion accessories for women in those days.

I seem to recall that Mum only ever visited the city a couple of times each year. One such trip was always in December, to do Christmas shopping at the glamorous department stores of David Jones, Mark Foys and Anthony Horderns. I don't remember my father ever accompanying my mother and I on such occasions. It wasn't something men did back then. The annual Christmas shopping trip also incorporated visits to each department store's resident Santa Claus, as well as viewing the stores' Christmas window decorations and all the Christmas decorations in the city. One particular year, after we'd visited several stores, I remember asking Mum why there were so many Santas. Mum explained that there was only one, but that he magically travelled very quickly ahead of us, so he could greet us as we visited each store in turn.