PREMIUM

Town Talk

Town Talk | The Rawleigh’s man, car keys and happy memories

By Marnie

Mar 31, 2025

The hula performed at the Hospital Ball in the mid 1950s. Photo by Contributed

Hello and welcome.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

Very occasionally I am capable of offering some reasonably good advice (simply because of many years lived, and a few lessons learned).

But I’m not much good at taking that advice!

Obviously, several of you were aware of that when I wrote about sustainable happiness last week.

On Tuesday morning, I received several text suggestions that I take a coffee out into the garden.

(Okay — but not yet.)

However, the next text suggested I enjoy a game of sudoku.

(Now you’re talking.)

I took a coffee and a Sudoku game outside and had finished both when the next text came — in relation to the ‘Rawleigh’s man’ — to whom Lolene had referred the previous week.

Good morning, Marnie.

After reading your column in today’s paper, I had to send this photo to you.

When I was a child, the ‘Rawleigh’s man’ used to visit us on the farm every couple of months.

It was with great excitement that we looked at all of his goodies in his case, in the boot of his car.

My family, including my children and grandchildren, still use Rawleigh’s products.

We usually buy them at the Moama market now.

It’s great for mosquito bites and dry lips.

My mother will be 96 in May and she and some of my six siblings also use it.

A common saying in our families is, “Do you have any Rawleigh’s?”

Kind regards and thanks for the memories.

Yvonne Jezewski.

In a conversation with Yvonne, she made it clear to me that Lolene wasn’t the only youngster to break the bread in half and eat the best bits.

Also, she did some research and Rawleigh’s products can be purchased online at rawleighs.com.au and at some pharmacies.

My thought: a 21st century website seems a long, long way from a suitcase with purple velvet lining.

(These guys obviously didn’t sell ‘snake-oil’.)

Welcome back to Lolene James’ memories

In 1950, The News was situated in the original building in High St – between Wyndham and Maude Sts.

(Not the one many of you remember — east of Corio St).

However, there was a fire in 1951 and, when Lolene joined the staff, the newspaper was operating from the well-known High St Cellar.

Her job required multitasking because she was a receptionist who answered the phone, took classified advertising and the weekly stock agents’ report, and assisted the social writer.

According to her notes, she also cleaned the editor’s phone each morning, with disinfectant.

The editor, at that time, was James Patterson Esson, who called her Suzy — because he considered her real name ‘too fancy’.

She remembers the editorial section to be “full of smoke” — and I’m sure it was.

One day, she took a classified ad for a lost handbag — a ladies’ black handbag.

Unfortunately, the words ‘ladies’ and black’ were reversed, and it became a sentence that is totally unacceptable today.

In fact, she thinks it was unacceptable in 1950 – her notes include “Goodness me!”.

She also remembers answering a call for a journalist who was covering proceedings in court.

She told the caller that Mr Harker was “courting”.

Isn’t it amazing how we always remember our mistakes?

They are branded into our brain.

When helping out Miss Pogue with “reporting on the frocking” (the social column) she was amused because one of her dresses was reported as “peacock blue” with the bodice described in detail.

The next week, the same dress was mentioned as “moss green” with the skirt described in detail.

This still causes her amusement, more than 70 years later.

Her bosses were Roy and Don McPherson, and she remembers Betty McPherson bringing her three sons into the office.

Lolene’s memory of her classified error reminded me of another one, in the 1990s.

The ad ran in the for-sale column: “In good condition stove with flu.”

It still makes me laugh today.

I took four phone calls from readers inquiring about the stove’s health and gave them all a similar response, that the stove had recovered well and now had a new owner.

The notes Lolene has written give substantial coverage to the Blue Moon Orchestra: Sid Curtis and Leo Tracey (trumpets), Jack Edwards (saxophone) Roy Birkensleigh (double bass) Jimmy Beale or Max Fennell (drums), Mary Chuck or Dot Blizzard (piano).

My apologies if I have misspelt any names here — I’ve done all the checking I can.

I said “Hold on! My uncle, Cec Brown, played sax in this orchestra.”

Then I realised that, at the time Cec was a band member, Lolene would have been at school.

Personnel would have changed quite a bit over the years.

Lolene also remembers the Star Theatre and Monty in the cloakroom, keeping clothes in pigeonholes to ensure their safe-keeping.

She refers to the Hospital Ball with a group of young women performing various dances (can-can, Charleston, hula, to the Blue Moon Orchestra).

As I write, I am remembering the Astor Theatre, with Jim Carruthers taking tickets.

His ticket box would magically disappear during the film.

Lolene mentions that it was a tin shed with a good frontage – “Queen Anne’s front, but Auntie Mary’s behind”.

Now, this really puzzles me.

Queen Anne was on the throne from 1702 to 1714.

Why is she turning up in Lolene’s youth?

Perhaps she had a particularly nice bustline, which was not easily forgotten?

Shepparton businesses

Lolene mentions several businesses, which some will remember.

W.S. James had a system that took your purchase payment to the office, in a small tin on a cable, and returned the change.

I’m fairly sure that O’Neill’s Drapery had the same system — during my early childhood.

I must have been old enough to dislike the system because I thought it meant they didn’t trust their staff.

It was more likely that, with education very different to today, there were some people who couldn’t do the sums.

Lolene says that O’Neill’s didn’t have the cable system, so I could well be wrong.

Lolene also mentions Hurco Café, Gribbles’ Pharmacy, Voumard’s Frock Shop, Frank Trainor and Skinners Newsagency, Gerrards’ Jewellers, Wright’s Hardware, Williams Shoeman, Cobb’s Bakery (the best pies and pasties), McArthur’s Seedlings (the smell of fresh soil as you walked past) and Varloine’s Studio.

She also remembers Stewart’s Hardware, on the corner of Maude and Fryers Sts — and mentions “kind John Stewart who kept a length of wire for those ladies who locked their keys in the car”.

Two points for me to make regarding this — I’m not surprised that ladies locked keys in their car because, in the next decade, I did it myself several times.

However, I’m surprised there were a number of ladies driving in the 1950s.

So many, that Mr Stewart kept a wire for that purpose!

Also, this isn’t the first time that Mr Stewart has been mentioned favourably by contributors to this column.

In fact, recently, Margaret Farrell, who worked at Stewart’s for several years, was full of praise for “a wonderful, community-minded man”.

Lolene concluded with Ducats “because they had the best milkshakes”.