My experience in writing a memoir.
Writing a Memoir
The Memoir
Tully ready to read the final draft of my memoir. 🙂
I have three human readers organised to read it and provide feedback. Then it will be sent to a professional editor – starting the process of getting it published.
The memoir is about my childhood growing up in Fitzroy in the 1950s and 1960s.
It’s taken eleven years of writing and rewriting to get to this stage.
Fitzroy: A Rare View
This is an ordinary picture. But to a kid like me who grew up in Fitzroy during the 1950s and 1960s it means much more.
Before I took this photo in 2013 the area where the cars are parked was once an automotive garage. As kids we would climb on top of the roof for fun on Sundays, when it was closed. We played cricket in the lane way beside the lot, using an old wooden crate as a wicket, a hand made bat and a tennis ball.
The building with graffiti (‘are rebel’) was Mr O’Brien’s milk bar and my mate and his family lived behind the shop. I’d visit my mate’s place to watch shows like the American western, Bonanza, on his black and white television set. During the summer we’d also meet at the top of the lane to start our journey to the yabby ponds in Carlton.
A few years ago a four story apartment building was built on the lot which now obscures the view of my 2013 photo.
Note: The former Mr O’Briens (‘rebel’ graffiti’) building is on the corner of Argyle Street and Brunswick Street in Fitzroy.
Fitzroy Library – the Old Days
This was the Fitzroy library entrance as I knew it in the 1950s and 1960s . It is now located around the corner in Moor street.
The library, part of the Town Hall building, was a place I visited frequently when I was a kid. The huge doors felt like I was on the set of an ancient Roman sword fighting picture. I remember one of the doors opened during opening hours, leading to a passage way and into the library room itself.
Those were the days of stamped library slips glued to the back of a book noting the day it was to be returned when borrowed, There were narrow wooden trays, which would slide in and out. Each tray contained alphabetically listed details of a book, typed on a system card, revealing where it was located in the library.
The old library felt like a second home and I would spend a lot of time reading and wandering around staring at the ‘old books’ stacked in shelves against the walls.
Footnote: In the bottom left hand side of this photo I took recently are the belongings of a homeless person. Somethings never change – there were homeless people sleeping in doorways back in the old days.
Fitzroy Tagging
Fitzroy hasn’t escaped tagging and graffiti which is on many external surfaces around the suburb.
When I grew up in Fitzroy in the 1950s and 1960s, I don’t remember seeing any tagging or graffiti, but now when I walk around it’s everywhere – on walls, windows, and on the ground.
I took this photo recently and to me the top half represents an element of the new Fitzroy and the bottom half the old Fitzroy.
I suppose I have the option of photo shopping out the tag, but good luck trying to get rid of it permanently in real life.