Memoir Reflections
I popped into the library after a walk around Fitzroy taking photos recently and discovered this poster.
I’m not sure if Fitzroy, printed Fitz Roy in this poster is correct or it was a misprint.
I googled the spelling and discovered that Fitz Roy is a mountain in South America!
Does anyone know the correct spelling?
I walked down Brunswick Street the other day and took this picture of Argyle Street.
The building on the corner was Mr O’Brien’s milk bar in the 1960s and it was where my mate and his family lived (behind the shop section).
I spent many hours playing in Argyle Street and the new buildings behind have greatly changed the street.
The white building replaced the one story garage where we scaled the brick wall to reach the galvanised tin roof.
We walked across the roof on a Sunday for a dare, taking care to step on the nail sectioned so we wouldn’t fall through it.
Between the white building and the corner building is a blue stoned laneway where we played cricket.
The neighbourhood has changed but there are still fragments of the old Fitzroy left.
I discovered this footy scarf at my sister’s place and couldn’t resist trying it on.
Technically it’s a Brisbane Lions scarf but to an old Fitzroy boy like me it still represents the Fitzroy Lions of my childhood.
The Fitzroy footy club played in the VFL and AFL leagues and was known as the Maroons (1883-1938) and the Gorillas (1938-1957). But I always knew the team as the Lions (1958-1996).
I can still remember the roar of the crowd on a Saturday afternoon when Fitzroy played at the Brunswick Street oval, a few blocks away from where I lived.
Fitzroy won seven premiership, the last one in 1944, and I waited several decades for the next premiership but that hope was dashed when they merged with Brisbane in the 1990s. Though the Brisbane Lions won three premierships, I never considered those as I was a Fitzroy tragic.
I never merged with Brisbane Lions. The Fitzroy the team did.
There are a few of us Fitzroy tragics still around and there still is hope for another premiership in the form of the Fitzroy Reds, formerly the University Reds. It was formed in 2009, and plays in the Victorian Amateur Football Association and it almost won a premiership in the D grade competition.
I was never a fanatical supporter of the Fitzroy Lions but I still miss them.
They disappeared just like my childhood.
Footnote: Carn the Roys translates to Come on Fitzroy and was used by supporters to encourage the team.
‘Fitzroy Raw‘, author Tom Petsinis’ new novel, has recently been published.
I haven’t read it yet but I am looking forward to doing so as it covers my old stomping ground of Fitzroy during the 1960s.
I met Tom at a reading he gave in the Fitzroy library back in 2011. We had a chat afterwards and I told him about the memoir I was and still am writing, and we arranged to catch up for a coffee and a chat at Fitz cafe in Fitzroy, corner of Kerr Street and Brunswick Street.
Just sitting outside the cafe and looking around brought back a lot memories for me. In the 1960s, the Fitz cafe was Frank Dempsey’s butcher shop and a few doors down was where I once lived.
Fitzroy back in those days was raw but it also had a strong sense of community.
Well, I’ve had some positive feedback on the fourth draft of my memoir from my editor so I won’t chuck it in the bin just yet.
She’s going to recommend some chapter titles and themes which will make it easier for me to start the fifth draft.
There are two chapters in my current draft that are each over 20,000 words long that need to be reduced into several chapters to make the memoir more readable.
Once I have the chapter titles and themes in place I can then start to craft the memoir by focusing on one chapter at a time.
This stage of writing is going to be enjoyable as just about all the research has been completed and vignettes written.
It’s been a long ten year journey to get this stage but I ‘m closer to the end of this project than the beginning.
Image courtesy of Steve Johnson via Unsplash