 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
A History of Footscray says: 'These were the years of fullish pockets, bulging string bags and
prams packed so high that baby could barely be seen. Friday night shopping was the rage, and
'See ya down the street!' signified the social importance of shopping. Sliding rollers and banging
doors indicated precisely at 12 o'clock on Saturdays that trading hours were over. Saturday
arvo and Sunday were for window-shopping, amid swirling fish and chip wrappers, and eddying
grit. Only the pubs, greengrocers, fishmongers, picture theatres and milk bars were open on
Saturday afternoons... On Saturday the picture theatres inhaled thousands of kids at one o'clock
and exhaled them again between three and four... Adults could go the pictures or a dance any
night of the week, excepting only Sunday. Home from work by train, tram or push-bike, young
people wolfed down their tea, had a good wash, donned their glad rags and headed, rain or
shine, and usually on shank's pony, for the bright lights. For between seven and eight o'clock the
verandah lights came on at the Barkly, Troc, and Grand... Each of the dance halls had
academies attached to them, for the new dances came thick and fast.' There they learned the
tango, turkey-trot, fox-trot, and Charleston, and gyrated to jazz.
207
In sleepy Thirroul, DH Lawrence would not have been aware of two even rowdier aspects of
urban life - the prevalence of 'pushes' (street gangs) and the passion for sport of every kind and
for Aussie Rules football over all.
In Footscray, the pushes which assaulted each other, as well as citizens, schoolboys and scouts,
were the Troc Eagles, the Royals and the Moore Street mob. Animosity between football
supporters, abetted by pushes, resulted in punch-ups, stabbings, kickings and the throwing of
bottles and stones before, during and after football games. Footscray Football Club, which had
won five Association premierships since 1898, became all but invincible after the First World
War, winning four premierships between 1919 and 1924 and twice being runners-up. After
beating the VFL (Victorian Football League) champions, Essendon, in a charity match in 1924,
Footscray, along with North Melbourne and Hawthorn, was admitted to the League the
following year.
In the meantime, the aged Richard Honeycombe had reached a kind of apotheosis of his own.
He was pictured in a full-page photo montage in the Melbourne Sun, recording the Eight Hour
Day (now Labour Day) procession on Monday, 23 April, 1923. The Sun said: 'Top: general
view of the procession going up Bourke Street. Top (insert): Mr David Wood aged 78, an old
secretary of the Masons' Society, joined in 1863. Circle: Mr J Wardley (left), aged 107, a Past
President of the Bakers' Society, and Mr R Honeycombe, aged 94, who first marched with the
Masons' Society in 1856. Both rode in a carriage in the procession.'
He would not in fact be 94 for another five months. But in the photo he looks very well for his
age, if a little bent. He wears a smart silk top hat, and a coat, and his beard and moustache are
now white.
How he must have relished the occasion, the applause and cheers of the citizens of Melbourne
as he rode by, and the honour and attention dignitaries accorded him. His outfit was old-
fashioned, but he, and Jane (now 74), must have wanted him to look his best. Did Fanny,
Louie, Jessie, Addie and Dick come into Melbourne to see the passing parade of trade union
floats and banners, brass bands, carts and carriages, and call out and wave as the old man
passed them by? Did his daughters, Mary Ann Regelsen, Hettie Steel, and Louisa Allen? Did
Jack? And did George's children, or those of his other dead son, Tom? Or did they just catch a
 |