Play Work Love - by Sonny Massey (a digital story from the Lake Illawarra MAP Project)

MENTOR WRITER: Rie Natalenko
SYNOPSIS: Sonny Masseys musings on Play, Work and Love through his life on Lake Illawarra.
SCRIPT: I was born in 1917 in the homestead, which was built in 1914. It was where the shopping centre is now.

My name is Walter, and that was my Dads name too, so they always called me Sonny.

We learned to swim before we could walk, and even before I went to school wed go swimming down in the lake. Us kids lived on the lake. Wed row all over the lake with oars. All of us had our own nets that we made ourselves. Wed go for picnics on the island.

There used to be a hall on the big island - Gooseberry Island - and from the early 1900s to the mid 1930s, about 4 or 5 times a year there would be a dance in the hall. The people would be all dressed up - and theyd go across in boats from Mullet creek or from the jetty at Kanahooka. Theyd come from everywhere in their sulkies.

The dances started before sunset and when youd come home, the sun would be rising.

My father, Walter Massey, would play the fiddle. Benny Everitt played the squeezebox, Bill Thompson played the bones - everyone would join in. There was always a keg of beer or three, but everyone behaved themselves.

The dances stopped in the mid 30s, and the Hall was pulled down after the war. They needed the building materials.

I never enjoyed school, but my brother Vincent never had his head out of a book.
I was different. I went to school because I had to go. And after school, I didnt have time to do my homework, I was too busy helping dad out. I left and started on the lake when I was 14 or 15 in 1932, and I worked on the lake till 1987. Even after that I repaired my nephews nets - until about 4 or 5 years ago, when I gave that away.

I met Hazel Hamilton in Wollongong and when we met, that was it, really. When we were courting, I used to book the best seats at the pictures in Wollongong. 2/6d for the best seats and 2/6d for a box of chocolates and wed eat the chocolates and watch the show.

She worked on a farm, and when her brothers went to war she was up at 3 or 4 oclock to milk the cows, which was bad if wed been to a dance the night before! Sometimes Id help her. She stopped working there when we got married.

We were married in 1943. I had to work much harder after I got married!

We bought this place in 1946, moved in, in 1948 and Ive been here ever since.

The eldest boy was born in 1945, the next bloke in January 47 and the next in 1950. Three boys and not one of them would go fishing. Hazel saw to that.

She used to come out with me sometimes when we were first married, to catch prawns. I remember one time I chucked an eel in the boat and she nearly jumped out!

Hazel died 3 years ago, when she was 80. Shed been bedridden for 3 years and I looked after her. I lost weight during those years, and I was down to 63 kilos. We had our 62nd wedding anniversary in Bulli hospital, and she was bright as anything. A few days later she was in a coma, and she never came out of it.

In 62 years we never had a falling out. Sometimes we had words, but it was never serious.

I have a photo of her with a beer. She liked to have a beer...

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Lake Illawarra
• digital story
• commercial fishing
• gooseberry island
• dancing
• love
• grief
• family
• childhood
• memory

[vass6111]

Thank you Sonny for sharing your life

[66coupedeville]

Love it!!