Lucy Elizabeth (Beth) Skinner
Nee Stenning
Born 1927

I was born on 10th September 1927 at 14 Empress Rd., Surrey Hills, Victoria to Arthur Harold and Irene Elizabeth Stenning. I had an older brother Clifton Grenfell Stenning who was born on 14th November 1922. On Christmas Day 1927 I was christened at St. Stephen's Church Belmont, near Geelong, Victoria where my parents had been married. When the depression (or recession as it's now called) came in 1929, my father became one of the thousands of men to be out of work. Although a skilled tradesman - jobs were just not available. Some days he would walk for many miles to a job prospect only to find there was no work.

Although he had always been a strong union member, the best they could do for their families was a packet of Weeties and a packet of matches. Perhaps it is stories like this that led to my life-long opposition to trade unions and their propaganda of “looking after the workers”! After a while it became impossible for him to keep up the mortgage repayments on the house and so it was decided to lease it and for the family to go and live with my grandparents in Belmont. I have only one memory of these early days and that is standing at the front gate while the furniture was moved out into storage at one of my aunts.

My memories of that part of my childhood spent at 28 Thompson St., Belmont are very happy. The household consisted of my grandfather and grandmother Grenfell and their youngest daughter Nell (then aged about 25). My grandmother as I remember her was bedridden having suffered a number of strokes and was paralysed down one side and had lost the ability to talk. There was of course no such thing as rehabilitation in those days.

I remember playing on the front verandah of the house and also the large backyard. Belmont at this stage was a small rural village outside Geelong. Lots of the men who lived there worked in one or other of the many woollen mills, Godfrey Hirst, Federal, Returned Soldiers etc. Living in Belmont were one of my father's sisters and her husband Mr and Mrs Moppett. He worked at the Federal Mills and she was a dressmaker and tailoress - so some of our clothes were made from material purchased cheaply from the mill, so were luckier than others.

28 Thompson Street, Belmont, Geelong.

Uncle Fred and Auntie Rose Moppett

I had always loved being read to and I think my grandfather who had been a school teacher got a bit tired of this 4 year old following him around clutching a book and saying “read to me please”, so he decided to put his skills to good use and taught me to read, so started a life-long love affair with books. I commenced school at Belmont Primary School (opened in 1856). I think it was maybe 4 rooms, but I'm not sure about this. My walk to school was past one house, over the road and climb the school fence. Since school wasn't the fabulous joy I thought it would be I was much given to the first few weeks to doing the journey in reverse. My mother must have got pretty tired of taking me back.

My brother and I believed we were pretty lucky in the way of Sunday School teas. These were put on by the church once a year as a treat for the children. Of course we went to one at our own church. The Methodist Minister lived next door so he invited us to their tea and our aunt and uncle Moppett were keen Baptists. As they had no children we always received an invitation to their tea. We only went to our own Sunday School picnic though - generally to Point Lonsdale. I can remember standing out on the front verandah waiting to see the buses arrive on the other side of the road. One of my earliest memories was standing on the verandah before I was old enough to go to church and watch the children march down from St. Augustine's Orphanage about 3 kms away. When they arrived to our corner they divided and marched off to their various churches. The girls wore pretty plain dresses, grey with a white collar, black stockings, black shoes and a grey hat. The boys probably wore grey or navy trousers and white shirts. It must have been really hot in the summer.

St. Stephen’s Church of England, Belmont, Geelong.

My mum played the organ in the church and I was sometimes allowed to go and listen while she played for the choir practice. She also played the piano every night after I went to bed - I think I liked it better than bed time stories Mum had a brother and a sister who lived in the Geelong area and every Sunday her brother and his wife and daughter Margaret would be there when we came home from Sunday School. Margaret and I are much the same age so have been good friends all our lives. Mum's sister was married to a farmer who had a small subsistence at Drysdale and when they came into Geelong on market day she would get the tram out to Belmont. This pretty ideal childhood continued until 1934/35 when dad was lucky to get a job with the Postmaster General's workshops at South Melbourne. As there were tenants living in our house we moved into rented accommodation in the suburb of Murrumbeena. School wasn't terribly pleasant. I had a teacher who insisted (over my mother's protests) that I must answer to "Lucy". As I was quite unused to this I was always getting rapped over the knuckles with her scissors. This is my only memory of this school.

Later in 1935 we moved back into our home at Surrey Hills and wouldn't you know it - I got another teacher who really was in the wrong job. This one (without asking me) formed the view that I was a Roman Catholic. I didn't realise this until much later in a discussion with some of my classmates in my teen years - I just thought she was permanently cranky.

School improved when I left her class, but at the end of 1936 Melbourne suffered a dreadful outbreak of Polio (no immunisation then) and school was closed for roughly six months and lessons done by correspondence. I loved it - my mum was a great teacher! I left Chatham Primary and went to Mont Albert Central, then to Mangarra Road Girls’ School, Camberwell High School then back to Mangarra Rd. when Melbourne Boys High took over Camberwell High. I finished school at the end of 1942 having gained my Intermediate Certificate which was a four year course in Victoria.

1943 saw me enrolled at Zercho's Business College in a Secretarial Course doing Shorthand, Typing and Bookeeping. I loved shorthand and typing from the first lesson. I left there in March 1944 and went to work in the Union Bank of Australia at 351 Collins St. Melbourne (no longer there). The work was varied but fairly dull and routine and not a lot of opportunity to use shorthand and typing so in 1947 I left and went to work for a firm of solicitors, Arthur Phillips and Just in Bourke St. This lasted till about 1948. Early in ‘49 I left and went to work at Boehenke Motors at Glenferrie: where I stayed until I was married in 1950.

I met Stuart at a birthday party for one of my friends at the Bank. We had a really good time going out together. There were lots of parties, dances and always the movies which in those days people would go a couple of times a week. I also belonged to Church Fellowship, the Church Tennis Club and the Church Bjelke Petersen gym class, so life was pretty busy. Stuart and I became engaged in 1948 shortly after my 21st birthday and married on 8th April 1950.

We initially lived in rooms in Radnor St. Camberwell until Peter was born on 27th March 1951 when we went back to live with my parents until we moved to our home at Deer Park. We made lots of friends there among the largely migrant community. Lorene was born on 11th January 1954 and when she was 8 months old we moved to Sydney to the house where we still live. I was homesick at first but soon made friends among the neighbours and Church people. Heather was born on 19th October 1955 and so our family was complete.

Shortly after this came one of the most worrying times. Peter contracted Polio (still no immunisation) and Lorene after a very worrying 8 months was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and hospitalised for 12 months. However she returned home amid much jubilation in 1957and life returned more or less to normal. The children's schooldays brought new interests - Mothers’ Club, Christmas concerts, tuckshops, working bees and as they got older Speech Nights and Sports days. They also joined Brownies and Cubs continuing in these activities until they reached Rovers and Rangers.

In about 1964 I returned to work as a temporary secretary moving around various legal firms. This was very interesting but when I was offered a permanent job (not working school holidays) in 1966/67 I took it and stayed with Geoffrey Edwards and Co. until March 1994. I enjoyed the work very much but decided there were more enjoyable things to do.

During this time our family married and our great joy was the births of our seven grand-children, Amanda, Leigh and Melanie Mitchell, Kelley and Aaron Carter, Kate and Jack Skinner. Sharing their various activities and school holidays has been wonderful and with the exception of Melanie who moved to Brisbane we still see them quite often. We now have a great-grandson, Tristan who is a dear little boy and keeps us laughing.

Since retirement I have joined an aquarobics group, a gentle exercise class and the Chester Hill Probus Club. We enjoyed many days at the grand-children's sporting and school activities and outings with friends and family. At the writing of this story, 15th December, 2001 I consider its been a pretty good life and I hope there's still a few good years left.

Heather Lee, Lorene Joy and Peter Leslie Skinner.

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