Interview Transcript from Illawarra Stories Wollongong City Libraries Oral History Project – Maisy Day
Interviewer: Marisa O’Connor
Marisa I’m talking to Maisy Day of Woonona. Go ahead Maisy.
Maisy Oh, hello.
Marisa Your name?
Maisy Maisy Day.
Marisa And your date of birth, Maisy.
Maisy 16th of January 1929.
Marisa And where were you born?
Maisy In Queensland. Um, oh, I can’t think of the name of the place now. It was only a little place [laughs].
Marisa And, um, did you, um, the schools that you attended, were they down here?
Maisy Yes.
Marisa What school did you-?
Maisy Thirroul.
Marisa Yes. Thirroul Public School?
Maisy Yes. And, um, Home Science at Wollongong.
Marisa Yes.
Maisy Yeah.
Marisa Do you remember any of the teachers at Thirroul Public School?
Maisy Yes, Miss Love.
Marisa Okay.
Maisy Who else? Oh, she was me favourite, she was lovely.
Marisa And your mother’s name, Maisy, what was your mother’s name?
Maisy My adopted mother?
Marisa Yes.
Maisy Yeah. Um, Catherine May Atkinson.
Marisa Okay.
Maisy This is, um, before she was married you mean.
Marisa Yeah, that’s good. And your father’s name?
Maisy John Thomas Dwyer.
Marisa Dwyer. And you were adopted, you said.
Maisy Mm, yes.
Marisa Um, and, um, your um, you were married to, what was your husband’s name?
Maisy Harold Bradbury.
Marisa And, um, and you lived, did you ever live in the, The Waves?
Maisy The Waves, yes.
Marisa You did live there?
Maisy I, yeah yeah, from when I was a, a baby I lived there.
Marisa Yes.
Maisy Until I, I got married.
Marisa Okay. And then you moved to where?
Maisy Oh, to, oh, I still lived there for quite a few years and then we moved to Woonona. Marisa Right.
Maisy Lang Street, Woonona.
Marisa Right.
Maisy Mm.
Marisa And, um, did you have, you and your husband have any children, Maisy?
Maisy Yes. Four children, three boys and a girl.
Marisa Are you able to tell me their first names?
Maisy Yeah, the eldest one was Dennis John and the next one was Clive Patrick and the next one was Andrew Francis. And then there was Annemarie.
Marisa And what were your early memories of Thirroul?
Maisy Oh, we lived, it was a great place to live in, you know, everybody was friendly and everyone knew everybody else. Yeah, not like it is these days, you know.
Marisa Is it, you find it different today?
Maisy Oh, yes. People more or less keep to themselves, you know.
Marisa Okay. The beaches, did you, um, did you go for swimming, did you-?
Maisy Oh, yes, at Thirroul. Although, see, I didn’t have anybody to go with, but my father used to take me swimming a lot. I’d go with other children as I grew bigger, yeah.
Marisa Right, right. And was it, um, in the pool or the rock pool or the-?
Maisy Yeah.
Marisa Or the surf.
Maisy In the pool, oh, and the surf.
Marisa Um, and, um, I heard about the early butcher shops in Thirroul, do you remember any of the early shops?
Maisy Yes, Gwyther’s shop.
Marisa What did Gwyther do? He was a butcher?
Maisy Yes he owned it, and, um, besides that there was, um, oh God, I can’t think of the name of the other one. I know it as well as anything. It was a company, Illawarra, was it Illawarra Meats, yes, I think it was.
Marisa Okay, yes, yes.
Maisy Yeah.
Marisa I think they’re still around. And we were talking about the early transport as well, um, the Dion’s bus.
Maisy Oh, yes, I remember them. Yes, because there was a piece in the paper just a couple of days ago about Mr Dion, you know, how kind he was to everybody. If they didn’t have any money, didn’t matter, he still took them. [laughs]
Marisa Yes, yes. And that, um, the Dion’s only went up to Austinmer and then there was another bus company that went up further up to Coledale. Do you remember that bus company?
Maisy Oh, no, I can’t say I did because I only ever went as far as, as Austinmer really [laughs].
Marisa Um, and did you work Maisy? Did you, were you a housewife or did you do-
Maisy Yeah.
Marisa Any sort of training?
Maisy Oh yes, I did work for a while at the Steelworks in the office and then at Lysaghts.
Marisa Okay, yes.
Maisy Yeah.
Marisa Right. Um, and they were good days?
Maisy Oh, yes.
Marisa Yes, they were good days.
Maisy Yes. I can remember that next door, you know, that lady that I got me photo taken with when I was a baby.
Marisa Yes.
Maisy Well her daughter she was 18 months older than me, Joy, and I still keep in touch with her. She lives on the Gold Coast now.
Marisa And what did you do for entertainment? I heard about the early picture show.
Maisy Oh, yes picture shows and there was mostly, um, with horses and things, like rodeos. Marisa Oh, okay.
Maisy That sort of thing.
Marisa Like, um, yes, like the agricultural shows.
Maisy Yeah
Marisa Those, that type of thing.
Maisy All the towns had one of those.
Marisa Right.
Maisy Yes.
Marisa That was, um, and that was held quite regularly was it?
Maisy Oh yes, every year, mm.
Marisa Right, right. But that would have been a big thing for the community.
Maisy Yes.
Marisa All right. Well, thank you.