I have been lucky enough to spend most of my life - 72 years - in Penrith and it has been the most wonderful place to grow up.
My grandparents lived in Penrith on the banks of the
Nepean River in Weir Road, two doors from the Penrith
Rowing Club.
My grandfather was Stan Randall and my grandmother
was a Bennett; her uncle, Albert Bennett, lived next door.
Albert Bennett had the motor boats on the river and he
owned Euroka now a picnic area you can get to by road - we had to get there by boat.
My parents lived in Eastlakes which is near Mascot.
During the war my father, Syd Blencowe, joined the Air
Force and my mother had to work in a factory to replace the men, so my elder sister and I were sent to live with my grandparents in Penrith.
I started school at the Penrith Infants School which was in Henry Street, and when I was old enough, in 3rd class, I went to St Stephens's Ladies College in High Street which was run by the Lennox Sisters.
The main street of Penrith was our shopping centre and
we had Fletchers Department Store, Murrays Hardware on the corner of High and Station streets and across from that was Branford's Bakery.
Where Spotlight was we had Spears Motors, Coles in the
middle of town (which you would call Kmart now) and a
Woolworths but these shops did not sell food as they do
today.
We also had a Larkins where we bought our groceries and, at the top of town, was Neale's Furniture and Menswear.
We had many great shops right down the main street.
To go for your driver's licence you met a policeman at the police box near Ladbury Avenue, answered some questions then went for a drive.
We had a picture theatre in Station Street and the
Dungowan and Railway Institute where we had dances
which were supervised by adults.
The hospital was where Governor Phillip is now.
After the war my sister and I went back to Sydney but most weekends we came to Penrith.
We caught a steam train at Central and we had to tell the guard we wanted to get off at the Log Cabin station which was across the road from the Log Cabin Hotel and this side of the Bridge.
He in turn told the driver of the train which carriage we were in as the station only took one carriage.
On our return to Central my grandfather rang Emu Plains
Station and the station master told the driver of the train to stop at the Log Cabin for passengers.
Penrith came alive when the GPS regatta was on.
Every year, a week before, the council decorated the main street of Penrith as in those days the Great Western Highway was the main entry into Penrith - the M4 had not even been thought of.
The GPS schools sent their rowers up a week before the race to practise on the river and they had a large shed near the rowing club which my grandfather slept in every night to look after the boats and make sure no one damaged them.
The bank across from the Log Cabin was full of people from all schools, and most houses on Nepean Avenue hosted one of the schools.
On the day of the race the street was full of cars and buses, all with streamers out of the windows with the colours of the schools they were barracking for and the trains coming into the station were doing the same. What a shame that had to change.
Our river was beautiful and we spent many happy times with my parents, grandparents and uncle up the river camping in the caves along the banks of the river.
Our river used to flood and my uncle and grandfather used to have to stay up all night to read the gauge which was a measure on the pillion of the bridge.
They then had to ring up people in charge to let them know the height of the river so they could evacuate the people of low lying parts of Richmond and Windsor.
My grandfather once told me he rowed a boat up to the post office in one of the bad floods.
Many times I walked with my Grandfather under the railway line to Castlereagh Road where the milk factory is to get a block of ice which he wrapped in a bag and carried home on his shoulder for the ice box.
Castlereagh Road was all farms.I met my wonderful husband at one of the dances and we later married and had four children and now have nine grandchildren.
My late husband John started Stanton & Taylor Real Estate which two of our children, Greg and Michelle, now own.
Our other daughter, Dianne Knight, lives in Blaxland and our son, David, lives in Sydney.
I love Penrith and there are some things I wish had never been done to the town - like Glenmore Park as I feel sorry for the children in there who have no backyards to play in as we did, but they say that is progress.
I hope the people of Penrith can love my town as I do and look after it as it's a great place to live and raise a family.
Judith Taylor
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter