Flying around our suburban backyard in the ‘50s and ‘60s was a wooden spear with plaited hair wound around the top. It was a great hit with the local kids – not literally, thank goodness, but, rather, a curiosity, something foreign. Where had it come from? The spear was given to Dad during the Second READ MORE
Tag: John Leo Coghlan
100 today…well, she would have been.
Today, Mum, Teresa Bernadette Coghlan née Winter (1917-2010)—known as Berna—would have been 100 years old. Wow. Hard to imagine. To commemorate her ‘centenary’ I’ve put together some research regarding her nursing training in Melbourne (1939-1942) during WW2. The story goes that Mum gained no pleasure from working behind the bar at her aunties’ hotel, the READ MORE
Me, Dad and the Olympic Games
1956 was a very busy year for my dad, John ‘Jack’ Leo COGHLAN (1909-1974). Not only did he become a father for the fifth time—to me—but he was working at the Olympic Games in, our home town, Melbourne. The XVI Olympiad was the first Olympic Games to be held in Australia and the first to READ MORE
A 13 year old biographer
When I was 13 years old, our English teacher, the delightful Miss Seedsman, gave us an exercise in biography. The task was to interview someone about their childhood and write it up in three sections: family life, school life and a description of a game played at school. I interviewed my dad. Dad, John “Jack” READ MORE
The Locket
My grandmother, Mary Grace Jane ‘Doll’ COGHLAN nee LEE (1881-1958) ‘handed down’ to her son, my dad, a gold locket. On the outside of the locket are the initials ‘MJL’ and on the inside are photos of a man, a lady and a baby. There are no names or dates on the locket or photos READ MORE
Curiouser and Curiouser
When I was about 10 or 11 I had a growth spurt. My arms, hands, feet and legs telescoped out of their sockets. But unlike Alice, in Alice in Wonderland, I couldn’t blame my growth on a cake labelled EAT ME. Seemingly overnight, I became one of the tallest in my grade. My arms were READ MORE
Back to the Main Drain – Cora Lynn, Vervale and Iona
My cousin, Howard, and his mum, Muriel WINTER* (nee FALLON) kindly offered to take me on a tour of the old sites of my grandparents: For Mum’s side, the WINTER family—Cora Lynn, Vervale and Iona farms, and, for Dad’s side, the COGHLAN family—Cora Lynn General Store, all situated around the Main Drain on the Koo READ MORE
An Officer and a Gentleman
Remembrance Day, 11 November 2015 David Thomas LEE was my Dad’s cousin (and for the family’s information Ron Lee’s brother). He was to be the best man at my parents’ wedding in January 1943, but he was unable to attend due to RAAF training commitments in preparation for action in WWII. On the 5th November READ MORE
98 today…..well, she would have been
Mum would have been 98 today. To honour her memory I’ve dedicated my first post, in my first blog, to her, Teresa Bernadette WINTER (1917-2010). The WINTER Family Mum, known as Berna, was born on the 28th October 1917 at 93 Station St., Fairfield, at the back of her father’s butcher’s shop… or so the READ MORE