Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 491
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[Page 491]
(30)
occasional games on small courses. Eventually, however, I was invited to go sailing most weekends and public holidays with our family dentist, John Perry, a very sociable fellow, who kept a thirty-six-foot sloop, the "Alibi" up at Pittwater at the south end of Broken Bay. I entered into this wholesome recreation with enthusiasm, becoming a foundation member of the Bayview Yacht Racing Association, formed some months later. "Alibi" competed in several races in her class, and in between regatta days, we sailed to all the pleasure spots around the Bay, up the Hawkesbury River to Brooklyn and beyond, and during one Easter holidays, in company with another yacht, went to Wyong, via Ettalong and the "Rip". But after nearly three years these trips began to pall, and we began to spend more and more weekends at the moorings drinking and visiting neighbouring boats also at anchor. So I gracefully withdrew from the "Alibi" crew.
By this time "San Marino" needed renovations, alterations and an extra garage, as Madge had bought an Austin A40 car for her own use. I did all this work myself, spending almost all of my weekends, public holidays, and any other spare time on it. It was creative work from which I derived not only outdoor physical exercise, but a certain amount of self-satisfaction; and of course it saved a lot of money that otherwise would have been paid to outside contractors and builders. By the time of my retirement from Shell at the end of 1953 (with three months leave on full pay), I had painted "San Marino" inside and out, built a brick garage at the front of it and remodelled the wash-house and back verandah, plus a host of small repairs and additions. At the last of this period, much of my time was taken up with the administration of my Mother's estate. She died a few days before the Christmas of 1953 in her eighty-sixth year at the "Rosedernate" private hospital, Parkes, the room being part of the dining room of her old home.
Soon after I returned, Alan started school, first at Manly Public school, then under a private tutor, and finally at St Alo[ysius]