Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 53
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[Page 53]
26
church services ended. Some religious extremists did not read Monday morning's Sydney Morning Herald because the printing of it began on Sunday night.
On Sunday afternoons adults visited friends or relatives or were visited by them. The men usually discussed politics, business or sport: the women, housekeeping, fashions, and the doings of their children. On Sunday mornings reverent people walked to Church, and in the afternoon their children to Sunday school: the very devout went to church again at 7 p.m. on Sunday nights. Otherwise family groups, in their best clothes, strolled in the streets, in the parks, or on the beaches. A special outing on Sundays, was a ferry excursion across the Harbour to Mosman Bay, Watsons Bay or Manly; for a full day's jaunt, trips to La Perouse in horse-drawn buses were very enjoyable. Centennial Park and the Botanical Gardens were visited by many families as they were ideal places for children to romp and play, and they were always crowded on Sunday afternoons and Public Holidays. A tour of the Zoo, then at Moore Park where the Sydney Girls' High School now stands, was a special treat.
Apart from Sunday, the only time when "toil remitting lent its turn to play" was on the Wednesday afternoon half-holiday, when, according to the season of the year, cricket or football matches were much in evidence, in the parks or on any suitable open grassed spaces such as Moore Park. The American game of baseball had recently made its debut at Waverly Cricket Oval.
Horse racing meetings were regular fixtures; for the idle rich and wealthy professional men they were held on Saturdays at Randwick, Rosehill, or Canterbury; for the less affluent there were the "ponies" on Wednesday afternoons at Roseberry or Kensington racecourses. The last-named is now the campus of the new University of New South Wales.
In the week-day evenings, most families made their own amusement at home, singing songs around a piano, playing card games, checkers, etc., or reading. Many of the wealthy homes had billiard rooms, and there were plenty of public billiards parlours, which often were illegal gambling dens and the lairs