No Time for the Smiths

A true account, constructed from journals, of the first year of a marriage fifty years ago. In 1959, Sydney was a kinder, slower place. In outer suburbs you could see koalas in the trees. Bandicoots still hunted through rubbish bins, black snakes basked on the lawn and kookaburras laughed at sun-up two days before it rained. The sea was clean, buildings smaller, cars rudimentary, freeways unknown. We had pounds and shillings, inches, yards, believed in cooking with lots of lovely fat and were able to travel to England restfully by sea. Labour-saving devices were the clothes prop, the mechanised ringer and the barrel lawnmower. The welfare state hadn't replaced the need to work and young couples getting married found things tough.