Purple wallpaper

In 1973 I was looking for a place to live. Some wierd stuff was happening with my step father; wierd enough that it made sense for me to live elsewhere than under his roof. Now, 32 years later and being in much the same position as he was the wierdness makes a lot more sense than it did then.

So I went looking for other places. Boarding houses didn't appeal. I worked, at the time, for a TV repair shop close to Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne and we occasionally made calls to fix broken TV sets in various boarding houses near the racecourse; most of the boarders were trainee jockeys and I knew I wouldn't fit into that society.

A house was out of the question; that left a flat. I can't, at this distant remove, remember typical flat rentals. I do remember looking at a rental house in Newport a couple of years later that was A$100 a month and thinking it was a bargain and I once rented a converted garage behind a house in Altona for $20 a week so I imagine typical monthly rentals might have been in the order of $75 a month. Somewhat beyond my means in 1973.

Thus I siezed upon an ad in the local paper for a 'bachelor' flat in Ascot Vale, within walking distance of where I was working at the time. Made the appointment; turned up and inspected.

It was brand new and they were renting out for the first time.

Each flat was a single room with a pretence at two rooms by means of a couple of brick incursions into the space, each incursion about a foot long. Communal showers and, worse, a communal kitchen. There were 8 stove/oven combos and 32 flats so that meant that 4 flats shared one stove. Given that the entire complex was targetted at 'bachelors' can you imagine what those stoves would have looked like after 6 months?

That was bad enough but this was the early to mid 70's. Each flat was carpetted and wallpapered identically; in purple! Purple carpet and purple wallpaper!

I have some wonderful memories of the 1970's but that flat ain't one of them!

Oh, I passed on the opportunity to rent and endured my step father for another year.