Adelaide, do you remember ... the complete freedom of Christmas holidays in your youth? Glenelg - as it used to look, circa 1975, before the really tall buildings took over. REMEMBER when Christmas school holidays rolled around? Seven weeks of complete freedom. And boy what freedom we enjoyed growing up in Adelaide! We spent carefree days at the beach, go sliding down giant sandhills, ride our bikes all over town and not have to be home until the street lights went on. Remember the incredible freedom we had, as kids, growing up in Adelaide in the '50s, '60s and even the '70s? Once Christmas school holidays arrived our parents would rarely see us, as we took off for adventures down the beach - dive bombing off the end of the jetty, swimming in a creek or river, sledding down huge sandhills, riding our bikes down to the dump to search for treasures, playing cricket out in the street and, on a hot night, sleeping out on the back lawn. These are some of the memories shared on my "Adelaide, Remember When" facebook page, from those who vividly remember their childhood and youth in Adelaide during that period. Below is a photo of Glenelg beach back in the '60s. It was great fun to wander around the sideshows, or drive the dodgem cars. Miss Goodwin ran the trampolines, and there were the bucking horses and the 'Gee Whiz'. Have a chicko role for lunch, sitting on the wall, and go for an occasional swim to cool off. Remember riding your 'tredlie' to the beach and racing the other kids to the public phone boxes on the way? We were desperate to be the first to press button 'B' to see if we could get some loose change to buy a Coke or an ice cream. Glenelg beach in the 1960s, before the bulldozers and developers moved in. Photo from ARW reader Steve Arnd. This is a photo of Glenelg, the carpark and the sideshows from the late '60s, early '70s. This is the Glenelg that's now just in our memory! Are you going to tell the bloke in the aubergine Holden he's parked over two spaces, or should I? Port Noarlunga had huge sandhills and kids would spend all day there. You could hire a sand sled from the kiosk, wax the bottom of the board, climb to the top and go flying down at an incredible speed. And sometimes land in the river! If the board got wet you'd have to wait until it dried out, then the big climb back to the top and take off again! There was a great fish and chips shop there too and that would be an afternoon snack before heading home totally exhausted, just before it got dark. Adults and children slide down the monster sandhill at Port Noarlunga in the 1960s. Instead of the beach, lots of kids would head to the City Baths for a swim where you could rent a locker for 6d (sixpence) and then fix the key on your bathers with a hair pin. A great treat was having a buttered Bush biscuit, laying up on the three metre area on your towel and getting a shot of Brylcream for about 3d (threepence) to do your hair after swimming. As this late '50s photo shows, the pool was always packed, and sometimes it was hard to find a spot to jump into the water from the diving board. Harry Gallagher was the manager in those days and he would often close off lanes 1 and 2 for Dawn Fraser (this would be around 1956-1960). I'd sit up the shallow end munching on a bush biscuit, dangling my feet in the water as Dawn swam and Harry ran alongside with his stop watch. Little did I realise I was watching Australian Olympics history in the making. Get out of the way, Dawn's coming through! The Advertiser's archives Source: Supplied Street cricket with all the neighbourhood kids was always an important part of the Christmas school holidays. Both boys and girls would line up for a bat or bowl. Although we didn't have proper wickets (it was most likely a 44 gallon drum) and the old bat had seen better days, there was never any denying the enthusiasm shown at scoring runs or bowling someone out. Just occasionally a car would come along so we'd be made to wait patiently while we moved the 'wicket', but then it was straight back into it. Your batting is terrible. You should open for England! Photo: The Advertiser's archives. These days, it's hard to imagine that once upon a time, even in the mid to late '60s, kids used to swim in The Torrens. In fact before the days of the family car, council pools and algal bloom, the river was the only place to have a swim in summer if you lived anywhere near the city or in some of the suburban areas that the Torrens passed through. As kids, we used to go yabbying at the bridge on King William Road down by the Torrens. A piece of string with a chunk of rotten meat on the end of it would generally yield a nice fat yabby and you could always get enough for a feed. I walked over the bridge recently on my way to the cricket and couldn't believe how dirty the water was. You certainly wouldn't (and shouldn't) swim in it now! This photo was taken in the early '60s and shows kids jumping off the Torren's weir for a swim in the Torrens. What??? It's full of algae?? Oh well, too late, I'm jumping in! Photo: The Advertiser Source: Supplied A trip on the 'tredlie' to the rubbish dump would generally turn up a couple of old pram wheels connected to an axle. And then we'd make a billy cart, without brakes of course. The body of the cart would be an old wooden crate with a longer piece of wood making a chassis and the front wheels steered by a rope or some sort of steering device. Then it was off to the steepest hill we could find, start at the top and go screaming down to the bottom. No crash helmets, no knee or elbow pads, lots of skinned knees and elbows and bruises but otherwise great fun! How on earth did we survive all this? There were organised activities, too, and most years The Advertiser would hold sandcastle competitions at either Glenelg or Brighton. Many kids would get to the beach really early to stake out their claim and they'd get as close to the water as possible because that was the best sand. I remember entering one year, although we didn't want the crown, or the honour of winning the crown. We were more interested in any cash prizes that might have been up for winning. Unfortunately, our sand castle was a bit of a disaster, we got badly sunburnt and still had to ride our bikes all the way home to Findon!! "What do you mean, "what is it?" It's a castle, of course! Of course, there were times when it was just too hot to venture too far from home. And on those days we'd make do with the sprinkler on the lawn, spending hours just chasing each other around, getting totally saturated and staying cool. There was no air conditioning and we never even had a fan, so on a really hot night Dad would bring the wireless (pre-TV days) outside on to the front veranda, and we would all sit around as a family and listen to the radio serials. Neighbours would wander past and say 'Good Evening' and stop and talk about the heat. If we were lucky, Mum would find her purse and give us kids 2/- so we could go around to the little local shop on the corner and buy a cold bottle of Woodies Sparkling Lemonade ('The Best Lemonade Made'). If it was too hot to sleep inside, we were allowed to sleep out on the back lawn, although the mozzies would eventually drive you inside to sleep in the hot house. Remember when you could turn on a sprinkler and not feel guilty about water restrictions? At the end of the school holiday it was hard to get those brown feet back into school shoes and uniform and sit in a classroom all day instead of being outside playing! What are your memories of Christmas School Holidays in Adelaide when you were growing up? Week 3 - Adelaide, Do you remember the John Martins Christmas Pageant? Week 7 - Adelaide, Do you remember the golden years of Holden? You can also check out more of Bob's musings on SA history on his Adelaide Remember When Facebook page.