Sign of the times

My paternal grandfather migrated to Australia from Canada during the Great Depression (not sure of the exact year).  He was a high school drop out at the age of 14 because he claims the Australian school kids teased him about his accent so he stopped going to school in Australia after only one day.  As a young man he worked as a house painter but was unable to continue in this line of work after the War due to damage sustained to his eardrums (he was part of an air force radar unit in Balikpapan, Indonesia, and I think there was a fair bit of shelling and other loud noises around where he was stationed or maybe it was the noise of the radars).  This  adversely affected his balance, making ladder climbing difficult.  (It also made him extremely hard of hearing and very grumpy). 

He had always been interested in electronics and, as a boy, built the first 'crystal set' radio in his home town of Brampton in Canada.  One of his post-war jobs back in Australia was at the University of Melbourne I think as a kind of laboratory assistant constructing circuits designed by the Physics or Engineering students (he said he often had to 'improve on’ the students' designs to get the circuits to work).  He also (and I am not sure whether this was later or started at the same time) ran an electronics workshop in his garage where he would repair the radios and later televisions and other electrical appliances of friends and neighbours.  This was back in the days when appliances were built to last and no-one threw anything out if they could help it. 

My grandfather’s Depression upbringing was not just evident in his line of work but also in the way he worked.  For instance, my father and uncles used to joke that, in his later years, my grandfather would rather spend an entire day working to construct a part for something than spend 20 cents purchasing that same part from the store.  I also remember some of the ‘treasures’ that used to come out of his workshop such as the ‘recycled’ black and white televisions that needed pliers to change the channels (at the time I wished we could just have a ‘normal’ television like other families).  He also charged his customer’s very little for his work, often using an ‘ability to pay’ assessment in determining what a job was worth.

After Grandad’s death last year my brothers and uncles cleaned out his garage/workshop and found this sign (which my brother now has on display in his apartment). 

Grandad sign

I was really excited to see it as I never even knew it existed.  I will also take a photo of the cabinet I have at home that Grandad made out of an old wooden television casing (this particular television must have been in a really terminal state for Grandad to decide it was beyond repair and just to use the casing for something else). 

My brother also has quite a bit of other cool stuff rescued from Grandad's place.  My kids were particularly taken with the old typewriter and telephones.  My daughter spent an hour or more typing a letter out to her friend and also had to ask one of the adults for help on how to use the dial telephone!  The chair and desk were also Grandad's originally (and later my Dad's) - Grandad rescued these when they were being thrown out by the university!

Back in time