The Fitzes live next door. Mrs Fitz is my mum’s friend. Mum and Mrs Fitz went on a holiday to Sydney when I started school, so dad had to take me the first few days. I like Mrs Fitz, but Mr Fitz frightens me. Mum says Mr Fitz drinks, and that’s why he’s so angry and why he shouts. Mum says that Mr Fitz drinks because he went to the war. My dad didn’t go to the war because he had flat feet, and he was too old.

Mr Fitz goes to the pub every night. So does Mr Coventry. He lives in the house next door – on the other side – up Reynards Street. Mrs Coventry plays the piano, and sometimes I can hear her playing though the wall. Mrs Coventry tells my mum that sometimes she can hear me singing, through the wall, and that she likes to hear me singing, and that I must be a happy boy to sing so much. Mr Coventry has a red nose, and a red face, like Santa Claus.

Some of the men who come from the pub walk up the street past our house. Some come into out laneway and wee on to the wall. Mum says that that is a naughty thing to do. But sometimes, when I’m coming home from Sunday school, up the back lane, I have to have a wee, so I wee in the laneway.

On trams, boys must stand up and give their seat to a lady. Mum takes me to the city on the tram. The trams are green. Coburg trams are number 19 and number 20. One day there is a lady on the tram who talks to herself all the time. Mum says I mustn’t stare at the lady, that it is rude to stare. Mum says that the lady is a religious maniac, that she reads the bible too much. I want mum to tell me more, because I don’t understand, but mum says that children should be seen and not heard.

When I go to Sunday school, Jimmy Campbell sometimes meets me and walks me home. Mum says that Jimmy is a nice boy, but he is a bit simple. He’s much older than me. Sometimes he wants me to have a wee in the lane, and he keeps asking me if I want to have a wee, and tells me that I should have a wee.

At Sunday school we sing songs. We sing:

Hear the pennies dropping, listen while they fall
Every one for Jesus, he shall have them all
Dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping
Hear the pennies fall
Every one for Jesus – he shall have them all.

I give Jesus a penny every Sunday. We sing other songs too:
Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light
Like a little candle, glowing in the night
In this world of darkness, we must shine
You in your small corner, and I in mine
I like this chorus, especially the last line… you in your small corner, and I in mine…
When we have finished, we sing:
Now Sunday school is over, and we are going home
Goodbye, goodbye, we will be kind and true
Goodbye, goodbye, we will be kind and true

At bedtime Mum gives me big cuddles and I nuzzle my head and my nose into her. I like being cuddled by my mother; she has a soft, warm bosom. Aunty Rita has big bosoms, and she kisses me on the cheeks all the time. Her bosom smells of lavender powder. I don’t like it when mum powders herself in the bath, and when it is my turn to have a bath, the powder floats on the surface.

I don’t like it when I wet the bed, because sometimes it goes cold, and I wake up shivering. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, the bed is wet and I don’t know why. I hate it when I have to get up in the night to do grunts, because it smells. Some people say “poo” instead of grunts, but mum says poo is a naughty word and I shouldn’t say it, so I say grunts.

Mum says I’m her good little boy, but she says sometimes I can be a little sod.