First Kiss, First Crush, Your First Everything

In this episode of The Big 6-Oh, we take a trip down memory lane to relive some unforgettable firsts — from awkward first kisses to the buzz of that very first pay packet. 

We’ll share stories of early crushes, first cars, and those vivid childhood memories that never quite fade. Join us for a nostalgic ride filled with laughter, surprises, and maybe a few cringes!

Louis Carr Real Estate
With offices located in Castle Hill, Cherrybrook, and West Pennant Hills. Call +61 02 9480 1000

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Transcript

00:00
This episode of The Big Six-O brought to you by Louis Carr Real Estate, helping people in the Hills District find their dream home since 1992. Ready to buy, sell or rent? Check out louiscarr.com.au for all your property needs. If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold, then you're in the right place. Welcome to The Big Six-O with Kayleigh Harris and Guy Rawlison.

00:28
Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese?

00:53
Welcome back to The Big Six Oh. I'm your host, Guy Rowlison, and joining me as always  is my effervescent co-host and the woman who never forgets her firsts, anything,  let alone probably her first glass of shardy, the always wonderful Kayleigh Harris. Hello, how are you? Well, being a woman, we remember stuff. know, like if you guys piss us off, we remember stuff. We'll go, remember that thing you did a few months ago? Like, I remember that. So we keep that stuff in a special place in our brain.

01:23
It doesn't matter how old you are, whether you're 60, 80 or you're 16. Exactly. Is that just a hereditary thing or is it a genetic thing? It's a genetic thing. It's a girl thing. Yeah. Well, of course, if you're tuning in for the first time, glad to have you on board. And if you're a Peter Fender, we're glad you're back for more. Today's episode is all about firsts. As we dive into iconic milestones, first cars, you know, the ones that were held together with duck.

01:53
tape and dreams sort of thing.  First jobs, first records, and yes, we'll probably even touch on first loves.  Oh, God. Let's be honest, some should probably stay locked away in the vault of the past. So let's wind back the clock. OK, where are we going?  Let's, how about we start with, even before we go into cars and jobs, how about we have a look at our first memories and the earliest thing little Kayleigh probably remembers?  Oh, gosh, the earliest thing I remember  is

02:23
I've got an older sister and she's three years older than me. And I remember my mom had this beautiful blue vase thing in the house. was like a, you know, like the genie bottle from my dream of genie. was like that. And it was this beautiful blue thing. And I remember my mom loved it. I remember my sister, I would have been probably three, maybe four. My sister went and grabbed it and smashed it on the floor and in the same straight away, mom.

02:53
Kayleigh broke your vase. And  I was too  young to think of anything and I'm going, wait, what? No. And my mum comes in, you know, she's  Kayleigh Anne.  And I was like, but, but, but, and I got into trouble. My sister was standing behind mum laughing. And I think that's also a first life lesson too, isn't it? Absolutely it is. And that was, that's probably my first memory of that blue vase. Yeah. And how old were you again? I would have been, it was, we were still in Brisbane before we moved. And so I would have been four.

03:24
Yeah. What about you? It's interesting. It's interesting, isn't it? mean,  mine was  not identical because  I remember going out  and we were living at Parramatta in Sydney.  And I remember thinking, oh, we're really good.  And I'll go out and collect the milk when the milkman used to leave the milk bottles on the door.  And so I went out  and I must have been probably  maybe four, maybe a little bit less than four because

03:54
I remember starting preschool and I dropped the bottle  and it just smashed everywhere. Were you  in trouble?  Yeah, I got into a little bit of trouble  because I wasn't supposed to be  out, not so much that the bottle smashed as I managed to actually come out the front door  while mum and dad were probably still asleep.  And so I probably got in trouble because dad didn't lock the front door  and mum's probably

04:21
ripped into him because  the year old decided to  walk out the front door  and you know, Bob's your uncle kind of thing. But  they all morph into one another. Don't they? mean, there's so many of those early memories that you think, Oh, was that the first? But I do remember that and thinking, gosh, here I was.  And of course  we also had a white Samoyed and I remember this really vividly. And I do remember I was four  and there was some purple paint.

04:51
in the shed  and I painted  the dog this white sample  in purple  oil paint.

05:01
Oil, it was oil.  Oil paint? Oh my gosh, what happened? Well dog had to be shorn because you couldn't get the paint out of it. But  yeah, there are a lot of those little instances where little guy,  we had the macadamia nut tree  and  I used to put the, I couldn't break them so I put them in the dog's jaws until it was full because it was very docile  and it would crack and so then the dog would open the nuts and I could eat the nuts inside.

05:31
nearly choked the dog. don't know.  There's a whole nother episode in animals, you know, but I don't know that we'd be, um, we'd probably get ourselves into trouble if we told some those stories. think so. I think so.  Well, talking about your first pet. So my first pet, we had a cat, was a black and white cat again, when we were living in Brisbane when I was, when I was born and, we, and his name was Mickey. Mickey.  And yeah. And then when I was five, um, my dad got transferred for work to Melbourne.

06:01
So we put the cat in the cage and  we head out towards the airport, to Brisbane airport.  And I remember we stopped at my grandma's house to say goodbye. And  grandma lived in sort of inner Brisbane. We were in the outer suburbs and mom said, well, let Mickey go out and go to the toilet. That was the last we saw of Mickey.  And we had an hour with grandma before we had to go to the airport, catch the plane. And my sister and I were distraught.

06:31
distraught  that the cadet we couldn't find it. mean, of course it took off. It didn't know where it was.  It was terrified and just gone. That was the end of it. That was the end of Mickey. I'm sure Mickey went on to bigger and better things. Well, I'd like to think so. Yeah, look, it  probably went on to, you know, a millionaire's home and was pampered and, know, it didn't have to. Hello, it was Brisbane in 1969.  don't think there are many millionaires in Brisbane in 1969.

07:00
Yeah, gotcha.  We've never had a cat. We've never had cats. So we never had that problem. We've only ever had dogs  with the occasional sort of fleeting  sort of glimpses of guinea pigs,  budgies, things like that.  We had a little dog and that was our, and he's called little Joe and he was named after little Joe from Bonanza. I was going to say, that from Bonanza? Yeah. Yeah. So he was, he was named little Joe and he was like this little fox terrier who  just, is this before the Samoyed?

07:29
Yeah, we had two Samoids. had one called Candy and one called Casper. Candy, I don't know.  Casper obviously after the ghost and  Casper, yeah, he copped a little bit from someone in the family. And  yeah, I don't think he over that purple rinse that went through the fur.  But little Joe was the first  pet  that we had.

07:51
Um, and he survived.  I'm not sure what actually happened to him in the end, but, uh, yeah, Casper probably rude the day that he to the household and,  met the four year old.  So, we might move on and  whether it was preschools back in the day, but we all did have to go to like, to big school, didn't we?  Um, and I'm not sure which big school you first went to and whether you remember your first teacher and your first day and what that was like.

08:21
Look, I don't.  I remember going to again in Brisbane and I went to school, I think for about a month before we moved. And I remember my first day at school, my sister was already there.  Uh, she was three years older than me. And I remember  I pooped on the stairs and,  um, I, and my sister, they went and got my sister and said, you need to clean it up because you're her sister.

08:48
And I remember my sister grabbing by the hand, taking me down to the toilets and going, if you need to poop, you have to do it in the bathroom. And then I had to get the, the school had special plastic pants for kids who pooped and you'd have to go to the office in because your  pants were no good anymore. know? And I, yeah, so I went and got the plastic pants and put those on and I was wearing those when mom picked me up later in the day.

09:11
Wow, this was my first day. So many similarities at either end of the age scale, isn't it? With like adult nappies, kids. That's right. Old people nappies. Our legs are the first things to go and they're the first things to actually start with kids. There's a lot of synergies going on with that. But what about you? Do you your first day? Because you started at Epping West. I did. At the school where I met you, but I didn't start till year four. That's right. And I remember vividly that first day. I remember the little girl that came up

09:41
And I was a little bit nervy as you do on your first day. Of course.  And I'm there at the, can picture myself at the base of the stairs, the classroom that I was going into,  which is where they used to have the milk crates and the milk boys that used to come and give you the milk at little lunch, play lunch, recess, whatever you want to call it.  And I really didn't want to leave my mum.  really didn't want to. And then little girl, and I still remember her name. Her name was Kathy Sapsford.  And she just came up, grabbed my hand and come and play with me.

10:11
And  off we went. don't remember anything  other than the kindness that she showed as a  little five year old just grabbed this little boy's hand, come, come play with me. And then her friends, I don't, I don't know where we went, what we played, what we did, but I just remember. love to see her again now and say, Hey, that had a really big, big impact. And as a five year old to remember that, but not remember the rest of your day, it obviously  it's stuck.

10:39
It's a huge impression. if you're listening,  listen, Cathy, thank you.  Thank you. I probably, five year old me probably never said thank you.  There you go. You talked before about first teacher. I don't remember the first teacher I remember was in year four at Epping West when I started. Wow. And I don't remember teachers really before that, because we moved around a lot as we changed schools a lot and moved into state and stuff. But my year four teacher at Epping West was Mrs. Pantus.

11:08
Yes, I remember Mrs. Pantus. And she was a big Italian lady.  And  how do I say this? Well, you never messed with Mrs. Pantus. You didn't mess with Mrs. Pantus. And I could remember  one day I was talking to Simone Fletcher. Hello, Simone, wherever you are. Hope you're listening.  And Simone, were talking and Mrs. Pantus came up and grabbed me by the hair and grabbed Simone by the hair and banged our heads together.  Simone lost her.

11:37
chunk of hair  and her dad came up to the school and had something to say about that. you  know, we didn't think anything of it at the time because that was, that was what happened at school. You know, you were getting the cane, the girls were getting our heads banged together. Yeah, that's big news. Or you get a ruler across your hand or something. So I remember Mrs. Pantus, I was in year three and our teacher was away. Mrs. Pantus took the class  and yeah, she, just, it's like,

12:03
Didn't suffer fools, did she? Not at all. But that was back in the day. There was  the cane and teachers sort of,  you know, regardless of probably what the consequences were, they  laid down the rules and you're stuck by them. Well, most of us stuck by them.  But yeah, but yeah, it's funny. Some of us remember those things.  I think I could name every teacher I had from kindergarten through to year six. I'm not going to do it.

12:30
Well you reminded me of Mrs Hamilton who was I think a year six teacher. six. I'd remember her face but I couldn't remember her name until you said to me remember Mrs Hamilton. yeah. Miss Dunn who was the choir teacher. Yeah there was Mrs Naylan and Mrs Fowler and Mrs Dalton and then there was Mr Dunnellan and these all weren't all my teachers but they were you know.  I remember them. Mr Quinlan, Mr Cowell. Mr Quinlan did he teach PE?  Yes he did he was the girls favourite.

12:58
Yeah. So I was going to say that's probably why I remember him. He was a blonde man, wasn't he? He was a blonde man. Very fit blonde man. Very, oh, little Kayleigh. There's something. Kayleigh was. Yeah. All of a sudden the memories are coming flooding back, aren't they? Yeah. Mrs. Pantus, Mrs. Who? Mr. Quinlan. Mr. Quinlan. And then Mr. Deuce was the headmaster. And was, yeah, it was, you know, and it'd be lovely to think that some of those teachers are still around today.

13:27
But, uh, and they probably weren't nearly as old as we thought they were. Exactly. Yeah. I'm sure in their twenties and we figured that was 60 or something. So Mr. Quinlan, if you're there, uh, we have a Facebook page. Uh, high school, all those sort of things, dancers, you know, boyfriends, I guess that's, uh, sort of that era too. Like, I mean, there were.

13:51
first loves and first dances and all those sort of things. Are you got any fond memories of firsts during those  years? First, think the first, yeah, I can remember the first dance I went to  was my parents used to drop my sister and I off at the Talibudgera National Fitness Camp on the Gold Coast for a week every Christmas holidays. And at the end of the week, they'd have a dance and I would have been 11, maybe 12. And it was the first time I'd gone to a dance.

14:20
And this boy who was so old, I mean, he would have been 13. He was so old, came up to me and said, oh, do you want to dance? And I was so scared that, you know, I just said, no, no, no, no. And I backed myself into a corner and  that was my first memory of a dance. But then when we were 16, we went to the  under radiance disco at the local RSL club.  And I remember a lot more about that. And  that, yeah, that was.

14:49
Yeah, the first time you sort of really, because I went to a girl's school, it the first time I was really, and I didn't have brothers. So for me to interact with boys was really strange at this under 18. That's a big thing, isn't it? If you're at an all boy school or a girl's school, it's a really hard time in your life because there's a lot going on. And you're not necessarily equipped, even if you're at a coeducational school, let alone if you're at a dance with a hall full of boys. How do I talk to these?

15:18
things called boys. How do I interact with you? do I do? Yeah. And did you remember first dance? I remember at the end of year six, we had a dance. We had a year six formal. Yeah. Wow. Which was at the local high school. And I remember that quite vividly. And I remember asking, was really keen on this girl. I was really keen on this girl. Hi, Robin Scott. think you're a full-grown. Hi, Robin.

15:48
And she was the vice captain, I think of, or she was a prefect at the school as well. like, so I had to sort of, my gosh, you know, I think she's the prettiest thing that you can have when you're 11 years old, but also a prefect. thought, gosh, that's going to be tough. yeah, I remember. But you were the vice captain. Yes, I know. It doesn't matter though, does it? Of course it does. You still have to be really brave when you're 11 years old and you're asking a girl to go to your...

16:17
end of the dance.  So I hung around out the front of the school with two mates for moral support.  she must have known because she always used to leave early and she came out with two girlfriends and I thought,  someone must have said something. So that sort of made it a bit easier. But  that was the first dance I remember. And I took her to the dance and  I don't think I danced with her all night. I think that was just the concept of, oh, wow, there go. Someone agreed to go with me. Yeah, someone agreed to go with me. But then like,

16:45
in later years, in teen years, you actually, you you thought, Oh, hang on, this person might like me in return rather than just I'm going to a dance. Then it was all different. There was a under 18s disco at the local YMCA and all that sort of thing. So, no, it was a lot of fun and all those, those firsts and those first parties. Oh, do you remember your first teenage party? Oh, kind of. Yeah. I'm 16, I think. But going back to the dance, the only reason I go back there, because it reminds me of

17:15
first kiss. So there was a whole bunch of us girls dancing  in a big circle as you did and with some boys and one of the boys was the brother of a girl I went to school with and I didn't know that him that I didn't know him at all actually  and halfway through this song he comes over and starts kissing me  and because the only kissing I'd done until that point was the Sean Cassidy posters on the wall at home.  I it was.

17:43
You know, no one told me, thank you, Fiona.  No one told me that there's tongue involved.  So Stephen Neil, if you're listening,  he comes over and starts pashing me and he puts his tongue in my mouth. And I remember thinking it was the most disgusting thing I've ever, and I'd pushed him away and I went, no,  yuck. And I pushed him away and I ran off to the girl's toilets.

18:06
And  Fianna comes running after me and she's like, what happened? I said, he put his tongue in my mouth. And she goes, well, yeah, duh. And I said, you didn't tell me that they do that.  And of course, the next Monday at school, I was a bit of a laughing stock because I'd never kissed a boy before. I pushed this guy away. anyway, so that was my first kiss. But tell me about yours. That was probably pretty traumatic.

18:28
was a little, that, you know, you're, wow, gosh, these days, it'd be more than trauma. There'd be a lawsuit, I would imagine, and criminal charges, I'd imagine. But it was at a party with the girls across the road. We're having, well, the older sister of one of the girls across the road was having a party. She was in my childhood. She was, I think we were 12, 13, and, and she was, she was 14 or 15. And she had a party, but like,

18:57
For some reason, the younger sister was allowed to invite a lot of friends. And of course it all ended up with,  oh, let's get down to the garage. And so there was probably a dozen  of us  and spin the bottle.  Oh, yes. And I had, innocent me had no idea what this game was. Yeah.  And yeah, and strange, it  came my way. First spin. I thought. So somebody's, the bottle landed on you.

19:25
Yeah, yeah, it landed on me. And then they spun it again. thought, well, that wasn't very exciting. It spun and pointed at me what happened. And then it went to another girl, much more experienced girl, much more experienced girl. She wasn't any older, but she was obviously a little bit more worldly. Yeah. Nice way to put it. Yeah. And Amanda, if you're listening, thank you. It was, it was one of those things. I think it was just a spin the bottle first party for us sort of.

19:54
How old were  you? I don't know if I was 13. I might have been 12. Did you know about tongue then? No. Oh good. Thank God. Because I thought it was just me. No, I didn't know what spin the bottle was. What are you talking about woman?  And I didn't have a Sean Cassidy poster or anything on the wall.  You didn't have a Wonder Woman poster to practice on.  No, I didn't have anything. mean, geez.  So it was, yeah, the fact that I didn't even know the game, let alone. Yeah.

20:22
Yeah, that probably says a lot doesn't it? gosh. So, but yeah, we got through it, we survived. Yeah.  Now, I know you and I both shared, apart from school,  we actually both shared probably our first job as far as,  as being paid or not, I don't know whether, whether Maccas was your first job  or? Maccas was my first part-time job. at 14 and nine months. Yeah. And you and I were at the same Maccas and we've discussed that before, but

20:52
Um, my first full-time job was when I was 16, I left school and I got a job, um, working for a microfilm company and it sounded very impressive. Yeah, exactly. Right. But my job involves sitting on the floor and ironing bits of paper to go into a microfilm machine. Cause I had to make sure they were perfectly flat. Otherwise the machine wouldn't accept them.  And if you can imagine you've got like an eye.

21:22
proper clothing iron and I'm sitting on the floor ironing these bits of paper and the fumes coming off from the ink and everything was horrible and made me really gave me a terrible headache. And I think I lasted two hours. Oh,  so you're an ironing woman for two hours. Yeah. And then I got up and said, I'm sorry, I'm going and I left and I walked out. I just thought I can't do this. I can't do this. were the fumes?

21:48
Well,  maybe it was coming off the paper or coming off the ink, but every time I ironed a bit of paper, all this gray smoke would come off the paper and I'm inhaling that. Oh, you had your iron set on cotton. It should have been on wool or silk. Exactly. Yeah. Or print. or,  or, yeah, yeah, print. Microfilm. Microfilm.  That's an oversight by manufacturers everywhere on irons. Not the microfilm setting. So two  hours. Two hours. And I think the pay rate, I think I was getting like,

22:18
$48 a week.  Yeah, I had this conversation a couple of months ago when a couple of friends of mine thought that I was the richest kid among  all of us when I got my first job after Maccas.  And  I went and worked for  a local newspaper over in Liverpool in Sydney. Oh, wow. Because during my,  I wanted, there were other careers I wanted.  And while I was doing  senior year 12,

22:48
I found out that I was not suited for them purely because I've got this blue green color deficiency. like going into the air force, press the red button for eject and the yellow button to bomb something. And I wouldn't know which one was which. Okay. And then I wanted to go into the cops. And of course, you know, people say, what difference would that make? Well, does. You you say, saw a brown car traveling down the road and it was green. It doesn't look good in court, does it? No.

23:17
I decided, okay, well, look, I'm going to either become a PE teacher  or someone said, oh,  you're right. Well, why don't you become a journalist, which doesn't really stack up when you're in year 12. Well,  it wasn't a thing back then, it? and journalism wasn't a career that was put in front of us really. And  in year 12, the idea was, let's see how much you can write. You've got to write three pages of stuff and being a journalist means you need to be fairly concise. So I went to the local paper and

23:45
My mother taught me how to touch type and all that sort of thing with the old Remington typewriter. I got a bit of a portfolio of stories. They're paying $6 a story, princely sum of $6 a story in 1981. And I had probably 20 stories under my belt. So when I went for a cadetship, I got it. So I was being paid $96 a week. My first job in 1982. have been huge money. Yeah. Yeah. And how,

24:12
good was it when I went to $114 a week? my goodness. meant I could... I figures. It meant I could put fuel in my first car. Kayleigh Harris, what was yours? I think we've talked about this before though. Yes, it was a three cylinder Daihatsu charade. Nice. And it was manual and I had no idea how to drive a manual. So I bought it and then I had to get my dad to come and drive it home. And then I spent the whole weekend...

24:41
going up down my street, learning how to drive it so could take it to work on the Monday. So you bought it just off spec, you didn't take anyone with you?  just said, I'm going to buy this car. Yeah, I think so. can't, I actually can't remember. But my dad at the time, my dad had a brain tumor and the doctor had taken his license off him.  And he,  said, dad, I can't bring this car home. I said, can you come bring it home? He said, I'm not allowed to,  you know, I have, they've taken my license. And I said, well, I won't tell if you won't tell dad.

25:10
And he's like, okay, so dad came with me and drive it home. And it was my first experience of driving a manual car. Good on you, dad. And,  and Kayleigh, good on you for going in blind and saying,  I like the look of this car.  I can't drive it. loved it. It was a really cool little hatchback, three cylinder hatchback, had not a lot of power, but it was zippy and I loved it. It was a girly car. What colour was it? White. Is it?

25:34
Oh, it wasn't like a canary yellow or something? No, no, a little white one. Yeah. How long did it you to learn to drive that? Well, I spent the entire weekend and by Monday I was going okay enough to get myself to work. Certainly like better than the 120 hours you need to, is it 120 you need to clock up now before you can get your? I think yeah. Yeah, so you spent the weekends and you were good. I was good. I could drive a manual after that. Fantastic. Love your What about you? Some sort of GTR Tarana or something?

26:04
I  didn't know. Yeah, I would have loved a GTR XU1, of course, and never had the money.  Did anyone want a  HRJ  burnt orange? No, I always wanted a burnt orange Datsun  180B. Had to be burnt orange.  Yeah. Yeah, couldn't find one. the vinyl roof like the... Yes.  The double colour, the dual colour. Yes.  Yeah. Yes. Had to have that. And  Mr. Quinlan again, hello.  The PE teacher we had at school had a burnt orange.

26:32
Datsun 180B with a white vinyl roof and I thought, yeah, he's pretty. Did you get it? you? No, no, I got a Datsun 180B, but it was his baby poo brown sort of car. It had a vinyl roof. That was the other color they came in, like white vinyl roof and baby poo brown. Yeah, there was a purple one for sale and my father wouldn't let me buy, he's not having a purple car, mate.  So, but the Datsun 180B had the mags and had the black plastic rear louver.

26:59
Oh yes, you would have been quite the know fetch. Oh and had to put the Vox on seven band graphic equalizer with the cassette player in there and whenever it rained the back seats would leak because there was  oh  my gosh it was just puddles I'm talking puddles in the floor at the back so yeah yeah how much was your first car? I think the Daihatsu was about three thousand dollars or something. Oh you were rich. Yeah well no I think I borrowed the money.

27:29
Oh, dad gave me some or something. was like two and a half, three grand. Yeah. It's amazing. Isn't it? mean that I remember that Datsun was $1,750 and I saw one not very long ago and it was obviously being done up and it was something like 30 grand. Oh my gosh. of those old cars, like old cars. Gosh. I mean, when I earned that car, wasn't 10 years old. And yet now you're looking. had didn't Datsun had the 180B, the 240K.

27:57
Yep. And another one. They had a 120 Y, they had a 200 B, they had a 120 Y, a 200 B, a 180 B, they had a 240 Z, they had a 260 Z, they had a 280 ZX. They had everything. But I had the baby brown poo color 180 B with the you pick up many chicks with that? Are you kidding me? I was always the designated driver at parties. that count? Yeah, there you go. You party animal, you. Yeah, so.

28:26
Okay, cars, jobs, we've had pets, teachers. That first place you lived in Brisbane, was that in Brisbane? Do you remember the house? Yeah, very well, on stilts, a typical Queensland house on stilts. Right. I remember it very well, yeah. Wow, it's amazing. How long were you there for? Well, we left Queensland when I was five. Right, okay. And mum and dad bought it about a year before I was born. So I wasn't there that long, but it's funny, every time I go back to Brisbane,

28:56
I go for a drive past it just to have a look at it. It's a thing, isn't it? It's a thing. remember  my youngest will say this is a true story, but  when you think about it logically, it's not at all.  I've taken all my girls just to drive past my first house.  And I can remember from the back door to the front door, all the rooms and everything that are in that house, even though we moved when we were four.  And my daughter, there's an Italian family last time we were there and only because

29:26
I saw them at the front and it's probably a bit presumptuous of me to think they're Italian, but I could hear them speaking  anyway.  But  my, my, my daughter, at the time was probably three will tell you to this day that I left her in the car, went in and had lunch with that Italian family  and, then, and just unattended and then came out after I finished lunch.  She will tell you. So when she has a podcast or whatever they have,  you're in for it.

29:54
And she will have that as a memory. Yeah. And it just didn't happen because  who does that? Yeah. Okay. Maybe I did. No, I didn't. I didn't. So was your car your first big purchase? Do you remember?  Yeah, probably that and  maybe a holiday.  I'm like,  other than holidays and cars, I think probably the first big purchase was the first house when I got married. Right.

30:19
Okay. I paid the princely sum of $250,000 for in a geographical part of Sydney. Right. Okay. Yeah. Not Sydney. Well, you know, the city in general. Yeah. That's that. When was that? That was in 1997. Right. Okay. I was going to say once again, you're super rich because I paid $127,950, but that was in 1989. Oh my gosh.

30:48
Well, that's about kind of right. Yeah, it was sort of the boom of housing in Sydney at that particular time thing. Things started to go up sort of. But you mentioned a holiday. Your first holiday, where was that? What was that? So first holiday was with family and we went to, mum and dad took us to Disneyland when we were... my, not Woi Woi, not Etelong. Disneyland, thank you very much. Well, I've got relatives over there. So we had another reason to go. So 1978.

31:18
we went to Disneyland and it was a total disaster. My sister and I were not getting along.  And I can remember the whole, I remember we went to Disneyland and dad and I went one way and mum and my sister went another way. Cause my sister and I were just at each other the whole time. So we, I didn't see her all day. We were just separated. And I just remember it being quite traumatic and a lot of fighting and arguing and stuff like that. that's the first overseas trip I remember.

31:48
I mean, we weren't rich enough to have overseas trips. We had relatives, but like I said, they were at Long Jetty. Oh my gosh. Disneyland, excuse me. my gosh. I went to Queensland a lot, like at holidays, like every Aussie kid does, but I thought you meant the first overseas. Well, yeah, I probably did, but yeah. Did you have a first friend that you remember? I remember my first friend that I remember was a girl called Julie Brooks.

32:15
I was friends with when I went to Eastwood Public School for a little bit. Oh, Eastwood? Yeah. Well, I mean, I get, was it before I went to Epping West? Yeah, it was. went to, so I went to Eastwood briefly for six months and Julie Brooks was my friend. was the first friend I kind of really remember having. Then I remember, you know, a few other friends. Yeah. the good self in Epping West. Yeah. Wow. Hi Julie. What about you? Oh, Matthew.

32:41
His name is Matthew. lived down the road from us about four houses, which seemed like in another postcode when you're four years old.  And we used to ride scooters to each other's house up and down. And that's where we were. We used to get in trouble because we used to do some stuff.  Like what?  Oh, you know, just stuff. Just stuff that four year olds do that they think, well, hang on. Yeah, I'm two houses away from my house. You're two houses away from your house. We can get away with just about  anything. Anything. And no one's ever going to find out or see us.

33:10
Yeah, we used to get into a little bit of mischief, but yeah, I remember it, clearance day. Matthew, I don't know whatever became when we moved house and as you do, mean, everyone's your friend when you're four, right? That's right. You know, met them for 30 wherever you are. Yes Matthew, if you remember living in Buller Street at Parramatta. Yeah, there you go. I'm still around. Now, something that was big in our lives was music and I know you were talking to me earlier about music and all those sort of things.

33:40
What are your recollections of  that whole period? yep, the first record I bought, and it was a single my parents bought for me,  and we were living,  we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa up on the Gold Coast in 1974,  and I was in love with the song,  let me just play a bit of  it for you.

34:14
God, January!

34:23
I'm coming to you

34:34
How good is that?  And I drove my grandmother nuts. I put the single on and her little old turntable and I played it over and over and over. As soon as it finished, I started again. Soon as it finished, I started again.  And I put it on for about the fifth time and I remember grandma going off. She's going, don't play that song anymore. I can't stand it.  That was my first. Wow. And you probably wore the stylus out and anyone under the age of probably.

35:01
30 if you're what a stylus is, it. Just Google it.  What about you?  Oh, look,  I'm  almost embarrassed.  Don't be. Rather than me explain it, I'll play it for you now. Okay.

35:38
There you go. Told you. you. They're iconic songs. They're not sort of thing that 12 or 13 year old boy would probably normally listen to. But Glenn Campbell, was a predecessor to your John Denvers of this world. And he had such great songs like Galveston and Where's the Playground Suzie. my gosh. Wichita Lineman. I loved Glenn Campbell.

36:08
A 12 year old's musical taste was very mature or did that mean I was just a bit of a loser? were, no, you were ahead of your time. You're ahead of your time. I, cause I was a bit into before January by pilot, I was a bit into the sandpiper's Guantanamera. But yeah, so, that's not definitely not as cool as Glen Campbell. Yeah. I evolved after that. And 14, 15, I was very much into the Beatles as a

36:36
14 and 15, I love the Beatles, everything from their really early stuff to later stuff. But then that whole disco craze came in and I don't know whether, you know, I love electric light orchestra,  you know,  all those sort of bands. I don't know whether that was just related to the fact that I was going to the Blue Light Disco and there were girls there. so  I need to learn how to, know, but yeah, it was  all those sort of things. But concerts as well.  Did you ever go to

37:05
concerts when you were a teenager or? I remember it being, you know, being 16 and going to some of the radio station concerts like  2SM at the time had concerts at the Opera House with Dragon and  those bands at the time.  And  I loved those, but the first proper concert I went to was Kiss at Moor Park.

37:29
Big time. was, and mum didn't want me to go because she thought Gene Simmons was disgusting. Did she know you were going? Yeah, she knew I was going and she let me go. But she wasn't happy about it because that whole rock and roll influence of, know, they were bad boys. Gene Simmons and all the boys in Kiss and Paul Stanley, they were, they were bad. How old were you then? Must've been like 16, 17. What was it? Yeah. Yeah. 16. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Certainly beats the pants off, so to speak, Glen Campbell. If I went to a

37:57
But  I can't, I can't remember. I think my first concert was probably just a local band. Like I think I probably  went and saw  the radiators or the angels or something like that. It would have been at  one of the RSLs or something like that. So how good. Yeah. And so I'm supporting local talent and you're actually going out of your way to see bad boys that your mum doesn't approve of.  My mother was horrible. Yeah. Which leads me to ask a question.  First.

38:27
Boyfriend well, he's probably listening. So hello Colin  First boyfriend was Colin  and he loves our podcast. He listens. Hello. Hello Colin wasn't my first kiss because I told you about that earlier But he was my first boyfriend and my first a few other things which we won't discuss  And yes, so hello Colin. Well, thank you for sporting the show Colin. It's nice to have you on board  So, you know if  if you've got friends

38:53
Point them this way, give us a thumbs up on Google as well because we need all the support we can get.  And I think I sent you a picture of Colin and I and Colin's got the Miller shirt on, God love him, he's got a bit of a mullet happening.  Oh, he's just a statement. very cool. He's a fashion statement, isn't he? What about your first girlfriend?  Am I right in saying it was a girl friend? Well, good point, good point, and fair. Yeah. And fair. I don't know how far we need to go back. I remember I had a little girlfriend when I was five. Does that count?

39:23
Does it count? No, that doesn't count. That doesn't really count. No. Hello, Shana, if you're there. Yeah. And then I had a bit of a crash with the girl that was living next door to the people that we were living at. The grandparents had a granddaughter and I didn't know that I actually quite liked her. Yeah. But then when you're 13 and 14, there's a lot happening, isn't there? And all of a sudden anything that's upright.

39:51
Yeah, so to anything it's breathing. Pretty  much. there was always this thing where she'd come and stay on the weekend at her grandparents place and she'd be throwing a footy or something up in the air so as you knew that she was there.  Oh, that's classic. And if she wasn't doing that, I'd be throwing a footy up just so she knew I was. don't think I ever came of it,  well, maybe, maybe. But yeah, I think,  I think, you know.

40:19
It's that time, isn't it, where you think, well, gosh,  the things you look back on and you think, but it's nice too that you've reconnected with some of these people who, and we're all sort of  more mature. Is that the way to now? Yeah, and you can laugh about a lot of that history.  I caught up with Colin  a few weeks ago.  doesn't live in Sydney anymore and he came down to visit some family and we caught up for a

40:42
for a coffee and had a great time. had a great laugh. it's, you you share such history with these people and it's wonderful to still have them in your life in some way. Yeah. And it's all very platonic these days. And you think, yeah, you can laugh at some of the stories and look back and think to yourself, you know, how much fun are they? Oh, you know, whether it was your first alcoholic drink or whatever. Are there any other firsts that stick out in your mind though from your growing up or? Oh my gosh. think we've covered

41:11
How about like, do you remember going to the movies for the first time or anything, anything like the drive in or anything like I remember the first movie, I think, well, the first movie that scared me was Jaws.  And that's the first movie I remember seeing. Yeah, because I was 12, came out in 76  and  it frightened the daylights out of me. And that was, I think that was the first, I mean, maybe I saw Disney movies before that, but I don't remember. Yeah. They didn't obviously have a huge impact. What about you?

41:40
Yeah, I don't remember seeing a  scary movie  as a kid.  I remember the first movie I got taken to and like you,  they're fairly all G rated sort of things. I remember seeing Born Free.  Oh,  stop. I love that was one of, I saw that but it was at home on the telly I think. Yeah, my great aunt and  I went with her and we went to see Born Free and then there was things like.

42:06
bed knobs and broomsticks and chitty chitty bang bang.  All the Disney sort of classics.  remember dad not telling mom when we went to the Valhalla, I think that's at Newtown? Yeah.  And he took  me to see King Kong, like the original King Kong. Wow. I don't know why,  but he did.  And I remember it was packed. The Valhalla was packed. were people sitting on the stairs.

42:30
in the the aisles to watch this this movie but I think the very first movie that I saw that was scary was uh Friday the 13th okay yeah that would have scared a lot of people yeah that you know and I certainly didn't see the exorcist when it came out or anything like that well I was able to convince my dad to take me to see Saturday Night Fever in 1978 and it was R-rated

42:54
Yeah, it was. And I remember we got them dads like, I didn't know this was R-rated. So, oh dad, please, please, please, you know, please take me to see it. Cause all my friends want to see it. Cause we're all, into the music and stuff. And he's like, oh, okay. So he took me to see it. That's that's a very dark movie. When you look at it, it's a, that has a of very dark themes. Yeah. And you're right. It was R-rated and then there was the M-rated version for television. But I mean, things have changed.  Like we have,  um, times it's, it's, it's just the way the world isn't it.

43:23
Yeah. Well it's been a great chat. Alright well first for me I'm probably gonna go and make dinner. That'll be the first thing.  There you go. I'll see you next time. You will. Bye. Bye bye.

43:36
The views and opinions expressed on the Big Six O are personal  and reflect those of the hosts and guests.  They do not represent the views or positions of any affiliated organisations  or companies.  This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice. Please consult with a qualified professional for guidance on any personal matters.

44:00
Oh,  and before we go,  let's give credit where credit is due.  Kaylee Harris and I came up with all the genius content for this week's episode.  Our producer,  Nick Abood,  well, he keeps the lights on and makes sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast.  So thanks for keeping us on track, Nick.  Nick?  Nick?