Ailsa Skippen
Ailsa Skippen has a long association with Kelvin Grove. She has lived in the area all her life and is a member of the Kelvin Grove State College history group.
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Transcript
The Forbidden Short-Cut
I was born in 1924 and lived at 57 Eureka Street at Kelvin Grove. I was Ailsa McConnell, the second eldest child of Alexander and Laura McConnell. My father went into his butcher shop that same year and he was there until he was 68 years of age. I had a very happy childhood. We had horses which were stabled in Gibson’s stables, behind Gibson’s grocery shop and I attended Kelvin Grove Primary School. I remember we used to go for swimming classes to the Spring Hill Baths. We’d go by tram from Prospect Terrace to the Normanby and walk from the Normanby down Boundary Street to Spring Hill Baths, which was rather a long way. We’d be very sweaty when we got there and then when we returned to school we were almost ready for another swim. Then I graduated to North Brisbane Intermediate School for my sixth and seventh grades, because we only went to fifth grade at Kelvin Grove. It was my task as the eldest daughter of the family to take the morning tea to my father and his workers up in the butcher shop. That was 8.30 in the morning. I’d have a billy of hot tea and a plate of scones wrapped up in a tea towel with a knot on the top so I could carry it, my big bag on my back, and then I would drop them off at the shop and then rush madly behind the police station at Kelvin Grove, up the embankment and past the boys school, and I was always told, never go through Victoria Park where the humpies were. No mum, I won’t go that way. But it was the only way I could go to be at school and on parade by 8.45. So I always took the short-cut and held my breath and prayed the Lord would look after me and I wouldn’t be attacked. I’d arrive at school at 8.45 while they were on parade, rush into my place, hoping that my uncle, who was a teacher at NBI wouldn’t notice my late arrival.