I’m participating in the 52 weeks of personal genealogy and history challenge.

I’ve missed a few weeks in this series due to my overseas genealogy cruise and catching some dreaded virus on my return to Melbourne from the tropical north.

This week’s topic is sport and I don’t have a lot to talk about because as a sickly asthmatic child in primary school no one really wanted me on either the softball (summer) or basketball (winter) teams. I more often than not found myself on the sidelines cutting up the oranges for the other players.

My only real recollection of playing softball was the time I was hit in the face with the ball, luckily my nose wasn’t broken!

My younger brother was the athletic one playing soccer during the winter and being quite good at it too. So most weekends I was dragged along to watch him play. To this day I can’t bring myself to go to a football match of any code although I did watch my son’s games. Sadly, he was a bit like me when growing up, much preferred a good book or his computer.

Once I started high school I seemed to grow out of the asthma and took up swimming and played more tennis but not in any competitive way. I was still very ‘bookish’ and preferred weekend visits to the library rather than a playing field.

During summer my parents had a long standing love affair with the Gold Coast and most weekends we were dragged down there and of course during the summer holidays we lived down there. Both my brother and I liked surfing although he became much more a surfing addict than I did. I lost my enthusiasm after nearly drowning off  Burleigh Heads one year.

On my recent trip back to Brisbane I came across some early photos of my brother and I in our sporting gear – obviously our parents were proud of our achievements  and we were snapped on Mum’s old Box Brownie by the look of the photos.

Steve soccer Shauna tennis Bardon 1960s

Steve Shauna surfing Gold Coast 1960s

I suspect the other photo is us on our very first surfboards, coolite by the look of it! My brother still goes regularly surfing down to Byron and other beaches in northern NSW.

Nowadays when I visit Byron, I do the shops and the restaurants, visit the lighthouse and think about the good old days.

The only sport I’ve done for the last few years (or is that decades) is chasing ancestors but we are planning to take up golf now that we are retired and of course, take the boat out more often and go fishing. Another pastime that my family used to do way back when but that’s another story!

I always find it amazing how many memories start to come back when I’m given a personal blog topic to think about. Probably why I enjoy being part of this challenge. If you haven’t tried it yet, I can thoroughly recommend it!