NOTHING goes down better at a Sutherland Historical Society meeting than a good memoir, and Jim Heather's account of growing up in Cronulla,Cronulla and Beyond 1939-1956, is about as good-a-set of remembrances as they get.
There was a big turnout for the launch on February 16, which lured the former MP for Cook, Bruce Baird, back to the shire for the event, and resulted in a lot of reminiscing from the attendees about the good old days in Cronulla.
"This book is amazing in terms of its description of life in Cronulla at the time," Mr Baird said.
"I left Cronulla in 1956, as Jim did, and only came back as the MP for Cook [in 1998]. All the talk then was 'why do we have this north shore silvertail as our MP' when I actually grew up in Cronulla."
Mr Baird's father owned a shoe store and a gift shop and his only criticism of Jim's book was that neither rated a mention.
However, plenty of people in the audience did remember as they shared their recollections of shopping at Baird's, the grief that gripped Cronulla when Jim Peryman died in the surf during a rescue, the Samovar coffee lounge — just about the most exotic thing to hit Cronulla before 1975 — and the beautiful Anne Geissler, who went to Britain in the 1960s, was "discovered" on a beach in Spain and cast as a Bond girl in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Like a good Cronulla girl, Anne reinvented herself as actress Anouska Hempel, the daughter of a Russian princess. Now Lady Weinberg, and still living in Britain, she is a celebrated designer of interiors and furniture.
Jim and Bruce Baird had three schools in common — Winston College, Cronulla Public School and Sutherland Intermediate High School, where both had Bob Walshe as their teacher, describing him as one of their most inspirational teachers.
At the launch, Mr Walshe praised the book for its 60 short, sharp and chatty chapters.
"As I read it, I felt pangs of guilt that I had forgotten so much," he said in his introduction.
"Today we would judge the life that Jim had then as tough. His father lost a leg at Gallipoli, but the family was not deterred by adversity.
"I think it was perceptive of Jim to end his memoir in 1956 because it was a time of great social change. After television arrived [in 1956] I, as a teacher, felt a change in kids. Innocence gave way to a certain sophistication."
