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Read more about the article When Winn’s was the place to shop, eat, and dance

When Winn’s was the place to shop, eat, and dance

As a small boy in Newcastle, NSW, in the 1960s, I remember Winn's store mostly for its cafeteria where, if I was lucky on a day out with my Mum, I might be treated to my favourite salmon sandwich and chocolate milkshake. Winn's was a revered Newcastle retail institution with a history that stretched back to October 1878, when local brothers Isaac and William Winn and William Winn's widowed sister-in-law Marian Aird decided to set up shop as drapers on Hunter Street. The brothers had been raised in Newcastle, mostly by their mother, Harriett, since their…

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Read more about the article 300 diamond rings a year: Caldwells jewellers

300 diamond rings a year: Caldwells jewellers

WHEN Geoff Caldwell left Newcastle Boys High School in the 1930s, he told his father he wanted to be an engineer. His father laughed at the idea. "Dad told me I should just join the family business and help him run the jewellery store," Geoff laughed. He took his father's advice. The fledgling Caldwells jewellery business was launched at the end of the Great Depression years, survived World War II and went on to enjoy an extraordinary period of prosperity during the era when a prime location on thriving Hunter Street, Newcastle, was money in the bank. "We used to sell 300 diamond rings a year," Geoff…

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Read more about the article Confessions of an ice dealer
Handling blocks of ice at Dark's Ice Works, 1936.

Confessions of an ice dealer

RAY Kime used to be one of the biggest ice dealers in the Wallsend area. He’d buy from his supplier in Newcastle and break down the pure ice into smaller quantities for his many customers who simply couldn’t get by without it. That was before electric refrigerators, of course, when most people used iceboxes to keep their foodstuffs cold. “When fridges came in, well that was the beginning of the end for the ice home delivery business,” Ray told me. He still has his ice pick, his ice tongs and various bits and pieces of paperwork…

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