Jenny O’Rourke
Every night we’d be out there playing cricket with the kids. It was tops.

I was living in Holsworthy for 18 years, and back then they used to set cars on fire. In Minto, all the hoons used to go up and down the streets and that wasn’t very pleasant.

The house did not look like this then. I pulled Mary Jane plants out at the back, and there was no fencing out the front. Back then, it was good because all the kids played out here. Then they put little fences up and spoiled everything. Everyone stopped talking to each other.

Every night we’d be out there playing cricket with the kids. It was tops. Some used to dress up as Santa at Christmas time. Nobody talks to anyone any more. If you want to talk to a neighbour, you have to see them down the mall which is a bit sad.

People were a lot friendlier back then. Whether it’s because of all the robberies and break-ins, but people are warier. I don’t know either of my immediate neighbours. I used to know everybody in the street. A number of people move out and new ones come in. When they expanded the mall, it just went downhill. I knew every shop keeper when I came here after a couple of months. Now I don’t know anybody. None of the original shops are here any more. We used to have a pet shop; long gone. Used to be a fish and chip shop; long gone. Just so many; a bookshop, a record shop, and they are all gone. The rents went up so high that they could not afford it.

I really enjoyed living here. Now I like it, but it’s not the same. And yet with all the community things they’ve got going now, I think I know less people now than I did then. I go up to the gardens and it’s different. I am involved in the community garden and I used to do the street clean-ups and was involved with the kids’ park. Most things going on, I had a finger in somewhere. When I moved here, I thought I would be here till they take me out in a box. I wanted the community to be a place where I really wanted to live.