Lesley June Hickey
A beautiful silver cloud Rolls Royce came and picked her up

I’ve lived in Minto for 27 years. I had to get out of where I was living in Leichhardt because the rent went up, and I had two children to bring up, so I put my name down on the Department of Housing list. I was happy with the house but I wasn’t happy with the place because living in Leichhardt for nine years, I lived amongst elderly people who were really lovely. Then I came out here and it was a whole different culture. It was coming into a whole other world. I suppose after 27 years of living here, you’d get used to it but you never get used to some of the people that live around you.

Minto is handy to the railway and shopping centre, and you do get to know people around you even if you say hello at least. I don’t have any problem with my neighbours. At the moment it’s pretty good but there’ve been times that have been very bad as you can imagine with the different types of people that move in and out.

I remember a chap that lived in Piper Way, he used to keep pet snakes, and one morning this big carpet snake came through the yard and got up on the house at the back and started to eat birds. Carpet snakes are not poisonous but bad if you’re a bird.

The happiest memory in Minto was when my daughter left here to get married. It was the highlight for the whole street — used to ambulances or police cars — having a beautiful silver cloud Rolls Royce come and pick her up. My ex-husband, her father, got to ride in the Rolls Royce but I didn’t. He gave her away.