Betty McGlinchy

Interviewed by Eve Klein on 13 August 2000
Subject: Shops & Shopping, Second World War

Eve Klein. Where were you shopping then?

Betty McGlinchy. In Mosman Junction.

Eve Klein. At Mosman Junction, which is Spit Junction…?

Betty McGlinchy. ….no, no not Spit Junction.

Eve Klein. Down the other end near Raglan Street?

Betty McGlinchy. Redan Street runs parallel to Military Road at Mosman. A big hill.

Eve Klein. What sort of shops did you have there?

Betty McGlinchy. I remember Moran & Cato’s were the grocer shop, and their specialty was three penny paper bags of broken biscuits. We had cake shops that had ordinary cakes. Jam and cream sponge was a shilling, and a cup cake was a penny.

Eve Klein. Could you get almost everything in the one center?

Betty McGlinchy. Everything was delivered. No, there were no supermarkets.

Eve Klein. In that one area? You didn’t have to go to North Sydney for anything? And when you say they were delivered, how did your mother do this?

Betty McGlinchy. Once a week on Saturday mornings, the Virgonas the fruit shop – a well known family in Mosman – to do with the Orpheum originally, they delivered the fruit and vegetables. My mother once complained they were charging her for apples and oranges that was more than she’d noticed they were at Spit Junction. He said: ‘But Mrs. Souter you have to realize this is Mosman – that’s Spit Junction’. Snobbery was rife.