Julie Kerner

Interviewed by Eve Klein on 7 February 2001
Subject: Shops & Shopping, Millinery

Julie Kerner. My business – well that’s quite interesting. I stopped of course, this selling hats in the other shop. It was in Middle Head Road and I said to the lady that sort of let me have half of her shop, I said to her, ‘Look, there is so much, we have such a big clientele now, and I’m working here for just little bits of money, how about if we start another shop at Spit Junction together, and we’re partners?’ And she said, ‘No, it isn’t interesting for me, I would like to stay here’. I said, ‘Well then I’m very, very sorry, I appreciate what you did for me, but I have to start on my own, I need more money’. So I rented a shop at Spit Junction.

Eve Klein. When would that have been?

Julie Kerner. That was – it is hard to remember. I know I sold my shop at the end of the war. It was early during the war because I had my shop for about four or five years.

Eve Klein. And what address was it in Spit Junction? The shop you took over in Spit Junction was the Freemason’s building was it?

Julie Kerner. Yes, that’s right.

Eve Klein. And the Freemasons were upstairs?

Julie Kerner. No, they were downstairs. The entrance was rather big and there was a milk bar – no coffee shops in those days, but at the milk bars you could buy your lunch there. The milk bar was on one side of the entrance and my hat shop was on the other side.

Eve Klein. How long did you have that hat shop?

Julie Kerner. I had it right through the war. You couldn’t buy any imported stuff, and I sold at that time, other things as well. I had somebody making dresses for me and I sold a few dresses, but that was a sideline. I sold belts, and gloves and accessories as well.