My name is George Edward Snow. I'm 102 years old. I was born at Milsons Point, Sydney, near the swimming pool. My mum, Enid, like most mothers - pretty loving people and she was a lovely person. And father, Alfred. Alfred was an engineer with the government railways at Redfern. Two sisters, Jessie and Marie. After 12 months after my birth, they decided, I don't know for why, to move to Wentworthville. Darcy Road, Wentworthville, and that's where we lived in Sydney myself for the rest of our lives. There was Depression on those early days of my life and you realize when you're older that they, no doubt, denied themselves things so we didn't go hungry because we never noticed it, that this situation was there, because we seemed to have enough to eat. But I understand that went on because there was only a certain allowance to people for food, for the money for food. I know my grandmother made a lovely apple pie. I can't describe it at the moment but it was a It was a beautiful apple pie for us. It was quite an event to visit them because they went out of their way to sort of give us nice food and entertain us and call my cousins over so we can sort of play together. My grandfather, he built us a radio because in those days it was like a big box, all these valves sticking up out of it. We were the only ones with a wireless in the street at that time. I think my mother, because being there during the day, would probably listen to some of these stories that they had going on and on forever, you know, sort of thing. It was quite an event to have a wireless anyway. It really started when I was nine. So we organized to be in a cricket competition. We used to play on Wentworthville Oval there, which is still the oval, the cricket oval. But anyway, they said, "you'll have some away games". What are you going do? And fortunately, two of our boys, their father had a big car and he was like a taxi man at Wenty Station. It was an American car he had, that was a bit bigger than normal. And of course he said, "I'll take you away". Now we had 11 boys, one girl, one chap's sister was the scorer and the driver, Mr Kelly. And cricket gear was on chrome bars on the back of the car. And away we went with 13 people in the car. Now, in those days, you put your hand to the right to turn right and your hand up right out the window to stop. It must have been interesting to see it go. Going around. I went to Wentworthville school. What did we do? We had to 6th class there and then I went to Parramatta Intermediate near the station there. That school. I did three years there and I thought I'm going to get a job. So I walked down the street there at Parramatta. Murray Brothers of course stood out and I walked in there anyway and saw the chap that engages staff and he gave me a job straight away and on the menswear. Was a salesman. Because when you're there at 15 you're the the boy that sweeps the floor, tidies up, got rid of the rubbish. Does all the jobs... Anyway, I was with them completely for 43 years and they had the deliberate intention to promote their own staff, not bring them from outside unless there was something special they had. There was a couple of ladies departments you needed someone that really had experience and knew what they were talking about so they settle these things for women, particularly. So... then they made me a manager, manager of a department to start off with. Actually it was floor coverings. And then they made me buyer. We go to Sydney, buy all this stuff, you know, whatever it is. So I get a call from our manager to say we'd like you to go and manage a store in Cootamundra. You know, and you say Cootamundra? Where's Cootamundra? That's where Don Bradman was born. one of the staff members who was a very progressive young man and as he got older, really good because they picked him out to manage the store. He said, "Now you gotta ask your wife, is she happy to go?" You know, they did it all good, you know, she's happy to go, because you'll be going holus bolus . And I was there for six years. It was six years and they said now we would like you to go and manage a shop or manage a department, for a start, in Canberra. It was owned by a family, Murray Brothers. Their grandfather came out 100 years ago and of course he had two boys, three boys. So one of those boys was the managing director in the first instance. He decided he didn't want to work anymore, so he decided to close the shop down. I was actually called up. 1941 I think it is. 1941 So I decided, like a lot of others, that we would join up. I decided to go into the artillery one And in 1945, our unit, a lot of others, it was a big show. A dawn landing at May 1st in Borneo. Borneo is made up of land and islands all around it. And this was an island called Tarakan. I was the sergeant in charge of a 25 pound gun and the crew and there were similar ones like that. There's about eight in the unit. Two lots of four and we're on special boats with landing gear. They have these things that drop down. They drop down. Get right up or they'd have to have some sort of plank. I them planks that the wheels could run on to get them off. If you've got enough people there, you can man-handle them. They pick up speed, turn the engine off, and they're supposed to then float in on their own momentum sort of thing - in as far as they can go. So at dawn we landed there. Lock, stock and barrel. Guns firing in all directions and and the firing might be every 10 seconds. Sometimes they do that, repeated firing and everyone's got to be there putting these shells into the gun to fire on time. We were firing at them 200 yards in front of us. The only thing there was a sniper, could have been two snipers, in the area. They were there at any time; they're trying to pick up any... with the gun, pick up someone, if they can sight them. We lived with the gun. Beside the guns. And I can't remember now whether I had a stretcher. Of course, we'd never change clothes.... because some of them were about 200 yards in front of us. So you had to be alert at all times. So I suppose we we would have had people awake all the time in shifts. Strangely enough I wasn't a bit scared. I suppose it is there though in you. If somebody was all of a sudden in front of you, immediately in front of you, with a gun trying to shoot you. But apart from this chap who was in a tree somewhere, we sort of disregarded him. I think when you've got something to do, you're so occupied and doing it and getting it done, right on time, you know. It went out of your mind. The Japanese were overcome there in due course and we just stayed there 'til the end of the war. Then we were taken back to Sydney with a British carrier, aircraft carrier, a huge boat and it was quite funny because they had ... stretchers with white sheets and pillows, which we'd never seen for a while, and took us back to Sydney and there was nothing better than be laying off the heads there at 5 o'clock in the morning. And of course, everyone knows we're coming. The wife and... I'd been married of course during the War, and to greet us home. Dear oh dear! That's a good one. Well, it probably would have made that night I took Kath home from that dance. Yeah, that would have been it, I'd say. Her name was Kathleen Kirk. She lived at Westmead too so it was a fair walk. You don't notice the time when you got someone like that, that you love. You know, she... there was something about her. Something about her. And I had seen her many times walking around. I don't think I'd had the opportunity to actually speak at those occasions because I would look at her and she was at lunch and I, I don't think I'd actually formally met her. They used to hold dances at the Masonic Hall in Wentworthville. Garfield Street. We used to go as a group there because some of the girls that we had to walk them home in those days. That's where I met her for the first time. I said to myself, "I'm going to marry you". That's how nice she looked. She was a good dresser. Always neat. Well they had to be fairly neat working in the shops, but she... she was just neat. There was just something about her. Actually, there was a funny thing, you know. I was 18, I don't think I'd ever taken a girl out, even though we'd taken some of these girls home. I suppose you look at girls and girls and there's different girls and you know. We're all friends and that. But when you come to marriage, it's a bit different, isn't it? I was married in 1942 and we were together for 66 years. It was wonderful. We had a wonderful life. Well, you love them and support them in every way possible, really. I'm just trying to think of things you do you know, 24 hours a day. And we were lucky in that way. And we did a lot of trips together, which I can tell you about later. But yes, I think well, feeling for each other in the maximum way you can't do better than that, can you? But she will always be remembered forever and ever and ever. She was that sort of a person. Yes...