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Jonquil Graham

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Once I was a Teenager: Growing up in the 50s and 60s in Australia and beyond Kindle Edition

by Jonquil Graham (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 306 ratings

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Remember those long-ago days of fatty Sunday roasts, junket, climbing mulberry trees, hula hoops, mini-skirts, surfing and rock ‘n’ roll? The advice your mother gave you to ‘Wear clean knickers in case you’re in a car accident.’ Her threats of ‘Wait until your father gets home’ or her warning, ‘No nice man will marry you if you eat with your mouth open.’

When the Strathern family moved to the coastal Sydney suburb of Collaroy,the neighbours feared the family of five and their dog in underpants would lower the tone on Pittwater Road.

Whether they did or not is for you to decide as Jonquil Graham takes you on a return journey to childhood and teenage years that included sea voyages, modelling assignments, making a movie, Contiki trips, doing the hippie trail across Asia and hitch-hiking around Europe.

Join her in this fun flashback to memories that will make you sigh and laugh aloud as she recalls life in Australia in the 50s and 60s.

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About the Author

Author Jonquil Graham grew up in Sydney on Pittwater Road. After hitchhiking around the world, she married a Kiwi andtogether they adopted nine children. She helped establish ICANZ (Inter-country Adoption New Zealand) and wrote How Many Planes to Get Me? about her experience of fostering and adoption. Jonquil now has lots of grandchildren and a collection of Liberace memorabilia.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00HFG9ZKS
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 19, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 9785 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 274 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,186,324 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #553 in Australia & South Pacific Travel
- #616 in General Australia Travel Guides
- #1,433 in General Australia & South Pacific Travel

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4.1 306 ratings

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Check out my website www.jonquilgraham.com for "How Many Planes to get me? Nine children adopted into a New Zealand family" and "Once I was a Teenager. Growing up in the 50s and 60s in Australia and beyond."

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4.1 out of 5

306 global ratings

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Kindle Customer

I came for Liberace and found lots more!

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2023

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I bought this book because I'm a huge Liberace admirer, and it was recommended on several fan sites. But I enjoyed the whole book, not just the sections devoted to Liberace. Jonquil's descriptions of her upbringing are funny, engaging, and relatable in so many ways. But she's also had adventures I can't even imagine. I'm glad I found this treasure!

Helpful

Angelsdtp

Hats off to Jonquil--I would have loved to have an opportunity to meet her in person

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2014

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A surprisingly enjoyable "diary" by a woman apparently in similar age bracket, even though we were continents apart across the world. Somewhat exciting and courageous young woman, daring many potential dangers in her many travels around the world. That she & her husband have adopted 9 children is noble and inspiring, but why she herself never had any of her own is curious, and no
reason is offered to inquiring minds. Whatever, many of us old codgers need to take the time and make the effort to leave a testimony of our own lifetime experiences for the next generations, so that they, too, may have some understanding of what made us tick, and what we experienced growing up in difficult times and before the electronic age to such a firm hold on the very way we live today. Hats off to Jonquil--I would have loved to have an opportunity to meet her in person, just to hear her express herself in her own "dialect"... g'day!

One person found this helpful

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Mary H

An Interesting look at the life of an Australian Family

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2015

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don' t know where I picked this one up, or why I wanted to read it. A girl telling about her life growing up in Australia. A biography about no one "famous", nor anyone I had ever heard about. But I gave it a chance. It just never really grabbed me. I did enjoy the stories of the parents, how they made up funny words, the mother's propensity for drama, their homelife with all the zany experiences the children had. For me the story felt condensed, incomplete. I'd get confused with the shuffling around, I'd be in the midst of an adventure, which would abruptly end, and then another would start, and I'd flip back thinking I must have missed part of the first. Each little story had a ton of promise, but she never really "went there". Just when I started getting intrigued I'd be thrown into the middle of a new story. Towards the end, on her hippie excursion (which I never would have lasted through one hour much less all the months she did) I was just wanting to get to the last page. Another annoyance was the constant use of the Aussie slang, which while I realize she IS Australian, made the reading a bit difficult for me. After a while I just kind of gave up.

One person found this helpful

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c ter huurne

Down Memory Lane

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2014

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My family emigrated to Australia in the mid 60's and for quite a long time now I had been searching for a book that would bring back memories of my life in those early years.
I came across Once I was a Teenager by accident and decided to read it even though the time frame was not quite what I was looking for.
Once started, I could not put the book down; I kept thinking this was exactly as I remembered. So much so, that upon reaching the period of the mid 60's, when Jonquil went to work, I felt the similarities in our lives were uncanny. Little did I suspect, upon coming across her photograph, that we actually knew each other! What absolute joy!
This book is written for all of us who were teenagers in Australia in those years. Thank you Jonquil, you brought it all back and much more than I had expected! I have since read How Many Planes to get Me and can't wait for your third book.

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2018

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I found this book very entertaining. The characters were well developed and the story line kept moving. At times I felt like I was right there watching and experiencing it all with the family. They were a bit crazy and lovely people who knew how to have a good time. What really came through it all was, they were family and they stayed family through thick and thin.
I am hoping to find ms. Graham 's next book so I can accompany her once again on her marriage and adoption adventures.

Helpful

JOANNE CATHERINE

Down under kids the same as us up overs

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2017

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A very fun and exciting memoir of a young woman and her odd Australian family living through the 60s. Ms. Graham is incredibly well-traveled and it was at a time when the world was dangerous but not as bad as it is today. Her writing is clear and honest and loving towards her family. The kindle edition I bought has some photos but I wish they could have been bigger to see details better. Some of the Australian words aren't "translated" so I had to guess but it wasn't a hindrance. I'd recommend this book especially for those of us Baby Boomers who lived through the Beatles, Rolling Stones and hippies but also for you kids jealous of our glorious times.

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Judy Wright

Better for Australians!

Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2014

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I found the book way too long. The author spent a lot of time listing thing she remembered from various times in her childhood...you go a third of the way into the book before you even GET to her 13th year.

These things might be meaningful to her peers who were raised in Australia in a similar culture as she was. But they sounded like a laundry list of strange brand names to my American ears.

I got through it, but I didn't like it nearly as well as I expected to.

2 people found this helpful

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Marvera Murphy

A wacky, lovable family

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2016

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Growing up in Australia in the 1950's and 60's was not that different than growing up in the US back then. The author concentrates on her wacky family, with each member a fully developed character, rather than politics or cultural issues in Australia or New Zealand . She touches lightly on her modeling and movie making, but spends a good part of the book discussing her many travels, first with the family and later as an independent young woman. I look forward to reading her next book, detailing her life as a wife and adoptive mother.

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C N.

A delightful read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2019

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I loved this book as it reflected an innocent and carefree childhood, concerned with the teenage highs and lows and free from the pressure of today’s social media. I grew up at the same time, near to where Jonquil describes family life and the local community being the mostly respected boundaries. This book is a good social comment of its time through the eyes of a teenager, a delightful read.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

nteresting glimpse into a tteenager's life in Australia in the 60s

Reviewed in Italy on March 1, 2015

Verified Purchase

Good for a laugh and a reminisce. I found this book interesting because it showed how similar Australian and South African life was in those days.

Pamela Richards

Growing up in the 50s. Loved it.

Reviewed in Australia on May 22, 2015

Verified Purchase

This took me back to my childhood and teenage years in Australia. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane. I did not get to travel until late teens but all the other things that Jonquil wrote about were almost an exact copy. At times it was as if I even may have known you as our life was so similar but as I live on the west coast that cannot be. Thank you Jonquil for such a lovely trip back in time and interesting, wonderful read.

One person found this helpful

Phil Morgan

An interesting and yet unique story

Reviewed in Australia on November 16, 2016

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While this is an interesting story of growing up in Sydney in the 1950s, it is not a typical story. Jonquil Graham's father was an accountant within the Vestey pastoral empire, so his family was better off than most and had a free trip back to England on one of the company's vessels every few years. So she had the unique experience of growing up in the cultures of both countries, but with the Australian one dominating. Add to that her mother's New Zealand origins, which provided many holiday opportunities, Jonquil really had a most unique childhood and adolescence. The book is an engrossing read and is well written. So many of the attitudes of the time are recounted that a reader who grew up in Australia in the same period immediately relates to the people, the times and the restraints that society accepted without thinking, as well as to the changes that began then and brought us the current Australia. It is certainly an enjoyable read.

2 people found this helpful

Swizzlestick

Could have been 5-star

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 30, 2015

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There is so much to love about this book, and with better editing it could could have been bonzer.

Jonquil paints such a colourful, lively and loving portrait of her family life as she grows up in Australia, and as someone of the same generation, albeit in a different part of the world, so much of her life rings a bell.

Her mother, from a good family background and connections, only wants the best for her ‘blasted’ children, her father hides his affection behind the newspaper and swears in Spanish when the bills came in. For a family who regard themselves as poor, they spend a fair amount of time travelling first class on ocean liners and touring Europe!

Jonquil’s passion for Liberace, which endured for years, is touching and incredibly funny. She writes really well and brings to life her teenage years growing up in the 60s.

One problem is that all too often what start out as amusing anecdotes come to an abrupt and unfinished halt. Jasper and his skateboard are very repetitious, and there are lengthy lists of song titles of the era which felt like ‘padding’. The narrative is disjointed, and the chronology confusing. I never knew how old Jonquil was at any point.

Despite that, the first part of the book I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s laugh out loud in places, her family life is enviable, and it certainly made me feel nostalgic for that era. The true heroine is certainly her long-suffering, indomitable mother.

Where it went badly wrong for me is when Jonquil embarks on a 3 month hippy coach trip across Asia, which could have been interesting but is crammed onto the end of the book and limited to staccato sentences ticking off places as they pass through without giving the reader any feel for them. It felt as if she rushed through it and it was tacked on to make up the word count. I found this part very unrewarding and skipped quickly through it. This episode deserved to be a second book, or left out entirely, because I don’t feel it added anything to her story.

When it started out I thought it was heading for 5 stars, but frustratingly it doesn’t live up to that. Nevertheless the first part is a delightful read.

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Once I was a Teenager: Growing up in the 50s and 60s in Australia and beyond Kindle Edition

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Jonquil Graham

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