Marilyn is reading a book called The Chocolate Factory: a novel based around the establishment of the Cadbury plant in Hobart in the 19th century. We knew several families who worked there and, especially, one whose son played in Jamie's basketball team. There were always chocolates at team barbecues.
On the ship which brought my family to Australia we met a couple who had worked at Cadbury's in Bournville in England. Ray and Edna Sparks were not heading for Tasmania but settled in Sydney where they opened a cake shop at Five Dock. They seemed to take a shine to me and I spent a lot of time there, travelling by bus each morning to school at Drummoyne. I would only have been eight or nine. Later they moved to Wombarra and then Thirroul where we kept up the friendship.
Ray drove a delivery truck for Cadbury's and I really enjoyed being his off-sider, going with him when he made his deliveries. Often, shopkeepers would return bars of chocolate which their customers had rejected, saying they were mouldy. In almost every case they were bars of Treasure Island or Rum and Raisin with little blemishes which Ray said were caused by air bubbles formed in the manufacturing process by the fermentation of the raisins. They were perfectly good to eat, of course, and I acquired a taste for them. Which 10-year old boy would turn his nose up at free chocolate?
We had Christmas with them one year while they lived in Wombarra and, when we stayed with them at Thirroul on another occasion, Ray helped my brother and I build a canoe out of a sheet of roofing iron.
Great memories!
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