Fragments

Ron Banks

– of a 50s childhood –

The 1950s and early 60s was a great era to grow up in, especially if you were a boy. There were lots of fellow Baby Boomers to play with, clean air (apart from flies and mosquitoes), clear roads to ride your bike on, footballs to kick in the street and the excitement of living in a television-free environment.

Ron Banks was fortunate to grow up in Mosman Park when it was mostly a working-class suburb. His memoir unearths the secrets of boyhood happiness (and sometimes girlhood) capturing the times with wit and sharp observational skills. The author delves back into the past to make it alive and comprehensible, even if following generations thought it dull and conservative.

He began his working life as a school-teacher but soon understood his unsuitability for that profession and switched to the far easier craft of journalism.

Fragments is a factual account of sane parenting and growing up for those who were there, and an historical account for those who were not.

 

 

 

About the Author

Ron Banks’ accident of birth meant he was destined to live most of his life in Western Australia, where he became a journalist on The West Australian.

After several years as a general reporter Banks gravitated towards the arts, and wrote about the cultural life of Perth, the city of his birth for more than two decades. His first book Other Times captured the spirit of his time as a journalist in the pre-digital age, while he now writes travel features and explores the history of the western suburbs. His interests include history and nostalgia, architecture, literature and old media although he does have a smartphone. He enjoys talking to community groups about his interests.

Banks lives at Perry Lakes in Floreat, a few metres from where Mick Jagger performed with The Rolling Stones.