I have a confession to make. I was a horrible child; a mother's worst nightmare. But let me get…read moreback to that...
Having grown up in West Pymble I have been to the Philip Mall shopping centre in Kendall Street more times than I care to count. The Parkway Video was where we hired VHS copies of Beastmaster, Revenge of the Nerds and Conan the Barbarian. The fruitshop doubled as our lolly shop where White Knights, Toffee Apple's, Redskins, and Frys branded chocolate items were consumed. The fish and chip shop? I had so many scallops and soggy fries here it's a wonder I am not 1000 pounds. The current IGA was a Clancy's back then, the mascot of which was a Koala of Caramello's ilk. The pharmacy rounded out this side of the shopping centre, an absolute stalwart, it's probably the only thing that's never changed hands or brands (it's probably done both 10 times over).
The other side had a gorgeous gourmet deli with all manner of smallgoods and providorial pursuits, which has since been replaced by a cafe. Next door was the new-comer, the Red Pepper chinese restaurant, which introduced me to sizzling Mongolian Lamb and became the regular chinese haunt for birthdays and special dinners - It's still here! A little further up was the aptly name Maxwell Swart, the dentist, clever clever... Witchery housed the finest in ladies wear, then the West Pymble Cellars for all your boozy needs, and finally the barber I never went to, became the pizza place I never went to became the.... well I dunno but I never went to it.
Vinny's, and Samaritan bins loiter outside. There was also a Smith Foundation centre at the playground end of the shopping centre.
Speaking of playground we should get back to my childhood mischief... Ok. As a child, as I stated, I frequented this shopping centre, so it was with a familiar ease that my mother allowed me to roam free in the adjacent playground.
There was a metal slippery dip, metal monkey bars, a revolving egg (you know the ones you sit inside and spin the wheel, and then get out dizzy and vommy?), and the pinnacle of any playground the straight steel swings. These were the ones that Evil Knievels could send right over the top, in a 360 arc, much like the famed pirate ship at Australia's Wonderland, and unlike the crappy pirate ship at Luna Park.
It was the latter of these, the steel swingset, that caught my attention, and being as dumb as a box of hammers I was blissfully unaware of the pendulum effects of the humble swing set. To me, it was a boomerang that never came back, and it was with this in mind that I gave the swing an almighty push away from me. I stood there, with my child brain and watched unperturbed as the swing came back at me to deliver an equally almighty blow.
To this day all I remember is an explosion of stars as I hit the deck, mouth frothing with blood.
You can imagine, I guess, the frenzy with which my mother returned from the supermarket, her young son bathed in a bloody swathe, screaming in shrill tones as concerned onlookers crowded around.
I'm pretty sure I was "in trouble" as in "grounded" from then until I left high school hahaha. But yeah, such is my fondest memory of the West Pymble Shops. Ask me about my tongue scar sometime. The hole used to go all the way through, but has healed to a more palatable wound now.
