Dejavu

[happy daze john in oz]

Toady I had to submit my Land Rover for a service. The service place is not far from Port Melbourne, so after a brisk walk we went into the city for a bit of shopping. Having completed that we returned to Docklands area for lunch before the walk back to the service point.
We regularly walk around the Docklands area, a spot like so many around the world, where the once well used shipping quayside has been converted into a modern day suburb.
We ventured into the "Berth' a well known and used restaurant sitting on the waters edge. A restaurant we have been to on a number of occasions and always enjoy. Good food, good service and at a reasonable price.
As we sat waiting for our meal I looked out at the surrounding waterway and buildings now in place. Gone the cranes that once worked along the quay, gone the sheds the warfies used, gone all the local corner pubs, gone all the local single fronted cottages which housed so many of the quayside workers.
In their place high rise accommodation, fancy restaurants, a massive sporting complex, and a harbor now filled with shipping. But this is not the shipping of our day, rather the play things of the affluent, many who are full of effluent. So much has changed over the last 47 years since I first berthed there with NZSC on the Paparoa.
I sat there lost in my own thoughts, oblivious to my surroundings, my mind wandering to earlier times. Thoughts of my adventures at that time, the sounds and smells of the dock side. Cranes swinging around with their cargo,warfies shouting orders, trains arriving with more cargo, trucks pulling away loaded with the goods dragged from the holds of the ships.
I was an age away when in the distance I heard the sound of what I thougt was a ships whistle and suddenly my thoughts were brought to a swift halt and I remembered where I was. But as I sat there it dawned on me that this was the exact spot where we had berthed all those years ago, berth 17.
Then it came to me, never in all my wildest dreams way back then in 1964 did I ever think that one day I would be siting in exactly the same place having lunch. A place so changed as to be almost unrecognizable to what I remember, but a place so full of great memories.
Have any of you had a similar experience at any time?

[Ivan Cloherty]

Nice post, nice memory to have, I can picture where you are it reflects the situation in so many ports

[Captain Kong]

Very good memories John.
I could see the scene, First time there was 1954 and I was there last three years ago and will be there again in February at Port Melbourne, on Queen Elizabeth.
.
What happened to the old Sailing ship that was by there? was it Polly Woodside? have they finished her yet?
Cheers
Brian.

[Duke Drennan]

I had the same experience John, 2 months ago , sitting outside the Cabana Las Lilas restaurant at number 4 dock in B.A. As Brian already mentioned, the original cranes, nicely restored, are still there along the dockside. Ah, the nostalgia.

[Lou Barron]

a few years ago my wife and i had acouple of weeks in melbourne we was on our way back home after visisting our two daughters who live in alice springs and we really enjoyed it one day we took a cruise on one of the ferrys and i was amazed at the change of the port since i was there in1947 mind you all these ports have changed now with the lack of ships what my wife liked about melbourne was the big market place one day she went shopping so i went to the casino had a few beers and lost about 20 dollars

[happy daze john in oz]

Very good memories John.
I could see the scene, First time there was 1954 and I was there last three years ago and will be there again in February at Port Melbourne, on Queen Elizabeth.
.
What happened to the old Sailing ship that was by there? was it Polly Woodside? have they finished her yet?
Cheers
Brian.

Yes Brian she is still there. Just completed a restoration on her and she is looking good.

[Doc Vernon]

Hi John
That was a really nice little story,and yes i am sure that all those wondefull memories would have come back to you!
Nostalgia is a very funny thing at times,and can indeed take ones mind to such heights ,and you get completely lost!
I know as that has happened to me ,and i guess many others over the past Years!
Some good memories and some not so good!
Like me too a few Years ago now ,i was back in Cape Town and walking along the new V&A Waterfront,like you i too went to a Cafe there to have a Softdrink and a wee rest,and believe me,just sitting there so many memories flooded my brain,not only of the first time i shipped out of that same place,but many others about my working life,like the time i was a Stevedore in the Docks there,and yes all those Cranes working 24 hrs a day at that time,and the Harbour filled with Ships of all sorts loading and unloading their Cargoes, it was at that time of my life that i realised that i wanted to go to Sea,and the rest well you know!
Gosh it was weird,but also wonderfull!
How the mind works at times!
Thanks for your lovely post!
Cheers