TESTIMONIALS

Below are a few of the lovely messages I have received from people all over Australia (and the world!) that have purchased my book. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send me a message, it means so much to hear such a positive response to the project, and the memories you all have are so important to this whole project, I love reading each and every one one of them. So please don't hesitate to send me a message with your memories of the milk bar. Please note that I have asked permission to publish each testimonial, if you send me an email I will ask your permission to publish it here first.

"I am delighted to say I have received The Milk Bars Book. I was entranced from the magnificent cover: not seen or felt one in such quality before. The Family photographs I was able to relate to myself and how my Mum (and my big brother) took me to the only milk bar in the Main Street of the country town we lived in. The milk shakes were unbelievably good. Real fresh milk and Golden North Ice Cream frothy right to the top. I even found the page on AMSCOL Ice Cream SA. “It’s a food and not a fad“ being the catch phrase. Even the inner pages of the cover - filled with Sherbet Cones, musk sticks, bananas, fruit tingles, freckles and lifesavers etc. etc. 3d bags of mixed lollies what a treat! What an incredible book Eamon Congratulations." V. Baker, South Australia.

“Congratulations on the launch of the book! It is PHENOMENAL- I've spent about 2 hours poring over the articles and photos. It's perfect in every way. I also felt a genuine sense of pride for all the Greek Australian families who are such a huge part of the milk bar mythology. My memory was jogged and I remember going to a relatives house in Moonee Ponds which was out the back of a milk bar business they had in the front. I remember thinking it was so cool they had 24/7 access to eskimo pies - my favourite!” Frida Las Vegas, Sydney.

"A short note to let you know that my book arrived last night! It’s surpassed all expectations, I love it. What a wonderful memory lane moment." A. Luke, New York.

"Wowwwww, it is the best book I have ever seen. Thank you so much." E. Rosa, New South Wales.

"Just received the fabulous book and it looks amazing. You have documented a very unique part of Australian history, which really formed a significant urban and rural visual landscape, and shaped many of my earliest memories of my childhood in the 1970’s. Thank you for such a valuable work." J. Jacobi, Victoria.

"One of the best books I've ever had the pleasure of holding has arrived at my home this afternoon. I mean it. It really is one of the finest books I've ever had in my hand. Why? Well, for a start, most others fail to deliver what this one does. I mean, Shakespeare never knew the delights of a lime spider, so he couldn't and didn't write about them, which just left him with human tragedy. Hemingway never had chocolate bullets slowly melt in his mouth so he only ever wrote about cruel things like bull fighting and big game hunting. And Charles Dickens grew up in neighbourhoods without the communal spirit and happiness of milk bars and the joys they gave to children, so he could only write about human suffering and child depravation. Do I need to go on? Nope. It's a quirky work, not because of the way you've presented the subject, but quirky because the subject is so idiosyncratic of a place that we all know, all love, but sadly that no longer exists.

You've done us all a favour by creating this wonderful, compact, brightly coloured time machine for all of us, who lived there, to travel back to it - to see it and smell it all over again. Thanks for your kind recounting of so many lovely memories. Memories of times when small things mattered, and people took the time to make them matter. Squeaky fly screen doors, rattling aluminium milk shake containers being shook up, biscuits sold loose in brown paper bags, linoleum flooring, bullets eight for a penny. And so it was. So much simpler, so much kinder in so many ways. I'm looking forward to going through your book very slowly and savouring every little moment in it. I'm going to laugh and I'm going to cry a bit, but mostly, I'm going to smile, knowing that what I remember isn't something I made up but that it really did exist." A. Dobrochodow, Malaysia