Monterey Cafe, Gilgandra. Now a Giftware shop. 2004.

In another entry about the Monterey Cafe in Gilgandra, I revealed that "...I was born in Gilgandra, in 1952, and left after completing my schooling in 1969.

From about the end of WWII, until mid-1975 - Gilgandra, population, 2,900 - was a very Kytherian town.

5 families - the Pentes, Sklavos, Kelly (Koumokellie), Psaltis (Protopsaltis), and Poulos (Tzortzopoulos) - lived in close proximity to each other - culturally, residentially, and commercially.

In the main, Kytherians embraced Kytherians - Gilgandra embraced Kytherians - and Kytherians embraced Gilgandra".

During the middle of the year 2004, I took my father, now 88 years old, on a nostalgia tour, back to Gilgandra, and through other towns in the Central and North West of New South Wales.

Not a single person of Kytherian origin now lives in Gilgandra. And only one family of Greek origin lives there.

I found of course, all the buildings, where the Kytherians had conducted their businesses; but all of these - with the exception of the Gilgandra Fruit Shop (my father's old shop), had substantially changed their usage.

The Monterey Cafe was run by George and Alexandra (Proto)Psaltis. Alexandra was a Feros. Both were from Mitata. The Cafe was originally a sit-down eatery - but was later converted to a Milk Bar.

I must admit to some feelings of remorse, as I walked around the gift store. I remembered the seating booths and the long rows of mirrors on the walls. These would all have been demolished and removed during the refurbishment.

One of my motivations in submitting these entries about the Gilgandra shops today is to try and encourage original Gilgandra family members to submit photographs of the shops in their heyday - from yesteryear.