(Proto)Psaltis Car Park. 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 ((Yiannakellis), 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.

Across the road from the Monterey was the Psaltis Car Park. It was not "tarred" during the 60's and 70's, nor did the small building on the left exist then. One of only son Peter's tasks was to collect a parking fee from car owners during certain busy periods such as Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.

Despite being quite young, Peter never relented in his mission to extract funds from persons who parked there. Many excuses were made, and many ruses tried to avoid payment - but Peter "stuck to his guns" - and always got his parking fees. I remember thinking what a great deal of gumption and resolve Peter had.

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