Panayioti and Mina Samios at Sawtell Milk Bar, Paddington, NSW

This photograph was taken in 1953, with Panayioti and his son Mina behind the counter. Panayioti and his wife Penelope and children, Toula and Mina, came to Sydney in 1947 and bought the Sawtell Milk Bar in Paddington, in early 1948. Panayioti immigrated from Aloizianika, Kythera and arrived in Freemantle WA, with his father, Mina, in 1923. He went back to Kythera in 1933 and married Penelope Samios. They had two children, Toula and Mina. Panayioti returned to Freemantle in 1937, while the rest of his family stayed in Aloizianika. Following the war, Penelope and her two children sailed to Australia and met up with Panayioti in Freemantle, in 1947. In 1948, all of the family moved to Sydney and settled at the Sawtell Milk Bar in Paddington. In late 1948, another child, George (my father), was added to the family. Panayioti Samios and his family worked in the milk bar until 1965, when they moved to Queen Street, Woollahra. The shop still remains as the Hot Gossip Cafe.