Former rugby great George Peponis now remembers his mum’s ‘ingenious’ child care solutions with a smile on his face.
She worked at a factory for hours, and with virtually no after school or pre-school amenities available to them, George and his siblings were locked in a bedroom for most of the day.
“Mum used to lock us in the bedroom and then go to work and come back at morning tea time, feed us, lock us in the one bedroom, go back at lunch time to work in the factory, then come back at lunch time, let us out, feed us, lock us in the bedroom, come back again.
“We used to hate it!”
With his father mostly interstate working for a truck driving company, his mother was left to look after the children all by herself while picking up extra shifts to supplement her husband’s income.
Such measures might seem drastic, but they helped the family to function in a cost-effective way.
“It was the only way to keep a job down and make sure we were safe,” George says.
Now a doctor, Peponis has enjoyed a notable career in the sports world. A former Canterbury Bulldogs rugby player, Peponis is still the only person from another country to captain the national rugby team.
From a young age, football was his life.
“My father actually bought me my first football boots and basically said, ‘this is to keep you off the streets’,” he says.
His love for rugby was so strong that at a young age, it pushed him to pick up a paper round to buy himself a football.
Without his mother being able to drive, he used any means necessary to get to practice.
Only when he was 15 did his mother first see him play. It took his dad another two years. Soon the family would be a constant source of cheering and support.
“When I was graded in 1972, I don’t think my mum missed another game of football from that day on,” he says.
“She was one of my avid fans and would follow me everywhere.”
Born in Tripoli, Peponis’ father left his town to seek a better life. He was the first to leave and created a trend.
“My father was probably the first to come out from our country town, and for the first five-to-ten years, he sponsored his brother, my mother’s sister, my grandmother – they all came out.
“All the people he would sponsor would stay at our house for about three months until they got their own jobs, and so they went.
“We were sort of like a halfway house. It had its benefits; it was an extended family.”
And invariably they inherited a more appropriate babysitter than a lock on a door.
For George, his rugby career still sticks with him, all thanks to his parents’ support.
“I’m very proud for having achieved what I have achieved,” he says.
“Not everyone gets to captain their country in whatever sport it is they excel in.”