A popular activity among family groups was blackberry picking. The largest wild vines had spread along much of Greendale Creek swamp. A school friend, Nelly Hickson and I used to go exploring as far as Oxford Falls [from Harbord] . Over winter months we would gather white lillies in Greendale Creek swamp, talk to the Chinamen who grew vegetables on land adjacent to Freshwater High School. They were in rows of beautiful green vegetables and the men never stopped working, they were always hoeing their vegetables … they were all men and they lived in a sort of a tin hut on the property. and we’d peep through the fence along Mitchell’s pig farm. Other times we would explore the rocks along the ocean front, venture down bush tracks or seek out empty old houses said to be haunted.