My secret plan: Jeans for "When the Commies come!" | Chapter 12 | Razor-Wire Round Our Hearts

Politics in the 1950s came in just two flavours: Us and The Commos. In this chapter of my memoir, I look back at growing up in a Catholic country town in Australia, where fear of communism shaped everything from school lessons to childhood games. I tell the story of the secret survival jeans I sewed, packed with fishing hooks, matches and dried raisins, ready for the day the communists came. I also recall the visit of British anti-communist campaigner Douglas Hyde to our town, and the one eager, sycophantic question I asked that brought a furious nun's wrath down on my head. Later, as a young journalist in 1960s Sydney, I began to see that the certainties I'd grown up with weren't as solid as I'd believed. It took only one small shove to bring them all down. In this video: Cold War propaganda and the "red rats" posters Catholic schooling, the DLP split and Santamaria's Catholic Action The day I humiliated my school in front of the whole town Leaving country life for Sydney in 1965 First doubts about the Vietnam War line If you enjoyed this, please like, subscribe and share your own memories of growing up in the 1950s and 60s.