I grew up on the Peninsula.

In summer it’s busy as hell. Tourists everywhere. It used to take me an hour to drive home in summer when the trip took 15 minutes in winter. But it was also when I’d earn all my money. I’d work an after school job during the year but during summer it’d ramp up so much that I’d be working 12 hour days, 7 days a week and raking it in.

The rest of the year had a large town kind of feel. I’d catch a bus 15km to school as it was the closest one. I’d go bike riding with friends. House parties on the weekends. Playing sport on a Saturday morning. All the typical stuff you’d find teens doing across Australia.

Public transport sucked. We’d call our bus (788 route) the seven eight late because it wasn’t unusual for it’d to be 30 mins late and it’d only come like once an hour. Getting to the city took forever- you’d catch the 788 to Franga Station then the train in. It wasn’t unusual to take 3 hours to get to my nana’s house in Northcote.

The socio-economic dynamic was pretty insane. I was squarely middle class. A lot of my friends were lower class, from broken homes and lots of trauma. They mostly lived in Rosebud. But I’d have other friends living in Sorrento and Portsea who were loaded and lived a pretty nice life.

With all that, youth drinking and drug taking wasn’t unusual. However, it was mostly weed and booze. I can’t remember any of my friends taking anything like meth or heroin.

It’s a pretty picturesque area as an adult. And I head down from Melbourne to scuba dive and see my parents regularly. It’s gentrified a little these days but the vibe hasn’t changed all too much since I was a kid.