When the bell tolled the end of the school day, two girls could be seen racing each other through Temora's main streets to the general merchant's emporium.
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Then known as 'Man Sing & Co' and founded by Meredie Mee-Ling's grandfather, the structure was one of the oldest stores in the town.
Lifelong friend Carol Ward describes the haberdashery, hardware, and grocery business as "like entering Aladdin's cave". So it was that every afternoon, the young Meredie and Carol would whittle their hours away walking around the "store for everything".
Flash forward more than 60 years, and the friends have once again ignited their passion for the vintage world of their youth.
A lifelong collector while working as an economics teacher at Pymble Ladies College in Sydney, Ms Mee-Ling has recently returned to her hometown to begin her collectibles business.
Among the items for sale on her table was a pre-plastic Bakelite funnel, matchbook covers accidentally found in a pre-war biscuit tin, a metal ice cream container, and an assortment of cigarette cases - one which boldly proclaims on its underside that anyone found using it to sell tobacco that was not Havenlock branded would face enormous penalties.
Recent arrivals to her collection however is a stack of railway tickets.
Many collected during her own years commuting around Sydney, retrieved of an evening when the machines were cleared out. Other older tickets, she has "paid the earth" to own.
"I'd go to the markets and garage sales wherever I found them, that was just what I did in my spare time," said Ms Mee-Ling.
Over the decades she has perfected the art of hunting.
"The swap meets are amazing, if it's dusty and rusty it's on sale. But you've got to get there early, last time I got there at 6am, in the middle of winter, and I was about the 40th person in line," she said.
"People really queue up to get the good things."
But with the thrill of the find also comes the pain of the loss. An inevitable by-product of the passage of time.
"My mother used to have cupboards full of Carlton Ware plates and things," said Carol Ward.
"We got rid of the lot of it. Just took it to Vinnies or threw it out. Now it gets a good price, people pay a lot for it, and I could kick myself."
From her home-turn-shop on Baker Street, Ms Mee-Ling also sells her handcrafted Venetian glass beads.
Arriving early to set up her collectible wares at Wagga's collecting fare at the weekend, Ms Mee-Ling said it is the connections that others bring to her table that makes her work worthwhile.
"People are interested in vintage things nowadays," she said.
"It's the nostalgia rather than the value, people come past saying 'I remember that when I was a child', 'you don't see those any more', or 'my mother used to use one of those'.
An avenue to reminisce transforms the hobby into the passion.
"I've often asked her, 'why don't you sell on ebay?'," said Ms Ward.
"She says, 'because then I can't meet people and talk about things together'."