Syd was an only child, which was unusual in Alexandria. His dad was a wood machinist, in the boot trade, and his mum worked for a period at the pickle factory, behind Henderson Road, where a lot of people in the area worked. His father was unemployed during the Depression, but people “had to get by”: “If someone was lucky enough to find something that fell off the back of a truck, he shared it with his neighbour. Lots of things fell off the back of trucks in those days; they were very bumpy roads”.