He finds pleasure in small achievements and unexpected places.

Loyalty is, in itself, a pleasure - perverse pleasure when, as a boy, advertising that loyalty earned him the scorn of his peers.

“That beautiful big, gold eagle on your chest - how could you not love it,” Peter says.

Love for that guernsey, and the sashed jumper that succeeded it, gave him loyalty to all underdogs. He was the boy picked by teachers to sit next to newcomers who needed a friend - particularly Greeks, Italians and Yugoslavs whose English and self-confidence was poor.

“And I love to talk, so they had to pick up some of it,” he says.

Disappointments inflicted by his beloved Eagles left Peter with an exaggerated ability to take pleasure in the pleasure of others.

As a kid, he went to many grand finals, regardless of who was playing.

“Can you imagine, as a nine-year-old, being allowed to catch a train to the city, sleep overnight - or, at least, wait - till they opened the gates at Adelaide Oval? Ya know? Friends and relatives popped in with food and a thermos of hot tea, or whatever.

“I’ve got the Budget. Sturt versus Port - 16-16 to 8-8.”

Sturt beat them three times - ‘66-‘68 - to just about ruin Peter'sa uncle - Dave Isbister, an SP bookmaker of note in the Port area from the 1950s to the ‘70s.

“He kept doubling up,” Peter says.

“’Cause he lives over on Railway Terrace at Alberton - the next street over from Alberton Oval (home to the Magpies, for the uninitiated) - and he grew up in the ‘50s knowing that Port won every year.

“So he was spreading the word: ‘Anyone from out Unley way who wants to lay a bet in ‘67, I‘ll take ya on.’"

Same in ‘68.

“He lost a lot of money. Port just didn‘t lose three in a row, ya know?”

Port fans took it hard.

“You judge a person by how they take defeat," Peter says.

“When Torrens would somehow, once every two or three years, manage to beat Port, well, none of the kids wanted to come out to play! Know what I mean?”

Now he follows the Adelaide Crows.

“I am a Port Adelaide person, I just don’t barrack for (the Magpies). Ya know? I love the Port. The old saying is: ‘There’s the Port, and there’s the rest.’ You know what I mean?"

“It’s the strong working class, strong union connections. I had four uncles who worked on the wharf. Once there was limited union organisation. I can remember my uncle saying: ’This is what they called hand-out corner, where you‘d get a work docket for a day.’ And they would hand them out … they didn’t like people to get organised. They would choose who they wanted to and then, to humiliate people, they would throw the remainder and let the men fight.

“(If) you cause internal fighting among the people, they’re not going to be united."

Like everyone, Peter went to the 140-year-old, now defunct, Port Adelaide Primary School.

Then, rivalries were based on local divisions.

“The railway line divided people. The Portland kids stayed on their side - the Riverside side - and the Ethelton kids stayed on their side (and Peter and the other true Port kids stayed on their patch).

“You crossed the old Jervois bridge and you were into foreign territory.

“The first thing I remember is how much vacant land was around. So much has been built. Like where the K-Mart is, that was where we played! That was the Port River.

“The river extended all the way up … almost up to the railway station … in a narrow channel. There were great adventures where West Lakes are now. That was the old Port Reach. The old Port River. That went all the way up to Seaton. When the tide came in … ya know?

“It was a swamp. I can still smell that awful smell of putrid … it’s a rotting smell, ya know, of tide, in, tide out mud. Mum was always real pleased, because that’s hard to get out in the wash, that mud.

“You wouldn’t come back till dark.

“Ya know, you’d capture somebody and eventually they’d say ‘I’m going home’, and you’d say: ‘No you’re not!’

“It was the mums who would come looking … like as not, the dads would be at the pub,” Peter says.

“The mums would be: ‘Get home! I been looking for you.’

“It was soldiers, day in and day out … or you‘d play cricket until it got too dark to see the ball. Ya know: ‘Boy it is dark out ‘ere.’ Donk (pointing to his forehead). Time to pull stumps. Someone got hurt.”

"Because of the strong European content, soccer became very strong in the Port. People like me, who would never have played soccer, were influenced by friends. I only played it at school, but I loved it.

“Virtually all my school friends were Greek and Yugoslav.”

Peter tried to follow the local soccer club, but the atmosphere suffered from the prejudices and rivalries of the older generation.

“As always, it’s not the children who cause trouble, it’s the parents.

“You had Greeks and Italians, and if an Italian happened to be president … I remember an Italian was running it at one stage, and - I didn’t understand the politics - but I remember a friend of mine saying his dad said ‘No, we’re being treated like S-H-I-T, we’re not going to be part of it,’ It’s only now, you look back and realise what it would have been, ya know?”

Peter loves Adelaide United, and all it represents.

“Went to the first game, kept the programme as a souvenir, ya know? Kept it in mint condition. Not that it will be worth anything, but ya know? Ya know? I’m a hoarder.

“I’ve still got an autograph book, and I think I’ve got Lindsay Head, the triple Magary Medallist, on every page,” Peter says.

“Mum and Dad used to take me to the football and I’d have the West Torrens jumper on with the beautiful big Eagle on the front, #17 (Head’s number) on the back … yeah. My sister’s son has got the jumper now.

“My mother came from Flinders Park, which is West Torrens, and my father came from Bowden, which is West Torrens … and after that it’s indoctrination, ya know?”

He’s used to ups and downs, living in the Port.

“It’s hard to imagine now, but away from the city, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, this was the most vibrant shopping area,” Peter says.

“Huge numbers of people would come from near and far … every day.

“You had one of the first purpose-built cinemas in the old Ozone; you had Ezy-Walkins, the shoe people; you had Blacks, the shoe people; you had Rhodes, the department store; you had Clarksons, the department store; you had Coles; you had Woolworths. One of the first true, new-style supermarkets was in the Port … like, following the American style.

“The self-service supermarket had been introduced in Melbourne and Sydney, and then Port Adelaide. People were like: ‘Self-service? What’s that?’ You’d always gone to the grocer’s and said: ‘I’ll have a pound of this.’ They’d get it for you.”

By 1970, they’d all gone - large and small.

Port Adelaide went into a long and painful slump, from it which it is only now emerging.

“We’ve now got Foodland, we’ve Coles, we’ve got K-Mart, we’ve got every bank … and we’ve got the library, we’ve got the post office, that have been relocated from the old historical parts.”

He likes the economics of it all.

“It probably started with the Bicentennary year. A lot of Federal Government money went into restoring a lot of old buildings. The old Bonds store became the Maritime Museum, you had the Railway Museum, all of a sudden shipping came back. Outer Harbour became a major port, and all the mercantile companies have come back to the Port and restored the old buildings. Stripped the paint off and returned the original stonework.”

The community spirit of old has yet to return.

Peter has a habit of giving passers-by in the street a nod and a g’day, but rarely gets anything back.

“You’re left feeling a bit of a dill,” he says.

He has better luck with people walking past his front fence from the new residential developments at the end of his street.

The influx of new families can only improve things.

“When I was playing football, in the early ’70s, you had more kids than teams and you couldn’t all get a game,” Peter says.

And there were a lot more clubs, then.

“You had Riverside; you had Alberton United; you had Ethelton; you had Semaphore Park; you had your Exeter and Semaphore Centrals, which have now combined because of lack of numbers to form Port Districts; you had Taperoo; you had Rosewater, which was a strong side; you had Wingfield; and there were others."