Brisbane, 1959.

It was our first trip on a plane, a prop job.  I had lamb chops for lunch, but promptly lost them into the paper bag hanging off the seat in front of me!  We first stayed in Gordon Park on the northside of the city, then moved to Blackwood Rd, Manly West on the southside.  After a short time we relocated a few blocks away to Preston Rd, Manly West.  On Cracker Night (Guy Fawkes Night), all the kids in the street got together and pooled our fireworks.  Our Dads set off Roman Candles, Bungers, Sky Rockets, Catherine Wheels and Tom Thumbs giving us one night a year, when the infinite normality of the suburbs was shot with utter magic.  It's a shame that a few reckless and evil kids got it banned, spoiling it for the rest of us.

We had started Grade One in Wallacia and attended a few schools in the Blue/Snowy Mountains.  Now we started at Wynnum West State School, catching a bus to and fro.  One of the rumours floating around was about a crazy old man who hated kids so much, he would rush out onto the footpath to chase off any children walking past his house.  My sister insisted that we had to see this guy, so we skipped the bus home to walk past his house.  Of course nothing happened, except we were very late home to be met at the door by a very anxious mother.  My sister told Mum our teacher had kept us after class and we had missed the bus, so a very angry note was written.  I argued with her but for some strange reason, my sister actually handed the note to the teacher!  We were called into the Principal's office for a "please explain" and Mum was humiliated.  I don't know why my sister found it easier to tell a lie than the truth, but it became a habit from an early age.

Mum left the house rarely.  From the time we lived in the Snowy Mountains, she would send me to the shop to run errands.  As kids sometimes do, I got a bit sick of it one day and put on an act demanding she send my sister.  No problem ... my sister grabbed the note and the money, ran across the road and got hit by a car.  I was in the front yard and saw her go up into the air, land on the roof of the car then roll down the windscreen, over the bonnet to land on the road.  The terrible scream of brakes brought Mum running out of the house and I will never forget the withering look she gave me as she passed.  In my mind and Mum's, it was all my fault.  Her leg was broken, both the tibia and fibula.  She was taken to the Mater Children's Hospital where doctors wanted to insert a metal plate and pins.  I have no idea why Mum refused, but after ranting about "bloody, stupid doctors" she removed my sister to the Royal Brisbane Hospital where her leg was simply plastered for about 6 months.  Twin's leg was weak for the rest of her life.

We lived in a small, one bedroom flat with an outside toilet (even when the sewerage line came through, the landlady insisted the toilet stay outside!).  My sister and I shared a double bed, while Mum and Dad slept on the pull-out couch.  I paid my penance by being clobbered by her cast every time she turned over.  To add to my sister's misery she contracted Measles, so spent a long time digging a hole in the plaster cast to run a knitting needle up and down her leg.  Naturally, as soon as her Measles had passed I came down with it too.  As I was recovering I asked Mum what the lump on my stomach was, only to hear her groan "Chicken Pox"!  At least we had TV, which had only just started in Brisbane.  TV became my wonderful world of escape.  I had every programme, on every channel, memorised ... nobody needed a TV guide with me around. ☺

My sister had lost more than six months of school therefore she had to repeat Grade Two, so Mum and Dad insisted that I be kept down with her, to keep her company.  Our birthday arrived and I received the best present I'd ever seen ... not a draining board, dish mop and plastic plates like Xmas, but an amazing electronic, remote controlled  Elephant.  It was covered in white plush with a bright red diamond shaped, jewelled panel on its forehead and a magnet in its trunk so it could pick up metal logs.  It even made a trumpeting sound as its trunk curled up into the air ... I was fascinated.

I also had an unwanted admirer at school.  He used to wait for my school bus every morning and sometimes Twin would say I wasn't coming to school today, so I could sneak out without him seeing me.  I couldn't work out why he kept hanging around ... I was in Grade Two and he was in Grade Six.  One day he insisted on giving me a pearl ring.  As I was telling him that I couldn't take it, he ran off so I was stuck with it.  When I got home, I went into the kitchen to pour a glass of water and Mum saw the sunlight gleam on the ring.  Of course she could recognise real gold so she questioned me and carefully examined the ring.  It was 18ct yellow gold with a real pearl held in a claw setting.  Alarmed, Mum rang the boy's mother thinking he had stolen it, but she assured Mum the ring was his to give to whomever he wanted.  I wore that ring every day until I was married ... when my husband P, knowing the story behind it, threw it away.

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