First Time For Everything-The beginning
Without Prejudice
I had heard of Bob long before I met him. I was just a girl returned from the UK after five years, and I met for the first time my brother Ian's new wife, Merrilyn. Ian had stayed in Australia while were in the UK and married and he and Merrilyn had a delightful little baby, my nephew, Andrew.
Ian was a regular soldier based at Ingleburn Army Camp. We stayed with Ian and Merrilyn temprarily, my family and I, until we moved to Wagga Wagga. I was writing to a sailor I had met on the ship coming over and innocently, I guess, thought I was in love. Bob's name was mentioned with in a few days as being "a shit", Bob was younger than merrilyn by two years. Ian pulled me aside and told me he was very good looking, this brother. He had not long returned to the family farm in Gippsland from Queensland. He had been up in Queensland surveying and was tanned, lean and dark, very dark.
Ian said I should meet him. I was more of the opinion I had a boyfriend, thanks very much, and didn't want anyone else. But I was nothing if not polite and nodded and forgot all about it or this "dark" man. When I was a little girl, there was a "dark" man that was a friend of my parents. I was terrified of him, for some illogical reason.
Apparently he was a tall friendly single English man who palled up with my parents at the Hostel in Adelaide. I was literally scared to bits of him and hid behind my Mother every time he came. He would try and coax me out in a gentle kind way and I never would. It got to be embarrassing for my parents as I would cry as wail as soon as he came any where near me and this poor hapless man would be embarrassed as well. It was something about him I was scared of, he was really tall and dark, for some reason this just freaked me out.
I met Merrilyns sister Pauline shortly after. Pauline was a great girl, same age as me and we got along really well. I questioned her about this brother of hers. She was also dismissive of him. Intruiging, I thought. We as a family went off to Wagga Wagga and all of us were unemployed. I had been working in the UK as a mailing clerk at Empire Stores, a catalogue firm and didn't like being unemployed, Unemployed meant no money.
I had left school at 15 as Dad was unemployed and there was no money. The UK at that time the mid to late 60's, was an unbelievable place to be living in then. All I can say was that the UK just exploded. Fashion, music, mods and rockers, scooters and Mary Quant and Biba, Bob Dylan, the Moody Blues, Jim Morrison, but that story is for another time. All I can say is that it was fabulous and one of the best times of my life.
So, back to the dark days. Unemployed in Wagga, in the Summer, with no air conditioning and temperatures that were up to the mid 40's. We were as miserable as miserable, so one day George and I made a plan to escape. We had some money, I was able to get a job waitressing at a function at the RSl in town.
Jackie dressed me up as older and we got away with it and I had been paid cash in hand the same night and George and I took off on a train destined for Sydney and Ian and Merrilyn and jobs and money. Of course Ian and Merrilyn were dumbfounded when we turned up, and made us ring Mum and Dad to say where we were.
We had picked a wrong time to be at Ian and Merrilyns as it was Easter and they were about to start a drive to Gippsland to see Merrilyn's parents. Rather than leave us they took us with them and we had to call in at Wagga and pick up Mum and Helen.
My mum and Gwen, Merrilyn's mother had been pen pals for ages and Mum wanted to meet her. So there we all were, all trying to fit into a VW Beetle. There was Ian, Merrilyn, me, George, mum, Helen aged 4 and Andrew 6 months. What an outfit and Mum was a chain smoker.
We arrived at the farm at some ungodly early hour, sore, stiff, hungry and freezing, dressed in summer clothes. Tiny and Gwen, Merrilyns parents were dairy farmers and were at the shed milking. They soon came up from the shed to greet us and a lovelier pair of people you could not meet.
The first time I saw this brother, the black sheep of the family, was in the dairy. A cow was having trouble having a calf and Bob and his Dad were assisting at the breech birth. So the first time I saw Bobn, he was this lean skinny dark bloke with a an Abraham Lincoln beard that jutted out at an angle to his jaw. Eeeeuuuuuwwww, was my first thought seeing as his arm was stuck up inside a cow, trying to fold the legs back.
There were a few moans from the cow and then slithering out between the legs came the calf and gobbets of blood. It was gory but fascinating all at the same time, but the shed was warm and smelled of urine, cow shit and blood. I nearly retched and hid behind my Mother in her black cocktail dress and long cigarette holder held aloft. She was smoking cocktail Sobranjies in those days. Pastel coloured cigarettes, very posh in those days, it was either that or Benson and Hedges, because even in those day people were brand conscious, especially my Chanel No 5, Estee Lauder, Helena Rubenstein loving, elegant Mother.
"He's handsome", she said, pointing at Bob.
"he's horrible", I replied looking at his ugly beard and Moustache, his too skinny body, and the black almost mono brow he had. He was very brown however, good biceps, and he was stripped to his waist in the heat of the shed.
"Nuh", I thought, not for me.
I had heard of Bob long before I met him. I was just a girl returned from the UK after five years, and I met for the first time my brother Ian's new wife, Merrilyn. Ian had stayed in Australia while were in the UK and married and he and Merrilyn had a delightful little baby, my nephew, Andrew.
Ian was a regular soldier based at Ingleburn Army Camp. We stayed with Ian and Merrilyn temprarily, my family and I, until we moved to Wagga Wagga. I was writing to a sailor I had met on the ship coming over and innocently, I guess, thought I was in love. Bob's name was mentioned with in a few days as being "a shit", Bob was younger than merrilyn by two years. Ian pulled me aside and told me he was very good looking, this brother. He had not long returned to the family farm in Gippsland from Queensland. He had been up in Queensland surveying and was tanned, lean and dark, very dark.
Ian said I should meet him. I was more of the opinion I had a boyfriend, thanks very much, and didn't want anyone else. But I was nothing if not polite and nodded and forgot all about it or this "dark" man. When I was a little girl, there was a "dark" man that was a friend of my parents. I was terrified of him, for some illogical reason.
Apparently he was a tall friendly single English man who palled up with my parents at the Hostel in Adelaide. I was literally scared to bits of him and hid behind my Mother every time he came. He would try and coax me out in a gentle kind way and I never would. It got to be embarrassing for my parents as I would cry as wail as soon as he came any where near me and this poor hapless man would be embarrassed as well. It was something about him I was scared of, he was really tall and dark, for some reason this just freaked me out.
I met Merrilyns sister Pauline shortly after. Pauline was a great girl, same age as me and we got along really well. I questioned her about this brother of hers. She was also dismissive of him. Intruiging, I thought. We as a family went off to Wagga Wagga and all of us were unemployed. I had been working in the UK as a mailing clerk at Empire Stores, a catalogue firm and didn't like being unemployed, Unemployed meant no money.
I had left school at 15 as Dad was unemployed and there was no money. The UK at that time the mid to late 60's, was an unbelievable place to be living in then. All I can say was that the UK just exploded. Fashion, music, mods and rockers, scooters and Mary Quant and Biba, Bob Dylan, the Moody Blues, Jim Morrison, but that story is for another time. All I can say is that it was fabulous and one of the best times of my life.
So, back to the dark days. Unemployed in Wagga, in the Summer, with no air conditioning and temperatures that were up to the mid 40's. We were as miserable as miserable, so one day George and I made a plan to escape. We had some money, I was able to get a job waitressing at a function at the RSl in town.
Jackie dressed me up as older and we got away with it and I had been paid cash in hand the same night and George and I took off on a train destined for Sydney and Ian and Merrilyn and jobs and money. Of course Ian and Merrilyn were dumbfounded when we turned up, and made us ring Mum and Dad to say where we were.
We had picked a wrong time to be at Ian and Merrilyns as it was Easter and they were about to start a drive to Gippsland to see Merrilyn's parents. Rather than leave us they took us with them and we had to call in at Wagga and pick up Mum and Helen.
My mum and Gwen, Merrilyn's mother had been pen pals for ages and Mum wanted to meet her. So there we all were, all trying to fit into a VW Beetle. There was Ian, Merrilyn, me, George, mum, Helen aged 4 and Andrew 6 months. What an outfit and Mum was a chain smoker.
We arrived at the farm at some ungodly early hour, sore, stiff, hungry and freezing, dressed in summer clothes. Tiny and Gwen, Merrilyns parents were dairy farmers and were at the shed milking. They soon came up from the shed to greet us and a lovelier pair of people you could not meet.
The first time I saw this brother, the black sheep of the family, was in the dairy. A cow was having trouble having a calf and Bob and his Dad were assisting at the breech birth. So the first time I saw Bobn, he was this lean skinny dark bloke with a an Abraham Lincoln beard that jutted out at an angle to his jaw. Eeeeuuuuuwwww, was my first thought seeing as his arm was stuck up inside a cow, trying to fold the legs back.
There were a few moans from the cow and then slithering out between the legs came the calf and gobbets of blood. It was gory but fascinating all at the same time, but the shed was warm and smelled of urine, cow shit and blood. I nearly retched and hid behind my Mother in her black cocktail dress and long cigarette holder held aloft. She was smoking cocktail Sobranjies in those days. Pastel coloured cigarettes, very posh in those days, it was either that or Benson and Hedges, because even in those day people were brand conscious, especially my Chanel No 5, Estee Lauder, Helena Rubenstein loving, elegant Mother.
"He's handsome", she said, pointing at Bob.
"he's horrible", I replied looking at his ugly beard and Moustache, his too skinny body, and the black almost mono brow he had. He was very brown however, good biceps, and he was stripped to his waist in the heat of the shed.
"Nuh", I thought, not for me.
