Camping-

Without Prejudice

When Bob and I were young, and after our disastrous trip to Jack Otters at Yarram, we decided to invite some English friend to the farm for Easter.

We hired everything, we didn't have a lot of money in those days. Bob worked as a gate welder at Otter Fencing and I worked at KFC in Springvale. We were young marrieds and we had an adorable baby, Debbie. Everyone loved her and she was the "pet" of the trip.

The first day was spent putting up, very badly, our tent. I have a photo of it drooping in the distance, Bob in the front of the photo, Debbie in his arms. He looks like a golliwog with his big afro hair. Debbie just looks so gorgeous.

We built a bonfire and had many drinks, not me, I was breast feeding, still. So we sat out under the stars in the bottom paddock talking of the day and then went to bed.

We had cot beds with strong wire in a U shape in the ends, and middle, made out of canvas, just blankets. In the middle of the night, Bob's came undone. One end collapsed, when he put that back in, the other one collapsed. The air turned blue with his swearing.

I just pretended I couldn't hear him. This went on for half an hour, and I shook with laughter, not letting him see me.

He stood in front of me,
"Move over, I'm getting in "
"No"

But he did and the bed collapsed. More cursing and swearing. So we spent the night on the ground, which was freezing and staggered up the next morning. Hair askew and faces still wearing the marks of the ground.

To cheer ourselves up, we decided to make a huge brekky for everyone, which we did on the small camp stove, called everyone to come and eat and as soon as we sat down, we were covered in monster flies.

The loo was a hole in the ground and a shovel. I was never so miserable and ended up stumping off to the Farm house with Debbie. I now wouldn't care but babies tend to need special attention and don't "camp", well, and probably neither do I


Love Janette