Too Young To Be Married Club
Without Prejudice
We were girls not women, Mothers too soon, Wives too soon, trying to take on the responsibilities of adults, still children, we missed our rites of older teenager passage. We were young though and we all helped each other, all husbands were bastard at times and then wonderful too. Our babies were compared and shared with each other and trapped in Suburbia and surrounded by snotty noses and messy kitchens and kids that were relentless we began to rebel. Elle and I were first, she was a stunning red head with a body that was to die for, no boobs, but. She was older than me and had gone out with my hubby before me, engaged I think!
It was scandalous, he had gone off to Queensland for 2 years, she wrote to him, he came back, she was pregnant to someone else! the story goes he walked out on her that day and never went back. He adored her Mother however and popped back in for a time to see her and hubby. So we met up one day as bob had to fix a fence for his Sisters friend and living right next door was Elle. I was 19 then, just turned and about to have my second baby in 12 months, (Not to be recommended) I looked like a full ship in a gale, with a ditzy dress that looked like The Old Darrell Lee Uniform right down to the huge bow under the bust.
And Elle had just popped out her second baby and looked like a supermodel, I swear. So I lumbered out of the car as she asked me in for a tea and was chatty and bright and we liked each other straight away, just like that and I am still friends with her now. And to me little country mouse that I was admired her house and clothes and she told me she was married to a pig, a Nazi of a guy, and I goggled at her. I couldn't believe it. she looked like she had it all together, the paper lights, the honey colored floorboards, she's used Cheesecloth as Curtains and a superb colourful Mexican rug in the lounge room. it was to die for. I was so envious of her life and she was telling me it was all fake.
We at that time were living in Oakleigh in a half house with George still with us and 2 babies, tiny babies, Yvette brought home on Debbie's first birthday, I was never so skinny as I was then, I was rake thin after Yvette and suffering post Natal depression which I didn't know then. I went out shopping with Bob the day I took Yvette home, George and Karin minding her and I was so detached not like I had been with my first, Debbie, at all. I fitted in to everything and Bob bought me heaps of stuff to wear. I had been pregnant for 2 years nearly and it felt good to wear jeans and tight tops at long last.
And Elle began dropping around a fair bit and I went to her place if Bob took me as I didn't drive. I watched Elle driving her HD Holden, so cool, cigarette hanging out of her mouth, ditto, although I didn't smoke, Bob did, chain smoked and woke up in the middle of the night and light one up or first thing in the morning. The ashtray always by the bed. Everyone smoked then, it seems crazy bit it was true. And Elle being that bit older was a bit wiser of the ways of men and I began to rebel. My husband was a hard working man but he was working with all pommy single men who smoked weed, hash and drank like fish, and he kept arriving home at 11 pm and out the next day and I was stuck home with 2 screaming babies. all on my own, people came to the door and I wouldn't answer.
I went to the doctor and said how I was tired all the time, all the time and he sent me away, saying no wonder I was tired I had two kids under 17 months, and a man came to the door and took photos of me and the babies, Debbie 18 months and Yvette 6 months and although I have circles under my eyes, I beam out at the camera, my arms full of babies. And then one day I got a call from Aden Elle's nutty hubby who i didn't like at all, he Had those really pale blue eyes,
"Your Husband and My Wife are having an affair"
"What?"
I felt sick and wanted to vomit.
"Are You Sure"
"Yes, and its been going on a while"
I hung up the phone and ran for the toilet and waves of bile shook me and then I was shivering, shivering.
There was a huge row that night Bob denying all and threatening the hubby, but I noticed he didn't pick up the phone and make the call. I was livid and trapped and I flew to Sydney with the kids, all dressed up for Mum and Dad and I was chatted up by a very nice business man and then Yvette threw up everywhere, pink vomit, all over me, all over her hand crocheted daisy wheel shawl, (made By Merrilyn )
Mum and Dad picked me up, they were living in Liverpool and it was busy and great and Mum introduced me to an Op shop and I wouldn't go in at first, eyeing off the old clothes and thought only poor people go in there. But mum made me look and it was good and we bought a few things, ornaments, mostly old English stuff. and I stayed for six weeks or so getting work at the KFC up the road and Jackie got one there after me, too. But soon enough Bob was calling, sorry for everything, come home, he loved me and would always love me and mum and dad were crowded so I went home. And within 48 hours it was the same but at least my depression had lifted.
And Within months I was pregnant again and had to terminate her and when I returned home after that, not wanting to go back to him, Bob decided to buy me a house as he thought it would keep me happy. I had told him I wanted to leave him, I had had enough, we'd been married all of 2 years. I'd had 2 babies, he was violent and I didn't know that till Debbie was 6 weeks old, life was horrible. He cried and begged me to stay and I knew just knew he was being unfaithful so many nights on my own. And I raged at him him hurt, jealous not knowing to keep him happy anymore and i was drowning but I stayed, despising him. We had a lot of married friends who were fun and one night we all went to the beach at Edithvale, the night hot and still.
We were on our own without the kids and the night was unbelievably beautiful, everyone drinking except me I never drank, I was in a one piece swimsuit and pow one of the bottles exploded on my leg as I lifted it to pass to my husband, Someone shrieked pointing at my leg. I was cut and deep and blood flooded down my leg, one of the men grabbing for a towel and staunching the flow. Everyone was freaking out except for Bob, he just tilted his bottle at me. I was carried to the house and mended up and a party was in full swing and my husband had disappeared.
I wandered vaguely around for a while and couldn't find him and it turned out he was in a bedroom with someone else, it was that type of party. Ah, I thought,
"You're an idiot!"
So I went to the bathroom and cleaned up a little and I bumped into a man I knew, he scooped me up in a big hug and said I haven't had a Christmas kiss from you miss little innocent one and he reached down from a great height and swept me up and kissed me like a Man. It was intense and then we were locked together and we hid in the toilet, still kissing, and I was thinking
"What was I doing?"
And we went out into the backyard and talked. I explained I wasn't in to "all that" and he just laughed and kissed me on the neck. he whispered anytime baby, anytime, and I squeaked up,
What?"
"Anytime you want more of the same, here's my number, you are one hot kisser"
And I jumped as someone came out the back door, my husband,
"you ready to go"
I followed him and went home and had to hop on one leg for a week the cut throbbing, but I did it. Someone else liked me, actually liked me and didn't treat me as some sort of loathsome object that had to be there. Bob never asked about the cut or anything else, ever, so I just got on with life but that Summer when Bob was one late night out too many, in fact he was at a party, I wasn't invited or even asked. And that night I used my "Get out of Jail Free" card and made a call and he eased my path for 18 years, in one or another, all told, bless him.
So back to young marrieds
Elle was my way out in ways, Bob relented on me having driving lessons as he didn't want me to drive at first. His Mother never drove, what did I need to drive for,but I wanted to be like Elle, more street wise and independent. So I started and I gave the kids to Bob's sister and I went to work at Target in Chadstone with Bob's other two sisters and Brother in law across the mall at the hairdressers. And i loved it, mixing with others and having driving lessons, it was all so much better. And when we went to Keysie I got my licence first time and I was independent at last. And I could then drive to work and not rely on the lady around the corner for a lift.
And from being so isolated in Oakleigh I was surrounded in our court by stay at home Mums with kids, lots of kids and a safe environment for them to play in. There had to have been 15 of us and we all became friends and stayed friends over the years. And Elle was not far away with her worldliness and bad girl ways and we went to Monash that winter. Elle found a course for "Stay at Home Mums", 10 weeks of all different activities, tennis, golf, archery, Yoga, Drawing, and then what ever we liked best we did for a further four weeks. there was a creche on site and it was all free. So we applied and were accepted and we were ecstatic.
I had finished at Target and signed on with KFC in Dandenong as a part time worker and I juggled the kids and the course and the job, haring around in my powder blue,Clubman Mini that I bought off Sergio Boi, next door for a hundred dollars, Bob Muttering darkly i would crash it but I never did and I had that car for years.
And the course was fantastic for Elle and I, we were out, without kids and focusing on ourselves and most of all it was learning and fun. We laughed all the way there and all the way home. Elle was not fond of what she called Mumsy Mums, she was toned to an inch of her life, (She told me she had been a massively fat child) and she was obsessed with diets and exercise and I followed slavishly. we did Atkins, we ran on the oval at the back of her house my lungs nearly giving out as we pounded around and around and would collapse on our backs on the grass. We had skipping ropes and weights and we tanned ourselves every second we could get. She was a naught girl, shop lifting makeup and I was too scared.
And we went head to head with the Mumsy Mums one day and we won, we were on duty at the first Freedom Club at Keysie and duty was as boring as bat shit, seriously, it was just a big hall in those days and the mumsy Mums gathered in corners and stared at Elle and I in our skimpy outfits and skimpy bodies and I am sure they loathed us. So we had enough and we cooked up a simple plan, Elle would say I was not well and we could leave and at least watch The Young And The Restless at my place, it was an important episode. So we did and we were ages and they Mumsy mums were coldly furious when we got back and I forgot to look sick and there was a fight of the bitch variety and Elle won hers and I won mine lying my head off. And I smoothed it all out and ever after we did our duty but we always loathed it
And suddenly we met a neighbour who was new to the neighbourhood, Libi, older, just returned from Holland with her stunningly handsome husband Con. and she was also unhappily married, the group was growing. She worked after noon shift and the first time I met her she smiled and said in her wog accent (She called herself a wog, don't worry)
"Come to my place, lunch tomorrow"
and she snapped it out like she was angry or something.
I strolled down to her place in the heat, leaving the girls asleep at home. her place was chaos, pots everywhere, dishes covered every bench, the place was destroyed, but she greeted me with delight and placed dish after dish in front of me and told me her hubby was an arrogant bastard and mean with money and she basically hated him.
I just stayed quiet a bit overwhelmed by her manic energy but i liked her she told it like it was and we were instant friends and I took care of her kids and she mine and she was so funny. Bob didn't like me being friends with her nor Elle after a while so they had to come around when he wasn't home and suddenly we were having lunches together when libi was up from her sleep in from shift work. We discussed husbands of course and I was The Stepford Wife of them, making out my life was just perfect and fine and my kids were wonderful. I couldn't tell them what was going on. Not the violence anyway, that was not happening, would get better, it wouldn't happen again blah blah blah.
And one day we had some male friends all of a sudden, Grace brought some rellies and we would all be talking and I introduced one of my male friends to Elle, who happened to call in to fix something and from that we made a leap to all of us girls going out together to clubs on thursday nights together and Saturday nights so libi could come. and we were no longer stay at home mums but beautiful intriguing women, well thats what the blokes told us anyway!
We were girls not women, Mothers too soon, Wives too soon, trying to take on the responsibilities of adults, still children, we missed our rites of older teenager passage. We were young though and we all helped each other, all husbands were bastard at times and then wonderful too. Our babies were compared and shared with each other and trapped in Suburbia and surrounded by snotty noses and messy kitchens and kids that were relentless we began to rebel. Elle and I were first, she was a stunning red head with a body that was to die for, no boobs, but. She was older than me and had gone out with my hubby before me, engaged I think!
It was scandalous, he had gone off to Queensland for 2 years, she wrote to him, he came back, she was pregnant to someone else! the story goes he walked out on her that day and never went back. He adored her Mother however and popped back in for a time to see her and hubby. So we met up one day as bob had to fix a fence for his Sisters friend and living right next door was Elle. I was 19 then, just turned and about to have my second baby in 12 months, (Not to be recommended) I looked like a full ship in a gale, with a ditzy dress that looked like The Old Darrell Lee Uniform right down to the huge bow under the bust.
And Elle had just popped out her second baby and looked like a supermodel, I swear. So I lumbered out of the car as she asked me in for a tea and was chatty and bright and we liked each other straight away, just like that and I am still friends with her now. And to me little country mouse that I was admired her house and clothes and she told me she was married to a pig, a Nazi of a guy, and I goggled at her. I couldn't believe it. she looked like she had it all together, the paper lights, the honey colored floorboards, she's used Cheesecloth as Curtains and a superb colourful Mexican rug in the lounge room. it was to die for. I was so envious of her life and she was telling me it was all fake.
We at that time were living in Oakleigh in a half house with George still with us and 2 babies, tiny babies, Yvette brought home on Debbie's first birthday, I was never so skinny as I was then, I was rake thin after Yvette and suffering post Natal depression which I didn't know then. I went out shopping with Bob the day I took Yvette home, George and Karin minding her and I was so detached not like I had been with my first, Debbie, at all. I fitted in to everything and Bob bought me heaps of stuff to wear. I had been pregnant for 2 years nearly and it felt good to wear jeans and tight tops at long last.
And Elle began dropping around a fair bit and I went to her place if Bob took me as I didn't drive. I watched Elle driving her HD Holden, so cool, cigarette hanging out of her mouth, ditto, although I didn't smoke, Bob did, chain smoked and woke up in the middle of the night and light one up or first thing in the morning. The ashtray always by the bed. Everyone smoked then, it seems crazy bit it was true. And Elle being that bit older was a bit wiser of the ways of men and I began to rebel. My husband was a hard working man but he was working with all pommy single men who smoked weed, hash and drank like fish, and he kept arriving home at 11 pm and out the next day and I was stuck home with 2 screaming babies. all on my own, people came to the door and I wouldn't answer.
I went to the doctor and said how I was tired all the time, all the time and he sent me away, saying no wonder I was tired I had two kids under 17 months, and a man came to the door and took photos of me and the babies, Debbie 18 months and Yvette 6 months and although I have circles under my eyes, I beam out at the camera, my arms full of babies. And then one day I got a call from Aden Elle's nutty hubby who i didn't like at all, he Had those really pale blue eyes,
"Your Husband and My Wife are having an affair"
"What?"
I felt sick and wanted to vomit.
"Are You Sure"
"Yes, and its been going on a while"
I hung up the phone and ran for the toilet and waves of bile shook me and then I was shivering, shivering.
There was a huge row that night Bob denying all and threatening the hubby, but I noticed he didn't pick up the phone and make the call. I was livid and trapped and I flew to Sydney with the kids, all dressed up for Mum and Dad and I was chatted up by a very nice business man and then Yvette threw up everywhere, pink vomit, all over me, all over her hand crocheted daisy wheel shawl, (made By Merrilyn )
Mum and Dad picked me up, they were living in Liverpool and it was busy and great and Mum introduced me to an Op shop and I wouldn't go in at first, eyeing off the old clothes and thought only poor people go in there. But mum made me look and it was good and we bought a few things, ornaments, mostly old English stuff. and I stayed for six weeks or so getting work at the KFC up the road and Jackie got one there after me, too. But soon enough Bob was calling, sorry for everything, come home, he loved me and would always love me and mum and dad were crowded so I went home. And within 48 hours it was the same but at least my depression had lifted.
And Within months I was pregnant again and had to terminate her and when I returned home after that, not wanting to go back to him, Bob decided to buy me a house as he thought it would keep me happy. I had told him I wanted to leave him, I had had enough, we'd been married all of 2 years. I'd had 2 babies, he was violent and I didn't know that till Debbie was 6 weeks old, life was horrible. He cried and begged me to stay and I knew just knew he was being unfaithful so many nights on my own. And I raged at him him hurt, jealous not knowing to keep him happy anymore and i was drowning but I stayed, despising him. We had a lot of married friends who were fun and one night we all went to the beach at Edithvale, the night hot and still.
We were on our own without the kids and the night was unbelievably beautiful, everyone drinking except me I never drank, I was in a one piece swimsuit and pow one of the bottles exploded on my leg as I lifted it to pass to my husband, Someone shrieked pointing at my leg. I was cut and deep and blood flooded down my leg, one of the men grabbing for a towel and staunching the flow. Everyone was freaking out except for Bob, he just tilted his bottle at me. I was carried to the house and mended up and a party was in full swing and my husband had disappeared.
I wandered vaguely around for a while and couldn't find him and it turned out he was in a bedroom with someone else, it was that type of party. Ah, I thought,
"You're an idiot!"
So I went to the bathroom and cleaned up a little and I bumped into a man I knew, he scooped me up in a big hug and said I haven't had a Christmas kiss from you miss little innocent one and he reached down from a great height and swept me up and kissed me like a Man. It was intense and then we were locked together and we hid in the toilet, still kissing, and I was thinking
"What was I doing?"
And we went out into the backyard and talked. I explained I wasn't in to "all that" and he just laughed and kissed me on the neck. he whispered anytime baby, anytime, and I squeaked up,
What?"
"Anytime you want more of the same, here's my number, you are one hot kisser"
And I jumped as someone came out the back door, my husband,
"you ready to go"
I followed him and went home and had to hop on one leg for a week the cut throbbing, but I did it. Someone else liked me, actually liked me and didn't treat me as some sort of loathsome object that had to be there. Bob never asked about the cut or anything else, ever, so I just got on with life but that Summer when Bob was one late night out too many, in fact he was at a party, I wasn't invited or even asked. And that night I used my "Get out of Jail Free" card and made a call and he eased my path for 18 years, in one or another, all told, bless him.
So back to young marrieds
Elle was my way out in ways, Bob relented on me having driving lessons as he didn't want me to drive at first. His Mother never drove, what did I need to drive for,but I wanted to be like Elle, more street wise and independent. So I started and I gave the kids to Bob's sister and I went to work at Target in Chadstone with Bob's other two sisters and Brother in law across the mall at the hairdressers. And i loved it, mixing with others and having driving lessons, it was all so much better. And when we went to Keysie I got my licence first time and I was independent at last. And I could then drive to work and not rely on the lady around the corner for a lift.
And from being so isolated in Oakleigh I was surrounded in our court by stay at home Mums with kids, lots of kids and a safe environment for them to play in. There had to have been 15 of us and we all became friends and stayed friends over the years. And Elle was not far away with her worldliness and bad girl ways and we went to Monash that winter. Elle found a course for "Stay at Home Mums", 10 weeks of all different activities, tennis, golf, archery, Yoga, Drawing, and then what ever we liked best we did for a further four weeks. there was a creche on site and it was all free. So we applied and were accepted and we were ecstatic.
I had finished at Target and signed on with KFC in Dandenong as a part time worker and I juggled the kids and the course and the job, haring around in my powder blue,Clubman Mini that I bought off Sergio Boi, next door for a hundred dollars, Bob Muttering darkly i would crash it but I never did and I had that car for years.
And the course was fantastic for Elle and I, we were out, without kids and focusing on ourselves and most of all it was learning and fun. We laughed all the way there and all the way home. Elle was not fond of what she called Mumsy Mums, she was toned to an inch of her life, (She told me she had been a massively fat child) and she was obsessed with diets and exercise and I followed slavishly. we did Atkins, we ran on the oval at the back of her house my lungs nearly giving out as we pounded around and around and would collapse on our backs on the grass. We had skipping ropes and weights and we tanned ourselves every second we could get. She was a naught girl, shop lifting makeup and I was too scared.
And we went head to head with the Mumsy Mums one day and we won, we were on duty at the first Freedom Club at Keysie and duty was as boring as bat shit, seriously, it was just a big hall in those days and the mumsy Mums gathered in corners and stared at Elle and I in our skimpy outfits and skimpy bodies and I am sure they loathed us. So we had enough and we cooked up a simple plan, Elle would say I was not well and we could leave and at least watch The Young And The Restless at my place, it was an important episode. So we did and we were ages and they Mumsy mums were coldly furious when we got back and I forgot to look sick and there was a fight of the bitch variety and Elle won hers and I won mine lying my head off. And I smoothed it all out and ever after we did our duty but we always loathed it
And suddenly we met a neighbour who was new to the neighbourhood, Libi, older, just returned from Holland with her stunningly handsome husband Con. and she was also unhappily married, the group was growing. She worked after noon shift and the first time I met her she smiled and said in her wog accent (She called herself a wog, don't worry)
"Come to my place, lunch tomorrow"
and she snapped it out like she was angry or something.
I strolled down to her place in the heat, leaving the girls asleep at home. her place was chaos, pots everywhere, dishes covered every bench, the place was destroyed, but she greeted me with delight and placed dish after dish in front of me and told me her hubby was an arrogant bastard and mean with money and she basically hated him.
I just stayed quiet a bit overwhelmed by her manic energy but i liked her she told it like it was and we were instant friends and I took care of her kids and she mine and she was so funny. Bob didn't like me being friends with her nor Elle after a while so they had to come around when he wasn't home and suddenly we were having lunches together when libi was up from her sleep in from shift work. We discussed husbands of course and I was The Stepford Wife of them, making out my life was just perfect and fine and my kids were wonderful. I couldn't tell them what was going on. Not the violence anyway, that was not happening, would get better, it wouldn't happen again blah blah blah.
And one day we had some male friends all of a sudden, Grace brought some rellies and we would all be talking and I introduced one of my male friends to Elle, who happened to call in to fix something and from that we made a leap to all of us girls going out together to clubs on thursday nights together and Saturday nights so libi could come. and we were no longer stay at home mums but beautiful intriguing women, well thats what the blokes told us anyway!
