Hindhope Caravan Park
Without Prejudice
On the first night we arrived at Hindhope,for a months long stay, I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent request from Yvette to take her to the toilet block.
We had arrived in the darkness not knowing what to expect. Home left behind in Melbourne for the Summer shores of camping at Rosebud. the cabin was tiny and airless but was adequate for our needs it was more or less a glorified tent.
An enamel sink in one corner and bunk beds, old drawers and a wardrobe. Unbearably hot during the day but we intended to spend all our time outside of it.
My husband had stayed back in Melbourne to work and we had fled a boring old house in Keysborough for the wilds of Rosebud. The traditional Aussie break coming to us at last, a summer holiday on the safe foreshore of the Bay.
I grabbed Yvette's hand and a torch and we walked out into the night sky. Once we reached the bright lights of the toilet block I could see why Yvette was agitated. She was covered from head to toe in Measles. And we were there amongst families for the entire month, no thought of going home entered my brain.
So the next day I told all the people in the communal kitchen at breakfast. we had our own table, a distressed timber construction with long bench seats on either side. The seats were given to be a bit rough and had to be carefully navigated to avoid lethal splinters to the unwary.
We had our own fridge with a tiny freezer and in the massive kitchen there were enough cookers to feed 24 families. I gave all the families the information about Yvette's condition and they all agreed it was fine for her to come in with their children.
She didn't leave the cabin for days and I had to nurse her sore eyes and bathe her head with water from the sink but she was fine again after a few days. Then Debbie went down with it and Alena and Lauren didn't as they had had the measles injection. It was a disastrous start to what would become a regular holiday for us, always just us. No hubby.
By the following week we were really into the swing of things. Fun coming from the other families and their kids and every night at dinner we met up and compared the days happenings.
I took out other kids my girls had befriended and other Mums and Dad took mine with them to Arthurs seat or the Carnival with it's swinging Pirate Ship. Coming back hot and sticky with pink and green fairy floss.
From then on we did everything, exploring the foreshore, swimming in the warm water that was almost bath like in its temperature and it was always safe as it was mostly shallows with little ripples that could be body surfed by a 10, 9, 5 and 3 year old child.
We went to the hot concrete pool and the girls didn't like it and we left preferring the sea and sand and the parks with their swings and see saws. But the nights were the best when the kids were sent to faraway tables to play cards and the adults would play Trivial Pursuit or cards and get merrily drunk.
My drink de jour, Spritzers of white wine and soda and ice. I smoked then as did all the others and puffing away and drinking we would endeavour to answer the questions seriously. we would retire to the cabins we all had as late as possible and as tipsy as possible so we could sleep in the hot boxes.
The kids never had a problem sleeping, however, worn out from helter skelter during the day, wind, sun and sea burning their cheeks and then turning them mahogany brown. their Father having olive skin and the girls lucky enough to inherit it.
We were well off then, the girls having started at Mentone Girls Grammar School that year. Alena a babyish 4 and a half. She was in the special pre prep class and had no clue how to behave and pooed on their lawn one day. Boy did she get ticked off for that. I thought it was funny.
Lauren disgraced herself there when we went to the Fete and Pet show. Lauren came tottering down the steps after falling in the latest Science project, a rank pool full of slime and tadpoles.
I was at the time holding our gorgeous tabby, Muhammad while he was judged and out of the corner of my eye I could see a little green figure tottering down the steps and I thought,
"That has to be one of mine, and of course it was. Lauren trailing ribbons of green slime like something that had just crawled out of the primordial ooze. there was much genteel consternation and I cleaned her up as well as I could.
I could just imagine all the other posh Mum and Dads were thinking who was this person who had a child that pooed on the revered lawn and one who couldn't sit still long enough to behave herself. Debbie took the drippng and green Lauren to the car and cleaned her up as best she could while I waited in the audience with a big placid cat draped over my shoulder.
Muhammad was originally going to be called Cassius as I loved that name but a neighbour came to live a few doors down and had a beautiful Cassius, A sleek talking Siamese who was just magnificent. he often came to visit from his deaf girls home. Yowling all the way and prowling and schmoozing our house and yard. he would never stay just wander in and out as was his wont and he was pretty sure he was getting a good time at our place.
So we had to call him Muhammad as that what Cassius Clay had named himself and he became Hummy. And was the best cat we ever had, he draped a lot. A big boy tom, speyed, He lounged on top of the TV, always, sometimes his tail swishing across the screen like a hairy metronome.
But when you picked him up he draped down your front and back like a pliable piece of rubber, no bones, seemingly, a scarf of cat. he was just placid and lovable worming his way into our hearts along with his twin sister, Veronica, Mohammad Ali's wife's name.
We had discovered them in the back yard hearing tiny mews coming from the grass, twin newborn kittens, no more than a few hours old, no Mother cat to be seen. So we fed them milk with eye droppers and for comfort sucked on the teats of our male bull terrier, Grunt.
They thrived of course as we knew they would and were our pets for years.
As Deb was leading a towel wrapped Lauren back to our group the prizes were announced and Hummy received the Prize for best behaved animal on the day and triumphant we carried him back to the car, no basket necessary for Hummy
He was like a dog in some ways as he would follow me to the Milk Bar, wait patiently at the other side of the busy road for me and then run in front of me all the way home.
The girls took him for walks on a lead. He would happily allow Lauren to dress him in baby dress and bonnet and place him in her stroller and she would also take him for walks. He never protested just went along with everything expected of him. A very satisfied cat.
Anyway once again, I digress, back to Hindhope. I can view it now in my memory encased and trapped in amber. the ambient amber of memory of summers long gone and no matter how old you are our remembered Summers are the some of the best memories ever.
After we all settled into our routines at Hindhope, shopping at the Kmart Supermarket that Hindhope Park bordered, trips into Rosebud proper to visit the bakery with it's elephants foot buns, chock full of apple and custard and iced on the top. carted away in its white paper bag to be devoured with relish later.
We met all our Hindhope neighbours doing the same thing and it turned into party if we all wondered down to the Ice cream shop and sat at tables and ordered our cold drinks. We all trailed to the hippy shop near Kmart and I bought long harem pants in navy, drawstring waist tied at the ankles with a slight slit at the shin.
I loved them and the top that went with them and wore them everywhere, feeling very exotic and mysterious. I was only in my early 30's with a disgracefully neglectful husband in all things love or romance and I was overwhelmed with a need for company.
I wasn't about to be snaffled up or anything < iwas just looking around with curiosity for once, not feeling as restricted in motherhood as I had been for years. In two more years Lauren would be at school and instead of being her whole world it would become a time of "Mrs Brown said". leaving me behind in the Mother hood world.
I hadn't really been on holiday on my own before with just the girls either and I coped unbelieveably, measles and all. Better than I hoped. People seemed to like me and sought my opinion on things. I was a bit shy at first then the wine helped and the easy going conversations, mainly about kids, schools and money.
There were men there, young Dads of 3 or 4 kids who were also in their 30's. One man a single father. A noticed him watching me every so often but I labourered the fact I was married, my hubby just wasn't with me. he still pursued me and challenged me to a game of tennis.
The hot dry courts the last thing I wanted to be on and I couldn't resist a challenge, so we played and he was very good, he couldn't beat me at swimming however. I watched carefully what I ate or drank at that time. I wanted to lose a few more pounds and he asked one of the other ladies to tell me not to, I was a perfect size.
Hmmmmmm
I was hovering around 52 kilos but wanted to be under 50 kilos for some insane reason. I was the thinnest I had ever been after Lauren was weaned off the breast going down to 49 kilos but when I looked in the mirrors at the gym I wouldn't look at myself, convinced I was still fat, all I saw was the fat, and then I would weigh myself on the scales and I always had to be 49 kilos.
But strangely I still felt fat. I also had a rotten time dealing with all 4 kids under 6 and a hard husband and ended up with psoriasis in my scalp, alopecia in clumps, psoriasis on my elbows and a NS skin rash. N S standing for non specific rash. Nerves, probably.
But good old Tony as that was the tennis players name was good for my self esteem and I appreciated it. If only husbands realised that young wives need heaps of self esteem and practical help and still the romance they long for. The trouble is their husbands are going through the setting up phase of their life and that puts everything else on the back burner.
And I was young and had been tied up so long at home, I had girlfriends but their ways were a bit "much" for me, 2 or 3 flagrantly dating other men while married. I was a little stay at home mouse. Not saying boo to a goose in case it earned me a back hander.
I liked this man back but reasoned I did not like blonde men, had never been attracted to blonde men and then remembered my first love. Derek Harper, the Merchant Seaman. He had been olive brown skin and blonde haired with bright blue eyes as well.
But for that time and that summer he made me aware of my power as a woman, my attractiveness as a woman. I didn't quite trust him so kept him at arms length for the duration, not that after a while I wasn't tempted but kept my own counsel.
More importantly when I played Trivial I kept winning and one of the married men insisted that I was really smart and should think about further study. I had left school in form 4 at Thornes House Grammar at 15 mainly as Dad was unemployed and there was " no money". no money being a screaming problem to my Mum. She went nuts when there was "no money"
I had left school but knew I could have probably gone on to Form 6 and passed. the man telling me was at Uni doing his Teaching degree and I could trounce him at Trivial and I had no idea where the answers came from. I just had a good memory I guess.
I knew without saying that my hubby would never let me go back to school as we had a business to run and the business was everything at that time our family livelihood. Bob could always come up with the goods and as I had offered to leave him so many times he bought me more and more things. Sometimes it was like he threw money in the door and ran.
I had little or no independence from him, he kept the reins very tight, financially, emotionally and physiaclly. he had already demonstrated his Alpha Male dominance of us and how he wanted it kept that way.
To be continued........
On the first night we arrived at Hindhope,for a months long stay, I woke in the middle of the night with an urgent request from Yvette to take her to the toilet block.
We had arrived in the darkness not knowing what to expect. Home left behind in Melbourne for the Summer shores of camping at Rosebud. the cabin was tiny and airless but was adequate for our needs it was more or less a glorified tent.
An enamel sink in one corner and bunk beds, old drawers and a wardrobe. Unbearably hot during the day but we intended to spend all our time outside of it.
My husband had stayed back in Melbourne to work and we had fled a boring old house in Keysborough for the wilds of Rosebud. The traditional Aussie break coming to us at last, a summer holiday on the safe foreshore of the Bay.
I grabbed Yvette's hand and a torch and we walked out into the night sky. Once we reached the bright lights of the toilet block I could see why Yvette was agitated. She was covered from head to toe in Measles. And we were there amongst families for the entire month, no thought of going home entered my brain.
So the next day I told all the people in the communal kitchen at breakfast. we had our own table, a distressed timber construction with long bench seats on either side. The seats were given to be a bit rough and had to be carefully navigated to avoid lethal splinters to the unwary.
We had our own fridge with a tiny freezer and in the massive kitchen there were enough cookers to feed 24 families. I gave all the families the information about Yvette's condition and they all agreed it was fine for her to come in with their children.
She didn't leave the cabin for days and I had to nurse her sore eyes and bathe her head with water from the sink but she was fine again after a few days. Then Debbie went down with it and Alena and Lauren didn't as they had had the measles injection. It was a disastrous start to what would become a regular holiday for us, always just us. No hubby.
By the following week we were really into the swing of things. Fun coming from the other families and their kids and every night at dinner we met up and compared the days happenings.
I took out other kids my girls had befriended and other Mums and Dad took mine with them to Arthurs seat or the Carnival with it's swinging Pirate Ship. Coming back hot and sticky with pink and green fairy floss.
From then on we did everything, exploring the foreshore, swimming in the warm water that was almost bath like in its temperature and it was always safe as it was mostly shallows with little ripples that could be body surfed by a 10, 9, 5 and 3 year old child.
We went to the hot concrete pool and the girls didn't like it and we left preferring the sea and sand and the parks with their swings and see saws. But the nights were the best when the kids were sent to faraway tables to play cards and the adults would play Trivial Pursuit or cards and get merrily drunk.
My drink de jour, Spritzers of white wine and soda and ice. I smoked then as did all the others and puffing away and drinking we would endeavour to answer the questions seriously. we would retire to the cabins we all had as late as possible and as tipsy as possible so we could sleep in the hot boxes.
The kids never had a problem sleeping, however, worn out from helter skelter during the day, wind, sun and sea burning their cheeks and then turning them mahogany brown. their Father having olive skin and the girls lucky enough to inherit it.
We were well off then, the girls having started at Mentone Girls Grammar School that year. Alena a babyish 4 and a half. She was in the special pre prep class and had no clue how to behave and pooed on their lawn one day. Boy did she get ticked off for that. I thought it was funny.
Lauren disgraced herself there when we went to the Fete and Pet show. Lauren came tottering down the steps after falling in the latest Science project, a rank pool full of slime and tadpoles.
I was at the time holding our gorgeous tabby, Muhammad while he was judged and out of the corner of my eye I could see a little green figure tottering down the steps and I thought,
"That has to be one of mine, and of course it was. Lauren trailing ribbons of green slime like something that had just crawled out of the primordial ooze. there was much genteel consternation and I cleaned her up as well as I could.
I could just imagine all the other posh Mum and Dads were thinking who was this person who had a child that pooed on the revered lawn and one who couldn't sit still long enough to behave herself. Debbie took the drippng and green Lauren to the car and cleaned her up as best she could while I waited in the audience with a big placid cat draped over my shoulder.
Muhammad was originally going to be called Cassius as I loved that name but a neighbour came to live a few doors down and had a beautiful Cassius, A sleek talking Siamese who was just magnificent. he often came to visit from his deaf girls home. Yowling all the way and prowling and schmoozing our house and yard. he would never stay just wander in and out as was his wont and he was pretty sure he was getting a good time at our place.
So we had to call him Muhammad as that what Cassius Clay had named himself and he became Hummy. And was the best cat we ever had, he draped a lot. A big boy tom, speyed, He lounged on top of the TV, always, sometimes his tail swishing across the screen like a hairy metronome.
But when you picked him up he draped down your front and back like a pliable piece of rubber, no bones, seemingly, a scarf of cat. he was just placid and lovable worming his way into our hearts along with his twin sister, Veronica, Mohammad Ali's wife's name.
We had discovered them in the back yard hearing tiny mews coming from the grass, twin newborn kittens, no more than a few hours old, no Mother cat to be seen. So we fed them milk with eye droppers and for comfort sucked on the teats of our male bull terrier, Grunt.
They thrived of course as we knew they would and were our pets for years.
As Deb was leading a towel wrapped Lauren back to our group the prizes were announced and Hummy received the Prize for best behaved animal on the day and triumphant we carried him back to the car, no basket necessary for Hummy
He was like a dog in some ways as he would follow me to the Milk Bar, wait patiently at the other side of the busy road for me and then run in front of me all the way home.
The girls took him for walks on a lead. He would happily allow Lauren to dress him in baby dress and bonnet and place him in her stroller and she would also take him for walks. He never protested just went along with everything expected of him. A very satisfied cat.
Anyway once again, I digress, back to Hindhope. I can view it now in my memory encased and trapped in amber. the ambient amber of memory of summers long gone and no matter how old you are our remembered Summers are the some of the best memories ever.
After we all settled into our routines at Hindhope, shopping at the Kmart Supermarket that Hindhope Park bordered, trips into Rosebud proper to visit the bakery with it's elephants foot buns, chock full of apple and custard and iced on the top. carted away in its white paper bag to be devoured with relish later.
We met all our Hindhope neighbours doing the same thing and it turned into party if we all wondered down to the Ice cream shop and sat at tables and ordered our cold drinks. We all trailed to the hippy shop near Kmart and I bought long harem pants in navy, drawstring waist tied at the ankles with a slight slit at the shin.
I loved them and the top that went with them and wore them everywhere, feeling very exotic and mysterious. I was only in my early 30's with a disgracefully neglectful husband in all things love or romance and I was overwhelmed with a need for company.
I wasn't about to be snaffled up or anything < iwas just looking around with curiosity for once, not feeling as restricted in motherhood as I had been for years. In two more years Lauren would be at school and instead of being her whole world it would become a time of "Mrs Brown said". leaving me behind in the Mother hood world.
I hadn't really been on holiday on my own before with just the girls either and I coped unbelieveably, measles and all. Better than I hoped. People seemed to like me and sought my opinion on things. I was a bit shy at first then the wine helped and the easy going conversations, mainly about kids, schools and money.
There were men there, young Dads of 3 or 4 kids who were also in their 30's. One man a single father. A noticed him watching me every so often but I labourered the fact I was married, my hubby just wasn't with me. he still pursued me and challenged me to a game of tennis.
The hot dry courts the last thing I wanted to be on and I couldn't resist a challenge, so we played and he was very good, he couldn't beat me at swimming however. I watched carefully what I ate or drank at that time. I wanted to lose a few more pounds and he asked one of the other ladies to tell me not to, I was a perfect size.
Hmmmmmm
I was hovering around 52 kilos but wanted to be under 50 kilos for some insane reason. I was the thinnest I had ever been after Lauren was weaned off the breast going down to 49 kilos but when I looked in the mirrors at the gym I wouldn't look at myself, convinced I was still fat, all I saw was the fat, and then I would weigh myself on the scales and I always had to be 49 kilos.
But strangely I still felt fat. I also had a rotten time dealing with all 4 kids under 6 and a hard husband and ended up with psoriasis in my scalp, alopecia in clumps, psoriasis on my elbows and a NS skin rash. N S standing for non specific rash. Nerves, probably.
But good old Tony as that was the tennis players name was good for my self esteem and I appreciated it. If only husbands realised that young wives need heaps of self esteem and practical help and still the romance they long for. The trouble is their husbands are going through the setting up phase of their life and that puts everything else on the back burner.
And I was young and had been tied up so long at home, I had girlfriends but their ways were a bit "much" for me, 2 or 3 flagrantly dating other men while married. I was a little stay at home mouse. Not saying boo to a goose in case it earned me a back hander.
I liked this man back but reasoned I did not like blonde men, had never been attracted to blonde men and then remembered my first love. Derek Harper, the Merchant Seaman. He had been olive brown skin and blonde haired with bright blue eyes as well.
But for that time and that summer he made me aware of my power as a woman, my attractiveness as a woman. I didn't quite trust him so kept him at arms length for the duration, not that after a while I wasn't tempted but kept my own counsel.
More importantly when I played Trivial I kept winning and one of the married men insisted that I was really smart and should think about further study. I had left school in form 4 at Thornes House Grammar at 15 mainly as Dad was unemployed and there was " no money". no money being a screaming problem to my Mum. She went nuts when there was "no money"
I had left school but knew I could have probably gone on to Form 6 and passed. the man telling me was at Uni doing his Teaching degree and I could trounce him at Trivial and I had no idea where the answers came from. I just had a good memory I guess.
I knew without saying that my hubby would never let me go back to school as we had a business to run and the business was everything at that time our family livelihood. Bob could always come up with the goods and as I had offered to leave him so many times he bought me more and more things. Sometimes it was like he threw money in the door and ran.
I had little or no independence from him, he kept the reins very tight, financially, emotionally and physiaclly. he had already demonstrated his Alpha Male dominance of us and how he wanted it kept that way.
To be continued........
