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The Pig’s Arms welcomes our newest contributor – Mr Joe Carli.
This may sound like a bit of sentimental tosh..but hey..
Got the old shack up for sale…years ago, back in around 1980..we (the family / brother, sister and the old folks) chipped in a few hundred quid each and bought this block of land on the peninsula and I built a holiday shack there..sure and it was built on the dirt cheap , out of bits of sticky-tape and bent wire sort of, but it was great for the kids to get away from the city and we’d go fishing, crabbing, that sort of thing…
You’d get there and the first thing is you’d run to claim a bed and throw your clobber in one of the two big rooms with four beds in each, grab a crab-rake or fishing rod from the corner and make for the beach..the shack..and it really was a shack..was just to flop in for the night..cook the tucker in and watch the fire burn and crackle before you hit the sack….it was effing great when the kids were growing up.Some times there’d be half a dozen or so family or friends kids and the parents over for the school hols’ and it would be a whale of a time.sometimes on one of the days, we’d all go to Pt. Vincent to fish off the wharf there and I’d go check out the books and such in the op-shop over the road in St Neot’s church (best find : a first edition USA. of T.E.Lawrence ; “Seven Pillars Of Wisdom” !..heyyyy!) annex and we’d all end the day before going back to the shack with a big butcher’s wrapped paper pack of fish and chips…and how many chips went to the gulls!..the fish being caught local from one of the fishing boats that worked the gulf in the area…geez!..it was good.
But now, the old shack is up for sale, I am getting too old to maintain it..and after the recent hernia operation ( I’ll tell you about it someday!)..it’s all getting a bit too much for me..The kids have grown up into gen Y adults..and are no longer interested in “crab island” or “cockle cove” or “starfish rock”….the shallow flats are “smelly” now..and just who wants to gut and clean their own fish anymore?..indeed…who wants to even go fishing anymore..and the old place has that “old smell” and look..it never was pretty..the old shack..not like the brand-spanking new McMansions popping up all around the little enclave..and NO-WAY will anyone be using the “out-the-back” dunny..even if it is a flush toilet..the spiders?.the dark!? And the rainwater in the old tank..is it safe to drink?…doesn’t everyone nowadays have an ensuite?
And those retirees who came here to getaway from the city…and brought the city expectations with them, expect there to be ; services, no fire risk..and that grey-water run-off from the kitchen and the shower that goes under the trees to keep them watered in the long hot summers..is that a health risk, is it legal?..and if there is a bush fire, those trees around your shack could “catch on fire and send it onto my house..I’m going to ring the council”…But the birds, the animals, you protest..the delicate native lilies and such?..Poison the lot…not a blade of grass..not a hint of verdant cover shall tarnish the scoria and gravel expanse..
It’s the school holidays..and there are no kids fishing..not even an adult walking the beach..nor at the wharf at Pt. Vincent..no kids, no people even to watch the crayfish boat sidle up to the wharf and unload it’s catch..not a curious soul..what has happened..is this a kind of Brave New World of hideaway people..is there no wonder in nature anymore?..no cry of children in a discovery of delight..Do not the parents delight in showing and explaining even with a touch of bullshit those strange shells and twists of sea-worm casings..to tell lurid tales of the goings on there just around the next cliff of “smugglers cove”..of dark nights and pirates and booty and good lord knows what else to see the wide-eyed wonder in their eyes as they fall to sleep snuggled in your lap by the fire in the old shack…
The shack is up for sale now..and I was there to cut the grass and tidy the place up a tad so it’ll look good…But really, it is only being sold for land-value..to be honest..no-one wants a shack anymore..you see..everyone now has an ensuite..the kids their ipads or smart-phones..But you know, as we were walking on the cliff-top road down to the jetty there..for just a moment..be it the wind-blown smell of the mallee trees in flower, or the cry of a gull surfing the air…for just that one short inhale of breath, I was back in that time with the kids and our arms full of fishing gear and buckets and a crab-net and we were all laughing and heading to the jetty and my little boy was saying that he bet he will catch a big, big squid…for just that one short moment..
Time has stolen the years from me , and I could bloody well weep.
Joe’s Bio
Jesus, Emmjay..100 words!?…I’m better talking about other people than myself…: A retired carpenter who’s knocked about this country and some times in Italy….from Italian/Australian parents..My father came here before the 2ndWW..and met my mother up at Blanchetown on the River Murray where she worked as a servant girl on the stations there…Self educated save for a couple years as a mature entry student in Classics at Adelaide Uni’ just as Howard buggered it all up so only did two years a long time ago..I write stories / cameos / poetry of the places and people I have known in my working life..a few also of Italy…I now live in splendid isolation with my partner and her two horses in the mallee…Joe.
Yvonne said:
I hope we see many more of your offerings, Joe. It made good reading.
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freefall852 said:
Thank you, Yvonne..I have been fortunate in that those wonderful years of the late sixties and the seventies afforded me ample opportunity as ‘journeyman carpenter” to work length and breath of this country…and allowed me a chance to save enough to travel to the country of my father’s birth where I have family relatives and was able to absorb some stories and tales from that place..As my bio states, I live in the Murray Mallee ..in an area of marginal farming practices..in what is locally known as “Breakheart country”. Having always been a working-class person, I have absorbed the stories of that class of people who “did it tough” out here and elsewhere…and I have a damn good memory for situations and things..so I hope to be able to post some things here that will be both enlightening and entertaining…
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sandshoe said:
Such an enjoyable read thank you, Joe. Packed with memory that spawns a load of sentimentality and reflection. The reference to the beauty of the natural environment is delicate like a native orchid or lilly. I could not but think of Dad saying to the barrister who saved their home in the ‘The Castle’ he wished he had his words.
Joe, welcome to the Pigs Arms too. Some of us have just been using the pub for years exactly as if we can take it for granted. Lob in when we want. Offer the premises with largesse to others. As if we make the brew and wash the glasses.
Nah. Emmjay does everything.
Joe, please write more for us. Love your humour, but I want to know about the hernia. M’ life’s incomplete. 🙂
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freefall852 said:
Ta for the touches, sandshoe…and as for the hernia…I don’t think anyone wants to really hear about THAT!…
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sandshoeblog said:
Don’t insult me please lol. I speak for the masses. I’m an advocate. Trust me.
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freefall852 said:
Here, sandshoe…I believe you were once an “Adelaide girl”… https://freefall852.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/the-girl-in-the-blue-dress-2/
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freefall852 said:
btw…this piece was put up on The AIMN…quite a while back…I am wont to mention those other couple of blog sites that I have posted some things in the past as I have been in both cases hugely disappointed in them. and many of their commentators.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
… and a few other places too 😊
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freefall852 said:
Like many here, my first posting experiences were with The Drum..on the ABC…where we saw a coterie of RWNJ’s take command of the board until it was futile to even TRY to post…it was a shame really…I remember a couple of thenmaes on this site from there…I went under the pseudo’ of “jaycee” then..
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Mark said:
Nice reflective story Joe, thanks.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
I agree, Mark. Life has changed a lot. I just can’t get my head around our kids disinterest in hands on stuff. If it’s not online it’s not in their world. Sigh.
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algernon1 said:
Gee that picture reminds my of a neighbours holiday house at Bonnells Bay where we would go for holidays occasionally. The weeds the fishing and rock names the secret coves, yes I can relate but then time moved on. The holiday house has given way to more substantial homes.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Pic reminded me of a holiday shack one of my school mates parents had Bateau Bay on the Central Coast. Backyard was sand, bush, mozzies, sandflies and ticks. Perfect holiday destination – but way more fun that East Hills 🙂
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vivienne29 said:
Lovely but sad. Hernias do stuff men up – especially when older (my hubby has had two, one of them this year along with other problems). Population growth certainly ruins places like you describe. It’s a shame. But the memories are terrific.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Life can be a bit of a shit at our age, Viv.
But there can sometimes be a silver lining.
I have a buddy who divorced a fishwife (well, she ran off with a guy 15 years younger). Mate sold the house, bought a Lotus sports car, cracked onto a total babe (who, let’s face it was a gold digger, but who was more than willing to put out for the luxury life).
They went on a world cruise replete with open neck shirts and gold jewellery.
When they got back to OZ, she called it quits. Now he lives a splendid single life, plays a bit of ukulele and enjoys a few beers with the band.
So there IS a Gordon.
No, wait.
That was just a dream – but the guy in the dream looked remarkably familiar 🙂
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vivienne29 said:
Hubby did marry a younger woman – me !
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Big M said:
…with fabulous tits!
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
I recall it was “talents”
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vivienne29 said:
Tits and talents !
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Big M said:
I liked the way your talents filled your blouse!
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