Sunday 10 April 2011

Monday Memories . Siblings. & Sunday Scribblings Befuddled.




G'Day,
Monday memories and it is Sunday. Oh well story of my life ha ha. I can always pretend that I am early for tomorrow, But that would be lying.
Ok, our suggestion this week was to write a memory about our siblings. Check out the link on my side bar.
I am cheating this week as I think I can fit this story into the Sunday Scribblings prompt of Befuddled. So after I click a few more buttons....here tis' too.
I have two sisters. Both are older than me. My sister Thelma and my sister Ellen.
My sister Ellen and I have not always liked each other, but as she is closer in age to myself we had more time together.
I just had a look at Josie's writings and she has included the letter "A" in hers.
So my scribblings this time round are about a trip my sister Ellen and I shared to Adelaide when we were probably 18 and 21 years old.
Ellen had a little blue Gemini car, so, freedom. Freedom of an income and the yearning to jump in her little car and just GO! What a lovely time of life to be in, no familial ties to bind as later in life with children and career.
She invited me to go on a trip to check out Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, and a city we had not been to. So after her shift at the local hospital in Wagga, our home town, we jumped in the car and went. Out across the bare flat plains, dodging roos and emus and a million semi trailers on the highway at dusk, south bound. We chose a car to follow, thinking that, we had company if anything should happen, no mobile phones in those days. We followed along behind that car for miles and miles along the highway between Narrandera and Hay and they slowed suddenly but didn't pull off the road for a while. We pulled up behind them to see if they were ok, as you do in the outback, and found a man and his wife who explained that they were ok but had hit a roo which luckily had got off the road before we hit it and we hadn't seen it. Their car was dinted but otherwise ok mechanically.
Anyway we kept driving through the night.
At around 1.00 in the morning we came through another small town and missed a turn off and were driving around trying to find our way when a police car pulled us over and questioned us as to what we were doing. They escorted us out of town and pointed us in the right direction, after checking out and flirting with my sister, she was a very pretty girl. Hahaha.
Bored and tired from driving , as we passed through another small town Ellen wound the window down a yelled out to the sleeping houses." Linda Palmer stinks". So I wound down my window in reply and yelled " Ellen Palmer stuffs her bras" hahahah.
Next morning at dawn we sighted the Murray river and being a bit weary decided we would have a morning bath and freshen up. We pulled off the side of the road into a boat launch area and as there was no-one around so early in the morning we both got in the water and had a wash. My sister stripped off and went for a short swim in the nude when a speedboat with fishermen came around the corner and she had to duck down under the water and hide to much giggling and embarrassment. So funny. Sprung!
We stopped at a few wineries before we got to Adelaide and , well I think there are still some photos of that somewhere around. The Barossa valley outside Adelaide is famous for wine, but we didn't have a lot of spending money.
So we eventually reached Adelaide and looked up an old neighbor who we hadn't seen for years . They had been good friends with our parents in Darwin.
Then we found a caravan park and put up our nice new tent. In those days we had this idea that we would do the round Australia trip and Ellen had bought a nice tent and we were going to take this little dog we had with us for protection, a tiny little, very friendly Australian terrier. Oh the illusions of youth, lol. We were at Glenelg and not far from the beach.
We had a bit of drive around and look at the city buildings and statuary. Climbing on a few of them and taking photos and laughing irreverently at ourselves. One photo , which I still have has Ellen sitting on a big garbage bin, very modern in appearance with a slanting top and a hole in the center of it which we thought looked like a toilet. Hahaha.
That night we went to a night club type place in the city called the Akaba or something like that. Music and flashing lights and boys and crowded etc.
We had a look around some of the shops in the city, went in one door and came out another door into another street and were lost for a while. Ah country kids.
Next day we played tourist again and had a ride on a boat that takes tourists up and down the Torrens river near the center of the city. Pretty water lilys flowered and scattered across the surface of the calm waters and wild and domestic ducks scavenged for tidbits from the tourists, and cool green perfect lawns to lie on in the summer swelter. I can't really remember the trip back across the plains and home again. It was a long time ago. A long time.
The photo above is of my sister Ellen, taken last year. She will kill me for this one Hahahahahahahahahahah, love it.
Bye.
Love Linda.

7 comments:

Josie Two Shoes said...

Purely delightful!! Once again you've taken us along on a fabulous trip of young adulthood. Ahhh, how free - and wise - we all felt back then! The fact that you remember it so clearly shows how fun it was, what an adventure for two country girls! And yes, your sister is going to kill you for this picture, and it makes me laugh! Thank you so much, Linda, for your wonderful contributions to Monday Memories. You aren't late, just saving the best for last! :-)

Jae Rose said...

Sisters are the best (though Ellen might not be thinking that right now)..love how you share these memories with us..you have a big, big heart..Jae :)

Shadow said...

what a lovely story about youth and innocence.

Old Egg said...

Glad the car made it across the Hay plains. I remember it being a really mind numbing trip in in the 70's and 80's going the other way to Canberra and Sydney. Glad you enjoyed the stay especially as I live in Glenelg now. Really enjoyed the travelogue.

Annie Jeffries said...

What a wonderfl story. Hope you survived the photo posting. LOL

Granny Smith said...

What a delightful account! Otto and I and two of our sons lived in Australia for a year, and I remember a road trip from our home in Melbourne to Adelaide, and camping out under the stars (no tent - just sleeping bags) and waking to the morning parade of beautifully colored birds to bare white branches above us.

The Orphichex said...

Love tthis