A BATHTUB IN THE DESERT

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Zondrae
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Re: A BATHTUB IN THE DESERT

Post by Zondrae » Thu Nov 25, 2010 9:48 pm

Evening all,
I have been looking for some particular shots of our various camps at Lightning Ridge and I came on some photos of Wayne and his younger brother having a wash in pouring rain. After a summer storm, the tank was overflowing, so we unhooked a pipe and the boys had a shower in the gushing liquid. Yes, soap and all. Wayne's brother was living with us at the time. He stayed for a couple of years then met a lady and disappeared. We haven't seen him now for almost 11 years. If anyone meets a bearded character, with a rather crooked nose and one eye, named Max, ask him if he is Wayne King's brother and tell him to get in touch. Although I'm not sure he will have anyone's phone numbers. Better get him to have someone contact me through this site with an address for him. Would be a nice Christmas surprise to know he is still in the land of the living. Last we heard he was living round Brisbane.

All a bit sad really. I guess there is a poem here somewhere.
Zondrae King
a woman of words

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Dave Smith
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Re: A BATHTUB IN THE DESERT

Post by Dave Smith » Thu Nov 25, 2010 9:55 pm

Mate I’ve been there, coming in to Laverton or Leonora if you went straight to the pub before the caravan park you could always get a place at the bar. :twisted:

TTFN 8-)
I Keep Trying

Terry
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Re: A BATHTUB IN THE DESERT

Post by Terry » Thu Nov 25, 2010 10:41 pm

G/day Heather,
It's uncanny isn't you're getting floods etc, yet it's as dry as chips over here.Oh well at least you wont have to water the garden.
Mind you, we're only allowed to use sprinklers once a week at the moment.

Hi Zondrae,
Max sounds like the sort of bloke who could easily be wandering around the back blocks somewhere, I'll keep a look out just in case.
I have a cousin over in Qld. somewhere (Barry) I'd love to catch up with him again also.
We used to sometimes put a siphon into the tanks if they were full enough and rig up a bushman's shower, I've also stood out in a downpour and had a wash as well, a bit scary though with lightning flashing all around.

Dave,
I know what you mean mate, it's a bit like the parting of the Red Sea isn't it, and not because the locals were being friendly either.

Cheers Everybody - Terry

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thestoryteller
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Re: A BATHTUB IN THE DESERT

Post by thestoryteller » Sat Nov 27, 2010 7:40 am

I guess when you don't get too many visitors Terry you get used to what you smell like.

I remember in my younger days going out to Hungerford on the Qld., New South border and being part of a team to build a power line to the town and put it on power.

When it came to bath time, there was a shed with a tub and a half inch piece of pipe running up the wall and then over the tub with a coke can tied to it with some holes in it.
The water from the Paroo was as red as red and you felt that you were dirtier than before you got in.

We eventually found a turkeys nest with a windmill that overflowed down the track a ways and decided to tub up there each ave.

I reckon it would be an interesting book if someone told the many ways in which folk tub up. Maybe call it Tubbing Up.

Old Henry Lawson once tramped to Hungerford and wrote a short story about it.



The Storyteller.
Some days your the pidgeon and other days the statue.

Terry
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Re: A BATHTUB IN THE DESERT

Post by Terry » Sat Nov 27, 2010 9:40 am

G/day Merv,
I spent a bit of time in Qld. when I was a young bloke. I was with a mate and we'd get a job here and there as we moved around, we ended up spending a bit of time at Ayr (I think that's how you spell it) and we were staying in a rough sort of boarding house. If you wanted a shower you used to climb up onto an open air platform which had a sort of little picket type enclosure that was just high enough to hide your private parts from onlookers. The water used to come down direct from a tank the was on a tower about fifty foot up in the air and it was freezing cold. From memory we used to call the place the blood house and I could also write a book about some of the goings on there.

Cheers Terry

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thestoryteller
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Re: A BATHTUB IN THE DESERT

Post by thestoryteller » Sat Nov 27, 2010 9:55 am

Spent a couple of years in Ayr when about 9 or 10. Every house had a windmill in those days. Lived in Munro street, but it's all changed around that area now.

Those were the days when you scored a 100 in the backyard or play rounders on the side of the road with all the kids in the neighbourhood.


The Storyteller
Some days your the pidgeon and other days the statue.

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Bellobazza
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Re: A BATHTUB IN THE DESERT

Post by Bellobazza » Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:16 pm

The mention of backyard cricket reminds me of a thread on the "old" forum discussing the many and varied uses that the old kero tins were put to in days gone by. I could be wrong ( I mostly am ), but I don't think mention was made of their service as makeshift wickets. You didn't need "ground-effects" microphones to know when the cherry made contact with an empty kero tin, eh!
In my neighbourhood, a kid who owned his own cricket bat was king. Ahh, the good old days! :cry:

Cheers, Will.
"Each poet that I know (he said)
has something funny in his head..." CJD

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