Memories

We went to visit my Nanna and Granddad yesterday. They’ve only just finished getting their dining room renovated, their kitchen refitted and new lino’ down since the aftermath of cyclone Larry! What a drawn out saga that was.I hope they are around long enough for Anakin to be able to remember them and that he gets to learn how to walk around the circular coffee table the way all the cousins did. My GreatGrans all made it well into their nineties so I’m hoping they’ll be kickin’ on for ages yet.

My Nanna and Granddad are the best around. They looked after us a lot when we were growing up and we have the best memories of spending the school holidays there. When we compared it with home their place seemed like a veritable palace to me and Nick – I mean they had carpet! And you didn’t have to hook up the tellie to the car battery with alligator clips or get a fire started to have hot water for a shower! We called their bathroom “Hollywood”.

We never had to fend for ourselves at Nanna and Granddad’s – Nanna was never to busy to serve up a good square three meals a day! We’d always take a drive to the creek for a picnic. Me and Nanna would sing all these old show tunes and ditties on the top of our lungs and sing out to passing cars “What’s wrong with ya? Have a go ya Mug!” My sister cringed and thought we were nuts – she had her little spot on the rocks where she would sunbake called “Calm Headquarters.” I’d have a brain freeze headache before too long from the glacial temperatures of the freezing cold water but Nanna would paddle about for ages!

I’ll never forget the way she would always creep her hand around into the back of the car and find one of our skinny little ankles to hold on to or rub. And how they would always make us go for a drive to the beach and we’d have to share a backseat with their stupid red setter “Barsha” who we secretly hated because he would walk right over the tops of our laps to stick his head out of one window, then the other, and his drooly tongue and chops would be flapping around in the wind. Yuk!

She’s told every one of my boyfriends the way we used to do Jazzasize in front of the tellie and I’d always pee myself laughing. I did too.

I love the sound of Ritchie Beno’s voice because it reminds me of being a kid and falling asleep on the carpet in front of the cricket with Granddad tickling my back

They both had a tendancy to come at us with the vacuum cleaner and suck our hair up, right to the scalp. And Nanna was always finding reasons to make us take asprin.

Me and Nick would spend hours on end drawing at the table, I’d draw pictures of Fonzie and Michael Jackson and she’d draw models like the ones on the front of sewing patterns. We made Nanna hire out Annie and Polyanna about 60 times. She should have been in one of those old time musicals herself. She’s got the sweetest voice and she used to strum along on the ukulele and do the hulu hula.

She’d take us up to the golf club for a packet of Samboy chips and all the oldies would go on about my eyelashes and call me Shirley Temple. I would’ve preferred Annie!

Luxurious days without Mum telling us to weed around the fruit trees or empty the scraps or feed the chooks or pick the pawpaws… In Izzy’s words “Oh The Glory of it!” Good times, good times…I hope I can create great memories like mine for my own grandkids one day.