Page 10 - Publication2

Oh what a lovely breeze!

Growing up in Green Valley was not that bad- from a kid’s perspective. There was a community spirit and life was a lot
simpler. That said we were living in housing commission and as the great twentieth Century poet said – “the times, they
are a changing”. And so it was that Mum and Dad were able to buy a place in the semi rural paradise of The Oaks.
When I say place I mean a block of 5 acres – sans house. It was a start and Mum and dad became owner builders. Details
of the associated adventures of that chapter will be forthcoming. However this story is in the very early days when the
block was just a piece of uncleared scrub full of wombat holes and tea tree (we don’t mention the red bellies). Needless
to say for all of us it was the greatest place on Earth and it was hard to stay away. So every opportunity we went up and
had a camp. Dad and mum would cook food in the fire pit and we would clear a bit more scrub. At dusk we would sit
around the fire and dream up grandiose plans for the block.
Sometimes we would just go up to the block for a picnic lunch and enjoy the breeze. Yes the lovely breeze that mum
would tell all and sundry. We would set up a fly screen tent as the flies obviously thought it was a great spot too and
would gather in their thousands. Perhaps the word had spread about dad’s fantastic drovers camps. Whatever it was the
flies were persistent so we invested in a fly screen tent. All was set up and lunch was being served when one on mum’s
lovely breezes sprang up. It wasn’t long before we were grabbing poles as the tent started to lift. We are all fairly strong
boys but not even our combined strength could withstand Mother Nature and the tent gradually tore apart and disap-
peared down the paddock. Amazingly however the flies remained.