AUSTRALIA'S ORIGINAL AND BEST CAMP OVEN AND OUTDOOR COOKING AND CAMPING FORUM

Reply #290 - Nov 11^th, 2008 at 9:12pm

sooty Offline
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I can remember the days when the local shop had bottles of metho in the fridge with the boot polish placed conveniently alongside.
Early morning would see those more fortunate than I { they had money Cheesy

} waiting outside for the doors to open.
As a youngin my only known use for metho was the old metho stove so I asked mum why we didn't keep our stuff in the fridge like the shop did. "We don't need to was the reply", what she failed to mentioned was that the old man would probably have drunk it if it was cold as he drank everything else including most of his pay packet.

Going back a few years when they first put the purple die in metho I was up at Woolies supermarket with the missus and she wanted some for cleaning. There was none on the shelf and along comes this bloke in a Woolies uniform with manager on his name tag. I pulled him to and asked him if they had any Mentholated Spirit's.
"I will go and check sir"
He gets 10 paces away n I says " Wound mind a cold one if ya have any mate n where da ya keep tha boot polish"
Was about 10 days before the missus spoke to me
True story
Kev

I started out with nothing and still have most of it

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Reply #291 - Nov 11^th, 2008 at 9:25pm

sooty Offline
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Kev and Merle are an old Islander couple in their 80's with whom I am friendly
Merle buys a bottle of Rum and uses a little bit for the Christmas cake. Merle goes away to visit rellies, Kev drinks rum and carefully refills bottle to exact level with cold tea as he knows Merle will have somehow marked to spot. Next Christmas Merle is making the cake, Kevin is resting
'Kebin' no reply cos he knows

'KEBIN'

Gives in 'Yes Merle'
'Does Rum go Mouldy'
'Cause it Friken does, chuck it out , bin there too long, itill ruin ya cake'

I started out with nothing and still have most of it

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Reply #292 - Nov 12^th, 2008 at 6:26am

mikel Offline
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Sooty.
In the team I cooked for were 2 brothers, Gus and Slim (platinum, from the way he walked).

They were bits of winoes, and had their own recipe.
"Lucijet", 1/3 rum, 2/3 port in a flagon bottle, "Bush Blush" 1/3 beetroot juice, 2/3 metho in a lemonade bottle.

Slim was the presser, and in those days a few sheds still had manual presses.
Could that bloke work, and at about 6'6'', with hands like bloody dinner plates could go a bit too!

Was a handy mate to have around if things got a little tetchy, like chatting up the barmaid and you didn't know the cove sitting next to you was her old man! Huh

mikel

life is a bed of gidgee coals and a camp oven

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Reply #293 - Nov 12^th, 2008 at 9:07pm

sooty Offline
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mikel,
Have not heard of the "Bush Blush" brew before.

The real "Lucijet" was a pretty potent bit of stuff. As a poison for foxes and pigs it was much better than the commercial variety "SAP".
Arsenic or arsenick as we called it and cyanide were commonly used with the same care we use to butter our bread along with all the drench and dips we used back then.

A days drenching or dipping would see you covered in the product.
With a spray dip you would be in there under the sprays, picking up fallen stock, or prodding more in, be it sheep or cattle. The Plunge dips would see you swimming half the day with the bastards to either get their heads under or save them from drowning.

Always had a beer bottle of Dip in the saddle bag for the flyblown sheep, cut the maggot invested wool off with the pocket knife and apply the poison .

You would eat smoko or dinner with maybe a quick splash on the hands if near some water, and now when I think back it is a wonder we are still alive to remember how good the old days were.

Wouldn't workplace health and safety have had a ball back then?
Cheers, Kev

I started out with nothing and still have most of it

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Reply #294 - Nov 14^th, 2008 at 9:01pm

sooty Offline
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An 8 hour day was unheard of when I was working on stations as a young fella.
Depending weather it was mustering, shearing, crutching, lamb marking, branding, fencing or whatever we worked from sunrise to sundown with no penalty rates just a fixed weekly wage, mostly 7 days a week.
No smoko breaks just diner when you lit a small fire and boiled the quartpot , added the amount of tea and sugar to compensate for the water quality [at times you went to the other side of the waterhole to get away from the dead animal in the water] No flouride there Cheesy

Eat your hot mutton sanger with pickles that had been bouncing around in the saddle bag since dawn. What was food poisoning back then?
Work till dark then kill a sheep, shearing time was 2 or 3 depending on the cook, hang it then arise well before dawn to cut it up and be ready for work at sunrise.
$15 a week with keep to chase those woolly fly blown bastards who I eventually came to call the ENEMY.
Most of the cattle had never seen a white man so were a little bit wild, ended up trapping what we could and shot the rest. sleeping out under the stars in your swag
Hard days and I loved every minute of it.
Now days if the ipod or mobile goes flat is a drama , I listened to Neil Armstrong land on the moon on a state of the art transistor radio while mustering the enemy.
Jesus I am in a reminiscing mood tonight, miss the good old days
Kev Cry

I started out with nothing and still have most of it

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Reply #295 - Nov 14^th, 2008 at 9:09pm

Stew Offline
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The worst thing about sheep is the the last one you have to catch in a day is as fresh and as strong as the first one. Not good when there are hundreds on em...... Sad

Fly blown or not, they dont like it when you grag em and there is always one ewe that is as cranky as a hornet on will have a go at ya.... til you tip them over

What was that stuff called KLM? Looked like milky water.

Stew

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Reply #296 - Nov 15^th, 2008 at 11:03am

sooty Offline
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Kills lice and maggots Wink

I started out with nothing and still have most of it

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Reply #297 - Nov 16^th, 2008 at 7:36pm

Derek Offline
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1971 and a very much younger Derek was just turning 19. The Vietnam War was well and truly being lost but Australia was still sending 19 year old draftees over that way to die needlessly.

Arrived home from work one day to find that dreaded letter from Her Majesty's Government basically telling me that my time was up and that I would be in the next intake of conscripts to be sent off to Asia. "Do not leave the country and do not change address and wait for further instructions" is what they told me. Yes I was being drafted.

19 years old. To young to vote and to young to drink but old enough to be sacrificed. Well as fate would have it there was at that time a big push by the people to stop sending our troops away and ultimately good old Gough came into power and it was all stopped.

For many though the draft was a death sentence. Those who fought the draft drifted around the countryside and a lot ended up in the hinterland surrounding Nimbin in northern New South Wales and a community was formed of drop-outs and hippies as they were called.

It became the marijuana capital of the country and was always in the news. People my age thought it a great place where there was free love and free drugs for all.

Why all this nostalgia you might ask.

Well today I drifted back up the hills towards Nimbin to take a look and see what had changed since those many years ago. What did I find.

I found the same type of people still there, the drug addicts, the unwashed and the same shops and stalls selling just about the same stuff as in the 70's.

Did it bring back good memories. No it didn't. I felt out of place as people with blank looks on their faces gazed through me. The sweet sickly never to be forgotten smell of smouldering hashish hang over the town.

As I was wondering along the footpath a car of scruffy young guys and girls (I guess they could have been me many years ago) pulled up alongside me and started to get out of the car. They were preceded by a cloud of hash smoke and one of them attempted to hug me. At that stage I looked at my phone and realised I had no mobile coverage so headed for my car and out of there.

I did take a few photos though in the rain and while they have not turned out the best here are a couple for those who have never been there

Retired
Camp Oven Cook

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Reply #298 - Nov 16^th, 2008 at 7:42pm

sooty Offline
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Perhaps this is more a Galah thread Derek, I can connect with you on this only in a different enviroment
Kev

I started out with nothing and still have most of it

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Reply #299 - Nov 16^th, 2008 at 7:51pm

Derek Offline
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sooty wrote on Nov 16^th, 2008 at 7:42pm:

Perhaps this is more a Galah thread Derek, I can connect with you on this only in a different environment
Kev

Yep, moved it.

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