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Dad came for a drive to Beachport for the October long weekend market. I was so glad he agreed to come.
Mum had been away for almost two weeks over in The Gippsland visiting with and looking after my nephews while they were on school holidays and their parents worked. I dropped in to clean up the house and to make sure he had some homemade food to eat. It's not like he can't cook things for himself, he can, but I like to spoil the old bugger.
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Check out the mutton chops, he's had those for as long as I can remember, since
Tom Jones had them probably, and his trademark hat. It used to be towelling ones :) |
He in turn spoils the grandkids, all of them! He now has more time he is retired and my girls probably get to spend more time with him than the others did, and they adore him.
While we waited for our fish and chips, Dad got them a ball each out of the $2 machine and played with them, they were in hysterics and so was he. He does this thing where he throws his hat on the ground in jest, they crack up at his silliness.
As we ate, Boggy asked Dad about his family in Spain. I had to turn and pretend I was getting something out my bag as I blinked away tears when Dad said he hadn't seen his little brother since the age of seven. My uncle lives in the south of France now. Dad has two sisters still in Spain, and a brother, my Uncle Roger, who lived next door to us growing up. He's still in Australia.
Dad left Spain after his mandatory national service in the army, so he would have been about 21 I think. He spent some time in England, as a porter(yep! I'm thinking Manuel from Fawlty Towers lol) and then came to Sydney in 1964(I think).
Dad has no plans to go back to Spain, he wants to remember it the way it was when he left. I wish he would go back.
On the drive home Dad asked with a laugh in his voice if I remember the Toyota Dyna we used to have. How could I forget! It was a faded rusty red double cabin, tray top truck. It's motor was under the front seat, and I recalled the time smoke started coming from under the seat and there was bedlam as Mum pulled over and five screeching kids jumped out.
I will never forget when we first moved and Dad drove straight through town, like The bloody Clampetts, with furniture piled high. My sister and I sunk down in our seats in the desperate hope no one saw us, with Madness probably coming out of the cassette player. It's the only music I remember hearing in that jalopy.
I then recalled the time the bonnet flew off the Bedford van while we were careering down the highway. Mum had a few choice words about Dad that day. Boggy then chirped in with "What sort of cars did you have?", with a bellowing laugh, which had Dad proudly admitting that he never spent more than $400 on a car. He probably would have got more for his money in the 70s and 80's than he would have now. It's no surprise then just before Mum and Dad sold their business, Mum went out and bought a new Holden, she had waited a lot of years for a brand new car!
Dad went on laughing as he recalled the piglet incident. He had bought a piglet to fatten up and put it in the back of the station wagon in a cardboard box, only to have it escape while waiting at the main traffic lights in the Mount. He says he will never forget the sound of that pig squealing along with five kids and a wife screaming too. Bloody funny......now.
Don't you love it when all the funny family memories get rehashed?
It's one of those special things about being part of a family.
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