Billy Jack

This time last week Lib and I were in our campervan at Cervantes for our last night on the road before returning to Perth for the weekend. The camp kitchen at the RAC caravan park had to be seen to be believed so new and flash were all the facilities there.

There was a mountain of paperwork and emails to attend to on our return but I will try to copy and paste an email from Rickyralph and my reply as I feel it will provide a valid update in precis of the last few weeks and some of my current thoughts. I know RR will not mind me sharing to a wider readership.

RM

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Yesterday, 7:01 PM

You

G'day Mate,

                          Looking forward to hearing you regale stories of your holiday west. I've been trying to get a dvd of the 1971 classic " Billy Jack " but to no avail. Would love to see it after all these years. Did you know that Tom Laughlin was actually married to the freedom school teacher Delores Taylor in the movie. I didn't know that. Tom Laughlin died in 2013, aged 82 years. He was married to Delores for 60 years. Back in the 60's/70's he opened his own freedom school which was a big hit and still going. He was an activist and did a lot of good work helping people all his life. He ran for president in 2000,2004 and 2008. At the time hollywood didn't like his take on the movie and wanted to change some things so he bit the bullit and went alone changing nothing. The rest is history.

                                                                                       RR

C

Carey

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Today, 11:42 PM

RE BILLY JACK 

I recall that I much liked that movie and the theme song 'One Tin Soldier'. Thinking about it brings memories back. We were at the drive-in I think Toorak, to watch it for the second time. Before it started we were buying food and bumped into Mike Pfifer's parents. I remember saying to Mr Pfifer that it was a great movie. Several times over the years I have wondered if they enjoyed it, and also why they were at the drive-in to watch it. I think Mrs Pfifer had a drinking problem and maybe that was Mr P's way of getting her out of the routine. Funny the things you think of. Of course that was the last time I saw them and they are probably both dead now. More than a decade later and when I was planning to go to to a Camberwell reunion thing I tracked Mike Pfifer's number from the contact list and rang, only to find from his wife that Mike had recently died from cancer. I would have told you this before. At the time I rang, Mike's father was there visiting his grandkids and she put him on. I didn't really know what to say and felt a bit of a goose. I think he told me his wife had died and he lived on the Gold Coast. Life has its sad side.

I often suffer with some "blues" when these thoughts come back to me about things from the past. There are many things I'm not happy about concerning the past, things I regret and would like to have my time again to correct my actions or do so much better. And things I would have liked to have said to people before they passed. I manage to quickly get back on top of it, a good technique I use is to run the jingle of the "The Beverley Hillbillies" through...."Now listen to my story of a man named Jed...etc etc". It seems to blow away my blues  and make me realize that as young people we were/are thrust into a world and situations that left/leave us swimming to stay afloat and not go under.

And that we did Pilgrim, and there's no point recriminating over the past. We have learned, survived and have acquired more savvy. Not perfect by any means, but less mistakes now and more regard for other people and the plight and feelings of others. And importantly, we are much less vulnerable to bullshit.

Yes our trip was fantastic, loved every minute of it. It has been a hard week, returning Monday evening, two big work days Tues Wed then a lot of running around today tidying up many loose ends. A big day picking stuff tomorrow to finish off the week's orders as I did none today.

On our trip, after a night at a B+B (Ascot on Swan) in Perth quite close to the airport, and picking up our camper the next morning, we did two and a half days driving to get to Coral Bay just south of Exmouth. We stayed there three nights as we felt it was so beautiful and to go further north would be further to come back. From there we went back south for two nights at Denham, which we loved also, then south to Kalbarri for two nights before going to Cervantes for our last night with the van. Cervantes is only two hours or so from Perth and we did this as we were to get the camper back before 3pm. We did so and by 2pm were in a cab to take us to our appartment in West Perth which was excellent for two nights as we enjoyed Perth for the weekend and rested up. We bussed out to our same B+B near the airport for Sunday night, by this time feeling that Terry and Evelyn the proprietors were old friends as they made us so comfortable and drove us to restaurants and picked us up at the airport on arrival and took us out there to depart.

It was a great trip.

All My Trials Lord

I worked well all week. Always so much to do. It was good, I knocked over a lot of things.

Come Thursday night Gord said " Hey Dad, we could have pizza tonight. I don't have to go to the footy club, there's a bye this week, so I don't have to get home by six."

So I rang Lib when I finished work and was about to go home. "Hey mate, if you would rather not do the steak sandwiches tonight and have pizza instead, we can do that as it would suit Gord. We can do the steak sandwiches tomorrow."

"OK" she said. "I don't mind."

"Gord wants to go to Pakenham, got his mind set on a 'Bubba's pizza."

" I like 'Dominoes', they're cheap but good, get a thin and crispy base."

Now there's a perfectly good pizza shop in Emerald which I like very much but I bowed to the want of others. So in the dark we drove to Pakenham, the back way via Split Rock Rd and Toomuc Valley Rd. I ordered the pizza at Dominoes then dropped Gord off at Bubbas, went to get fuel, picked up the Dominoes pizza then went back to Bubbas. It was by now nearing 6.30pm.

The Dominoes pizza was very light in the hand when I picked it up so I was doubtful it was enough for me and Lib, so i said to Gord, "Just wait a minute while I get a few steamed dimmies from the noodle shop, I'm starving hungry and this pizza feels like it's not enough." I thought I'd go mad smelling the pizza all the way home while hungry.

The dimmies were good as I drove home. I came up behind the Pak to Gembrook bus and followed it slowly all the way up the hill and round all the corners, patiently now as I had had something to eat. The bus stopped in the middle of the road at the Bessie Creek Rd corner to let someone off even though it was not a bus stop. I didn't try to go around. I couldn't see if there might be car coming the other way. The cars behind me all did the same, patiently waiting, probably thinking the same as me. "We'll be home soon, just take it easy."

All the way I followed the bus. Just when we got near Gembrook's main street, as the bus was about to turn left, a ute came hairing around the corner towards us, accelerating. There was the dreaded smack on the windscreen as a stone hit the glass.

"Fuck."

I have windscreen cover on my insurance policy, but they only allow you one claim a year and I made one in January. An expensive pizza, about $800.

I try. I really try. But bad luck is just bad luck. Any change to the sequence of events that would have prevented delay would have meant that I would not have been there when the dickhead in the ute did his speed thing.

It's OK. I'm live and well. Worse things happen and people die all the time from bad luck, wrong place wrong time. What's a busted windscreen in comparison?

Happy New Year

We are a week and a half past the winter solstice and have endured ten days of miserable cold weather with dull days of wet air, mist fog and drizzle and near freezing night temperatures. Last night when I got home at about 6pm I checked the thermometer when I fed Pip, it was 6C. When I fed her this morning it said 0 degrees C.

The floor of the house has been so cold that slippers are essential. Even the open fire has struggled to lift our spirits and the wood is damp and cold despite being under cover for weeks.

But this morning the sun is shining brilliantly, I'm waiting for the machine to finish its cycle so I can put the washing on the line and not just dry, but absorb the sunshine. Pip's bedding is already sucking it in on the deck and Pip is stretched out on the carpet by the window.

I told Lib this morning as she went to work to be extra careful and drive very slowly on downhills and corners, there could be ice on the road. Gord has gone to the local footy, Emerald versus Gembrook, always of great local importance. He's team manager of the reserves and it worries him doing all the form filling and organizing but it keeps him involved and gives him a social life that he possibly wouldn't have otherwise.

Last Sunday he took me to a function at the footy club, the guest speaker was former player manager Ricky Nixon. Boy o boy did he have a story to tell. I have to say I admire his courage to stand up and talk about the depths to which he sank and the huge social disgrace and losses he suffered financially, personally, and to his health. He started his talk asking the crowd if any one in the audience had never mucked up or done the wrong thing, please put your hand up. Nobody did. This was after an earlier segment of 20 minutes of stand up comedy which I thought he did very well.
He explained later that the comedy, and the talk about his story, was a big part in his recovery, to face challenge head on after admitting his failures and not trying to lay blame elsewhere. I found listening to this quite inspiring, and helpful to me, as I find at my age now, 65, things flash back to me about my life and events, and my actions at various times, many of which are not good on reflection. We all have skeletons in our cupboards. It's a bit like religion..we have all sinned but can be forgiven and saved. That's an age old message. In Ricky's case, it's don't keep beating yourself up. admit you have been a fool and a dog, and move on and do good and help others. I wish him all the very best into the future. The key word is redemption. There are times in life when we all need to redeem ourselves.

The good news of the day apart from the magnificent sunshine is that our electricity bill came by email yesterday and I was astounded that I was in credit $99 despite the heavy usage we've had with heaters in bedrooms and bathroom and lights on for so long. I was expecting a bill of $700-800. The reason for my surprise was $570 credit paid at the end of the financial year for the long blackouts we suffered during the storms, which when added to our small solar system input and usage discounts put us in credit.

Happy New Year to anyone who reads, especially my friends. May 2017/18 have you in good health and prosperity. We are putting our prices up for our produce, some have been the same for more than five years. If they don't buy that's Ok, there's plenty other areas to put our energy. Yes, things are looking good.

Even the town of Gembrook is having respite. That is until Thomas the Tank and the crowds and traffic comes back, and the tents and rows of portaloos go up. How did that Joni Mitchell song go, something like "Save Paradise, put up a parking lot."