“That bird has followed me to Bowral!” declares Mary Regan of Bowral. “I moved here last year and now that bird has caught up with me. Didn’t know koels (C8) came this far south.”
The Frank Maundrell (C8) Appreciation Society will now convene. Keynote speaker and host is Vince Russo of Woonona: “I wholeheartedly agree with Andrew Brown that Frank Maundrell is indeed a ‘lovely bloke’. Frank was the deputy of my crew when we were both in the RFS in the Blue Mountains. We attended many fires together. He was a very professional leader who gained respect from all the crew members.”
“Why all the fuss over a worm in the brain?” asks George Manojlovic of Mangerton. “I’ve had butterflies in my tummy, a frog in my throat, and I’ve been told more than once that I’ve got rocks in my head.”
Pat Sheumack of Mittagong is going into bat for fences: “My brother was a cabinetmaker’s apprentice in the 50s/60s, so wood for the bath heater (C8) was never a problem. Palings from the fence were invaluable as cricket bats.”
“As a young boy I spent many enjoyable holidays with an aunt in Thirroul,” says Richard Hambly of Potts Point. “My uncle would patrol the shore and collect a bountiful amount of coal, possibly from seaborne exports while us kids went crabbing. The paling fences were safe but not the crabs.”
It’s becoming more than evident that the humble Comptometrist (C8) is somewhat of an unsung hero in the number crunching pursuit. Michael Phillips of Mount Coolum (Qld) recalls that “In the accountancy firm in which I worked as an articled clerk in the 1950s, we had a Comptometrist, Mrs Smith (no-one knew her first name), who pounded away all day, every day on her huge Burroughs machine. Her fingers must have been sore by the evening, but she saved us young fellows hours of time manually adding columns of figures.”
“In my early working days, I, too, lugged Comptometers for the ladies of our office,” writes Don Bain of Port Macquarie. “Given that I nudged six foot but weighed less than ten stone, acting skill was required to make it look casual.”
Back to the name game (C8), with thanks to Wendy lllingworth of Kiama: “We have friends in Perth whose four children are Hannah, Savannah, Brianna and Indiana. Their dog is called … Neville.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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