“Saturday’s Herald reported that the photo montage on the Opera House sails was delayed by a tardy cruise ship,” notes Roger Bendall of Darling Point. “It failed to mention that the ship was the Queen Elizabeth. Upstaged by Mum again?”
For Vince Russo of Woonona, “a recent article on cicadas brought back memories of when I was a 10-year-old cicada hunter. There circulated at the time, among us, a rumour that if you took the wings of a greengrocer to the chemist you could get five shillings. You would get more if you could catch a floury baker as they were harder to find. Early days of fake news.”
“I really wish my name was an example of nominative determinism (C8),” laments Denis Goodwin of Dee Why.
“I will not truck (get it?) any criticism of Leyland (C8) because my great-uncle was Sir Henry Spurrier, general manager of the company until 1963,” declares Tom Meakin of Port Macquarie. “He visited us in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) and gave me his leftover currency when he left. I gorged myself on chocolate for days after, so I remember him with deep affection.”
Jack Dikian of Mosman thinks “it’s astonishing the relics we remember from childhood. I was very small in the early ’70s but I still remember the TV ads for the P76. One showed a ‘brown bomber’ (another bit of quintessential Australian history) trying to find the wipers to leave a parking ticket. The wipers were tucked deep under the hood of the ultramodern Leyland.”
Kerry Kyriacou isn’t the only reader dismayed with American banknotes (C8). Barry Riley of Woy Woy says that “when, in an American movie, a character pays without looking at the notes, I want to yell, ‘Hey, idiot, was that a one or a hundred?‘” Susan Young of Kirribilli says they are happy without colour-coding and recalls “an anecdote posted by another Australian who, in paying a taxi driver, noted that ‘in Australia, all our banknotes are different colours and sizes’. The driver responded, ‘Here, we can read’.”
Concerning those calls for younger contributors to Column 8, Robert Hosking of Paddington is happy with the existing conditions: “Having only reached the Sunset Strip age last Saturday, I believe I am one of your youngest contributors!” And Joy Cooksey of Harrington reckons “C8 already has an abundance of younger contributors as many are well into their second childhood”.
Column8@smh.com.au
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