...if you were alive in SA or Vic in 1983 you can't forget that day, try as you might. Yet again the saying "don't sweat the small stuff" rang true this morning as I awoke, feeling a bit grumpy that my bricklayers have laid the sum total of 50 bricks (and that is a generous count) in 3 days. As I wandered past the telly into the shower I hear "Sunrise" discussing the fact that tomorrow marks 25 years since Ash Wednesday.
Slap to the head for Georgie as all thoughts of bricks were forgotten (crikey they'll get them laid eventually you twit), and as I had my shower (ignore potential visuals they ain't pretty), I remembered.
16th February 1983. I was 11 and in my last year of primary school. We went home from school at lunchtime as it was so hot. My aunty Miffy picked us up and we went back to their place. That day had a strange feeling. I remember being in the pool with my brother and cousins. The sky was a funny colour and it was really windy. And ridiculously hot - 43 degrees.
Gradually events unfolded.
Mum picked us up after work and we went home. From my house in the Adelaide foothills you could see the flames making their way down the hill towards Waterfall Gully. Mum had to go to a committee meeting and I starkly recall her collecting our photographs for us if we had to evacuate before she returned. She left them in a red box on our dining room table, funny how you remember things like that isn't it?
Thankfully for us that didn't eventuate. However, 75 lives were lost that day in SA and Victoria, 257,000 livestock in SA and close to 3000 homes were lost in both states.
I returned to school the next day and 2 of my classmates had lost their homes. A girl had lost her life in the year level I was to enter at high school the next year. As well as her mother who was a teacher at that school. Her best friend Sal became my best friend in the years to come. Sal said once that Erin was a lot like me. I wish I had the chance to meet Erin. Perhaps things happen for a reason like that..............
I've changed my song again, I adore the Soundtrack from "The Mission" (although how embarrassment I've never seen the movie!). The composer of that, Ennio Morricone is a wonderful composer, he wrote soundtracks for Kill Bill, The Last of the Mohicans and the Godfather.
4 comments:
I live in cyclone country, everyone always says 'oh how scary' but it's nothing compared to fire. Little warning, rapid changes of direction. Those bush firefighters astound me, dropping everything to face that ferocity.
Far out! Where has the time gone?
I was a youngish New South Welshman when this happened but had never understood what natural disasters left in their wake.
But I always remember my Mum reminiscing about Ash Wednesday, it had affected her immensely...
Ooooh another thing we have in common Miss G - Enrico Morricone! I have The Mission soundtrack and play it quite a bit!!! Now if only you would buy the Purple RL polo top I am selling - then we could be like...I dunno....friends or something ;P
As for Ash Wednesday - it was a horrible time and I remember the colour of the sky here in Melbourne...there was smoke in the air. Horrible.
k8
Oh K8 THAT cracked me up :)
Now - friends don't lie to each other and you don't have a purple RL polo listed ROFL. And I suppose I do need something that actually matches those heinous purple crocs......
Lovin' your work on "The Mission" though, and I do like that green Nolita dress.......and that denim skirt......but that purple maxi skirt is positively hideous!!!!!
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