Tourism comes full circle
Wendy Illingworth of Kiama writes: 'We've just been visiting the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira and were gobsmacked to find boomerangs in a tourist shop, complete with dot paintings of Madeira, traditional images of bananas, and Madeiran houses. It comes with a certificate of authenticity!'
Column 8's latest pet subject has Ian Costley of Belrose 'picturing aliens in a spaceship observing human intelligence on earth, whereby they decide that the most intelligent creature is, in fact, the dog, which has its poo carried for it in a little bag (C8) by the human.'
Here's some tough love from Lesley Green of Castle Hill: 'While going through our mother's belongings, I discovered my Baby Book from the '50s with the following rules: Fond and foolish over-indulgence, mismanagement and 'spoiling' may be as harmful to an infant as callous neglect and intentional cruelty! Baby must NEVER sleep in bed with her mother!' Granny recently found her Baby Book, too, and was a bit disheartened to see a recommended diet of brains.
According to Andrew Cohen of Glebe, tuppenny bungers (C8) and Thunders were the same, it's just that 'Thunder was the commercial name printed on tuppenny bungers.' But, apparently there was a larger variety: 'There was a sixpenny bunger. By 1962 it was banned, but I did see one, and it dwarfed tuppennies. It was about the same length, but it was a cube shape with rounded corners. I estimate it to have been about a six on the letterbox scale if a tuppenny was a one. Do any C8 readers recall seeing one detonate?'
Dunno, but it's going to be challenging to top Lyle Procter of Woollahra: 'Cracker night at our little bush school was usually enlivened by a couple of the local miners planting half a stick of gelignite in an old tree stump up on the hill behind the school. The echoing boom on a clear, still, June night was awe-inspiring.'
'Looks like we're set to keep these cracker stories firing right up until King's Birthday,' says Meri Will of Baulkham Hills. 'Some of my best memories of cracker night involve dancing on strings of Tom Thumbs as they popped beneath our feet and throwing tuppenny bungers into drain pipes to magnify the boom. The morning after was also exciting, going out into the misty dawn to hunt for unexploded ordnance and bending, lighting and spraying fizzers in all directions.'
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The Age
2 days ago
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Focusing on the younger set
'Don't let anyone tell you that oldies are not technically minded,' says Nola Scott of Estella. 'I, aged 90-plus, taught my masseuse, aged 20-something, how to use Google camera on her smartphone.' All these bangin' takes on cracker night (C8) have led to numerous recollections of folks getting inventive with one's fireworks, which will be today's focus, starting with Joan Hayward of Narrawallee: 'My father provided the highlight of cracker night for the neighbourhood kids. He'd fill a balloon with oxyacetylene, tape a row of Tom Thumbs to it, then as it slowly rose into the air, he'd light the lowest Tom Thumb. The result? Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! KABOOM! I swear the whole landscape shook.' Peter Nelson of Moss Vale recalls that 'when holidaying in Coffs Harbour in 1960, friends I was staying with showed me how to put a marble in a four-foot steel rod with a tuppenny bunger and watch the marble fly out at lightning speed. Could have killed someone.' 'Choko projectiles (C8) remind me of the 1950s when we Kogarah kids had an airgun but couldn't afford the pellets,' says Rhonda Ellis of Lismore. 'We'd shoot at each other using the berries from a privet hedge. Yes, it hurt.' 'Some 65 years ago, I discovered that toaster element wire wound around the fuse of a double bunger and connected to a car battery would light the bunger,' writes Peter Crowfoot of Normanhurst. 'A friend and I buried a number of these wired bungers along both sides of a local forest walking path and ran wires from each one back to a hiding place. When suitable (i.e. non-adult) test subjects appeared and were in position, we connected the wires to a battery in random order. The result was pandemonium, as we had hoped. Note: no person was injured by this experiment.' 'Wendy Illingworth and her Madeiran boomerangs (C8) has provided proof, once again, of the adage that once you can fake authenticity, you're on the road to success,' declares Marcus Daniel of Bellingen. 'The next challenge is to fake sincerity, then you've really got it made.' Regarding the possibility of aliens watching from above (C8) as we carry our dogs' deposits around in little bags, Jack Dikian of Mosman thinks 'should they be able to read our companions' mind -– it would be 'My name isn't Rover, and I am not specially a good boy'.'
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Focusing on the younger set
'Don't let anyone tell you that oldies are not technically minded,' says Nola Scott of Estella. 'I, aged 90-plus, taught my masseuse, aged 20-something, how to use Google camera on her smartphone.' All these bangin' takes on cracker night (C8) have led to numerous recollections of folks getting inventive with one's fireworks, which will be today's focus, starting with Joan Hayward of Narrawallee: 'My father provided the highlight of cracker night for the neighbourhood kids. He'd fill a balloon with oxyacetylene, tape a row of Tom Thumbs to it, then as it slowly rose into the air, he'd light the lowest Tom Thumb. The result? Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! KABOOM! I swear the whole landscape shook.' Peter Nelson of Moss Vale recalls that 'when holidaying in Coffs Harbour in 1960, friends I was staying with showed me how to put a marble in a four-foot steel rod with a tuppenny bunger and watch the marble fly out at lightning speed. Could have killed someone.' 'Choko projectiles (C8) remind me of the 1950s when we Kogarah kids had an airgun but couldn't afford the pellets,' says Rhonda Ellis of Lismore. 'We'd shoot at each other using the berries from a privet hedge. Yes, it hurt.' 'Some 65 years ago, I discovered that toaster element wire wound around the fuse of a double bunger and connected to a car battery would light the bunger,' writes Peter Crowfoot of Normanhurst. 'A friend and I buried a number of these wired bungers along both sides of a local forest walking path and ran wires from each one back to a hiding place. When suitable (i.e. non-adult) test subjects appeared and were in position, we connected the wires to a battery in random order. The result was pandemonium, as we had hoped. Note: no person was injured by this experiment.' 'Wendy Illingworth and her Madeiran boomerangs (C8) has provided proof, once again, of the adage that once you can fake authenticity, you're on the road to success,' declares Marcus Daniel of Bellingen. 'The next challenge is to fake sincerity, then you've really got it made.' Regarding the possibility of aliens watching from above (C8) as we carry our dogs' deposits around in little bags, Jack Dikian of Mosman thinks 'should they be able to read our companions' mind -– it would be 'My name isn't Rover, and I am not specially a good boy'.'
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Tourism comes full circle
Wendy Illingworth of Kiama writes: 'We've just been visiting the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira and were gobsmacked to find boomerangs in a tourist shop, complete with dot paintings of Madeira, traditional images of bananas, and Madeiran houses. It comes with a certificate of authenticity!' Column 8's latest pet subject has Ian Costley of Belrose 'picturing aliens in a spaceship observing human intelligence on earth, whereby they decide that the most intelligent creature is, in fact, the dog, which has its poo carried for it in a little bag (C8) by the human.' Here's some tough love from Lesley Green of Castle Hill: 'While going through our mother's belongings, I discovered my Baby Book from the '50s with the following rules: Fond and foolish over-indulgence, mismanagement and 'spoiling' may be as harmful to an infant as callous neglect and intentional cruelty! Baby must NEVER sleep in bed with her mother!' Granny recently found her Baby Book, too, and was a bit disheartened to see a recommended diet of brains. According to Andrew Cohen of Glebe, tuppenny bungers (C8) and Thunders were the same, it's just that 'Thunder was the commercial name printed on tuppenny bungers.' But, apparently there was a larger variety: 'There was a sixpenny bunger. By 1962 it was banned, but I did see one, and it dwarfed tuppennies. It was about the same length, but it was a cube shape with rounded corners. I estimate it to have been about a six on the letterbox scale if a tuppenny was a one. Do any C8 readers recall seeing one detonate?' Dunno, but it's going to be challenging to top Lyle Procter of Woollahra: 'Cracker night at our little bush school was usually enlivened by a couple of the local miners planting half a stick of gelignite in an old tree stump up on the hill behind the school. The echoing boom on a clear, still, June night was awe-inspiring.' 'Looks like we're set to keep these cracker stories firing right up until King's Birthday,' says Meri Will of Baulkham Hills. 'Some of my best memories of cracker night involve dancing on strings of Tom Thumbs as they popped beneath our feet and throwing tuppenny bungers into drain pipes to magnify the boom. The morning after was also exciting, going out into the misty dawn to hunt for unexploded ordnance and bending, lighting and spraying fizzers in all directions.'
