THE OOOLD, OOOLD LADY
OLIVE’S NINTH POST
Good evening, everyone. Olive here. Oh, it’s been so busy round here, you wouldn’t believe it. Mike was around of course, but with his wife, Kacha, Katya….. I have such trouble with her name…
Now, I dont know if I’ve told you this, but I just adore her. I’d do anything for that girl.
Katya
It’s you who’s amazing, Olive!
Mike here now, Folks. As you probably know, Ollie has been blobbing, as she calls it, for over a month now with my help of course..
As you can imagine with the dear old blobber in her 108th year, all the typing and running around falls on my shoulders.
So, with Katya’s support on the home front, I get on with the job. This time we are picking up threads from previous posts, apart from dealing with her indignation at being described as an ooold, ooold woman.
We’ve tracked down a pretty full picture of Olive’s year or two as a station cook in Queesland, round about 1937, and now I’ve got photos to show her.
Olive
Yeah, he’s brought photos too. Gawd, how me past is catching up with me!
Olive
What’s this one? Is that you?
Mike
Of course not!…….Now, I’ve been doing more research on your time at Culloden, Ollie, when you were the station cook and that’s Tommy Spence, the owner’s son, the one who remembered you. (see the Back to Culloden post)
Olive
Really? Fancy that! ‘Course I wouldn’t know him like that.
He was just a young man when I knew him, a bit older than Barnie, that’s all.
Mike
I like the story Tommy told about him flying the tiger moth around the storm with the pregnant woman in the open cockpit, yelling at him to go faster……
Now, how about this one of Tommy? That’s from the time you would have known him.
OliveIt is too!. That’s Tommy, alright. He and Barnie were mates.
Mike
Now, this one was so hard to find, Ollie. No one seemed to have a photo of the homestead as it was. But here it is at last!
Mike
And today, same angle.
Olive
OliveNo, that don’t look right, Mike. There was a veranda all the way around it, and that water tower was not there. It was out at the bore.
Mike
That’s not a water tower, Ollie . Tom says it was a wind gererator. They used to get 32 volt power from that. And also I think this is taken from the back. That might be fooling you.
Olive
That could be. But it doesn’t look right, all the same.
Mike
More stuff is coming, another photo of the house too. They’re all excited up there about your blob.
Karen, who owns Culloden now, is writing you a letter and sending down photos of herself mustering calves. She’s having a lot of fun, and says she’s never done anything like this before. So, you’ve got her going, Ollie.
Olive
Well, as long as she’s enjoying herself. But don’t you go annoying people, Mike. You go too far sometimes, your know. Far too far!. You get too enthusiastic.
Mike
Really, I do think they like it, Ollie. I’ve been sent photos from Muttaburra too, the tiny town you passed through on you way to Culloden.
They even dug up a photo of the open air picture theatre that you went to that night in 1937, the one with the deck chairs.
OliveOh, yes we had a lovely evening. But don’t you go asking me what picture we saw, ‘cos I can’t tell you. I do know it was a silent one ‘cos there was a woman playing the piano up front.
Mike
It’s amazing, Muttaburra is so scattered. It looks like someone just threw a handful of tin dice down on the flat plain. Karen says the town was much bigger when it was a sheep area, with the wool. Daw sent me these photos.
Mike
I guess you’d get used to the isolation. You did.
Mike
So now, with cattle, there are a lot fewer men around and the place has shrunk. Only one pub left. Remember, it was phoning Fiona at that pub out of the blue which got me the first real news of your time there.
Anyway, back to Culloden and my big surprise. Here’s a photo of you most probably taken at Culloden. See, there’s you with Barnie and Evelyn. The ages are right, the country clothes. It has to be Culloden!.
Olive
Is that me? it’s hard to believe.
Olive
That’s certainly Barnie and Evelyn. He looks like he’s about to jump on a horse. But I dont remember it being taken. Gawd, I was skinny, wasn’t I? They called me skinny Minnie, yer know, and they was right! Where’s you find it.
Mike
I got it from your rellies some time ago, Evelyn maybe, but then I lost it. I didn’t think it was signifigant then. But when we found Culloden, I nearly went crazy looking for this photo.
And that’s not all. Now, this one may not be culloden. But it’s definitely you feeding chickens somewhere. Any idea where?
OliveCould be anywhere.
Olive
Could be Broken Hill, even. It’s amazing what you’ve found and now I really feel old which reminds me what I wanted to tell you.
There’s this person who works here, yer see, and she’ll bring someone to visit me and I’ll hear her in the corridor saying, ” In here’s the lady I was telling you about, the Oooold, Oooold, lady. Come on, you must meet the ooooold ,ooooold lady.” I
It drives me crazy, the way she goes on and on about the ooooold, oooold lady. So I said to her, “what do you want me to do? Get down on me hands and knees and crawl around and shake like this?”
Olive
‘Course she doesn’t say anything then. She shuts up.
Mike. Then, I remind Olive how her perceptions have changed too. How she used to joke about her primary school teacher as “Old Mother Gilling” with the emphasis on “old.”
We were at the Family Archive Office in Broken Hill, this was during the movie making, and Jennie Camillieri, the archivist, had found a photo of Olive’s primary school and a teacher who Olive immediately recognized, rather mockingly, as old Mother Gilling. Here’s Jenny…
Olive
and this is Old Mother Gilling…
Olive
.. and here’s how I flicked her…
Olive
Yeah, that was her. I used to be in the front desk because I was so naughty and as she’d be going past, I’d dip me pen in the ink well and I’d…flick, just like that on the back of her dress, flick! The back of her dress was all covered in black spots. Oh yeah, Old mother Gilling. I used get square with her!
Mike. So Ollie was once a cheeky kid, mocking the old. Like all of us, she never thinking she’d one day be the same, even spectacularly older. I like to hear her talking about Old mother Gilling and Old mother Riley, the dusty corpse (see Annie and Danny post)
At this point, katya arrives and we talk about how we’d each been teased when young. Ollie has a man sitting at her table called, Guy, and she remembers a teasing rhyme on that name from her school days.
Olive
Guy, Guy, put him up high, stick him on a lamp post and let him die. Boooo!!!
Katya then confesses that when she was in primary school in Russia, then the Soviet Union, she got the nickname of “Little calf,” which she hated.
This name continued for several years till her Mum told her to fight back, and one day when they were all surrounding her and singing out, “litte calf” as usual, she turned on the leading boy and shouted. “and you’re an old goat.” And it stopped.
I confessed that in my primary school days. I was once boasting about my Dad being a scientist with his own laboratory. Later, when we kids were looking through a miscrocsope at amoebas, I foolishly skited. “My Dad has those things as pets in his laboratory,” which immediately earned me the awful nickname of Amoeba.
Ollie bettered us all by explaining that her maiden name was Dangerfield and that her hair was red so that one of the kids, a cousin in fact, would sing out. “Red for danger. danger on the field!” That is till Ollie, provoked beyond bearing, punched her in the jaw and………
Olive
….Iknocked her out!
Mike
No!
Olive
Yes, I did…….
And I’ll tell you something that happened today. It’s about bullying in a way. A little dark man came in, he’s one of the new nurses, and he’s a real nice fella, very nice. And he came in to me and he said, “Do you like me, Olive?” And I said, “Like you? Indeed I do! I think you’re a lovely man,” “Oh, you do like me, then?” he said, relieved.
And then he started doing his job, putting on me socks and me shoes. Next, he said. “you know, some here don’t like me,” and this seemed to upset him. And I said, “well if they dont like yer, there’s something wrong with them, not you because you are very neat, very kind, and you never hurt me one little bit.”
And I started to pat his hair and he picked up me hand and squeezed it.
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
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33 Responses to “THE OOOLD, OOOLD LADY”
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March 29th, 2007 at 12:08 am
Dear Olive, I’m italian and I found your site on an italian magazine. I write you because i’ve a far link with Broken Hill: my grandpa lived there for some years before coming back definitevly to Italy in 1929. I didn’t have the occasion to know him directly but I know his story through my father. He left me some pictures that has been taken downtown. And moreover last year it’s been written a book about the story of my family and its going around the world from 1894 to 1950.
I would be pleased to ask you about those years when things, I suppose, were very different.
Looking forward.
Giovanni
Dear Givanni, I guess the book about your family is in Italian which wll be hard for Ollie. What’s the story in brief? Travel was not so common in those days. We’d love to know what took your Granpa around the world at that time.
Also, if you have early photos of Broken Hill, I am sure that the family archive and the library in broken Hill would be delighted to have copies. Can you scan them and send them to me? Jennie Camillieri, who you saw in post 9, will be thrilled.
I will write to you privately with an address. We can even put one of the photos here. Your Grandpa was in Broken Hill about the time, or maybe a year ot two later, that olive was leaving with her kids for Adelaide. Ollie will be fascinated to hear or see anything you have about her home town from that period.
Can you also give me the link for the Italian magazine which did the story? I have relatives in the south of Italy who would be interested. Mike for Ollie
March 29th, 2007 at 12:12 am
I just read your blog, I would like to say hello from the UK to Olive, I am really enjoying reading about your life and to Mike, I think it is wonderful that you are going this for Olive and for us as well.
xx
Well, Karen, It is fun. But as Olliie says, I do get carried away. delving an interesting life is an edless business, and it has to stay her blob, not mine. Katya is not so very pleased that I brought her into the story. But it is true that Olive adores her. Ollie claims not to have had much affection in her life. We’ll get to the story of her sister Emma, the only one who really ever loved her, she says, soon. Mike for Ollie
March 29th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Ha ha, love your story of Old Mother Gilling. And so interesting to see the old photos, and compare with the new ones of the same place. Thank you so much for sharing your life with us all, it’s a real pleasure to read.
Best wishes from Liverpool (the one in UK)
Finding the photos is a thrill for both of us.. The only probelm is that I have to blow them all up so Ollie can see them. Fortunately I can do an A3 at Office works for a couple of bucks. Mike of Ollie
March 29th, 2007 at 1:32 am
What interesting stories you tell! I love seeing the photos when you were young, Olive, and you and I were built the same - both skinny Minnies!!
Well, Tommy from Culloden says she had a good figure. So, perhaps not all that skinny. Anyway being slim, has probably been good for her heart which has done quite a job to date. I have a photo of Olive in front of her Broken hill house from the seventies when she’s a bigger, plumper, woman, so she was not always, skinny, though never really fat, I suspect. Mike for Ollie
March 29th, 2007 at 5:59 am
Have found Olive’s story fascinating but what is even more wonderful is that Olive is interested enough in the outside world to empathise with other people eg the “little dark nurse” who doesn’t think people like him. She still gave him care and support and that’s marvellous. Looking forward to hearing more not just of the past but the present! All my best wishes from Scotland. Hazel
Thanks Hazel. Mike and Ollie
March 29th, 2007 at 7:24 am
Hello again!:)
I could not put this reply to the previous post so Im answering here. Originally I’m Hungarian but right now I’m temporarily in The Netherlands.
Greetings,
Attila
March 29th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Hi Mike, it’s me again. I have ten questions about World War I ready if it’s still okay to have an interview. I suppose you could send an e-mail or I could post them here, whatever works.
Thanks, Hayley
Email them Hayley. Mike
March 30th, 2007 at 8:26 am
Olive,
It is such a joy to read your posts. Your an inspiration to us all.
Patty
Arlington Hts Illinois 60005
USA
Any stories to tell Ollie, Patty? Mike the helper
March 30th, 2007 at 8:44 am
I really enjoyed reading your posts and seeing the older pictures. I was born in the U.S.A the state of Mississippi, spent most of my childhood in Florida, I am currently living in Oklahoma on a farm. I really enjoy history and stories of olden days and hearing stories and comparing those days with the days today. I really enjoy simple pleasures in life and it seems some forget about the experiences and hardships of days gone by. It is wonderful to read this and I will continue to do so, thanks again and have a nice day!!!!!
Jan, it is for folks like you and this lovely comment, that we go to the trouble. It’s hard work fo an ooooold lady hand her helper.
How do we make this a better world, how do we get back some of the good things that are gone or going? Just as the reasearch shows that if you eat less you live longer, I think that if you consume less, clutter your life with less material things, there is then automatical more time place for other people, and more chance you’ll be interested in their doings.
All the “things” in our lives take a lot of maintenance and pre occupation, and take time away from stories and get togethers. Not to say that I actually practice what I preach. My wife, katya, says, why so much time in front of the bloody computer? And she’s right! Mike and Ollie.
March 30th, 2007 at 10:26 am
I have just finished readin all your posts, thank you so much for sharing your life and experiences with us all.I am amazed at the many many countries responding.You are famous Olive and i cant wait for the next post.I had relatives that emigrated to Australia in the 1950’s Sydney area i think from Oxford England, Hudson was their surname, but we did’nt keep in touch.Thank you also Mike, great research,June in Florida.
March 30th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Hi Ollie,
What an inspiration you are! I live with my wife and several four-legged beasts on the eastern shore of Maryland. My wife was fortunate enough to have two grandmothers live to 99 and 100. I’d just like to say congratulations to you, express my interest in your ongoing “project” here, and to wish you the very best! Carry on…..
Yours,
Kevin
Thanks, Kevin, did you know that centenarians are the fastest growing age group in the world? Mike for Ollie
March 30th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Thanks for the reply so quickly! I have to say that I spend time goofing off in front of computer for sure! I believe that people work too hard trying to accumulate things, and it would be nice if they would take time for theirselves and family more.
My childhood was spent mostly with my Mother, my Daddy worked all the time 7 days a week so we could have things that he did not have. He said he did not want us to go hungry like he had done when he was a kid. He was poor and he often went hungry and he did eat at his friends house from time to time. I understand that but I just wished he spent more time doing things with us kids.
When I stayed with my Grandmother in the summertime in Mississippi we went visiting around the neighborhood to elderly people’s house in the evening time, that was fun to hear stories and gossip from them. I just think(which is my opinion) that people lose sight of the simple things like sitting outside on the porch and watching birds, butterflies, and walking around the yard in the spring and looking at the flowers blooming, holding hands with kids and laughing at things and just laughing more, and trying not to be so serious all the time.
I believe doing good deeds for people makes is rewarding and others appreciate your time, and spend less time trying to accumulate things that don’t mean much. Can’t wait till the next BLOB(ha ha)And another comment, I do love some words that Olive uses that I NEVER heard of!!! Its cute to me!!! Thanks again
Looks like we feel the same, Jan. But, as i say, I spend far too much time at the computer and not enough just walking and doing those things you mention . Ollie is lucky in a way. She just talks into the tape recorder and does not have to go near this thing. Mike for ollie
March 30th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Hi Mike and Ollie!
I am from the state of Ohio in the U. S. and I really enjoy your blog! Ollie, you remind me very much of my mother, who lived life fully to the age of 94. She never liked being referred to as ooold either. I know she would have loved blobbing. I am just beginning my own blob and you have inspired me to get busy and write more often.
Visiting Australia is one of my goals, and reading your stories is making me want to visit your great country as soon as possible.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your memories with us! They are a treasure, and so are you!
Ruth, it takes a while to master the techincal side. Being able to put up photos, was a real struggle. But now it’s pretty easy and it’s nice getting the comments. It’s also interesting that far flug mothers grandmothers around the world told similar stories or sounded the same. Mike for Ollie
March 30th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Olive, Isn’t it good to have all those memories. I love thinking back over my life and see all the many ways God has blest me. He gave me a fine husband that I love with all my heart and 5 great children, 4 sons and a daughter. He gave me 20 grandchildren and 4 greatgrad children so far and we are looking for more. My husband and I have been married 45 years. It seems as though it was only yesterday but the mirror tells me different. I would not change one day of my life and I just thank God so much for giving it to me. I pray that you hav enjoyed walking back down memory’s lane. Take care, connie from Texas
Connie, sounds like you’ve had a wonderful life and must be getting on in years, having great grandchildren. Yet you are on the computer. Marvellous. Are you going to start a blob too? You write very movingly. I like the phrase about the mirro telling you different. Remember, mirrors get confused sometimes and don’t know what they are telling, I sure of that!. Best to your Hubbie and all the tribe. Mike the helper
March 30th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Hi Olive, I’ve just discovered your blog and am reading from the beginning. I am enjoying it thoroughly. I’ve been writing journals off and on for the last twenty eight years, since the age of eight. and in recent years transferred this concept to blogging. Now I’m off to read some more of your wonderful blog. B xx
How did you discover it B? and what country are you writing from? I guess I should look at you Blob and find out. It must be interesting the adaptation from a journal, which is very private, to a public blog. How did you do it? Mike and ollie
March 30th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Hello Olive and Mike!! It’ amazing that you were able to find those pictures. It must have been really bizarre for Ollie to see them once again. As I told you in my previous reply “Being able to enjoy the memories of life is being able to live twice”, and it looks like Ollie is really having that wonderful chance. The best thing about it is that she shares that memories with all of us. Lovely thing to do, thanks to your help.
Kisses and keep it going. Love this BLOB.
Bye!!
Monica, we will use your quotation and a DVD is it’s way to you. Mike and Ollie.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
I discovered your blob (cool term) through the Kim Komando newsletter which I get emailed everyday. I’m from Wales, UK. Yes, it was quite a transition from private journals to public blog. In the beginning I was a bit cautious about what and how much I wrote, but these days most things are okay. It’s just a case of how much you want the world to know
Anyway, if you click on my blob (I love that name!!!)and scroll down the page a bit, I’m the one with the strange hat and the black cat. B xx
B. I had a look at you blog and love the post about doing silly things to your computer. So well writtten and a good case of how you’ve brought a very personal journal style to the blog. (thepoetatrest.blogspot.com.)
We do become so dependent on these machines, don’t we? It’s the charm of being able to reach out, of getting responses, of having a secret global world. I have never had a crash like yours and doubt I could ever carry out such a restoration. I’m going to try and explain the drama to Ollie. Mike the helper
March 31st, 2007 at 1:08 am
Hello from Houston, Texas!
I just discovered your Blob and I love it! The pictures and stories are so interesting. I’m so glad that you got to eat a great meat pie! We have something similar in America called a Pot Pie, but it is runny and you have to eat it with a fork.
Keep Blobbing!
Mary, we wanted to have an Aussi pie making competition. I put a recipe in the comments somewhere. Then, someone in the US wrote back with a photo on her blog of a strange square pie baked in repsonse, hut somehow we never got it posted as intended. Want to bake one of your pies and send a photo? Mike the helper.
March 31st, 2007 at 1:30 am
Hi Ollie & Mike! I am from Atlanta Georgia. It’s so wonderful to hear your stories. My great-great grandmother Meddie lived until the young age of 109. She was a month away from her 110th when she passed. I was younger then and I wish I could have had heard her stories. I keep a journal so hopefully one day my great-great-great grandchildern will be able to hear my stories. Take Care!!!
Amber
Amber, that’s amazing about Meddie reaching 109. Can you send a photo of her. How lucid was she in her last years? Did you record her on video or tape? Be nice to know more. Mike and Ollie
March 31st, 2007 at 4:56 am
Hello Olive and Mike,
Greetings from Norway. I wanted to write and encourage you to keep telling your stories. My son (almost 4) and I have enjoyed reading them all day, it was a wonderful opportunity to talk about a part of the world we are not very familiar with, and a time that is far far away from us, too.
They call people like you “living treasures” in Japan, and I think that’s absolutely right. Thank you for sharing. I can’t wait to hear more stories and share them with my son.
(ps. we saw your site referenced on reddit.com)
katy, you son must be our youngest visitor. I am going to put a photo of goods on a motorbike which he’ll probably like. Mike the helper.
March 31st, 2007 at 6:34 am
You have amazing stories Olive! I found your blog a few days ago and I have been reading through its entirty since! Looking forward to reading more interesting tales, keep the blobs comin!
Erin
Louisville, KY, USA
March 31st, 2007 at 8:48 am
Oh my goodness yes, that was both my least fine hour and my finest hour all rolled into one! I am eternally grateful for the nice technician on the phone who told me to go and make a drink whenever I felt impatient with the pc. I said “Yes, a double brandy.” (I think he meant tea)
The computer is an amazing resource and such a wonderful link to the world. If I had to choose between it and tv I guess the tv would be in the bin. B xx
Bereniece, Ollie tends to have the TV on a lot. But I have found her a station with wondeful old time music called: Radio Five O plus. Now she’s on that all day. As for the internet etc. We could never have done this blog without the help of Gerard at Silvertrees. He taught us to help ourselves. Mike, the helped.
March 31st, 2007 at 10:33 pm
My dear Ms. Olive:
I’ve been here to your blog a couple of times, and let me tell you girlfriend!!!———-you amaze the hell out of me! Your spunk, your charisma—what a charmer! And your will to be just who you are and not be anyone else, well it just astounds me.
You’re an inspiration to us all.
I’m from Texas, USA —but I gotta tell you, with this lettuce and bureaucratic B S that they’re giving him is the same here….all the big ‘mucky mucks’ who run council, counties, states, country —all pass the buck and give you back the same ol’ same ol’ crap —”My hands are tied”! So, what’s new with that?!!! Tho I’m not sure what’s going on, but to me lettuce would be more sensible to grow. What gives you wonder?!!
Now, you go out and enjoy the Thai food. Be warned, it can be spicy as all get out and make your hair on your legs stand straight out…..but, enjoy every minute!!!
Hi, Hootin Anni, the Thai meal was a a great success, and as for Gosford council, they just have to be constantly pressured. If you want to write to them as Robert did, go ahead, But keep it polite, Pleeeese! Mike and ollie
April 1st, 2007 at 12:47 am
Hello from Tennessee, USA. Enjoy your blog. You are an inspiration to all of us. What a joy to read such a positive review of your life and experiences.
Thanks to you Mike for helping Olive.
April 1st, 2007 at 2:58 am
Ollie,
I’ve got red hair as well!
Here’s a photo. In the States, they call us reds “carrot tops” which never made much sense to me as carrot tops are green! Silly monkeys! Glad to hear you stood up to bullies. I had one once and punched him too! You and I are quite the kindred spirits!
Much love,
Amy
April 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 am
Olive,
You are indeed an inspiration. Not only do I, at 71, now feel like a youngster,but I realize how much of life is left to love.
Mike,
If I could have one wish, it would be that each of us as we grow older could have a dear friend in our lives; a friend like you are to Olive.
I promise to come back often to read all the adventures down under.
Maria, That’s a nice thing to say, about feeling younger. It’s is doing Ollie good too, blogging away, I’d say.
And certainly what she did for me, was to set my own goals posts many yards back. I passed the death dates of both my parents a while ago. I felt I was near the end when that happened. Then, I met Ollie, and my whole perpective changed.
She’s puzzled by all the attention all and wonders why she’s still here. “Should have been dead, long ago,” she says as she tucks into some new experience, like her first Thai meal, with gusto.
Maybe that’s a good idea, do things you’ve never done before. I dont mean rob a bank. legal things that stretch you a bit. Mike her helper.
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:46 am
Dear Ollie, what a wonderful treasure chest of memories and how wonderful that you share them with fellow blobbers. It must give you a feel good feeling,to be able to help Ollie in this manner. I had to laugh about the ink flicking.
Cheers Margaret
Thanks for visiting, Margaret. That’s one of my favorite stories too. Mike the helper.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:27 am
I grew up without a tv and listened to the radio a lot. Mostly BBC. Also I read piles of books and still do. I guess that’s why I wander off from the tv. B xx
Glad you are still reading, B. mike
April 6th, 2007 at 7:10 am
I arrived here via the mention in
Bloggers Blog: Blogging the Blogsphere - http://www.bloggersblog.com and now you’ve another regular reader from Northern Ireland subscribed to read this ‘blob’ via bloglines.
Lovely to have northern Ireland tuning in. Can you teel us some Irish stories, Cybez. You are such good storytellers. Mike and Ollie
April 9th, 2007 at 12:59 am
Dear Ollie and Mike
I’m just catching up on your blob.
I loved the part about Ollie flicking “Old Mother Gilling� with her ink pen!
Also, I am glad to see that you don’t have any prejudices, Ollie! I must say that we drive a lady who is in a nursing home to church on Sundays and she is about 40 years younger than you and I find her to be very prejudiced. Imagine, at the church picnic she didn’t want me getting her hamburger from an Indian man who was one of the cooks. (I did anyways, she couldn’t see me!) But I think she has alzheimer’s and will not live to be as old as Ollie so God Bless her just the same!
Wonderful work your doing here Mike and how very kind of you to get the photos blown up so that Ollie can see them.
I have never been to Australia but would love to go. My daughter has and enjoyed it very much. On April 1st I did a post on Australia and the Flying Doctors Service if you are interested. My cousin was married to a flying doctor and she was killed in a plane crash traveling with him, which I blobbed about!
I have you on bloglines now and will try to visit more promptly!
Keep up the good work mates!!
Oh and also a very happy Easter to you all!
Sincerely,
Irish Church Lady (ICL)
(from Canada)
Hi, Irish Church lady. I went to look at your blog. I liked it a lot and will tell Ollie this morning about it when I read her your letter. Ollie is not completey free of prejudice, who is? But she is pretty open minded. I thought it was great that she tried the Thai food.
Like many people , she can be wary of things foreign. But when she gets up close, sitting with Ethel (see photo) in that restaurant, for example, she has the delightful discovery of how much in common she feels.
That’s happened to all all of us , hasn’t it? We just just have to be very careful not to take part in the demonization game. It is so easy to revel in the demonization of “the other” isn’t it? Mike the helper.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I loved seeing the old photos Mike (and the ones you added to the previous post). Olive was feisty, wasn’t she? And still is by the sound of it
I laughed about her flicking ink at Old Mother Gilling. I had an older teacher who was allergic to oranges and we used to peel them under the desk to get her upset. Horrible, weren’t we?
It was nice to see Katya too. Sounds like the three of you have a wonderful relationship.
You’re doing a lot of good work Mike. And Olive is telling some great stories
August 24th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Antonio
Thank you very much for all of this information you are genious keep updating.
September 10th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Olive, I can well imagine you would be peeved with being the main attraction and being referred to as the “Ooold, ooold lady”. Don’t you feel like a side-show in a circus when that young lady brings visitors through? She’s lucky you didn’t know her when you were not an old lady. You sound like you were quite the feisty one.