The Life of Riley

OLIVE’S TWENTY-FOURTH POST

Mike

Hi, everyone, this is a story about how Olive loved to go roller skating .
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and how, one day, she caught the ragman.

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But first, for those who want to meet our wonderful 107 year old old blogger in the flesh, here is a clip you can view on You Tube.

Click here to view

These shots are from the movie which we made two years ago when she was 105 and felt like going home.
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Oliie gets a co directing credit on the film. (you’ll see why)

That makes her not only the oldest blogger in the world, but the world’s oldest movie co-director as well.

Speaking of the oldest bloggers, when Olive appeared on the web, the world’s oldest blogger at the time was Spain’s, Maria Amelia.

If you go to this link, you’ll find an article on Maria Amelia by Eric Shackle.

http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/amelia.htm>click to view

Here’s Maria Amelia’s picture, borrowed from her Spanish blog.

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Eric’s a special guy too. He’s 88 and probably the oldest electronic journalist in the world since he publishes regular articles on his own e-book site. Life begins at 80….on the Internet.

http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/ebook.htm

Eric also writes regularly for a South Korean based internet newspaper, using citizen reporters, called. OhmyNews. Yes, that’s right. Oh My News!

Eric’s other claim to fame is that it was his idea to launch our Olive into the blogophere.

He lives just around the corner from Gracious Olive Riley, as we call her. (See the story on the certificates she gives out on occasion to find out how she became “Gracious” )

Eric, being rather competitive as we Aussies often are, dreamed of Australia beating Spain by 12 years if Olive took over from Maria Amelia as the worlds’ oldest blogger.

A noble victory for our dear land it was. The only problem was that Eric expected me to do the all the hard yakka. (work)

So, it was I who explained to Olive what a blog was, I, who persuaded her to give it a go, and I, who’s had to learn how to blog.

Ollie was sceptical at first. I had to bring her round.

I argued that it would be fun and also be good for her health. (Very old people don’t die of disease, they’ve past all that, they die of boredom)

I reminded her that we had great stories left over from the movie. These would be the foundation of the blog, or blob, as she later came to call it.

All she had to do was lie back and talk.

So, it was agreed that she’d co operate if I did all the typing, the photographing, and the posting.

Gerard of Silvertrees helped with the layout. There would be no blog unless it was a stunner. All agreed on that. Nothing but the best for our Ollie!

Little did I know how much work was involved and cost!

Now, let’s be candid. Given I do so much of the work, was it fair for us to unseat Maria Amelia and claim the oldest blogger title for Ollie?

Well, we knew that Maria Amelia’s blog was not her idea either.
It was set up by her grandson as a birthday present.

Secondly, she too does not type. The grandson does the posting apparently.

Anyway, Maria Amelia knows about our blog and seems to have accepted that she’s lost the crown to Ollie….. or has she?

In March, She posted a gracious message on her blog, welcoming Olive to the game as the new oldest blogger

http://amis95.blogspot.com/search?q=olive+riley

But we do note that Maria Amelia still calls herself the oldest blogger on her masthead, so what’s happening here?

It could get hot between these two.

I do suspect that Maria Amelia is competing and, as she loses out on age, plans to outperform our Ollie at every turn.

Maria Amelia’s recently been on a trip to Brazil, rather over doing it at 95, one would think. Also, she’s taken to posting numerous photos in the way we do.

Lastly she’s just announced she’ll do a long walk. Could this be to trump our Five lands Walk that you read about on the last post, No.23?

It’s all as if to say, “Beat that, Olive Riley in Australia?”

In any case, Ollies’ not into competing, or so she says.

So, officially we won’t be trying to outdo Maria Amelia’s Brazilian adventures, nor her late night dancing in the clubs over there.

Here’s Maria Amelia in Brazil, showing who’s still the Bossa Nova.

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But our girl can dance too. If you looked at the You tube clip, you saw that our Olllie swings and sways with the best of them.

Swings in more ways than one, too! …………………………..

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Olive still flies too, but goes no further than to visit her relatives in Brisbane, Darren and family. (see the very first post)

She’ll be in the air again in early July, off to Brisbane for a great great grandchild’s birthday party.

Titles aside, our blogging aim is simple. Olive is an amazing story teller with an equally amazing memory.

Behind those twinking eyes, lies the whole 20th. century. In one lifetime, she spans all the way from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Her country needs her story, we do believe!

Anzacs, we worship ‘em! But Ollie’s the good oil too!

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We began thinking we’d talk mostly about the past. With text and old pictures interwoven.

Like this rare photo of Olive and family. She in front of their Broken Hill cottage with the kids, and on the brink of single mother-hood, circa, 1925.

We’d call it a blog-umentary, or blob-umentary perhaps
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Today’s post, the ragman story, is a good example of Ollie bringing the past to life, blob-umentary style.

But since we’ve begun, many of our posts have been about events today because Olive is still out and about to some extent. Not much, but purposefully.

She was out to have her portrait painted…

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……..and to visit the charming Cockatoo ferry on Brisbane Water.
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She’s recently had her first Thai meal in a local Avoca Beach restaurant.
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…and we’ve made several trips to the Ettalong pie shop, both of us being addicted to Aussie meat pies of the extra juicy type.
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Mike

Now, to the skating story. Ollie! Are you awake….? Ollie!

Olive

‘Course I am.

Mike

Roller skating goes back a long way, you know. Much futher than I thought….

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Olive

Gawd!

Mike

And some snappy dressing too!

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Mike

That could be your brother, Albert, Ollie. Here’s Albert. Don’t they look the same?

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Olive

I dunno. I can’t see the face.

Mike

It’s the look of the time, I guess…..Did you go skating often?

Olive

Only of a Saturday, or if there was a carnival on. I had me own skates, yer know.

Mike

Did you?

Olive

Oh, yes. I loved my skates. I used to take them to pieces, take all the ball bearings out and wash them in methylated spirits….then, dry them out..

Mike

Were they the kind of skates you clipped on to the shoe, or were they part of the shoe?

Olive

They clipped on the shoe.

Mike

Ed. Note. The first time we talked about this was at Broken Hill where Olive grew up.

We’d found the remains of the skating rink, a concrete pad …
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…which had once also been an outdoor movie theatre.
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This would have all happened round about 1910-1915.
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We found lots of things, for nothing ever seems to get thrown away in Broken Hill.
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a circus horse.
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Mike

…and even the old skates,they’d not been thrown away.

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Mike

But tell me about the ragman, Ollie.

Olive

Well, on that particular day, it was carnival so it was special, I’d been told I couldn’t go.

But that wouldn’t stop me. So, I waited me chance. I opened me window, and out that window I went.

I got to the rink. Me skates is wrapped in cloth, and I’m droppin’ them over the fence, real careful…..

Then, I’m over the fence too. And in a flash, I’m putting on the skates under the seats. No one can see me

Mike

Under the bleachers?

Olive

Yeah. Then, gently I slide into the crowd, and away I go, ams folded, round and round.

Mike

Were your brothers there?

Olive

Yeah, Ted and Albert were there. They had jobs helping people put their skates on, the ones who’d rented skates.

It was them who dobbed me in. (told on me) I’m sure of that.

Anyway, round and round I’m goin’. I’m happy as anything and then the anouncement comes on.

It was catch the ragman, and the prize is all yours, a pound (money) and a box of chocolates.

Then onto the ring comes this bloke and his clothes is covered with rags. Catch that ragman!

You had to grab hold of him and hang on for five seconds and the prize was yours.

Wouldn’t it be lovely to win? That’s what’s going through me head. Not the money, I didn’t care about that, but the chocolates. Oh, those chocolates!

Well., round he comes and I grabbed him. “Ah, Gotcha!” sez I.
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But the rags gave way and I sprawled on the floor, and the roars of laugher go up. And I’m not the only one, yer see. Others are sprawlin’ too.

Then, I see that round his waist he has a belt on. And I think, if I can just grab that belt, I’ve got him!

So, I’m going round and round, looking me chance. Then, all of a sudden, I lunge for his belt. Got it! And I hang on like grim death.
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Mike

Wow! He wasn’t going to shake you off that time!

Olive

You know what? He swung me here and he swung me there. One leg’s going out this way, and the other leg’s going the other way…..

Oh, it was terrible! I could hear him swearing too.

Mike

Not laughing?

Olive

No, he wanted one of his pets to win, I s’pose.

Then, all at once the whistle blew, me five seconds was up!

The winner is Ollie Dangerfield! And everyone’s cheering, ‘cos I was well known, yer see.

“Where’s the chocolates?” I cry.

Mike

I reckon that’s the story of your life, Ollie.
Never let go….even if it’s only rags in hand.

Olive

Yeah, well then I’m thinkin’, I better get home fast.
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So, I’m home and it’s all quiet. I throw me skates in the window, shoes after them, chocolates in too, and I’m half way in when down comes the window on me back.

Mike

No!

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Olive

Mum’s there and did she whack me? Oh, Geez. “I told you not to go!”
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She give me a hell of a hiding.

Mike

That’s terrible!

Olive

She never liked me, Never!

I used to sell bottles, save me pennies, all so I could buy little presents and give them to her. Just so she’d take notice of me and she’d like me a little bit.

But I couldn’t win her.

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Mike

Ed. Note. The Five Lands Walk’s ahead of us next week, and Maria Amelia’s blog is there to keep us on our toes.

No good news about Johnny Bosco and his lettuces. A fair solution to that tasty problem (see post two) looks less and less likely.

The same Gosford council , which is showing vision in promoting the Five Lands Walk, shows no vision at all on the Hydroponic lettuce matter.

It’s a disgrace.

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