OYSTERS, WALTZING MATILDA AND RUFUS
OLIVE’S THIRTY SEVENTH POST
Mike
Seriously, Ollie, nobody would believe, looking at this photo, so wistful and sweet, that you were nudging 108
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Olive
Well, so what?
Mike
Maybe, so what. Indeed, so what?
But we are doing this, you and I, for all the old people who never got recorded, who just got forgotten when they shouldn’t have.
That’s how I see it.
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Click here if you are discovering Olive for the first time
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In today’s post.
1. Ollie and I talk about eating oysters with Eric.
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2. Movie clips of Ollie on oysters and fishing
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3. Movie clip of Ollie talking about faking computer literacy.
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4. Jay Leno’s people called, wanted Ollie in LA
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5. Singing songs (movie clips)with Christina, Happy Days and Waltzing Matilda
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6. Ollie announces she’d like to go back to Broken Hill.
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7. I find a movie clip of Rufus Wainwright from a movie I made
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Mike
So Ollie, how did you like the oyster party?
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Olive
Oh, it was wonderful. I think it was one of the nicest outings I’ve ever had. And I mean it!
Mike
You didn’t mind that we ate off butcher’s paper?
Olive
‘Course I didn’t!
Mike
Well, I know you are very sweet on Eric
Olive
He’s a really nice man. A real gentleman
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Mike
You wouldn’t give him the blue duck, would you? (see previous post with that title)
Olive
No fear!
Mike
I have to tell our readers that we went out for oysters at the old Woy Woy pub last Thursday.
It’s a regular haunt of Eric’s and so he invited us, for oysters and prawns.
The pub was built in 1897, two years before you were born, Ollie. Here’s what it looks like today.
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I wandered around and found a photo of the old place as it used to be.
There is one thing you can bet on, an old Aussie pub which has survived the developers, will always have a photo of itself in the early days on the wall in the back bar.
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Olive
Yum!!! It’s quite a while since I had oysters.
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Mike
You’re a rogue, Ollie………….Actually, I was worried you were going to get sick.
You had 14 of those slippery things in under an hour. Yuk!.
Here’s me asking you when you last had oysters.
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Click for oysters
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My Mum used to do the same thing round Sydney harbour. They lived at Lane Cove.
She’d carry a little knife with her and just prise open the shell of some sadly surprised oyster and suck it out, then and there!
As a kid, I thought it was awful! But that’s what you did in Sydney. I didn’t grow up there and never got the taste.
Here’s my Mum about 12, enjoying her natural childhood, round about 1922. You would have been 23.
A wonderful Australian life. No TV. Just the bush, the dunes and the oysters. A free spirit, Mum was.
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Mike
Then, we got talking about fishing and you told a story I’d not heard before, about fishing with a nine pound line.
Nothing that special about the story, Ollie. But it’s fun when there’s a new item for our collection, even a slight one.
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fishing story
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Olive
Yeah, I used to love fishing.
Mike
That means you must have been a very patient type. Remember, Eric confessed he was far too impatient to fish?
And then you had your shandy. Do you remember, we talked about your love of a good shandy in the first post of the blog, way back in Febuary?
We soon discovered that many people did not know what a shandy is.
You better remind our foreign readers, Ollie
Olive
That’s simple. A shandy is half and half. Half beer and half lemonade, a real ladies’ drink.
Mike
Then, Eric got you to try a Guinness
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Which you didn’t like at all. Too bitter!
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And then Christina arrived to eat the last of the oysters and sing songs with you.
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I can’t undestand what you guys see in those slimy things!…. Look at you. You look like you could eat another dozen!
Then, there were the songs. Lots of them. Here are just two because your voice was croaky
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Olive sings happy days. Click here
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Olive sings Waltzing Matilda. Click here
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After the songs, you told us and how you’d tricked a newspaper photographer, pretending to be computer literate.
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Click for Ollie on faking it
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Of course all the jounalists want you to actually be the typist and the poster of the blog.
When we first began, there were a couple of Australian journalists who, when they found out you didn’t actually type the blog, said; “Oh well, she’s really not very special at all, is she?” meaning you.
Olive
Did they, now?
Mike
Yeah, I didn’t tell you at the time. I was furious. Anyway, you’ve had the last laugh.
Did I tell that I had a call from the Tonight Show in the US. Jay Leno wanted you on his show
Olive
Who’s Jay Leno?
Mike
Oh, he’s a funny bloke. He’s on American TV and does inteviews with people late at night. This is him
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Being on his show, would’ve meant you’d hit the big time, Ollie.
Olive
I couldn’t stay up. I need my beauty sleep
Mike
They wanted to fly you to Los Angeles. I said, no way. They understood it was too risky. The lady said; “I knew it was a long shot.”
Olive
Right. I’m not leaving Australia!
Mike
I said they could do it by video link, but they don’t do that.
Olive
You know where I do want to go, is back to Broken Hill, now that they’ve been chosen for this heritage thing.
I showed you in the paper, Mike (Daily Telegraph, Sept.6th 2007)
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Mike
Would you really consider that? Are you up to it?
Olive
Too right, I’m up to it. I’d do anything for Broken Hill
Mike
I’ll get onto Jenny Camillieri, the history lady there whom you met, and see when it’s happening
Olive
Good!
Mike
Now, lastly, remember I told you about the singer I featured in my kids’ movie? Well, his name is Rufus Wainwright, and he’s become famous.
He’s got a concert in Sydney next January and it’s already sold out. I was so disappointed.
Anyway, here’s Rufus grown up.
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This is a song he wrote for my movie which was called Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler.
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click for Rufus. I’m Runnin’
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Olive
He looks very nice. And it’s a good song. You should show the film here.
Mike
I don’t have the rights to it, Ollie, sadly. Any one who wants to see Tommy Tricker should contact the distributor, Delphis Films. www.delphisfilms.com
Now, here’s another song of his.
You will find it strange, maybe very strange. But I think he’s brilliant, so I hope you will like it. I really do!
Rufus had a grandmother he was very fond of, and she lived to a very old age like you. I met her.
That’s what links you two…. maybe. Anyway, I love this song.
Some songs are just like breathing, like a sigh. They’re about all the things you cannot change, but still you try. This song is that. Oh, what a world.
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Rufus sings, Oh, what a world.
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Maybe I’m reading into it what I want. But did you ever hear a sultry singer mention his parents in a song before?
Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 3:28 am
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16 Responses to “OYSTERS, WALTZING MATILDA AND RUFUS”
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September 14th, 2007 at 4:32 am
I love hearing all the stories. But what I really love is that photo of the sunset silhouette. It’s beautiful!
I should make that image bigger, Alissa, it is fantastic. Mike the helper
September 14th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I had a rough day at work, lots of little life worries, and found this new post! Gracious Olive, you never fail to brighten my day, just by being yourself. Thanks again, for sharing your stories, and your current adventures.
Robert, we have not heard from you for a while. glad you are still reading, Mike the helper
September 14th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Dear Olive & Mike ..
I am glad that Broken Hill is up for heritage listing. The oysters looks delicious & Guinness is too bitter for me, too!
:)
I think it’s great Olive wants to go back to BH. I just shows how lively she’s feeling these days. We don’t yet when the decision will be made. Mime th helper.
September 14th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Hullo Olive -
Nan - Australia here again. I liked the picture of you in the hat - looking, as Mike said “wistful and sweet”. Do you know I have two pictures of you among my ’specials’ on my computer’s screensaver. Do you remember, as I do, when hats were worn lots more than they ever are now? I like them - they frame the face like a picture that invites looking into.- pity they’re not worn more now; apart from sun-hats, my only going-out one nowadays is a little old navy velvet “tam” which I wear to keep my head warm in winter-time.
I do enjoy visiting your Blog - and this one today was a special treat. First, Mike has put in some of the movie of your visit to Broken Hill. The best part for me I think was to see you dancing with the tall young man - to the music from a windup gramophone. I think you were a good dancer - something I wasn’t ever able to do because my parents wouldn’t allow it. I’ve always wished I could though, and to see you there brought a tear or two(good ones).
Those lunchtime oysters on your outing with Eric and Christine and Mike looked very more-ish. I had fresh gathered oysters once here, at friends’ house - but they’re not my favourites, my real favourites are scallops - they’re way too expensive to have these days - sometimes are about $25 a kg. but in the old days a billy-full of scallops from the fishermen’s wharf would cost only sixpence!
Your singing with Christine is so good to hear - I think so far, my favourite of yours has been “Bye-bye Blackbird”. When I was about 15 we’d visit my friend’s Grannie - she had a pianola, and we’d all gather round, pedal it furiously, and watch the perforated rolls go round and play great old songs like “Tip-Toe through the Tulips’, “Turkey in the Straw” etc.
I think I’m talking too much, instead of listening to you, so I’ll stop, except for answering something Mike asked me here once. I began using a computer about six years ago; part of the reason for my enjoyment of it is because of something that I definitely did not enjoy about 70 years ago. I’d wanted to stay on longer at school and then do nursing, but my parents wouldn’t let me do that - made me leave school early and after some months learning to type, I was put to work in an office, something I never wanted to do. I’d learned shorthand, some book-keeping and office-practice at school, so that was it. I’d always wished they’d at least let me have a go at nursing, but it wasn’t to be. My childhood was in the ‘Depression’ times of the 30’s, and I think they wanted me to be out earning rather than staying on at school. But now - because typing is ‘like a breeze’ for me, I find using a computer keyboard easy, and by the time I became truly thankful for that, they weren’t here to be thanked. Like you, it has given me contacts across the world - something like the pen-friends we had in schooldays, but a lot easier.
Oh, and about fishing……… ‘my young man’ (to whom I’ve now been married for 60-plus years) used to hire a wooden dinghy so we could fish for flathead on the river. There’s nothing like fresh-caught and cooked flathead! Fish’n'chips from the shop may be OK, perhaps……… but fresh-caught ……!! .yum.
Blessings -
and again thanks to Mike and all your friends and carers for making it possible for me to meet you and hear your stories.
Nan, what a fantastic reponse. The blog system was so surprised, your long note was caught in the spam filter. Luckily, I was able to rescue it.
So interesting and so youthful sounding. I did not realize till near the end that you must be in your eighties. Have you thought of starting your own blog, Nan?
By the way, I’m sure you must have read the post about Olive always wanting to be a nurse, and her mother stopping her. You two have that in common. Maybe you should both think of going into training. Kevin Rudd says we are 19,000 nurses short in Aust.
Also, did you see the post in which we discuss David Potts book on th Great Depression and call for depression stories? You must have a lot more. Want to share them?
Eric and Olive are going to be equally interested in your news. It’s usually Eric who reads Olive the comments these days. Mike the helper.
September 15th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Hi Olive I’ve not been by for a while but SOMETHING on the BBC World Service Radio had me up in arms and thinking of you. On yesterday’s Outlook programme, Heather Payton introduced “the oldest blogger in the world who is 95 years old!” I instantly thought of you. Olive you must put these people right…
The lady they featured blogs in Spanish but there’s a button for English translation on the right hand side toolbar.
The main url is http://amis95.blogspot.com
I will get you the web address for the BBC’s Outlook prog in a sec…
September 15th, 2007 at 11:50 am
What a wonderful story for today. The Guiness and oysters looked fun! I’m glad our friend Eric sent me the link to here.
September 15th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Ollie, Jay Leno wanted you on his show…wow, I’m impressed…well done to you. Too bad, they don’t do video link ups…what’s the matter with them? There’s a first time for everything, especially in this day and age.
Ollie, I’m originally from New Zealand, of Maori heritage, and I can relate to eating oysters. My mum and her sister (and all us kids…11 of us altogether) would prize the oysters from the rocks at the beach and scoff them like mad. Because being of Maori heritage entitled us to do that…Pakehas (white people) weren’t allowed to and the rangers would fine them.
Oh, those were the days. No pollution like today so the oysters were relatively safe to eat…well, we never got sick anyway…lol!
I never knew you had special rights like that, Robyn. Makes sense. Mike the helper
September 17th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Great post Ollie! I used to LOVE to eat oysters, until I got violently ill after eating them once and had to got to the hospital for food poisoning. I’ve never been so sick in my life! I must have got a bad one, as my husband ate even more than I did and he was fine. I would like to eat oysters still, but I just can’t bring myself to do it…maybe some day…
As for Guinness, the first time I tried it (here in the US) I didn’t like it either. But when we (my family) were traveling in Ireland, we tried some there. It was soooo much better, smoother, less bitter. My mom even liked it and she’s not much of a beer drinker, especially strong dark beer.
Very impressive about Broken Hill - I hope you do make it back for the heritage thing!
Thanks Chistina. I’m hoping to get the movie to you. Mike the helper
Take care and stay well,
Christina
September 19th, 2007 at 8:26 am
Hi Mike and Ollie,
It’s just amazing how much your blogs have evolved. Used to be a quick read, but now we have videos too. I’m really enjoying that part.
I’ve eaten oysters right off the beach myself in Florida…but prefer them from a seafood distributor. Used to eat lots of raw ones, but generally go with the steamed ones now due to good sense. I have had what was called “lager tops” in London which was lager topped off with lemonade. Hard to beat a semi cool (not cold) Guinness, though. I do so love them.
I’m very impressed that Jay Leno wanted Ollie on the Tonight Show. That would have been tremendous exposure, but health is more important.
I hope to see Ollie make it back to Broken Hill.
Keep up the great work. It is nice to read feel good stuff on the internet instead of doom and gloom that you see on the news.
Eric
Yes, we do try to spead some wamth and food feeling in a grim world, Eric. Mike the helper
September 20th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
[…] things she did in her younger days, coupled with pictures *and* video. One example is of her going to a bar that is actually older than her with Mike, talking about how they enjoyed a plate of oysters, how some local Australian mainstream […]
September 20th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
[…] Crowdis’ most recent blog post was March 8, 2007. Olive’s most recent blog update was last Friday, she’s using Wordpress and accepts comments (rel=nofollow). The blog is written in an […
This link above discusses a question we must address. Should we be calling Olive the world’s oldest blogger when, as you’ll see from the blog, it’s a collaborative effort? It was Eric, himself a record holder in journalist age terms, who first broached the idea of Olive’s blog. Eric is 88 and publishes an e-book which you can easily find by googling his name, Eric Shackle.
I met Eric at our local radio station. I was on radio to talk about Saving our lovely Avoca Beach Theatre from over development, and Eric was the interviewee before me. I heard him telling Central Coast residents, many of whom are retired, that they don’t need to be afraid of the internet.
I was fascinated by Eric’s message coming from someone who was 87, and me being 67. I’d been somewhat fearful myself of the internet, though I’ve been emailing for years. I was certainly stumped by the technical side of blogging and web siting, reliant on others for my internet presence.
Anyway, Eric and I got talking at the radio studio that day and then kept in touch, me reading his e book regularly.
Soon, he was doing a story on a film of mine that I’d made on the Shakespeare mystery. I’m sure you all know its quite unlikely that William Shakespeare actually wrote those famous works which bear his name, him being illiterate, as far as we know.
Some years ago, i made a documentary called, Much Ado About Something, which attempts to prove that the hidden hand behind the Bard was one, Christopher Marlowe, another playwright of the period. I proposed that Marlowe had had to flee England to escape charges of atheism, that Marlowe had faked his own death in 1593, and continued writing plays from exile in Italy under the name of Shakespeare.
Eric had fun telling the world about my theory on his E book, far from convinced, I suspect.
Later, I gave him a copy of a the Documentary I’d recently completed on the amazing Olive Riley, then 105. This film was called, All About Olive.
It must been about a year later that Eric discovered the blog of Spain’s, Maria Amelia Lopez who was blogging with the help of her typist grandson, at the great old age of 95. It was Eric too, who said, “If Maria can do it, why not Olive?”
I was immediately intrigued because I had in hand many of Olive’s engaging stories that I’d not been able to put into the film for space reasons. So, I went to Olive, who’d stayed a friend after the filming, and explained what a blog was, and how she and I could serve up the delightful leftovers, the stories, I mean.
Would she like to blog if I did all the work, the typing, the photography, and later the Youtubing? She was mildly interested, mainly because she does love telling stories. It was only later that she came to realize the amazing reach she could have so late in her life.
Here she was, a lovely straightforward person, a barmaid for much of her working life,and now world famous. Olive is someone nobody had ever paid much attention to, except to say, “another Schooner of Fosters, Luv!” from the other side of some Sydney bar. The years and wars of the 20th century rolled by, Olive remaining in obscurity except to her growing pyramid of descendants. Now, suddenly here she was read and followed around the world.
Well, it was heady stuff for all three of us, and then came the realization that what Eric had spoken about in the first interview on local ABC radio, namely helping older people to overcome internetic fears, was actually happening globally because of Ollie’s blog, or Blob, as she first called it.
Not only that, but many people with older rellies, were getting off their bums and recording the reminiscences and stories that they’d always meant to record, but never had.
Next, web sites like the wonderful As Time Goes By picked up Ollie’s blob, and passed it on to seniors across the vast US, linking us with the enterprising Billie Bennett who was already coaxing great writing out of older people.
But all that being said, we must admit that this blog is more blogography than autoblogography, if you get what I mean.
And as it advances and Olive ages, it could well be that the mix changes and there are more stories initiated by us, Eric and I, especially me, since I’ve got the best legs of all three, and am still physically frisky, unlike my partners. (there’s 40 years between us. I’m 68, Eric is 88 and Ollie is 108)
I’ve also I’ve had a packed life making films, both documentary and fiction, which my blog partners find interesting. Now, with youtube, one is able to share bits of one’s past life like never before.
Mike, the full disclosure.
September 22nd, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I have been really busy lately but I always try to take time out to read Olive’s blog. Fantastic as always. She is really beautiful in those pictures; she always puts a smile on my face. I love the picture where she’s smiling at the camera and holding a glass of Giness.
Kisses.
September 23rd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Dear Olive,
I read your story in the local paper,so I am visiting your website for the 1st time, & You are indeed an inspirational lady. May you have many more delightful moments to add to your list of memorable times. My Dad is a sprightly 80 year old who travels to a new place each year to celebrate his birthday (Tassie this year, Perth last year….)
I love & respect the wisdom of our older citizens,& the interesting stories are pure joy,
I wish you well, Bev. Central Coast
Hi Bev, glad you found Olive’s site. There’s lots of good stories in the past posts if you feel like exploring. Mike the helper.
Bev, how nice to have a Central coast reader. We’ve been sad that so few people near us seem to read the blog. Now with you on board, we feel better. Best wishes to your Dad at 80 . Let’s know what he thinks of the blob, if you can get him to a computer.
Tell him that Eric who thought this up and publishes his e book online (Eric Shackle, easy to google) is 88. Mike the helper
September 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Of course Olive is a genuine blogger. Blogging can be a collaborative effort. Together the team of Mike and Olive have created an elegant, thoughtful and inspiring blog. My mother, who passed a year ago at 87 was intimidated by computers, but she did own a fax machine, and while in her eighties took a creative writing class and began writing her “memoirs”, just for her children. What a wonderful gift that is when our elders can pass down some of the experience and wisdom, wisdom developed during a long and full life, so that we may appreciate what they have done before us, and for us, and so we may be inspired in our own lives.
Congratulations on a blog well done!
Thanks for the approval, Big fella. We are of the same opinion. Mike the helperr
September 24th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Awesome to make your acquaintance, Olive, through your stories. What a wonderful inspiration you are!!!
I went to your blog, Latharia. and heard the audio of the hilarious conversation between Noah and God about the ark. Go listen. fokks. It’s worth it. Where does it come from Latharia? Mike the helper
September 24th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Hello Olive,
I found you blog while looking for videos of the song, “Pack up your troubles in your old Kit Bag”.
I take part every Monday with a group of people who write something about a word selected by a blogger named Mo. This weeks word is “Kit” and I have one of the videos of you singing on my blog today….along with a link to your blog.
I am almost half your age (laughing) and live on the ocean in California in the United States. Very far away….but your blog makes me feel close to Australia. I love your stories. My Grandfather is 92. He tells great stories as well.
I am looking forward to reading more of your blog.
take care,
katherine.
Hi katherine. Do you get your Grandfather’s stories onto your blgf. I haven’t looked as yet. The word game sounds fun. There a a limitless number of things one can do with a blog, it seems. Mike the helper