The Way Things Were By Ian & Normajean Gasking with Colin Lewis, Dugandan, Qld.
We now think of ourselves as environmentally conscious; recycling, growing and preserving our own vegies and fruit, and generally being earth conscious. But in reality, we are just getting back to the way things were. As the saying goes, ‘Yesterday’s luxuries are today’s necessities.’ In the 1950s manufacturers were advertising the luxury of ‘labour saving devices’; washing machines, electric and gas stoves, refrigerators, benchtop appliances like mixers, electric frypans and toasters, plus rotary clotheslines and motor mowers. Luxuries then, now necessities! Col Lewis recently bought a copy of my book, Australia’s Skills of the Past. In his letter of appreciation
and our subsequent correspondence, he shared that it reminded him of memories from his past. As this was largely in note form, I have fleshed out some details, which I have added in brackets, but not altered the essence of his memories. Even Col’s address speaks of times past; Shanks Pony Lane. For younger readers, to travel by shanks’ pony means to walk when one can’t afford to travel by horse, car or bike. Col’s story
When I was a boy my grandfather told me stories of his life. He was a bullocky, carting logs to the railway. Well watered and grazed overnight, his team, 48 strong, was fresh and worked with a will. It was G R A S S
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a long haul with a fully laden jinker of logs to the top of a hill. There was fierce competition at the time with the newfangled motor lorries competing for logging business. The bullock team appreciated the rest break at the top and emptied forth their full bowels and bladders. The road, freshly churned by hard hooves and iron-bound wheels, was immediately turned to a steamy quagmire impossible for motor vehicles with wooden-spoked wheels and smooth solid rubber tyres. My grandfather, the bullock driver on my father’s side, was wounded in France and badly affected by the horrors he witnessed in the war. He was given a selection of land upon his return, but the family had
