Th e Meta m o rp h o s is o f D a n n y Noyes
( p a rt 1)
Anzac Day, for friends overseas, is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Anzac day in the year I was turning 15. I had been taken to my mother’s cousin’s work for the day. He had to drive a truck somewhere and one of his colleagues’ drove a Ute behind us to return him to where we picked the truck up. After we delivered the truck we stopped off at a pub. Of course, it’s Anzac Day, a public holiday, beer with the vets, two-up, it’s what you do. Being 15, I was left in the Ute to amuse myself with the radio, blaring out its a.m. mid seventies glam rock, fiddling with the two way radio that obviously didn’t work. The day was a typical autumn day. Clear, crisp, fresh. I saw him coming in the side view mirror but I didn’t take much notice. He looked a frail old man with a chest full of medals a big bunch of rosemary clamped to his jacket lapel. I leaned forward to change the channel on the radio and then ...he was there ....just there, at the window. “Come and have a drink with an old Rat from Tobruk” he said. “No, no I’m not”....and before I could get anything else out he grabbed me. He placed his hand in my crotch and started to grope whilst pinning me down against the back of the seat with his elbow. I was pushing as hard as I could because he was blocking off my airway. I managed to get a scream out and with that he let go and ran off. I don’t know why but I grabbed the microphone of the two-way and started screaming for help into it ....I locked all the doors and wound the window up and sat there until they came out of the pub. It was a while.......I don’t know why but I have never told anyone that episode until recently. That’s why, to this day, I hate Anzac Day. It reminds me of that bastard. I can still smell him and hear him. It’s looking back on episodes like this in my life I realized I needed to deal with them for me to move on through this condition and find a place on the other side of the darkness. There aren’t many of these in my life but they would turn out to be significant. Most of my artwork reflects these moments in my life.