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Colin lived with his parents behind Arthur Shilling’s Holydene store, on the right just over Wybong creek, where the tar gives way to corrugated dust. It is an isolating existence, for a soft boy buried in astronomy books rather than covered in monkey grease, like his father.
Old Alf is a hard task master with strangled parenting skills. Their conversations were physical: a hand would shoot out, and Colin would slap in the correct spanner, whether it be ratchet, plier or stilson.
Edna, however, was a vision in pink, known around the traps as Martindale’s Barbra Cartland. Not to her face, of course. Edna would give you the shirt off her back. She served for ten years as President of the Martindale Country Women’s Association. Edna believed in the Church of the Casserole.
Colin has enrolled in Physics and Maths at Sydney, boarding close by with friends of his mother.
6 comments:
This is a very creative way to write. Very interesting. I may need to try it when my life slows down. I love reading your view on each image.
Love the photo. The riff complements it beautifully.
Edna and Alf must be so proud of their boy. :)
“Church of the Casserole” – brilliant.
Isn't he just adorable?
I've been thinking about this all day and have just reread ... you know I love people like Edna and Alf and they are beautifully drawn. What has been bothering me is this ... what time is the story set in? The young man is clearly of today in which case Edna and Alf are far to old to be his parents (people with kids leaving school right now don't have names like Edna and Alf).
I guess that points to the problem of having images as well as the writing.
Yes, yes, well pinged, Joan. Had not noticed that myself. The characters are amalgams all drawn from life, yet the photo was taken about a month ago. The photo reminded me, not so much of a particular person, but of a situation, a fish out of water or "wrong pond". But I had not thought about the names. The father name was fictional, the mother based on a real person.
Golly, how to pick that up in my story telling ...
Vicki, "church of the casserole" is not original to me. I read it in a blog in the last month, but cannot remember which one. Liked it immediately and to remember it I try to used asap. Same with "pondage" and "lough" ... lovely words that I want to incorporate into my vocab.
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