Partying like it's 1949

While Rika was talking with John about tomatoes, I chatted with the very lovely Harry*. Harry was actually the first of the nursing home residents that we were introduced to... so we were still a bit nervous when we waited outside his room while Julia, who works at the home, went in and started making the bed, and we could hear her saying

"HARRY! There are some young girls here who want to talk to you and ask if you have any advice for young people! Would you like to talk to them?"

Harry: "What? Talk to me? OH NO NO no I don't have anything to say really I don't have any advice..."

Julia: "They just want to ask about things you did when you were young, because it's different for their generation than it was for your generation..."

At this point Ee Lynn nudged me and was saying... "hey maybe we should stand there where he can see us"... so we shuffled into the doorway a bit... smiling like crazy and trying our best to look rather friendly and adorable. 

Julia: "So would you like to meet then?"

Harry: "Well I can see them already. They're right there. (Making eye contact with us) I don't have anything I can tell you really girls. All I could talk to you about is RABBITING, 'cos I used to go with my brother and we'd cycle up past Coburg. We'd take the dog and the ferret... 

And he was off!! It was great! He didn't give us any specific advice, but told us lots of stories. Details that he thought were pretty uninteresting were things we'd never heard of... for example in his day ALL pubs used to close at 6 o'clock! PM! Then eventually a later closing time was brought in for some places... 10pm! And we whinge about the 2am lockout. Though actually that is really annoying. 

I loved hearing about what people would do to go out and have fun when he was in his teens and twenties. He'd go to the pictures (not to see a 'film' or a 'movie'... the pictures) and he'd go dancing. Dancing meant going to a dance hall and doing things like the foxtrot. It's so bizarre now to imagine an average aussie bloke knowing how to do the foxtrot and thinking nothing of it. But it was just the normal social scene to go to dances, and everyone would dance in pairs but you'd keep switching partners as you went round the circle. If you were going out anywhere you'd always wear a collar, tie and hat for the boys and dresses for the girls. Harry would go with his friends then he and a girl started "knocking about together" and he'd go with her, then later they got married! He was 28 and she was 19. I asked Harry what sort of music they'd dance to and he asked if we knew Fred Astaire or Bing Crosby. He still likes to listen to them on his tapes and CDs.  

Sarah xx