As a lad I spent many a holiday in a far distant land that had a little resemblance to Dimboola.
Family would come from far and wide for a wedding.......damn that would be exciting. All those relatives, all that grog, life long bones to pick and a plethora of guns.
But you had to get there first with no guarantee of leaving. If you managed to not meet Skippy and his mob in the kingswood on the plains, a exciting time lay ahead.
Even better was the bus as Skippy exploded across the front.
Naturally I speak of Hay. From Hay you can look anywhere and find Hell and just down road is Booligal.
Hence the term Hay , Hell and Booligal.
A town with from memory had 600 people, at least 10 pubs and 200 Ute's with very angry hunting dogs.
All good, no worries mate, just chill and have a drink....relax.
Until I realised there is only a few things to do in Hay......
Rooting- most likely someone else's girl.
Fighting- over the girl or from losing a bet on who would bed the girl.
Followed up by some friendly shooting.
Generally the lads would just lay waste to some poor buggers car, but some went for long walks.....
Hay is a particularly attractive spot for transporting drugs to cities. Initially from the Griffith area, think Donald Mckay and today from Adelaide etc and is ice land.
I spent most my school holidays in Hay.
The safest thing I ever did was go to Maude weir fishing...........
With a stick of dynamite.
I was only a bloody kid for firetrucks sake.
Hell is meant to be after you die.
Kids should not have to milk cows Early in the morning either.
The chickens, I could chop heads etc,
But milking ........
Maybe it was because I had to go to the neighbours to do it.
He was the bloody stonemason, undertakers, grave digger and engineer.
A sea of headstones in mist had to be negotiated to get to the milking.
I was only a 8 year old lad.
Would have felt so much safer in ...anywhere.
Maude tended to be safe most days. The barmaid was well known, for the pump action under the counter. Mexicans on shooting trips were often trigger happy.
Little wonder, holidays were interesting........