At home at RIVERBEND on the beautiful Clyde: Just came back from town with the blues

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Just came back from town with the blues

The Puberty Blues, that is, written by two Sydney girls thirty-seven years ago as 'the great Australian classic'. The book - later made into a movie -scandalised most adult Australians when it was published in 1979, and its 2002 reprint, which I picked up from a Vinnies shop this morning, is still a bumpy ride today.

This later edition has not just one foreword but two: by Kylie Minogue who wrote, "I don't recall reading Puberty Blues so much as devouring it. I was fascinated. The honesty of the story made it hysterical and terrifying at the same time", and Germaine Greer who goes on for much longer - as she's wont to - but can be summed up in her final remark that "Puberty Blues is a profoundly moral story".

The two Sydney girls, Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey, didn't so much write a book as a booklet because it's a mere 115 pages, of which the last two summarise what happened to those true-life characters in later life:

Jeff Basin	Heroin habit
Bruce Board	Labourer in Caringbah; unmarried father
Frieda Cummins	Unknown
Dave Deakin	Dead; heroin overdose in Queensland
Danny Dixon	Plumber in steady job in Sylvania Heights
Kim Dixon	Numerous breakdowns
Garry Hennessey	Heroin habit; serving seven-year gaol sentence for armed robbery on a chemist
Glen Jackson	Heroin habit; involved in same robbery but got off; dobbed in Garry and Johnno; father to Vicki Russell's baby
Johnno	Heroin habit; serving nine-year gaol sentence for same robbery
Tracey Little	Heroin addict; admitted to Drug Rehabilitation Centre
Kerrie Mead	Fell pregnant; baby adopted
Cheryl Nolan	Heroin addict; admitted to Drug Rehabilitation Centre
Darren Peters	Heroin addict; whereabouts unknown
Vicki Russell	Unmarried mother
Seagull	Heroin addict and on the run
Steve Strachan	Gave up surfing and started drinking; hangs at local pub
Wayne Wright	Dead; fell from window while breaking into flat to score drugs
Susan Knight and Deborah Vickers	Ran away from school and at eighteen wrote this book

If this is an account of growing up in the 1970s, then I never grew up!

In eigener Sache!

Ich wanderte im Jahre 1965 vom (k)alten Deutschland nach Australien aus. In Erinnerung an das alte Sprichwort "Gott hüte mich vor Sturm und Wind und Deutschen die im Ausland sind" wurde ich in 1971 im Dschungel von Neu-Guinea australischer Staatsbürger. Das kostete mich nur einen Umlaut und das zweite n im Nachnamen - von -mann auf -man.

Australien gab mir eine zweite Sprache und eine zweite Chance und es war auch der Anfang und das Ende: nach fünfzig Arbeiten in fünfzehn Ländern - "Die ganze Welt mein Arbeitsfeld" - lebe ich jetzt im Ruhestand in Australien an der schönen Südküste von Neusüdwales.

Ich verbringe meine Tage mit dem Lesen von Büchern, segle mein Boot den Fluss hinunter, beschäftige mich mit Holzarbeit, oder mache Pläne für eine neue Reise. Falls Du mir schreiben willst, sende mir eine Email an riverbendnelligen [AT] mail.com, und ich schreibe zurück.

Falls Du anrufen möchtest, meine Nummer ist XLIV LXXVIII X LXXXI.

Notice to North American readers:

This blog is written in the version of English that is standard here. So recognise is spelled recognise and not recognize etc. I recognise that some North American readers may find this upsetting, and while I sympathise with them, I sympathise even more with my countrymen who taught me how to spell. However, as an apology, here are a bunch of Zs for you to put where needed.

Zzzzzz

Disclaimer
This blog has no particular axe to grind, apart from that of having no particular axe to grind. It is written by a bloke who was born in Germany at the end of the war (that is, for younger readers, the Second World War, the one the Americans think they won single-handedly). He left for Australia when most Germans had not yet visited any foreign countries, except to invade them. He lived and worked all over the world, and even managed a couple of visits back to the (c)old country whose inhabitants he found very efficient, especially when it came to totting up what he had consumed from the hotels' minibars. In retirement, he lives (again) in Australia, but is yet to grow up anywhere.

He reserves the right to revise his views at any time. He might even indulge in the freedom of contradicting himself. He has done so in the past and will most certainly do so in the future. He is not persuading you or anyone else to believe anything that is reported on or linked to from this site, but encourages you to use all available resources to form your own opinions about important things that affect all our lives and to express them in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Everything on this website, including any material that third parties may consider to be their copyright, has been used on the basis of “fair dealing” for the purposes of research and study, and criticism and review. Any party who feels that their copyright has been infringed should contact me with details of the copyright material and proof of their ownership and I will remove it.

And finally, don't bother trying to read between the lines. There are no lines - only snapshots, most out of focus.