Sometimes, when I think about the Australia of just a few decades ago, I find myself doubting my own memories and those of my friends. Could it be true that coffee was a rarity - hardly available in any form other than a spoonful of instant? Did teachers really inspect the underpants of female students, making the young girls lift their dresses in order to check the colour and style? Could it be that women were sacked from the public service the moment they were married - the rebellious ones hiding their wedding rings and even their pregnant bellies in order to survive in employment for a few more months? Did Catholics really find it hard to get a job once they admitted their religion? And what of my memory of the typical motor vehicle - parked by the roadside, bonnet raised, its radiator boiling over at the mere mention of a hill? Could it be true, more to the point, that we lacked avocado - the fruit, smashed or otherwise, that has become a symbol of modern millennial Australia and its myriad pleasures?"
This book takes me back to the decade between 1965 and 1975. I am even older than Richard Glover - it’s a sobering thought that many of you weren't even born then - and I had just come out to Australia which was getting ready for the introduction of decimal currency on the 14th of February 1966. Life was more private then and slower paced - though they drove fast and often drunk and there were no penalties for either. Where would we be without memories? In the land of Dementia, I guess!
Today avocado is readily available everywhere. It has become so popular and hipster that "smashed avo on toast" seems to appear on every café brunch menu. I never order it. I mean, it’s nearly as unforgivable as paying $15 for someone else to spread vegemite on your toast or pouring milk on your muesli – these are things you can eat at home, for free! So maybe the land before avocado wasn’t so bad after all?
This postscript is for my old mate Ian Paterson at Tannum Sands who's more into librarians than I am - even those with bad dental work:
