In response to my "Walk, don't run" post, a reader sent me the above clip of a group called "The Ventures" playing a tune called "Walk, don't run". I'd never heard of either but listening to the tune I realised I had heard it many times before, just after I had come to Australia in 1965 and just after I had begun to discover the opposite sex in Australia. Watching the clip all the way to the end, I even came across what looked like me:
It prompted me to go looking for some old photos from those days which I'm allowed to publish now without running the risk of some back-dated claims for child maintenance. Luckily, back then my shy personality and nerdy looks were all the contraceptives I needed.
| For starters, I have no recollection of who those people are or what their names were, although the one in the picture above may have been called Mary - I mean, she had that Mary-Hopkin look, right down to that mole on her right upper chin, don't you think? |
| Ditto with this lot but I recall that the party was held at Canberra's Deakin Inn sometime in 1966 by which time my English was already good enough for me to mumble, "Yes, please; I'll have another one!" |
| And I've no idea why this girl - whoever she was - singled me out. Maybe she needed someone to lean on. It certainly wasn't the grey flannel suit I'd been wearing since my articled years in Germany. |
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Drinks of choice in those days were jugs of beer for the boys and Barossa Pearl for the girls who clutched imitation gold lamé bags while the boys clutched at straws trying to look like Ringo Starr.
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end. We'd sing and dance forever and a day. We'd live the life we choose. We'd fight and never lose. For we were young and sure to have our way. |
