From an early age it was obvious that I was always going to be a bit of a tomboy and not quite the "lady" my mother hoped I would be! As a child she dressed me in pretty outfits and constantly curled my hair, supplied me with dolls and prams and stuff but all I did with the dolls was bite their fingers off. Living on a farm had so much more interesting stuff to do. I used to enjoy catching mice, playing with my toy trucks, making mud pies, helping to tail lambs and tormenting my mother by chasing her around with their tails! One of the big bonuses of being a "country girl" is that you get the opportunity to drive at an early age, and all sorts of vehicles.
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At 16 I had my licence (no P's those days, and you could get your L's one day and sit for your test the next!) and my first set of wheels was Mum's Mini. A little while down the track my Dad bought me a Holden EH ute. It was then I realised that I had definitely been standing behind the door (the garage door) when they were handing out the handbag and shoe genes to all the other girls! I loved my ute. In 1981 I purchased my very first (and only) brand new car-a Holden Gemini SLX, yes a girlie car BUT not entirely. It was soon fitted out with stoneguards, a twin system, airhorns, UHF, the coolest little mag wheels and fat tyres and the CASSETTE player was standard in a SLX (!) The thing about living out of town meant that a lot of us young people (I was young once) used to meet at the local pub, pile into someone's car and travel to wherever and whatever was on a Saturday night. |
| I soon learnt that if I volunteered to be "Skipper" (aka Designated Driver) I would get to drive the boys' hot cars home! This did not help my cause in becoming a "genteel lady"! One day a few of these boys started talking about chucking some money together and buying a Pontiac they had found. I was there with my $50 and much to my surprise, shock and disappointment, they wouldn't let me in stating "NO GIRLS" as the criteria for the consortium! I was pretty offended by that (but at least they did recognise I was a girl, so that should have given my Mum some hope!) Not to be discouraged, a couple of years later I purchased my own "tank". The 1959 Chevrolet Belair had been literally put out to pasture, and although the body needed some work, a battery was all that was needed to drive it away! Another couple of years and a paint job and new interior and it was like new again! |
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Not being mechanically minded (another point towards being a lady) the motor remained original and to this day, twenty something years later, it is still a goer! Some years ago I was fortunate to meet a very special man, but he got away…..NO NOT REALLY, I met Rob and to my surprise he seemed to like me and vice versa and eventually we made the biggest commitment we could-we jointly purchased a 1971 Corvette. (This will be another "Member's Shed" story at another time.) There was no turning back and we were married one year later! |
I opened the envelope first and a registration paper fell out and then I thought "Oh no, he's bought me a trailer!" Once my eyes focused on "Chevrolet Corvette" I ripped the box open and got the key. That was it, I was out the door to check if it was for real or just a cruel joke. It was real and had I been a genteel lady I should have swooned and fainted on the spot but I jumped in and gave the neighbours an early morning wakeup call of a throbbing 350! Rob had sneakily purchased the car from Kathy & Larry Stanojevic, hid it in Bill & Sandy Simon's shed until Christmas and thanks to my love of a good sleep, he managed to bring it home Christmas morning without me knowing anything about it! Looking back, I should have been tipped off when we received a Christmas card from the finance company but Rob spun me some story about leasing trucks and I believed him! Anyway, that's the story of how and what ended up in my shed and I couldn't be happier! |
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