We Met.......

I recall meeting Paul. At least it's what I presume was when we met.

We walked outside and I was told who he was, I looked at his Tattoo's.....Some had words, some were just pictures, and he shook my hand, made some face and laughed. I was immediately deposited into the station wagon via the rear door.
My sister followed soon after and I think we left on the same day.
Set off for a new life of excitement and adventure.

Now the next 5 years was a long and adventurous time. During this period we travelled (more than once) from Bowen to Melbourne and everywhere along the way. We picked grapes, oranges, cucumbers, mandarins, okra, button squash, tomatoes and zucchini.
My education went from correspondence, to local schools and even a period where I didn't go to school at all. Amazing I turned out like I did.

Now this was a learning experience in life, not so much through our education system, but by being a part of the world.

Some highlights from Bowen

• In Bowen, we picked tomatoes, and lived in a caravan on the beach. Not exactly on the beach but not far. It was maybe 80 metres from our caravan to the entrance of the park, and the beach was directly opposite the road from there. You could run from home to the beach without being worn out. My best friend here (friendships are always distance based) was Patrick. He was my age and had a dog. A Samoyed. Huge and white. Ironically named Snowy. Patrick would become very upset if Snowy did not respond immediately when called. It often resulted in him yelling "NOOO-EEEEEEEEEE" at the top of his lungs.
  
  
• I learnt to drive a Tractor here. I was only 10, yet I drove. Originally my job was to hand out buckets for the tomato pickers. Big 20l plastic buckets. And I would dutifully spread them out, two at the end of each row, just enough to fill if you picked one hands or two hands (fruit picking terms). And the pickers appreciated it. However at 5c a bucket, I earned my $10 or so a day very hard. Then I met John, the driver, who said I should just throw stacks of buckets (30 in a stack) in the general vicinity of the rows and the pickers could sort it out. So that turned my daily work into less than an hour. The rest of the time I was taught to drive the tractor. Within a few weeks, John used to kick back on the trailer and I would get to work at 5:30 get on my tractor and go drive around the farm delivering stuff.
  
  
• I used to buy things for my family, and for the other pickers. I remember one night on the way home. We had just been paid (in cash in little envelopes) oh and did I mention I didn't really work there. The pickers paid me themselves. So I told them how many buckets, and it added up to them (I'm sure I was smarter than most of them, but I never lied or ripped anyone off) and they all gave me some money. I had $140. A HUGE amount of money for a 10yr old. And I asked the driver of the Transit van to stop. We pulled into a Caltex (I think every servo in rural Australia is a Caltex) and I went in. I came out, some $40 poorer, but had 18 ice creams and everyone gladly at their drumstick. It was a nice afternoon and it made people smile.
  
  
• Another highlight was the animals. You may not realise this, but fruit deforms easily. Most fruits are actually flowers of some kind, and the petals or stamen mesh together and fatten up. Look it up sometime....
  So anyway, they deform easily. Two flowers next to each other become one.....And we had a collection of deformed or really weird looking vegetables and fruits. In Bowen it was Zucchini's. And they were often made into animals. You see, Paul was a chef. not a cook, a Chef, An incredible chef, but due to a hefty collection of Tattoo's and a nice drinking habit he didn't work as one very often.
  So he learnt the skills of an artist(catch THAT reference) along the way.
  I would often sit down to dinner and on the corner of my plate was a dragon or a mermaid, or a flock of sheep. What had previously been a deformed cucumber quickly became a dragon complete with claws, fire and smoke and a long curvy tail.
  
  
• HUGE sidestep here. But while we speak of Paul's food creations. At Delfino's in Hervey Bay, Paul used to make a sculpture or display to go with each weeks buffet. My favourite Friday night excitement was a Prawn ski-ing on a blue mashed potato river behind a potato boat. Driven by a herring. It was detailed and precise and it had a wake and all.
  
  
• We used to play Pontoon. 21. Blackjack. I still think they are all the same game today. No major difference. We would sit around the table in our caravan and play with 20c pieces. I think we started with $5 each. Hours later we would pack up, fold the table down into a bed and go to sleep.
  
  
• I went to school for a little while in Bowen. It was the first time I had anyone make fun of my white hair. Which wasn't too bad, I would lose it soon anyway, so no problems there. But I caught the bus to school for the first time. With my sister. Once we started school, we didn't work on the farm anymore, so no more money. One morning I saw a fox. It ran across the road right in front of our bus. I don't think I have ever seen a real fox since.
  
  
• I remember the day we arrived in Bowen very clearly. We came into our caravan park, and a little while later went for a walk on the beach. It was so exciting. Coming from Desert Victoria, or small town NSW to the beach in north Queensland. We found coconuts and shells. We built a fort from palm leaves and collected driftwood. And finally we came home and Mum and Paul had a surprise for us. We had a book each. A copy of the "Mammoth Book of Jokes" to entertain us while out on the farm. This mammoth book had hundreds of pages, and lasted me less than 12 hours. *sigh* I think there were about 200 jokes in the book, maybe more. But they were repeated a lot. The jokes were used for cartoons later in the book etc.
  
  
• My prized possession at this point in my life was "Rhythm Stix" a virtual set of drumsticks you could play in the air. I had the first ones that came out. They had a spiral cord that attached to a belt pack the size of a HUGE Walkman. and made 2 different drum noises, seemingly at random. But I bought them with my own money and I loved them. Played virtual drums for hours.
  

Even though I lived and worked with people. I was smarter than they were. I was literate and curious in a rigid, illiterate world. I was only a guest.