3. Woolombumbuck

The Woolombumbuck star was the brightest star in the sky and always the very first star to appear in the evening. It shone brightly upon the Woolombumbuck tree, where within, lived the Woolombumbuck babies. Only when the star shone bright, could the Woolombumbuck babies lay their weary heads to sleep.

Martin had some fantastic bedtime stories to tell us kids every night.  This one though, was easily our favourite. I don’t know how many times we sat outside the caravan waiting eagerly for the Woolombumbuck star to appear, knowing that those poor babies stuck in the tree couldn’t sleep until it did. The story was a classic and a fraud nonetheless, but I’m sure Martin repeated it most nights to ensure my sister and I could leave him and mum in peace. It’s hard to forget a story like that. It is magical as a 5 year old.

The morning would come and as usual, I was first awake. Sometimes it happened to be as early as 5:00am, but back then I was an early riser. The only channel we could get on the old caravan TV, was the ABC. If it was the weekend, the music show was on and I could once again re-write the countdown from when I awoke, right to number one. It was a way of filling in time before Jack High started. I was addicted to the game of bowls. Daphne Shaw and Rob Parella were in their prime back then and so were a young Cameron Curtis and Mark McMahon. It was easily the highlight of the week for me.

There is no doubt that watching big black balls rolling down a green and landing near the little white ball, was extremely weird for someone of my age. I don’t know exactly what it was that drew me to the sport, but I loved it. I knew all the top players and how the scoring worked. I understood why drives were played and why the famous block shot was played to stop Parella’s forehand drive. I wouldn’t have missed an episode for the world.

I was on such a high when the matches finished that I would get my sister up and we would go and swing on the old iron clothes line in the caravan park. This thing was a total disaster. It was crooked, had huge spider webs and was very wonky to carousel our way around. But it was fun.

Chantelle had a big stack one morning and took a huge gash out of her leg. We all jumped in the car and had her rushed to hospital where the wound was stitched and dressed. Mum and Martin made us promise not to ever mess around on the clothes line again. I can’t say exactly if we ever kept our promise, although I do know I can’t remember ever going back there.

Martin had a motor-bike and he always encouraged Mum to get on the back and go for a spin. Mum was pretty hesitant about the whole thing, but one day decided that she would go for a ride. Straddled up in a leopard skin mini skirt and a cleaning type top, Mum would have looked classic riding that bike! Well, that wasn’t how Doris Brown described it when she first saw Mum. It is pretty difficult to exit the seat on a motorbike without lifting one’s leg and yes, it’s fair to say mini skirts and motorbikes don’t mix!

Doris was Martin’s mother. The first time my future Nanna ever met my Mum and she got an image I’m sure she would rather forget.

“Hi Mum. This is Sally. She has two kids and I’m going to live with her in Melbourne”.

They were Martin’s exact words to Doris. I wonder how Mum was feeling at this stage. Embarrassed I’m sure, but probably more shocked to know that Martin had finally got her on the bike only to make a surprise stop at his Mum’s. Mum reckons the look on Doris’ face was priceless. Her jaw dropped, teeth were gritting, her garden gloves flung in the air, the shovel thrown onto the green grass, eyes wide open and a tensed, raised fist.

“Bullshit you are!” was all Doris could scream from just a few metres away. I suppose a mother’s words sometimes have to be the brutal honesty. I wish I was a fly on the wall to see that. Probably the funniest thing I have ever heard.

We found out a few weeks later that Doris had been asking around the caravan park for Martin. Little did she know, Martin had packed up his things and returned to Melbourne with Mum, Chantelle and I. Life was changing at the speed of light, but all for the good. A man around the house was something we had been lacking for a few years and even though he was just 18, he had become more of a man than my father ever was.

Be sure to login next week for the 4th Chapter of "Nothing to Prove - The Autobiography of Lee James Schraner"