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Old 02-19-2021, 12:29 PM   #1001
woofa.express
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Default Re: tell a Model A related story

Another Walter Mitty.

I lived nearly 20 years in the town of Finley which is 10 miles north of Tocumwal. One evening at the Returned Services Club, or RSL for short, I met this incredible bloke by the name of Bert Townsend (now deceased). What a life Bert had. In WW1 Bert flew the Vickers Gunbus, pictured below, with the pusher engine/prop at the rear of the fuselage and gunner up the front. Following Armistice Bert returned to Australia and aerial mapped the entire coastline. During the Second World War he ferried Catalina flying boats to Australia. It was incredible, the exciting life Bert had.
The local military airbase was Tocumwal here where some 54 Liberator Bombers and 11 Vultees were based. When I first arrived in Toc there was still 5 massive hangers remaining (then kids with matches destroyed two which were used for hay storage) plus six big engine testing bays. Bert used to come here and grind crankshafts for the military. His aviation and aviation related exploits were just incredible. I departed the Finley RSL the night I met Bert in awe and admiration.

Next day at work I confided to my off sider, Laurie, that I had met this amazing bloke and relayed some of his exploits. Laurie asked his name and I replied I had forgotten and spent the morning trying to recall just that. Laurie asked if it was Bert Townsend. Yes yes I replied. Now that I knew I was so pleased. Laurie just laughed in my face. Bert had always worked at the local butter factory except for a short period during the war. I felt a little shattered. And when I added up the years Bert had spent in aviation he must have been 140 years old.

On future meetings with Bert I continued to listen knowing he had a better imagination than that of Walter Mitty. There’s a difference between Bert and Neil in the previous story. Bert knew his exploits were just not true. He told fibs. Big ones.
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Old 02-20-2021, 04:28 PM   #1002
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The Bidgee Bridge News.

My friend Duane is a much-travelled man and has worked in many parts of the world. He too is a cropduster pilot and worked for me during the rice sowing season in Oct and Nov.
During his travels he lived in Wagga Wagga where he’d take an extensive walk each day. He became acquainted with homeless people who lived beneath the road bridge that spanned the Murrumbidgee River. Duane told me they were informed and conversant of both national and world affairs. And their views were clear and logical.
Duane started a blog which he named the “Bidgee Bridge News” on the views and opinions of those homeless people. Today the “news” continues.
The point I’m endeavouring to make is homeless people are not always illiterate or mentally deficient, infact they could teach many of us important lessons. Politicians in particular.

Footnote. Wagga is aboriginal for crow and Wagga Wagga is many crows.
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Old 02-21-2021, 03:46 PM   #1003
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Homeless and no hope.

I have never had exposure to homeless and helpless people. It’s because I’ve always lived in rural locations and they simply don’t exist here. Once when visiting Melbourne and having a family luncheon in a park, I saw an elderly man, dressed in rags and badly needing a bath, eating food he’d scavenged from rubbish bins. I took him good food and coffee and my eyes welled up with pity for this fellow. This was my first ever exposure to such a person. He didn’t appear to be the type that used drugs. How do people let themselves deteriorate like this? Have they found society just too difficult and too competitive?
Drugs are a another situation. In Vancouver, on a well known street near city centre, I saw a whole 2 miles of druggies, some openly injecting themselves. I’ve also seen homeless and helpless in 2 other large prominent international cities. I don’t deny we have a similar situation here in Australia but because I avoid big cities thus I have never had exposure to them. It’s sad when we all have the opportunity to a good life and relinquish it. Can one or a body or an organisation help them. Sadly I think perhaps not. It’s pitiful isn’t it.

This situation is quite different to that of swaggies and hermits and it concludes my stories of homeless by choice.
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Old 02-22-2021, 12:06 PM   #1004
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You have to feel sorry for the homeless and down-and-out people, but I became somewhat prejudiced against them when I worked at LAPD, right in the center of skid row in LA. One morning as I was going to work, there was a small crowd in front crowd in front of a nearby bar. I at first assumed there had been a problem of some sort ... no, the bartender was just late that morning, so the customers just had to wait until he showed up! So now I realize that with too many of those folks, it is a self-inflicted problem!
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Old 02-27-2021, 12:39 AM   #1005
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Corellas.

Did you ever see an Alfred Hitchcock terror movie called “The Birds”. I think I got the name correct. These birds pulled a house apart and terrorised the residence. Well I reckon Mr Hitchcock got this idea from a visit to us here at Tocumwal . Corellas. We have tens of thousands of them. Why? Because they need only two ingredients. Food and water and we have both. Here are the problems. Noise, litter and the destruction of trees. In their plague numbers they destroy the eucalypt trees by snipping off the new green shoots until that branch dies then what was an attractive tree becomes an eyesore. Some of these trees are very old and were here before Captain Cook arrived in 1770. Patsy and I can’t leave home together, one must stay to chase them when they arrive here to destroy our trees. If we both need to leave we rely on friends to come and keep guard. When these pests arrive we move them on by hitting our shed roof with a long poly pipe which sounds like a shot gun and they do know what that is.

Tocumwal is part of a grain farming region and one of many grain receiving storage depots. Much of this grain is stored in ground bunkers and covered with plastic tarps. Corellas rip the covers and bingo, it’s like pizza hut: eat all you like. Close by is the Murray River lined with eucalypt or gum trees. They’ve got all they need: food, water and habitat that’s lightly lit all night from town and street lighting. It’s an upmarket resort for these pests that start screeching before daylight, throughout the day and evening until totally dark. They don’t have friends here.

Tocumwal is not alone with this problem for everywhere in Australia where there is food and water you find Corellas and not just a few but many tens of thousands. In addition to the destruction of the trees they also destroy crops simply for their entertainment. Sunflower and sorghum crops with heads on the ground so the harvester cannot pick them up.
Again no friends here with farmers.

Corellas are a protected species by law, which, like many government departments is staffed by university trained unrealistic people. However a permit to cull a maximum of 180 is issued to our local Shire Council but they are not very interested. A 180 is sort of like the old saying “a drop in the ocean”. There have been incidents where they are found dead in large numbers- they seem to have taken poison. Then the environment department will arrive with hostility seeking revenge and strangely no one knows a thing on how this has happened.

It’s difficult to challenge and change corella protection status because our nation is full of greenies and political power is confined mainly to coastal regions where the large people population numbers exist and corella numbers don’t.

The pictures convey the damage but it is difficult to show the extent of the numbers.


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File Type: jpeg corellas 2012 026.jpeg (51.6 KB, 16 views)
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Old 02-28-2021, 02:44 PM   #1006
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This follows story number 1006, do please read that first.
Inequities of electoral areas.

I spoke in the previous story about inequities of electoral boundaries or more so the size of electorates which makes them inequitable. Our largest is the electorate of Durack with boundaries in the far north of Western Australia and stretches to near the south of Western Australia. It is some 630,000 square miles which is comparable to the size of Alaska and has a population of less than 100,000. When I lived in Durack in the late 60’s the member lived in Kalgoorlie in the south. To visit him one would fly to Perth in the new Fokker Friendship (9 hours) with several stops enroute, stay overnight and catch the DC3 to Kalgoorlie the following morning.
More to the point is the inequities for voters. 80% of Australia's population live in coastal regions in their many and small electorates and that gives them political power. Do corellas bother them? No and corellas are only one of many issues.
Our federal electorate is Farrer and is 49,000 square miles with a population of 115,000. Our largest city is Albury with a population of 49,000 (43% of electorate) which gives them more authority than the small number of farmers and grazers, who are economically important yet politically insignificant.
This one person / one vote. Sounds equitable doesn’t it? But is it? Ask any voter living in Durack for an opinion.
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Old 02-28-2021, 03:48 PM   #1007
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I live in a rural area, now an attractive wine growing area with over 40 wineries, I think there were 4 when we bought in '85. I joined the local road advisory committee that gave input to the county road department. I joined because there were things going on that weren't quite right. About a year or so into this, one of the local roads needed paving and widening a bit. The county rep told us it couldn't be widened because there was this tree too close to the road, well it looked more like a bush to me. At some time that night, the tree magically vanished from this earth, problem solved! Public input at its best!
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Old 03-01-2021, 11:42 AM   #1008
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Easy resolution.

Hi Jim. I did like your comment “public input at it’s best”, story number 1007. Country people have initiative and they don’t look for complexities do they. Just like the folks at Oaklands which is about a half hour drive east of us. A farming town with strong community values. Well the Shire Council of Urana decided to build them a new sports facility which would include the usual things such as changing rooms, kitchen, dining / lounge room etc. A team was sent to demolish the old building but found it had asbestos lining, so without touching a thing they all went home. At a later date an inspector arrived to decide how to deal with this and he couldn’t find any asbestos whatsoever. It had all disappeared. Despite an inquiry no one knew a thing about its removal or disposal. Not a sole. A problem was now not an issue.
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Old 03-01-2021, 11:55 AM   #1009
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When there was an outbreak of "mad cow disease" in our province some of the ranchers used the 3 S method, shoot, shovel and shut up.
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Old 03-01-2021, 12:39 PM   #1010
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Yes Katy. You will have fewer hassles by not drawing the attention of bureaucrats and public servants.
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Old 03-08-2021, 12:20 PM   #1011
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Deprivision through no fault of their own.

We watch very little TV because we find it’s neither informative nor entertaining. We choose to watch podcasts of documentaries and good stories including some movies.
I watched a PBS production called ‘Two American Families’ set in Milwaukee which is a large city in an industrial production state. Maybe it is in the zone which today is called the ‘the rust belt’. It was shot in the early 90’s. Each family had jobs in industrial production earning $17 per hour until these industries relocated to countries with cheaper labour. These families battled for years, frequently earning as little as $4 per hour. Each of the parents worked. They were living frugally on essential basics only but even this was beyond their means.

Well the documentary reviewed these families again in 2010. One had survived and sent a son to university; a proud family but still living in hardship. The other family failed and split, Dad couldn’t take the strain of not being able to provide. However they both had found work again, dad in industrial production and mum in health care. The house was repossessed and mum’s future ambition was to be able to purchase a site in a caravan (trailer) park.
Both husband and wife in both families wanted to work but there were simply no jobs no matter how hard they searched. I felt so sorry for them I became a little teary.
In Australia we have generous welfare to cater for such people. Despite its enormous cost to the nation it has kept people afloat especially during this covid affair. However this has an unwelcome side effect. Too many think they are entitled to be kept and will not find a job. Some not having worked for years. I’m not kidding, it is ridgy-didge. These people have considerable political power. Political parties over cater for them because they are swinging voters and it is that small number of self-interested people that often provides a win for the most generous political party. It too is not a perfect system. Unemployment is at an all-time high and we source our labour from abroad and fly them in. I’m not kidding.
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Old 03-10-2021, 10:14 AM   #1012
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This is resentment towards welfare reciprocants who choose not to work and this attitude is common in the community. It is from a reader and is a follow on from the previous story. Do read it, number 1012 before reading this.

Yes, Gary, to not want to work to support oneself is dragging Australia down. I receive no benefits and it annoys Immensely to see young unemployed youth striding past my house !!!!!
I wonder why I was so stupid to stay awake all night doing night shifts
Your thoughts spot on.

the youth this lady is speaking of are on unemployment benefits of course.
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Old 03-10-2021, 10:42 AM   #1013
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Once upon a time I remember a young fellow (about 8 or 10 yo) telling me that his dad couldn't work as they were on welfare. I had met his dad a few times and he seemed perfectly healthy and normal to me.

At that time, early '60s, I was living in Manitoba and people on welfare were not allowed to own a car. Fast forward about 30-35 years, I was living in British Columbia and people on welfare were allowed to have a car as it was considered a necessity, they even received an allowance for the car's gas and insurance.
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Old 03-11-2021, 03:23 PM   #1014
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Model A Story:

I believe I was around 10 when my dad started a restoration project on a model A for one of his friends, Ray. They turned 2 basket case A's into one gorgeous, original and correct specimen. This was the mid 1980's so all the parts were items that had to be rehabbed, not repops. It was my first experience watching my dad turn garbage into gold that has stuck with me through my life. His patience and creativity still awes me. They started out painting it a soft yellow with brown trim. A couple years later Ray had him repaint it light blue with black. I'll always remember the sound that motor made, and the smile on their faces as they drove it around. It ran in several parades and Ray kept it for the rest of his life. I'm not sure its current disposition, it would have been in the Kalamazoo MI area.
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Old 03-11-2021, 05:58 PM   #1015
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Gnater.....it's good to see a post from Knoxville, TN. I used to ride to Young High School on Chapman Hwy in a '28 Tudor back in the early sixties, when that high school was still there.

I hope to make some of the Smoky Mtn Model A club gigs this summer.
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Old 03-12-2021, 12:26 AM   #1016
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I look up the place locations where you writers live or write about. Gnater mentioned Kalamazoo in his story (number 1015). Now I know where Kalamazoo is. My friend Glenn always sung about his girl in Kalamazoo even made public her telephone number. Glenn was a two timer for he had another girl in Chattanooga.
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Old 03-12-2021, 12:36 PM   #1017
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I too am a 2-timer, '30 tudor, '28 speedster, '31 Vicky, but like my first love the best, '31 wide-bed. -
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Old 03-12-2021, 01:32 PM   #1018
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Quote:
Originally Posted by woofa.express View Post
I look up the place locations where you writers live or write about. Gnater mentioned Kalamazoo in his story (number 1015). Now I know where Kalamazoo is. My friend Glenn always sung about his girl in Kalamazoo even made public her telephone number. Glenn was a two timer for he had another girl in Chattanooga.
Kalamazoo, home to a very good aviation museum, lots of WWII era aircraft. Having flown a Lear 23, I'm now in the club where something I drove in its day is now in a museum. Kalamazoo also is the home of the only surviving B model of the SR-71

Just an hour's drive from there to the Gilmore museum, where I got to see 16, yes 16 Duesenburgs on display; it was a special display, I got lucky that day. Plus the Tucker.

And of course, several Model A's.
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Old 03-13-2021, 06:22 AM   #1019
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today I purchased a 12V starter motor from Synchro. The price was better than fair and as usual he provided a wealth of info for me to take home and think about. It is now timely to acknowledge the man with a thankyou.
Quite some years ago I dealt with a similar fellow named Frank Smith. Frank has long passed and was popular. He was aka as "Mr Model A"

I think it is now timely to bestow that title on Synchro.
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Old 03-13-2021, 10:43 AM   #1020
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[QUOTE He was aka as "Mr Model A", I think it is now timely to bestow that title on Synchro.][/QUOTE]

I'll second that.
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