Edgar is a spanish gardener who often comes and hides out in our studio to escape the beating sun and sticky humidity of Brisbane summer. He has an insatiable curiosity about what we all do in our little clay shed, and bit by bit he is becoming our unofficial studio assistant! He likes to sing, often in Spanish, which is just lovely for us. The other day he broke into song and I was instantly transported back to my childhood…We lived out in the sticks and my sisters and I, and our neighbours (3 girls the same ages as us), often had to come up with creative ways to spend our time in the absence of shops, movies, libraries, people and other distractions and entertainments. We used to put on concerts that everyone from miles around would come to. It was the biggest event in the Wardrop Valley calendar! We would practice our dances and songs and mini-plays for weeks; we’d tramp kilometres around the whole valley visiting all our neighbours to remind them of the big day and flog off raffle tickets for the dodgy patchwork quilts we would make; we’d raid our square dancing neighbours attic that was full of dusty old square dancing dresses, hula skirts and all kinds of (really weird now that I think about it) costumes for our grand performances; we’d fight over who got to wear the best frock and who would get the lead in each performance. The day of the concert the same square dancing neighbour would drive her ute into our back yard, drop the sides and voila! We had a stage! The crowds would start arriving, we’d be as excited as hell, make sure everyone had a glass of homemade lemonade (which they had to pay for by the way…don't get nothin for free in this world!) and the show would begin….
“Black it’s black….I want my baaaaby back….grey it’s grey…ever since she went away ooh ooh…what can I dooooooo…cause I-I-I-I-I-I -I’m feeling blue…”
6 kids aged between 6 and 14 jumping around on the back of a ute in ridiculous dresses miming a Los Bravos song! Oh dear! Things like that have just gotta have an impact on you!! Anyway, that was the song Edgar burst into, and it sure took me back!
3 comments:
who didn't love dressing up in silly clothes as a child? some of us have never grown out of it.
I think we need more dress-ups! it's been a while actually!
Sounds like a fairy tale -amazing. My sister and I developed dance routines but it remained merely a lounge room affair :)
as to silly clothes, where would we be with them!
xx
Post a Comment