Old Photo. Ladies wait while the Gents boil the billy.

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: Old Photo. Ladies wait while the Gents boil the billy.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dane Hawley Near Melbourne Australia on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 06:58 am:


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Thomas Mullin on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 09:59 am:

In the States, we don't usually make the ladies sit in the smoke.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Henry Petrino in Modesto, CA on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 10:02 am:

Again, we are peoples separated by a common language. :-)

Please forgive my ignorance, but what's "billy"?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. Gustaf Bryngelson on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 10:11 am:

Hey Henry, I believe that would be the pot, and Thomas, I suspect in the smoke is where the mosquitoes are not as bad:-) Wait a minute, Do they have mosquitoes in OZ? Yeah, I bet the are big thirsty ones too!
Best
Gus


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Evan Mason on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 10:48 am:

Looks as if they might be under the shade of a coolabah tree.

Evan


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 10:51 am:

Australian mosquito:



He would draw blood every time I got near.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George Button III (Chip), Lake Clear, NY on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:06 am:

Ricks, I had a friend with an African Gray. I had 2 Blue and Gold Macaws. If I came over to see the African Gray(Poncho) with out my Macaws he would always bite me! If I had my birds with me, I could handle Poncho any way I wanted!! Does this make Poncho an "African Gray Mosquito"??? Ha Ha!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Patrick on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:09 am:

A billy is a bucket used for making tea on a campfire. When I was a Marine stationed in Canberra, Australia in 1976-77, I visited a sheep farm near Adelaide, owned by the family of my, then, girlfriend and went on a campout. An oldtimer made some tea by tossing a hand full of tea leaves in a billy of water over the campfire and when it was done, he swung it around his head by a string attached to the handle which forced the tea leaves to the bottom of the bucket. I don't believe the billy is ever supposed to be washed because the buildup of residue in the bottom adds to the taste. Best tea I ever had. Jim Patrick


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. Gustaf Bryngelson on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:20 am:


We are not big on exotics around here, we just have what ever drops in for the day
Best
Gus


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:23 am:

No, George, Poncho was just respectful of your bodyguards. :-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hal Davis-SE Georgia on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:31 am:

Tea? I though we were having goat for supper.:-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Timothy Kelly on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 12:42 pm:

In this case, Lizzie is a right hand drive version. The picture is not printed backwards as the script on the radiator is proper.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. J. "Art" Bell on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 01:30 pm:

Ahh yes – that’s what happens when you take a perfectly good language
and give it to a bunch of folk that live upside down. (And I like it)
Here is a bit of interpretation of some key words with pictures and song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INdjRCNcZj0
(As kids in school in Canada, we all learned Waltzing Matilda)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Fred Dimock, Newfields NH, USA on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 02:32 pm:

Ya The Brit's gave the US their language and their freedom -
The US screwed both of them up!

The "upside down" folks were sent away without their freedom and refused to accept the language.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 02:58 pm:

The Australian ambassador was in St Louis a number of years ago and told the story of an American who came to the embassy to apply for a visa. When he got to the question on the application form that read, "Do you have a criminal record?" he answered, "I didn't know it was still a requirement." :-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Michael Mullis on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 04:20 pm:

Hey Ricks, I had one of them Australian mosquitos. I didn't know it was a mosquito????
My! the things one can learn on this forum???

Anyway, I taught my "mosquito" to whistle "the Andy Griffith Show" theme song. I recorded it on my computer and set it up to play and repeat continually whenever we left for work and school. I did this every day for about two weeks before Floyd (mosquito's name) started to whistle it. It was hilarious.....for about three days. He whistled it ALL THE TIME. Day, night, weekends, holidays, It was awful! I like to sleep late on Saturday mornings but Floyd did not. He was up before sunrise and on the way to Mayberry!!!!!

We paid alot of money for that bird that we gave away.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gary H. White - Sheridan, MI on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 05:18 pm:

Must be something about that song. Our "mosquito", Charlie, likes it also.
Actually, the real mosquito is Michigan's state bird. (A false claim made by other states.)
And I thought the British were sticklers about tea time. From the looks of the area they are in I thought they were lost and sending up smoke signals. ;>)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Chantrell - Adelaide, Australia on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 05:42 pm:

"Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me."
A.B. "Banjo" Patterson 1895.

"Banjo" Patterson also wrote "The Man From Snowy River".


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gary H. White - Sheridan, MI on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 05:56 pm:

Sing along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwvazMc5EfE


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 08:54 pm:

I apologize for turning a light-hearted thread serious, but I was reminded of this song that is related to Waltzing Matilda:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VktJNNKm3B0&feature=related

Then, after watching that, I found a link to this. My dad has been gone for over 20 years, and this song still brings a tear (well, okay, more than one) to my eye. This is for everyone who has lost his dad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNL_wGZgV5Q&feature=related

Okay, back to light-hearted.....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Manuel Voyages, ACT Australia on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 09:18 pm:

U should never wash a billy or a tea pot.
I have never been game to swing a hot billy full of boiling tea over my head.
A bloke I once worked with used to do it every day in the lunch room. The old black billy looked quite out of place sitting there on the sink. But gee the tea tasted good!!
Cheers,
Manuel in Oz


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 10:53 pm:

Real fun, and melancholy, guys. This is a special thread.

David, did he write the song, "Man from Snowy River," or the story? It has been one of our favorites, along with "The Earthling."

Does anybody remember "On the Beach?" Don't think I've seen it since it first came out. Wasn't "Waltzing Matilda" in it?

rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:04 pm:

Yes, "On the Beach" was written by Nevil Shute, also author of a number of other stories set in Australia (such as "A Town Like Alice.")


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Stauffacher on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:15 pm:

One our favorite movies and authors!! Watch the DVD about twice a year. Waiting for DVD release of "Town"... Oz does not have a mosquito problem - its the flies!!!!! Ever hear of the "Oz Swat"?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Chantrell - Adelaide, Australia on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:18 pm:

He wrote the poem "The Man From Snowy River". It was made into a tremendous film in 1982 starring Tom Burlinson, Jack Thompson, Sigrid Thornton & Kirk Douglas.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:27 pm:

I have to say that "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a reminder of how the Australians and New Zealanders have been at our side in a great many conflicts through the years (well, okay, in that case we were both on the side of the British), from WWI through Vietnam and more recent conflicts. It's possible that we tend to forget that.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. Gustaf Bryngelson on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:32 pm:

"A Town Like Alice" is probably one of the only examples of where the movie is better then the book "Legacy" The bank indecent was all wrong in the book, because it was written by a Pom, but corrected in the movie.
Best
Gus


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gilbert V. I. Fitzhugh on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 11:35 pm:

Talk about nostalgia! I've read everything Nevil Shute ever wrote, several times. Reading "A Town Like Alice" (published in the U.S. as "The Legacy") made me want to see the place. So in 1959 I put together a couple of years vacation and went around the world in 5 weeks, 3 of which I spent in Australia. I met a girl in Alice Springs, and 3 years later went down and married her. The marriage lasted 12 years and produced two kids. She remarried, and died of cancer 23 years later.

Our wedding was 50 years ago next month. The Aussie newspapers turned it into a media circus - fairy-tale wedding, guy from old New York marries outback girl, yada, yada, yada. A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from the Centralian Advocate, the Alice Springs bi-weekly, that wanted to do a follow-up.

In 1968 I shot some home movies of a brass car tour in Minnesota, where my then wife and I were living. One of the scenes was of her driving a Model T. About 3 months ago I was sent a CD of that movie, which had been discovered in a drawer, where it had lain for over 43 years! I had copies made and sent to my kids, so they could see their mother at half their present age, driving a Model T. Our son has a Model T, too - a '12 commercial roadster.

I still know all the verses to Waltzing Matilda!

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dane Hawley Near Melbourne Australia on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 12:03 am:

Wow! This thread has taken on a life of its own!

Swinging a billy full of tea in a circle over one's head is something I have demonstrated many times with great success. People seem to love to see it done. Incidentally, freshly brewed billy tea is the best tea you will ever taste, especially if it is stirred with a small green twig from a gum tree.

Now for a little story that I tell from time to time- I was given the job of chipping off the rust from the inside of an old corrugated iron water tank. The mosquitoes were so big and bad that they kept trying to sting me through the wall of the tank. Fortunately I had a half-inch SAE die nut with me, so I ran a thread onto their stings as they came through the tank, threaded a nut onto them and those mossies couldn't pull their stings out of the tank!

If you think we have big mossies, then you ought to see our grasshoppers!



Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 12:36 am:

The first liar doesn't have a chance...


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne Sheldon, Grass Valley, CA on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 02:14 am:

This has been a very enjoyable (and needed by me) thread!
I, too, very much remember reading "On The Beach" by Nevil Shute. I do not often read novels as they are too time consuming and I have so much else demanding my time. But "On The Beach" was the most engrossing book I ever read. I read it in high school, and remember walking out of study hall thinking the radioactive cloud was on its way.

I would love to try some of that tea. What kind of tea is it? I usually drink something akin to Lipton, orange, pekoe & black. (I believe, but do not know, that black is more a type of tea, not a variety?)
I would even be willing to "swing the billy" as I have many times swung a bucket of water to prove to doubters that it can be done.

As to the mosquitoes and grass hoppers. Anyone else remember the " Twilight Zone" episode with Andy Devine?

Been a long time since I heard "Waltzing Matilda", I always loved that song.

Thank you all.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne Sheldon, Grass Valley, CA on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 02:17 am:

I also meant to say, that my experience with camp fires is that the smoke always surrounds someone. No matter where they move to.
By the way, officially, what time is tea time?
W2


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bede Cordes, New Zealand on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 03:58 am:

David,

we studied "The Man from Snowy River" in high school. I used to think Sigrid Thornton was a bit of alright. Thanks for posting that picture !

I'll go further off topic, but with an Australian bent about swinging things around in circles. When I was working in London on our OE a few years ago on night shift at Willesden Train Depot, a pommie guy I worked with always went on about a "bull roarer" as used on Crocodile Dundee to make a telephone call. He was like a lot of northern hemisphereites, and had Kiwis and Aussies a bit confused, but anyway, I made over the next couple of nights, a bull roarer.
So there I was, at 3am in the morning in this huge shed the size of a football field swinging my bull roarer around flat out, and crikey, she was making a racket. The building must have amplified it a bit, people around there must be wondering what the hell that noise was to this day.

PS Dane, great photo. Billy tea reminds me of cubs and scouts.

Regards,
Bede


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Colin Comollatti - Queensland, Australia on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 05:59 am:

The photo brings a new meaning to SMOKO (coffee/tea break).


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Chantrell - Adelaide, Australia on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 07:01 am:

Yeah, and watch out for the killer koala bears too!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Dare - Victoria Australia on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 07:36 am:

Just dont stand under the koala's !!! LOL...


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Frank Harris from Long Beach & Big Bear on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 10:17 am:

Mary and I spent some time touring in Alaska and because of their long summers and hot weather which at times has mossy bogs with plenty of ponds . . . they too have large mosquitos. We took bug spray with us and set out some of the local mosquito traps as shown in the pictures below. We baited the traps with great chunks of stewing meat and also a half of a salmon. The only difference between the Alaskan mosquitos and the always abundant bush pilot's sea planes is the landing gear configuration.

Those traps are for sal ein all of the local markets up there.


mosquito trap


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Manuel Voyages, ACT Australia on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 04:36 pm:

What a great thread!!

Manuel in Oz


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. Gustaf Bryngelson on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 04:45 pm:

Hey Dane,
That is no grass hopper, it is a jack rabbit, we have those here, not as big, but a lot more of them.
Best
Gus


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Trevan - Australia on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 04:48 pm:

OUR ORSTRAHYAN WOMEN are not that stupid that they would just sit there and cope smoke ---It's steam created from a small hole in the ''BILLY'' can.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 06:06 pm:

Years ago, I had a small book called "Let's Talk Strine." I remember that it was very funny, but I think I lent it to someone once and never got it back. I only remember two things from the book. One expression was "dismal guernsey," as in "Australia used to have pounds, shillings and pence, but then switched to dismal guernsey." The other was an anecdote related by an author. He said that he was doing a book signing in Australia once and was trying to personalize the books he signed. A woman walked up, thrust a copy of his book into his hands and said, "Emma Chizzit." He dutifully inscribed the book "To Emma Chizzit with best regards," and signed it. It turned out she was asking the price....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dane Hawley Near Melbourne Australia on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 10:11 pm:

To both Gary and Dick, thanks for posting those Youtube clips. While familiar with the songs, I have not heard them for a long while and it was very good to hear and see them again.

Dick, as well as the pronunciation differences, we also have our own species of rhyming slang, so a 'joe blake' is a snake, a 'bag of fruit' is a suit etc.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Peter Borland. Bathurst. NSW. Australia. on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 11:58 pm:

G'day,
I was outback a couple of weeks ago at Bourke and Wanaaring for work. With all the flood water coming down from Queensland and the heavy rain that has been falling in western New South Wales, the mozzies out there will pick you up and suck you dry in a blink of an eye and drop you down the road!!! Big buggers!!!

Peter


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Chantrell - Adelaide, Australia on Monday, May 21, 2012 - 06:19 pm:

I think this is a second photo taken at the same time from the State Library of Victoria...


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Patrick on Monday, May 21, 2012 - 07:03 pm:

Ha! Ha! Peter. Your reference to "Mozzies" reminded me of the Aussie's penchant for shortening words with "ies".

My Aussie girlfriend once used it a multitude of times in one exchange: "Let's turn on the telly and have some bickies while we open Chrissie pressies".

I sure do miss Australia. Jim Patrick


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Patrick on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 07:41 am:

Translation? "Let's turn on the TV and have some cookies while we open Christmas presents". I like the way she said it better. She was a cutie.

Jim Patrick


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hal Davis-SE Georgia on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 09:41 am:

I always said a British accent automatically added 2 points to the classic 1-10 scale guys use to rate girls. Maybe an Australian accent would get 3?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Patrick on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 10:45 am:

That would make her a 13 and she was, as most of the women in Australia were and, I'm sure, still are...LOL!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bede Cordes, New Zealand on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - 03:05 am:

You Aussie blokes better watch out, by the way these Yankee boys are talking, they might be on their way back down this way again to try and lure our Aussie and Kiwi girls with nylon stockings like their servicemen did in in WW2 !!!

Bede


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Trevan - Australia on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - 03:56 am:

YEH Bede !!-- But our girls passed on the goodies to our boys . A good deal i thought.
Differences in pay----
Of major concern was the fact that U.S. military pay was considerably higher than that of the Australian military and U.S. military uniforms were seen as more appealing than those of the Australians. This resulted in U.S. servicemen not only enjoying greater success in their pursuit of the few available women but also led to many Americans marrying Australian women, facts greatly resented by the Australians. In mid-1942, a reporter walking along Queen Street counted 152 local women in company with 112 uniformed Americans, while only 31 women accompanied 60 Australian soldiers. That it was thought necessary for the media to report this situation indicates the effect of the American presence.[2] "They're overpaid, oversexed, and over here" was a common phrase used by Australians around this time and is still an anecdote recognised by some in modern generations.
“ "The Americans had the chocolates, the ice-cream, the silk stockings and the dollars. They were able to show the girls a good time, and the Australians became very resentful about the fact that they'd lost their girl friends.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - 08:03 am:

Our kiwi neighbor, Gwen, celebrates her 90th this week. She married Bob, a Marine, right after the war, and came to US with him. He died a few months ago.


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