Maggie’s Mistake

For too many years we had neighbours from hell so when I started finding bits of wire on our driveway on an almost daily basis I secretly cursed them. Their old fence had been patched with all kinds of bits and pieces and I assumed the wire bits were from there. Eventually though I came to realize I only noticed the bits of wire in the winter when the Magpies and Wattlebirds were nesting. I decided they must pick up the bits thinking they’d be good to use in their nest only to realize they are too hard and unwieldy.

Wire pieces have been appearing on the driveway again over the last week or so but this morning I found the best bit ever. It was in our backyard, a complete, shiny, wire coathanger. I wish I could have seen the whole event.

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Old Phone

An old wall phone.

This photo reminds me of the old phone that was in the house when we moved to Fulham. Our home at Henley Beach had a “modern” phone and I was mortified by the monstrosity that hung on the wall in the back porch. I still remember our number, it was L8246, our current number has no letters, just 8 numerals! Times have really changed, our children don’t even have home phones, only mobiles.

Apart from the lunacy of it’s appearance the thing I remember most about the old wall phone was the day an Italian man used it to get married, by proxy.  It was the only phone he had access to. Marriages by proxy meant the groom wasn’t actually with the bride instead there was a stand in or proxy. After the marriage was formalised the bride was able to come to Australia to be with her new husband.

Apparently it was a very common thing at the time because so many young European men came to Australia there simply weren’t enough suitable women available. When the young men had a home they’d start the search for a bride in their homeland. I don’t know if Vince knew his prospective bride before he left Italy but they certainly had a long and happy marriage.

Our “modern” phone.