cowboy guns hidden behind my back and when she came onto the verandah, I pointed it at her and told her it was a real gun and that I was going to kill her. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her squirm and I made her beg me not to kill her. She pleaded and cried but I told her it wasn’t good enough and I cocked the barrel and shot her. The poor little bugger almost died too but of heart failure. I swore her to secrecy to never to tell anyone or I’d load the gun with real bullets next time.
Living directly behind us was a little girl about two years younger than me, her name was Stephanie and the only time I ever saw her was from a distance. She was never allowed out to play. I used to call out to her through the cracks of the old grey wooden paling fence but her mother wouldn’t allow her to stay out talking for very long. When she first arrived there, she had her head shaved and wore a scarf around her head in the same fashion that the blacks in the cotton fields. I asked her why her head was shaved and she said she had ringworms. Edith held the theory that she had nits and told me to keep away just in case I caught them.
Hannah, Dotty, Lorna and I all went down to the Brisbane River near the Regatta Hotel one particular afternoon. I think we were sailing paper boats on the water or some such silly adventure. Hannah waded into the river, I think she must’ve thought it was only waist deep all the way across and all of a sudden, she went down like a stone. I thought Lorna was going to have a heart attack she panicked so much she screamed her lungs out for Hannah to come back. The current started to take Hannah further out and I began to fear that she’d end up drowning. Fortunately, though she managed to get back to the bank and drag herself out. It was an incident that could quite easily have ended in tragedy. Even at my tender age I learnt that day to never underestimate the power of the water.
I rather fancied myself as being a brownie and saving the world from itself so I joined up and went along every Saturday morning. Edward went to scouts and he seemed to enjoy them more than I enjoyed the brownies. Edith and Mum took great pains buying the uniforms and sewing our first patches on. To use Edith's terminology, ‘Once the uniforms had been bought, she became a nine-day wonder and stopped going.’
I had to beat a hasty retreat from Brownies when I found I had to tie knots in pieces of string and ropes. My hands were nearly always permanently wet with perspiration and I always managed to make the string and rope a sodden mess. The same with my piano playing, great globs of dirty sweat would splosh all over the keys as I was trying to play. I always had to stop and wipe the keys with my hanky which was completely useless because more often than not it was saturated from me having wiped my hands on it before I started the lesson. I can’t ever remember a day in my life that my hands weren’t hot and sticky and I’d have to blow on them or wipe them on my dress or handkerchief. It’s eased up in the last few years but even as I write now probably thinking about it, my hands have been dripping wet and my feet have joined them in sympathy.
Every so often Hannah, Dotty, Lorna, Edward and I would arrange a secret rendezvous at midnight in our special hidey hole. We’d raid the ice box and kitchen cupboards getting as many goodies as we could get our mitts onto and we’d have our midnight feasts and plan all sorts of adventures. None of which ever saw the light of day. I think we’d all read too many Enid Blyton books about The Famous Five and The Secret Seven because our planned adventures always included looking for smugglers.
The best part about those rendezvous was that our parents never knew about them.
I went to tap dancing and ballet classes for a while I was the only kid who could cheat in ballet class. We had to sit on the floor with the soles of our feet together and press our knees onto the floor to enable us to learn how to do the splits. I’m double jointed in the upper part of my legs and I found this to be a particularly painful exercise. So, I’d sit in my comfortable position with the tops of my legs together all the way to my knees with my lower legs facing outward. Anyone who has seen me sitting like this nearly break their legs trying to copy me. It’s something like frog’s legs trying to swim.
The best part about my tap-dancing days, immediately after my dance class I’d go to the pictures. I’d always be a couple of minutes late so I never had time to change my shoes. I’d run down the aisle of the pictures in my taps making a hell of a din during the first cartoon or the serial. Everyone always knew when little Amelia Long arrived at the pictures. A few times after I’d stopped going to dance classes, I’d wear the taps just to make a grand entrance and annoy the other kids as I ran past them click clacking all the way to the front row. I got more lollies that way. I wasn’t above picking up the many Fantales, Jaffas and Minties off the floor that the other kids pitched at me when I sat down.
Every Saturday afternoon in the Long household the black roller blinds were pulled down and sometimes a blanket would be draped over the heavy curtains as well so no one could see inside the house as they walked past. Dad and Edith would sit near the telephone taking many calls and writing messages on the top of the marble phone table. Dad would give us kids two shillings (twenty cents) every Saturday and say, ‘Hop Out.’
Two-bob was a lot of money in those days. It was nine pence (approximately seven cents) to get into the pictures and that left us with one shilling and three pence (about twelve cents) to spend. Most kids only had three pence (two cents) or if they were really lucky six pence (five cents) to spend. So, the Long kids thought they were millionaires. It never dawned on us to try and save some of the money. Who’d want to put money in a tin when there were lollies and drinks to be bought?
Dad and Edward never got on terribly well, Dad was always very strict in his ideas but he seemed to be more so with Edward. One Saturday for lunch we had brawn and salad, I managed to hide the fact I didn’t eat mine but Edward wasn’t cunning enough he just announced, ‘I don’t like brawn.’ Dad saw red and made him sit and eat it, Edward forced himself to eat and made himself vomit which only angered Dad more and he copped the strap into the bargain. I used to have to tell Edward what to say or not say in front of Dad to save him from getting into trouble. I could get away with blue murder but Edward would get into trouble for the least little thing. Most Saturdays on our way to the pictures Edward would tell me how much he hated Dad he’d say,
‘Bloody old bastard, I’ll kill him one day.’
One particular Saturday we got down the street and Edward started to hop on one leg he hopped for about twenty feet (seven metres)
Amelia ‘What the hell are you doing, you simpleton?’
Edward ‘Come on, hop.’
Amelia ‘What for?’
Edward ‘That silly old bastard’s always telling us to hop out so I’m hopping.’
Another Saturday which was memorable we arrived home from the pictures and Edith told us to be extra good and quiet because Dad was in a very angry mood. When we asked why
Edith ‘The police raided us.’
I had no idea what was going on
Amelia ‘What for?’
Edith ‘Never mind it’s nothing for you to worry about.’
James ‘Did they get anything?’
Edith ‘No.’
Amelia ‘What didn’t they get?’
Edward ‘Shut up’
Amelia ‘No you shut up. Tell me what the cops didn’t get or I’ll tell Dad I know what you’re all whispering
