that lengthy phone call as I realised how close I came to a possible predator!
I became a bottle blonde and quite a few people commented that I looked like Doris Day. I tried to pretend that they were exaggerating, but I secretly thought I did too and every time she changed her hairstyle, I’d try and copy her. My only wish was that I could sing as good as she could and have the money she was earning. Bridget Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, Diana Dors and Jayne Mansfield were enjoying the limelight as sex
sirens. Two girlfriends, Lesley and Veronica, who lived around the corner from my grandmother’s home, talked me into allowing them to dye my hair ash blonde like Jayne Mansfield. It didn’t matter that I didn’t look like Jayne Mansfield or for that matter I didn’t even have long hair. Veronica honestly believed that she looked like Bridget Bardot and would tell people to call her Midget Bridget. Midget was about as much like Bridget Bardot as Jerry Lewis looked like Elvis Presley. Anyhow she and Lesley, equipped with the correct blonding emulsion, fervently went to work to perform a miraculous transformation of my crowning glory. They added the precious purple drops to the liquid, as the instructions stated. Carefully wiping the mixture on my head almost strand by strand, they chatted away animatedly telling me how good it was going to look, and then the chatter became muttered whispers. I heard Lesley issue instructions to try some water and Midget whispered back, ‘No that’s not right.’ A bit more whispered muttering and I eventually asked, ‘How’s it looking does it look okay?’ More mutterings and Lesley exclaimed, ‘Shit, Amelia, its purple.’
I laughed and said, ‘Don’t bullshit. Is it looking alright?’ Midget said, with urgency in her voice, ‘This is no bullshit, mate, your hair has turned purple.
‘Quick get me a mirror.
Lesley took the little mirror off her bathroom wall and handed it to me. I stared hard into the mirror and blinked hard, as I tried to focus in the dimly lit room. My hands poured with perspiration as I witnessed my crowning glory in the deepest shade of mauve I have ever seen. I cried out not caring who heard me, ‘Oh shit, one of you race down to the shop and get a bottle of peroxide quick.’ Midget said, ‘It’s after eight o’clock, they’ll be closed,’ I said, ‘I don’t give a stuff if they’re in bed fast asleep, you just get me the bottle of peroxide or you’re going to be bald.’ Lesley took off and was back within five minutes with two bottles of peroxide and we poured the contents of one over my head and kept rubbing it through my hair until all the purple turned yellow.
Two days later my grandmother took me into an exclusive hairdresser on the fourth floor of the Penny’s building and instructed the owner, ‘I don’t care how much it costs, please get that dreadful peroxide out of her hair the best way you can.’
I came out with Henna coloured locks. I must say it suited it me very much, I learnt my lesson from that experience, and I have never put a colour through my hair since.
I believe I can claim the infamy of being the first person to ever have purple hair.
Of course, it became popular with the elderly many years later and with the punks in the eighties. But I would’ve been locked up if I had walked out in public with purple hair in 1959.
It wasn’t too long before I found another job. This time it was Johnston’s cake shop in Fortitude Valley. Apart from the two brothers who owned the shop, there were a couple of bakers and the head woman, Ethel (who was having an affair with one of the brothers,) and three other shop assistants. Thelma came from a poor background and although I felt sorry for her, she lost all the compassion I had for her the day she used my brush and comb and gave me a head full of nits. Edith wasn’t overly impressed either because she caught them from me. We spent a great deal of quality time de lousing each other.
Marilyn was a bit of a twit. She was a nice enough person, but she tried so hard to be everyone’s friend that it was sickening. I used to be highly amused every time I heard her tell a customer that sausage rolls cost fourfpence (four pence, approximately three cents).
Leone was a lovely girl and I liked her from the moment I met her. She was an attractive looking girl and would have won a Sophia Loren look-alike competition hands down. Leone lived on the northside and had many friends who lived in the area. All the teenagers of that surrounding area would congregate in The Hub Cafe at the tram terminus. It was such a great place with a fantastic atmosphere and it became my regular haunting place too. I used to enjoy every moment I ever spent at The Hub. Though on reflection, there were two occasions that come to mind that I wouldn’t want to relive in a hurry.
There were at least thirty teenagers who regularly went to The Hub and probably just as many who called in occasionally. I knew most of them reasonably well and I like to think that I was fairly popular with most of them. It was a big shock to the system, (to say the least) when one of the occasional regulars came in one night whilst I was talking to a group. He had obviously been drinking and he said very loudly, ‘What are you talking to that bitch for?’ Someone said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ He replied, ‘That Amelia, she’s nothing but a moll.’
He went on and on what a low-class slut I was. Quite a few people tried to shut him up, but he kept up the abuse until I walked over to him and said, ‘I don’t know what’s eating you, mate, but I think you’ve got a kind and likeable face, --the kind I’d like to throw shit at. The entire cafe went absolutely wild with applause and laughter and someone said, ‘Mate I think you’d better apologise to Amelia, she’s a good kid. The Amelia you’re thinking of comes from northside and this Amelia lives near the southside.’ The fellow came up to me and apologised profusely to me and offered to buy me a coke or a malted milk or anything I wanted. I declined his offer and he put his arm around me and said, ‘Sorry, sweetheart, I was completely in the wrong, but Jesus that was the best line I’ve ever heard, you really put me in my place. I thought you were complimenting me and you made me feel like a real mongrel.’ I patted him on his face and with a smirk a mile wide I said, ‘That’s because you’ve got a head like a robber’s dog.’ Every time he saw me after that night, he’d come up and give me a cuddle and tell me what a good sport I was.
The second incident happened on Boxing Day. Leone and I were walking along the footpath towards The Hub when a fellow whom we’d never seen before pulled up alongside of us and asked us if we wanted a lift. We both said, ‘No thanks.’
We kept walking and talking and trying to ignore the fellow who kept his car in motion at the same pace as what we were walking at. He kept calling out questions such as where we were going, if we were meeting someone and we kept ignoring him. He then started to yell at top note, ‘Who the hell do you think you are, ya stuck up bitches?’
I replied, in my best-spoken voice, ‘She’s Sophia Loren and I’m Doris Day.’
We kept walking and talking and we were just so pleased that we’d gotten rid of him. We finally reached The Hub but it was closed, so we sat down on the tram seat outside and were deep in conversation when the fellow in the V.W. came up alongside of us again and yelled, ‘You pair of bitches have got tickets on yourselves haven’t you?’
I had had about as much of this fellow as I could stand. I knew if we ignored him, he wasn’t going away so I said in an exasperated tone, ‘Look, mate, go and take a running jump at yourself will you, you’re too bloody ugly to be bothered with.’
He jumped out of the car grabbed me by the throat and shoved my head several times against the brick wall. I thought I was going to lose consciousness and could feel my head starting to spin and I could hear Leone’s voice screeching at top note telling him to let go of me. He jumped back into the car and took off towards the city as fast as he could move. Leone memorised the first three numbers of his number plate and as groggy as I was, I managed to remember the last three numbers. Leone rang the police and one young
