her hair still knotted in my hand. My face landed onto her arm and I thought, Oh well! here goes the teeth again. I sank my fangs into the fleshy part of her upper arm. People were running around yelling instructions, some were saying, ‘Let them go.’ Others were screaming, ‘They’ll kill each other.’
Somehow or other we stopped fighting and the party broke up. Two weeks or so later, whilst a number of us were waiting for a tram to go to the city, a voice yelled out, ‘Amelia’. I turned around and nearly had heart failure as I came face to face with Pat. She smiled held out her hand for me to shake
Pat ‘No hard feelings, mate’.
Amelia ‘Yeah, no hard feelings, mate’. As I shook her hand I said, ‘I’d rather shake your fist than feel it in my gut’.
Pat (laughing) ‘You’ve got bloody strong teeth I can tell you that, have a look at this’.
She turned her arm towards me to show a distinct T scar where I’d bitten her.
Amelia (horrified) ‘Jesus, I’m sorry. T for teeth huh?’
Pat ‘No T for tough, you’re as tough as old boot leather’.
The tram came along and we said our goodbyes and I never saw her from that day to this. Teenagers in the fifties were certainly a very strange breed of animal.
I was about to turn sixteen and I had to plead with Edith to allow me to have a birthday party. I invited most of the regular crowd from The Hub to attend. I didn’t expect too many of them to arrive because I lived so far away from their area. Most of them had to rely on public transport which meant a change of two trams to get to my place, then a ten-minute walk from the tram stop. I was like a Jack in the box the entire day waiting the time of the arrival of my guests, I was so nervous.
Finally, they started to arrive a few at a time and within half an hour there were so many kids flooding through the doors Edith said, ‘How many more are coming? I don’t think we’ve got enough food for them all’.
A few of the older fellows arrived on their motorbikes and had brought a couple of bottles of beer with them. I asked Dad for his permission to allow them to bring the beer in but he was adamant that they couldn’t. I was really angry with him for that, but the fellows weren’t a bit upset by Dad’s decision. They said that they could understand how he felt and they stayed and enjoyed the party anyway. I only wish I could have enjoyed the party as much as everyone else, I was still so nervous about everyone enjoying themselves I was running around like a chook with its head cut off. So much so, that I kept changing my clothes about every half an hour or so. The one thing that stays in my mind about that night was, all the girls exclaiming how lucky I was to have so many beautiful clothes to choose from. As per usual I was unable to take a compliment and all I could say was that they were nothing but old rags.
Mum had baked me a beautiful birthday cake and Edith had iced it. Unfortunately, the icing left a lot to be desired. Edith could cook, crochet and sew, but icing cakes was not one of her best qualities. I, being the ungrateful little bitch that I am, had to make a big song and dance about it, telling her that I didn’t want the cake because everyone would laugh at me. Fortunately, one of the girls told me not to be so silly and the cake was hungrily devoured and enjoyed by all. I only wish I could remember more of that night because I know it was one of the happiest nights of my life, typical of me to only remember the worst moments of it.
Chapter 14
Charmed I’m Sure
Edward had been going with a girl by the name of Beth whom Dad could not stand a bar of. I won’t be unkind enough to repeat the nickname he called her behind her back, but I can assure you it was not complimentary. Dad was less than impressed when Edward announced she was pregnant and that he wanted to marry her. As far as Dad was concerned Edward was marrying below his standing. Be as it may, they were married and I was their bridesmaid.
Beth had arranged for me to apply for a job at Golden Investments, which was the head office of the Golden Casket agency. She had been with the office for a short period of time before I started there. Working with her gave me a better insight of what she was really like and I knew that this girl was more trouble than what she seemed. I remember overhearing her telling one of our co-workers that Edward had ruined her life because she was pregnant. I may have been ten months younger than her, but I still knew I had more common sense than what she had shown. For a start, I wasn’t that naive that I didn’t realise that it took two to tango, and secondly, I had more self-respect than to sleep with a fellow whom I’d only known for a few weeks. She and her friends always tried to make me feel as if I was dirt beneath their feet. Maybe I was, but if I was, at least I didn’t try to blame someone else for my downfall. I think it would be a fair assumption to say that the entire Long family, with the exception of Edward didn’t approve of Beth, however, we tried our hardest to tolerate her for Edward’s sake.
Working at Golden Investments was different to say the least. There were approximately thirty girls working in one large room, each of them was as different as chalk cheese and chips. Our job entailed writing out the casket tickets for interstate and overseas customers. I can assure you that the majority of the customers had sick perverted minds, if their choice of syndicate names were any indication. Pennytration, Mickey Dripping, 041 Nought E, and I’ve got a l-o-n-g’n for u. These were just some of the requests that come to mind. All of us would have a good laugh at some of them, the more suggestive, the louder we’d laugh. One of the girls who worked near me was a girl by the name of Diana, she and I got along fairly well. We had one particular thing in common, she disliked Beth as much as I did, probably more. Well, actually there were quite a few who disliked Beth, but no one dared show it because Beth was on very friendly terms with the head girl of the office. Of course, when there are more than three females in one office for any length of time, there’s bound to be a certain amount of bitchiness sooner or later. Believe me, not one day went by that at least one girl wasn’t being talked about. One particular girl really sticks in my mind, because her nocturnal habits left everyone agog. In all fairness to her, it would be unkind of me to say that she wasn’t a full quid, but she certainly stretched the strange barrier. Betty washed her black hair in Rinso a common brand of washing powder in those days to try and make it whiter and brighter. She was a very plain looking girl who dressed in child-like dresses and she always wore black school shoes with white socks. Her hair was black straight and cut in the basin style. Most days she would come to work looking like something the cat would refuse to drag in. She would invariably give anyone who was prepared to listen to her, a blow-by-blow description of her sexual prowess of the night before. At first when I heard her telling her stories I thought, she’s got to be kidding. She was not by any stretch of the imagination a very pretty sight. My theory proved to be totally wrong someone had observed her on a number of occasions out with different fellows. Diana and I came to the conclusion that she would have to put a bag over her head before any fellow crawled into bed with her. She certainly had the entire office whispering when she started pumping No Doze tablets down her throat to keep herself awake after a particularly heavy night. It wasn’t long after Edward and Beth were married that I was given my marching orders. According to the boss, the head girl, I won’t even give her the satisfaction of a fictitious name had reported me for swearing too much. I didn’t argue with his decision, but I couldn’t help but smile to myself when I thought of the double standard irony. Hypocrisy by another name. For six months I had been exposed to reading and having to write lewd and suggestive sayings and listening to an obviously overactive, pill popping, nymphomaniac. Yet I wasn’t allowed to say an occasional shit or bloody because it supposedly offended a big fat stuck up bitch who didn’t like me.
Ah well. You win some you lose some.
My
