Wow! We are right in the middle of a heatwave.
It’s a reminder that we are living in Queensland and is best summed up by comedian Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam: “You fool, of course it’s hot. It’s damn hot.”
The past couple of weeks we have just had to recalibrate what we should be used to but have forgotten.
Christmas lunch in Eudlo, circa 1960s, or any other given Sunday in summer, was a ‘roast everything’, sitting under the bloody house because the dirt floor was the coolest part of the joint.
We would be sitting there absolutely sweltering but apparently enjoying eating a hot lunch washed down with steamed pudding.
That was just how it was and I am not really sure we knew what humidity was.
It just seemed eating and sweating at the same time was normal.
The only fan in sight was a little bamboo one my mother had, as she force-fed us with one hand and fanned herself with the other.
Ice cubes weren’t invented in Robinson Road, Eudlo, in those days.
So, if it didn’t fit in our little Snow Queen fridge, it was room temperature.
Nothing much was frozen as the freezer was the size of a glovebox.
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Everything was mostly fresh as it was frowned upon to eat anything that had been frozen.
Spuds, peas and beans were all fresh, and chips were actually hand-cut from the potatoes and smothered in butter – all washed down with a nice hot cup of tea. Awesome.
After lunch, there was an opportunity to cool down, no sunscreen required (apart from something that resembled cooking oil applied to the nose that nine-out-of-10 times blistered the next day), in the family pool (I mean dam) that was surrounded by clay.
If you got in and out without a yabby, toad or leech, or covered in lilies, you were doing well.
Then there was the shower: a bucket with holes in it under the tank stand.
If that didn’t cool you or clean you, there was the option to share the bath with your brother, with hot water supplied by a tub with an element in it – adding some cold water to avoid third-degree burns.
Welcome to summer in Queensland.
Just a couple of weeks to go, but it has nothing on summer in the ’60s.
Ashley Robinson is a columnist with Sunshine Coast News and My Weekly Preview. His views are his own.
