Bonzer Words!: Goodies Galore
Violet Apted recalls a childhood day when she discovered a mountain of "treasure''.
Violet writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au
The war was over! Finally we could play and be children again! No more fear of air raids and bombs falling, so my friends and I decided to go to Bluebell woods for the day and picnic in our big King tree‚ we used as a meeting place. Our mothers packed our lunches and off we went.
By the time we had eaten our food we knew we were going to pick bunches of bluebells to take home, but decided to go check out the old dump first. We could always find a few treasures there and it was great fun, so off we went. We could not believe our eyes as we turned the corner to the dump. It had never been so full! Whatever could it be, stacked so high on the tip? We were soon to realize it was FOOD! After so many years of rationing, (in fact we were still being rationed at that time) it was like Aladdin's cave to us.
My brother found an old pram frame. It still had wheels, so we stacked it as high as we could with boxes of butter; sugar, large tins of fruit, sweets etc. When the old pram was full we stuffed as much as we could up our jumpers and, like a heavily-laden camel train we slowly made our way home. All thoughts of picking bluebells were forgotten in our haste to show our parents the treasure we had found.
My Mother soon realised it was the surplus from the USA air force base. The Yanks had all returned to America. Within an hour the word had got around. People appeared from everywhere with prams, wheelbarrows, etc. The lucky ones had cars, but there were few in those days. Pushing a neighbour's huge pram we made our way back to the dump to get more goodies. For the rest of that day, until every tin and package was removed from the dump, there was a steady stream of people to and fro carrying all they could carry home. There were goodies galore for everyone to share. I had never felt so tired. Best of all was my friends and I were celebrities and had our picture in the local paper the following day!
I have never seen so much excitement or heard so much laughter in years. Yes the locals all feasted well that day! Thanks to the Yanks of course!
© Violet Apted
