Bonzer Words!: Bush Telegraph
So what was it that brought all those men to a stanstill?
Shirley Henwood tells a tale that ends with a chuckle.
Shirley writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au
The news went around, some sort of bush telegraph, nobody knew how. It wasn't as though people phoned the neighbours, or anything so blatant, as they did when the Jehovah's Witness pigeon pairs were on the prowl. But somehow word got around.
Then you would see the neighbourhood men wandering up the road to the letterboxes at the top of the shared private road, or strolling outside into their gardens. Chatting over the fences, or coming out and start weeding or moving lawns. Or washing their cars, when normally they would be still inside, reading the paper, or just lounging around thinking about doing these boring chores.
Once some workmen stopped digging up a cable and sat in their van, having an unscheduled tea-break.
She was doing her ironing. In the top little attic, where the sun streamed into the room through the full length window, making it so hot that the clothes were aired soon after she steam-ironed them and hung them on hangers on a line her husband had put across the room for her. You'd wonder why she chose to iron in such a hot environment. Was it because the steam made her think she was losing weight? It wasn't as though she was young and beautiful. She was tall, long legged, with untidy, bushy long hair, and older, as well as having a reputation for being scatty. What was the attraction? The magnet that drew all the men to watch her as she ironed?
Oh, I forgot to mention—she was starkers.
© Shirley Henwood
