Simmo's ramblings from way back before I got into the music

[simmo123]

Hi again forum members,Ole Simmo decided to give you a few more of of he’s recollections of the Simmo’s family early life in W Aussie back in the late sixties/early seventies,as most of the members are probably are aware Patricia & myself arrived in Perth with two ankle biters in tow in Feb 1968 after forking out the princely sum of twenty pounds for our fares (non refundable of course). I have already posted an account of my time spent up at the Mt Newman iron-ore mine site in a previous post ( i have saved a copy if anyone is interested),the period i am looking at now was my time as a truck/driver/plant operator for a small earthmoving company whom i spent several years with..Most of the work was country based & a big proportion was doing the earthworks for the erection of large wheat storage bins (silo’s) in the wheat growing areas which cover huge areas east & north of Perth,this of course mean’t long periods away from home but not as long as the six months i had just spent up at Mt Newman.The accommodation would vary depending on the isolation of the site but mostly if we were lucky enough we would get some rooms in the local spit & sawdust pub,all paid for by the boss,we were a fairly small team having a few machine operators plus a few labourers plus us truck drivers.We would base ourselves at one place for a good period of time as we moved further along the railway doing the earthworks for more wheat bins which when full the wheat would be taken by rail transport back to Perth.Our first camp was at a tiny place called Kununoppin which would be our base for quite a while so after a couple of weeks staying at the pub myself & the other truckie spotted an old (and i mean really old!!!) part furnished house which was just outside of this one horse town & after a couple of enquiries we found out that for $5.00 a week we could rent it,the house was almost big enough to hold both of our families but there was a really run-down caravan on the block of land which we could also utilize we decided it would great to bring both of our families down & we could all live there the other thing was we would benefit financially as well as it was costing our boss heaps for our pub accommodation & he agreed to pass some of the savings he would be making on to us.Right!! next job drive back to Perth & break the news to the girls,which was a bit of a shock for them however the upside was at least they would see more of us...the kids were quite excited about the big adventure we had now three boys aged from around 4-10 years ,we took them out of school & next day headed back to Kununoppin with the trailer packed with anything we could fit on including the kids bikes...the big adventure for them had begun.All was well as we travelled back to their new temporary home in the bush,that was until we finally came ove the brow of the hill & they took the first look at at was in those days a typical small country town,one pub a general store a few scattered houses a small church,a school plus a tiny hospital which served a very large rural area of wheat farms etc.The biggest area was the wheat silo’s & the railway sidings which is what kept every thing going.As soon as our kids saw this they all started to winge (moan) & cry,this is not what they had expected,however within 10 minutes of arriving at the new abode they had the bikes off the trailer & headed for the surrounding bushland to explore coming back a while later to tell us that this was the best place they had ever been to.the other family arrived shortly after which consisted of mum dad,two boys of around the same age as our mob & a very young baby,we sorted the accommodation with our family split between the dodgy old caravan & the house while the other family squeezed into the house owing to having the young baby.I can remember even after 40 odd years details of the house,it was your typical corrugated iron roof with weatherboard timber exterior walls with most of the paintwork peeled off by the weather conditions,a covered verandah went down 3 sides of the house,toilet separate from the main building,standing on its own down the block (definitely a torch in hand job after dark).the inside of the house was just about the same condition as the outside but hey!!! $5.00 a week who cares,surprisingly Patricia & Kaye the other good lady excepted it without a moan or a groan to be heard they just got stuck in & had the place looking homely in no time at all,the other feature in the interior of the old place was in most of the rooms there was timber panelling halfway up the walls which was finished off with a timber moulding on the top of it almost like a small narrow shelf,there is a reason for Ole Simmo going into this detail as you will see shortly.From the narrow shelf up to the very high ornate ceilings the walls were covered with pressed tin which had an embossed pattern pressed on it,quite common in the pioneer type homes.Well all settled in the new home so time to pop out & get a couple of coldies (beers) plus some stuff from the general store,get the kids enrolled at the tiny school,in fact with all of our school age kids we almost doubled the population at the school in one sweep.The next episode in the house came very quickly,on returning to the old place after sorting everything out we were met by a couple of anxious women namely my Patricia & Kaye...problems!!!, the house has come alive with mice..not just a few mice but dozens of them,we had wondered why there seemed to be o lot of mouse traps around the place,i must admit i have never seen so many of them ever,the narrow shelf i explained earlier was almost a continuous stream of mice, we went back to the local store to get a heap more traps & methodically put them in every room from then on all you could hear every couple of minutes was the sound of the traps going off,of course us blokes had to get back on the job so one of the main tasks for our two little heroines during the day was to keep emptying the trapped mice then drop them into several buckets we had spaced around the house plus when they were full they were taken out the back & disposed of.In the evenings all you could hear was the sound of the traps going off in between the conversations etc,all food had to be put into containers as well.That particular year there had been big problems with plagues of mice in the rural areas,the other downside as well is that where you get those large numbers of mice it always draws in the added problem of snakes as well who were always looking for a feed as well so this was something else that you had to be on the lookout for,the shovel became a useful tool for this purpose as far as we were concerned there was no such thing as a non poisonous snake in the bush, although Patricia has a fear of all reptiles she had to overcome this as well.In Aussie in those days we used to put new born babies into what were called safe cots,these consisted of a normal cot but it was completely enclosed with a strong fly wire mesh,access was through two hinged mesh covered wooden frames which folded back to enable you to attend to the bub & then close it up after ie, a nappy change etc,our good friend Kaye as i mentioned had a very young baby & of course it stayed in this safe envirement,so imagine the shock when both the women went to check on the baby only to find that the mice had actually chewed right through the mesh & the baby was covered in mice mainly around the neck area,it is something that we often bring up in conversations about the old days,we will never forget that moment,as it happened the little one was ok other than a lot of scratches around her neck.Well Ole Simmo could ramble on forever about the good old days but the experience was interesting to say the least,we finished the country contract after a while but Patricia had to return to Perth.I hope that this saga & it has turned out to be longer than than i first thought,is of interest to the forum,i find that it is very satisfying for me personally to go back on our early days in Aussie,my memory seems to be holding up ok at the moment...79 this year..where has all the time gone., Best wishes to all. Terry & Patricia