Scott Illingworth of Kiama writes from the Half Dream Room: “I’m thinking that it’s a perfect advertising opportunity for the Housing Industry Association to sponsor those moments in NRL telecasts when players are taken off for a HIA (head injury assessment).”
“Travelling by train into Sydney years ago, we would notice the model castle outside Eveleigh rail sheds,” recalls Marjie Williamson of Blaxland. “My daughter, Yvonne, has asked if I knew what happened to it. Can any Column 8-ers help?”
Barry Lamb of Eastwood takes control: “To the cartoon showing a young girl asking: ‘Grandma, tell us again about how you had to go over to the television to change the channel’, we could now well add, ‘Grandma, tell us again about how the postman would come twice a day’.” This is ironic for Granny as the household in which she first saw a TV remote was that of her grandparents. The remote in question was not cordless, however, and provided somewhat of a trip hazard.
As a youngster on the land in Armidale in the mid-1950s, Ken Finlayson of East Corrimal witnessed the red glow of the aurora (C8). “Quite magical, but then, in ’57, watching a twinkling Sputnik’s passage across the skies was even more so.”
“Granny informs me that in 1958 the Herald reported an aurora as far north as Singapore,” says George Manojlovic of Mangerton. “That’s nothing. I’ve seen it in Norway.”
Jenny Harrison of Hornsby Heights was interested in the recent article on bin-flipping cockatoos and, as a teacher, can attest that in her neck of the woods they are even smarter: “Here I’ve observed cockatoos access food from school bags using a three-step process: Step 1 – perch on top of the school bag hanging on a hook and grab the zipper with the beak to prise it open. Step 2 – flip the lunchbox out of the bag. Step 3 – open the lunchbox by pinching the lip of the lid in the beak and repeatedly hitting it on the pavement until the lid comes off. Mission accomplished!”
We’re still seeing those suburban tweaks (C8), like David Gordon of Cranebrook’s observation that “‘Homebush West’ sounded classier than ‘Flemington’” and the recollection of Robyn Yavor from East Ryde that some residents there proposed a name change to ‘Belair’ in the hope of increasing property prices and distancing themselves from Ryde.
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