BILAMBIL CALLING : THOUGHTS FROM DAVE ' THE BLOKE' OVENDEN

NOBBYS BEACH

Nobbys  Breakwater  Moments…

Ok…So…Let me go back a bit…Ah, yes, this could be a scary rave, so, strap yourself in, hang on to your hat, and you, the reader, hopefully will take a literal, shape shifting, mind flipping ride…

So it was the early sixtys, when I was at that river port town, Newcastle on the Hunter…I think I was about 14 years of a now time then…

Now as I remember there was a few of us there on that wind swept, sea sprayed, dimly lit, rocky groin they call the Nobbys break wall…It was about 9pm…

Ok, so we had a grotesque rubber head fitting mask, me dads big old karki army coat, a few old feather pillows, to hunch up…We left the car at the surf club and trundled up the dimly lit track, laughing and a talking bout who was gunna rig up and lay there like some dead thing, lying between the rocks…

So…Were all set up and waiting…Standing round with our sticks, ready to poke that dead thing lying between the rocks…Gary Hill was in the mask, and that big old army coat…As I look around, I see Boomer, Billy, Darrell, and I think the Toad was there, lurking in the shadows…

Now just like Bray Park, Nobbys Breakwall, is a place where lovers old and young, do rude things in the car at night…As we wait on this particular wind swept night…

Headlights shinning through the mist…We take up our positions…The car pulls up, the driver winds down the window, as we cautiously poke this dead thing with sticks, he says ‘what the fuck is it’, as the prearranged thing moves, his bird reaches over to have a geek, and with a long bug eyed scream she lets go, as he in a mad freak, chucks it into first, and makes the wildest three point turn…Motor revving, wheels spinning, his chick is still screaming, as they throttle down, back along the track…

We all fall to the ground in a crazy hilarious grip of laughter, engulfed with the madness of the moment…

Our world was full of the scam that went down…

Till, then as we seen the lights flashing, the siren sounding, the cops was coming up the track…

Hey, they said we gunna split…Here’s your dads coat, and there’s the mask, were out of here, I grabbed the bundle and clambered down between the rocks…Luckily, it was low tied, and some sand, with the wash between the rocks of that sometimes sandy shoreline…

I tucked in tight, between the rocks as that searchlight sprayed around, I heard the cops a saying… ‘It’s gotta be down there somewhere’…Me, I’m holding the scam, while the others are sneaking back along the track in the shadows.

I’m hugging the boulders as that search light flashers above my head, and on the other side of the wash, I sneak along the sandy shoreline…

Well…Boomer and the gang somehow made it back to the surf club car park, they regrouped then all piled into that old Holden and took off down Hunter street…

While I was clambering along the shoreline, till I snuck up on that Nobbys beach car park…Only to realize that they were long gone…And I still with the coat and mask…

Ok…I thinks…I’ve a long walk in front of me…

So I set off, with that big half wet army coat, grotesque rubber mask, and a squelching in my sneakers…

So as I’m wandering down Hunter street, past the town hall, I happen to notice a fancy dress ball goin down…

I, in the madness of the moment, army coat up, slip my head into the mask, and wander in…

‘Hey’ someone says, ‘Frankenstein, it’s good to see you’…

‘Hey’… I says… ‘It’s good to be here’…