The real nuts and bolts of festivities
Sharing a laugh with former Lifeline Darling Downs guru Derek Tuffield at last weekend’s BookFest had me drifting back in time to my days as a young bloke travelling through Europe.
A mate and I had found ourselves in Greece and we jumped on a city bus in Athens armed with some local currency but no idea of the bus fare or any Greek language skills apart from the word “ouzo”.
We could see people climbing on to the bus throwing coins into a bowl near the driver and I turned to my mate and said: “How much do we put in?”
He had no idea either, but fortunately, a young guy about our age dressed in army gear standing behind us leaned forward and in a familiar Aussie accent said: “Doesn’t matter, mate. Just chuck anything in the bowl.”
We did as he said and ended up sitting with him on the bus.
He was born in Greece but had moved to Melbourne at age two with his family but, as is the case with most European countries, if he returned to Greece between the ages of 18 and 30, he was expected to do his 12 months military service like everyone else.
He explained to us the way things worked in Athens and apparently, had we taken the time to look through the bus fare bowl next to the driver, we would find it was full of pebbles, metal washers, nuts and bolts and the occasional drachma.
“As long as the driver hears a metallic sound hitting his bowl, he doesn’t care what ‘currency’ is going in there, he’s paid by the city so he doesn’t give a rats,” our new found friend explained.
That was back in the 1980s, but talking with Derek, I think a lot of those Greeks had followed us back to Toowoomba if Christmas Wonderland is anything to go by.
For some years now, the Lions Club of Toowoomba West has hosted the incredibly successful Christmas Wonderland in the Botanical Gardens each December.
It’s an incredible annual feature that raises thousands of dollars for local beneficiaries such as Lifeline Darling Downs and other community organisations.
Last December’s event attracted almost 70,000 and in its time Christmas Wonderland has raised almost $1.5m for local charities, an amazing contribution to the community but it’s not just the gold coin donation that ends up in the collection bins.
“The donations in the bins included Aldi tokens, car wash tokens, dog identification tags, stones, button batteries and foreign currency,” Derek said with a laugh.
In what might be a microcosm of modern day Toowoomba, most common currencies were from New Zealand, United Kingdom, Euro’s, USA, Canada, Philippines, Vanuatu and more.
The Lions Club sold the New Zealand and Euro currencies to help boost their funds but even the pawn shops had no interest in the car wash tokens, dog identification tags or button batteries, let alone the small rocks.
Nonetheless, the Lions Club of Toowoomba West was able to donate $95,000 to charities and small community groups as a result of their efforts with 2022 Toowoomba Christmas Wonderland and that’s more than just nuts and bolts.
Christmas Wonderland will be on again in December so put a few coins aside in preparation – Australian currency preferred.