Snow white Dunedin imagery and aromas of sandcasting

LOTS to cover today so let’s get into it without further ado.

Snow of 1957

Some great memories of the July 2728, 1957 snow have been rolling in.

Paul Aubin of Dunedin City’s Rise says Monday’s photos of that 1957 ODT front page ‘‘unfroze’’ some vivid memories, although, ‘‘as with other exceedingly old Dunedin citizens’’, the big snow of 1939 remains his superspecial recollection.

‘‘In your photograph of four people cavorting near the junction of Queens Dr and Cobden St, it is I on the right lobbing gallantly soft snowballs at three Sydney friends — well, they were rather freakedout Australian girls, weren’t they? (Oh well, if you insist, their names were Dorothy, Ruth and Patricia.)

‘‘My best recollection of the 1957 snow is this. That morning I am required to attend a compulsory military training day at the Kensington Drill Hall, so I set forth all kitted out: greatcoat, lemonsqueezer hat, highly polished No.1 boots, rifle — and arrive at the Knox Church intersection to find noone anywhere.

‘‘No traffic, no trolley buses, no other human beings. Everything is still and silent.

‘‘So I shouldered arms, made a smart military right turn and proceeded, rifle at the slope, to march steadfastly southward along the centreline of George St.

‘‘And when I turned after the slight rise at the Octagon to look where I had been, there was the glistening white surface of George St as far as I could see and, with absolute clarity, the deadcentre dark line of my approaching footprints.

‘‘Now THAT would have been a photograph.’’

It certainly would have Paul. But that’s such a crystal clear piece of imagery I can picture it perfectly.

Central Otago 2050

Tony Merriman, of Dunedin, emailed with memories of a ‘‘very different Central Otago — from my grandparents’ house in Frankton as a boy in the 1970s and driving my Triumph Herald up for summer holidays as a teenager in the 1980s’’.

‘‘Equally, more recently I also still very much enjoy visiting Central — from family camping at Moke Lake, visits to Queenstown on the luge and the annual Queenstown Research Week conference.

‘‘Yes, it has changed very much. But that is driven by ‘progress’, which not only brings a higher standard of living and longer lives, but also a burgeoning population and development in beautiful areas such as Central Otago.

‘‘More and more people want a ‘slice of paradise’ and I do not see why they should not be allowed that option. What does concern me though is the cost of housing.

‘‘I do not agree with the housing conditions which people in the service industries have to endure, and I do not understand how people such as nurses, teachers etc can afford to live there.’’

In fine fettle

You may well recall the discussion we had about memorable smells and the comments about the unique aroma of ‘‘fettling’’. David McLeod has written to explain a little more. ‘‘I noticed the piece about fettling, which is the process of cleaning up the castings after they have been poured.

‘‘What you were smelling I believe is the ingredients mixed in with the casting sand used in the moulds when the sand is heated by the molten metal. There are often some organic compounds added to the sand mix to help it retain its shape when made into a mould.’’

Adultsonly scissors

Peter Hall, of Lawrence, was in Dunedin last Friday to do some catchup shopping.

‘‘We bought a new pair of kitchen scissors. When we got home and I released them from their packaging, I was amused and bewildered to read on the packaging that they were R18, and ‘NOT FOR SALE TO PERSONS UNDER 18 YEARS’.

‘‘Why, for Pete’s sake, is that even stated? They’re scissors, not firearms. How flaming ridiculous! Where is this PC rubbish going to end?’’

I don’t know, Peter, but please look out for the menacing wooden spoon, the perilous can opener and the positively lethal jelly mould in your kitchen.

Oxymorons

Anthony Skegg, of St Clair, suggests this oxymoron for the neoconservative Don Brash.

‘‘The ‘free market’ he encouraged is a complete contradiction in terms. If it’s ‘free’, how can it be sold on the market?’’

PHOTO: TOM LLOYD/ODT Paul Aubin confesses it was he who was captured in the frontpage ODT photograph of Monday July 29, 1957, peppering Dorothy, Ruth and Patricia with snowballs near Olveston the previous day. The ODT photographer that snowy day was the late Tom Lloyd, Paul recalls.

PHOTO: BILL WRIGHT Some pretty impressive trailer parking by Bill Wright of Dunedin — or is it an optical illusion?

PHOTO: PETER HALL What a ludicrous health and safety precaution, seen on the packaging for a pair of ‘‘softgrip’’ scissors.