One call and 37 happy mango seasons
IT was about 37 Mango Seasons ago, and a Mr Carrol rang me …. not on a mobile, but on one of those other phones with wires and something called a dial.
Mr Carrol was Editor of this great paper. What he asked I shall never forget, and as I’ve seen and loved the celebration of our 140 years of late, and that magnificent cartoon by Harry.
So I thought I’d add a little about my unexpected and loooong time relationship with our Townsville Bulletin.
I still remember the call, I thought it was one of my radio mates having a go at me, but as it was 9am, way too early for them to be awake after the usual Flinders East frivolities of the night before.
The editor asked me to do a column, but not just a column, a whole page, of which he would pay me the handsome sum of $20, which was a lot of money for a local broadcaster of dubious sanity.
That’s how the famous Rage Page began, plenty of silliness, jokes around the outside (stolen idea from the Mad Magazines, (appropriate) always an outrageous photo and very little logic.
It was so much fun I couldn’t believe it. Especially as spalin and grama were not my leading qualities at school.
Luckily for me, not so for him, a young and upcoming journalist was given the daunting task of getting me to print.
He’s still getting counselling and in a home for the bewildered I’m sure.
Poor bugger.
But he never complained, yet this kid had to read my hand writing as I did it all long hand, and for him it was long and painful trying to decipher it, though after working on my stuff he did a PHD in Hieroglyphics.
Thank you David Moore wherever you are! I remember thinking how good it would be to have a maze in the column that kids could work out, so I bought a little book and copied them, slight problem, I stupidly forgot about one tiny little word, copyright.
Yes, the maze idea finished rather abruptly, I nearly did too.
I also wrote a series that featured on the page called Harry’s Castle, about a young boy, left a huge secret from his grandfather, and had to travel to a northern paradise called Townsville and go to Castle Hill.
This monolith was one of numerous magnetic places in the world, and granddad had given a device to join the poles, and he had to travel from the deep south to fulfil grandad’s wishes.
Outrageous pure imagination, and I thought no one read about Harry, so Harry saved the world and I moved on to other things.
Harry was forgotten for a while, until one day I was doing a talk at a school, and the teachers came up and told me they used to have the kids take turns in reading Harry’s story in front of the class and dressing up!
I was Horrified, more so Harryfied.
I thank the editors, 12 of them, and two incredible men Elliot Hannay and David ‘Scoop’ Hooper both from our Bully.
TO ESCAPE THIS WORLD WITH A PUSH OF A PEN.
IT’S BEEN DONE BY PAUPERS AND THE KINGS OF MEN.
The glory of a little silliness and for the love of North Queensland.
Happy Days.
Ooroo
1429
The city of Paris is attacked by Joan of Arc.
1504
Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti unveils marble statue, David, in Florence.
1565
The first permanent European settlement in North America is established by the Spanish in Florida.
1664
In the AngloDutch Wars, the duke of York (later James II) takes the city of New Amsterdam, and the name is changed to New York.
1760
French forces surrender Montreal to the surrounding British armies.
1888
The first round of Britain’s Football League kicks off. Aston Villa defender Gershom Cox makes the first score with an own goal for the Wolverhampton
Wanderers. The game ends in a tie. It is the world’s first league competition.
1898
Sidney and Beatrice Webb arrive in Sydney at the start of a visit to Australia. The socialist English writers would go on to write condescendingly of their impressions.
1916
The first of 12 unsuccessful arson attempts in Sydney to be blamed on International Workers of the World is lit at Brennan’s drapery and ironmongery store.
1941
Germans begin an 872-day siege of Leningrad, now St Petersburg, Russia (pictured).
1969
Tennis player Rod Laver completes a double grand slam as he defeats fellow Australian Tony Roche in the US Open final.
1990
Roger Graham Bawden confesses to the strangling of Joyce Pohl for which her husband, Ziggy, had served more than 10 years in jail. Bawden goes to jail in 1992.
2006
Nine-time winner of Bathurst 1000, Peter Brock, dies at 61 when his car crashes in a rally in WA.