July 1988: Alice Springs

19 July 1988

The Editor-in-Chief "suggested" it was time for me to write another letter about our current adventures. I can't really say we have had any real excitement lately but I will bring you up to date on our activities:

After receiving the last letter, someone wrote back and asked if Toby ever does anything, that I have so much to say about Dwight.

Toby is very much his own person and does not try to follow in Dwight's footsteps and he is not the overachiever type like Dwight. Toby has his own activities and enjoys them. He did play his guitar at the Eisteddfod (the music competition) and did quite well. He was the only one entered in his category so automatically won the prize in that category, but in addition to competing, everyone who participated received a grade and Toby received a high grade, so I think he was pleased. His main interest at the moment seems to be bowling and he has been doing very well in that recently, surpassing some personal goals (bowling a 150+ game and a 400+ set). He is also still playing chess, but his school, who had some trouble finding enough people to have a team, is struggling a bit this year, as is Toby. But he still enjoys it.

Toby has also recently, after being encouraged by a female friend, joined the Alice Springs Junior Singers. This group has been together- for some time and is very fortunate to have a fantastic lady directing them. Monica, the director, is an extremely talented musician and singer herself, but has put a tremendous effort into this group of kids. It is unfortunate that Toby waited so long to join them because he did not have enough experience to travel with them when they recently went to Adelaide. They put on a number of concerts there and several of them were sold out. I think they are a real credit to the entire town.

Toby and Dwight entered a number of things in the Alice Springs Show, which was held the beginning of July. To show the importance of this show, which is similar to a county fair, "Show Day" (opening day) is a public holiday. Dwight submitted entries in the photo competition, and arrowheads, collected in Oregon some years ago, in the collection division. Toby entered some photos, some pieces of in the craft division, some models, and a drawing. Dorothy also entered some photos. (I didn't enter anything this year - with all of the other photographers in the family, I don't take pictures and I don't have any hobbies.) "Show Day" was cold and rainy, so the crowds were down significantly, though the weather cleared and more people came out on Saturday. Both kids won a number of awards.

Dwight was recently in Darwin. The big recent interest has been debating. His team (Dwight and two other boys from his school) competed in a debate at the bicentennial exhibit here in town one evening (where we almost froze - it does get cold here). His team made all of the points in support of their argument, but the other team had a somewhat better manner (with very little substance to their argument). The adjudicators awarded the win to the other team. Despite the loss, Dwight decided to go to the Northern Territory debates (after all, the school picked up the tab for the flights.)

The four kids who were selected to represent the N.T. at the national competition in Canberra were all from Darwin area - guess where the adjudicators were from? Otherwise, Dwight keeps busy on the weekends as the weekend photographer for the newspaper. He counted up one day that he has covered something like 38 different sports herein town at one time or another. We have heard nothing about the article that Time magazine was going to run. Maybe they scrubbed it. We also thought that they might run it in conjunction with Prime Minister Hawke's trip to the U.S., but apparently they did not.

Speaking of Dwight, Dorothy did not have a great Mother's day this year. That was the day I had planned to go out of town with the gem club on a fossicking expedition, so she 'was without a car most of the day (a real sacrifice for Dorothy). Then Dwight brought home to her that she ~as indeed a mother - he crunched one of the fenders on her car. I did not yell at him, but said I thought it should be up to him to find someone to fix it. It eventually became obvious that they were not going to take care of it, so I found someone to fix it and the car now has a new fender. [DBG comment: Guess how receptive a little grey haired lady is received at the panel beaters (body shop)? There are still men and women in the Outback, not all unisex.]

Every once in a while Dorothy does make a guest appearance at our house. If there is anything, (repeat- anything) going on in town she is out the house to "cover it." Recently, two stars from an Australian soap opera were in town for a benefit and played a round of golf for charity. Dorothy walked around the course with them taking pictures and interviewing them. The week before that, she volunteered to help take some of Toby's class to the traveling bicentennial exhibit that was in town. She monitored six of them as they "went in six different directions" at the exhibit, and then wrote an article for the paper about her experience.

In addition to her work, Dorothy also has found a new sport for herself ~ indoor cricket. She and Dwight have played on the team from the newspaper and I am sorry that I did not see her in her first match. In cricket, you put out the batter by either catching the ball or hitting the wickets (the three posts behind the batter with another round piece of wood laying across the top of them) while the batter is running. Well, Dorothy caught the ball on a bounce, but instead of throwing the ball at the wickets, she "tagged" the runner (like in baseball). I guess Dwight was a bit embarrassed. Another night, she hit an opposing player over the head with a bat (accidentally). The young male players still think twice before hitting her back. She reminds them of their mother. All is all, she likes the game. They have finished for the season, but I am sure she will be back next season.

Dorothy has made definite plans to go to Townsville for two weeks in August. A big exhibition of art from indigenous people from all over the Pacific is being held there and she really wants to see it. Although the paper is not sponsoring her, they are interested in her reports and she will be attending as a journalist if she gets her media accreditation.

As for me, I have not been doing much, other than a couple of fossicking trips. Otherwise, you can tell who is the domestic one in our family. I recently planned a fondue dinner for three friends, two of whom went off to Darwin for a month or so. The meal got complicated because the one lady is a vegetarian, so I had a meat fondue, and a vegetable fondue, with chocolate fondue for dessert. After I planned the dinner, Dorothy's weird friend, who was passing through town, arrived (the day before the dinner), dragging a new English acquaintance with him. I felt I had to ask them if they wanted to have fondue with us. Neither Ross nor the English guy had ever had fondue before, so they thought it was a real treat.

One recent weekend, we sponsored two couples who moved here from the U.S. Sponsoring entails picking them up at the airport, seeing that they get to the grocery store, bank, etc., and generally helping them until they become self-sufficient, which basically means until they get a car. The first couple arrived Thursday evening; the second on Friday morning. I had them, plus some other friends for a barbeque Friday night, and spent a lot of the rest of the weekend, including Monday, July 4th, showing them around town. By Tuesday, I was ready to go back to work to relax.

The only real excitement recently occurred when the cat brought in a parakeet (which are wild here) just as Dorothy and the kids were leaving the house. As I understand it, Dwight and Dorothy chased the cat around the house shouting at the top of their lungs to let the bird go. It did, but before Dwight could get to it, it flew into a window and the cat got it again and ran under a bed. Then Dorothy and Dwight jumped up and down on the bed to scare the cat into releasing the bird. It did and they shut the bird up in a room with some water, after spreading sheets and newspaper allover everything. Then, Dorothy called me at work to ask me if I knew anyone that could loan us a birdcage (I never get routine calls from Dorothy). To cut this short, we found a cage and got the bird in it, but alas, it died the next morning. It's too bad the bird did not live, since the day all of this occurred marked another minor miracle (18th wedding anniversary). I joked that the bird was an anniversary present - the tough part was teaching the cat to take it in the house ...

One other brief highlight - Dorothy and I attended a concert by the Western Australia Orchestra at the Araluen Arts Center. That was the first time a full orchestra has performed in Alice Springs.

The boys are on school holidays (vacation - mid-term). I had hoped to take a day or so off and do something with them, but my immediate supervisor decided to take off, and our boss said we could not both be off at the same time, so, so much for that plan. We are planning (with the exception of Dwight), to go to Brisbane the beginning of October to go to Expo, then to Canberra, so I can attend the Federal Australian-American Association conference, and then back to Sydney, to catch the USAF cargo plane back to Alice. I hope it comes off.

I guess I have rambled on long enough, so I will stop here.