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COOKIES DIARY – Pt. 25

Published May 22, 2011 by Anna Johnston

Each week I post another fascinating true-life excerpt from my friend & mentor’s journals while she was Housekeeper & Cook at The Flamingo, during the period 1968-1999, titled Cookie’s Diaries. Together we’ve changed a few things around & set Cookies story in a fictional Australian country town so as to protect the innocent & the not so innocent!  We hope you enjoy Cookies journey from such humble & all but penniless beginnings to owning & running the highly successful country guesthouse, ‘The  Flamingo’. To read the last chapter click HERE.


PARSNIP & MUSTARD SOUP & MAKING SENSE OF THE 70′s

Despite ourselves, we could not NOT watch No. 96 each week, the television show that had taken our world by storm with a level of titillation and taboo subjects that had never been seen on Australian television before. The night No. 96 premiered was to be known as “the night Australian television lost its virginity”.

Frederick & Jamie were great fans of the show, because for the first time ever the character Lawyer, Don Finlayson was openly gay & had several boyfriends over the course of the series. I imagine looking back both men looked upon this television series as profound in the least. You couldn’t walk down the street & chat with friends without everyone talking about No. 96′s most famous sex symbol, Abigail, & our guests would have caused a riot if the television was not turned on & tuned in to No. 96 at 8.30 pm each night for the show.

Our world was changing so rapidly with a social voice that just got louder & louder, it seemed the old ways were crumbling & my generation were responsible for actively pushing all the boundaries.  We all had our opinions on the politics of the day, the Vietnam War & thrilled that our marches & demonstrations had brought our boys home. Women’s Liberation was a term loosely thrown about and it was always interesting to guess which guest would be for or against, as it was not at all fashionable to simply not care either way for these hot topics back then. Even Frederick wore side burns & let his hair grow down, almost to his shoulders as a concession to fashion & the styles worn back then. Continue Reading

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COOKIES DIARY – Pt. 23.

Published May 8, 2011 by Anna Johnston

 

Each week I post another fascinating true-life excerpt from my friend & mentor’s journals while she was Housekeeper & Cook at The Flamingo, during the period 1968-1999, titled Cookie’s Diaries. Together we’ve changed a few things around & set Cookies story in a fictional Australian country town so as to protect the innocent & the not so innocent!  We hope you enjoy Cookies journey from such humble & all but penniless beginnings to owning & running the highly successful country guesthouse, ‘The  Flamingo’. To read the last chapter click HERE.


1970's Presentation of Cheese Soup

 

WINTER TIME AT THE FLAMINGO IN THE 1970′S & CHEESE SOUP.

Winters at The Flamingo tended to be a very busy time with all the extra indoor living our guests tended to enjoy, which of course, in turn, required much more work keeping the house clean, tidy & warm.  The Flamingo was an old home built before air conditioning was considered a standard requirement, as we’ve come to expect & enjoy in today’s modern world.  As I sit here today at my desk in a new century with my memories of my life’s work, on such a cold & wet winters day, comfortable with the climate control turned to my ideal temperature, I still long for the cosy & heart warming rooms at The Flamingo that were heated by open fireplaces.  How wonderful it would be to write my accounts of my time there, tucked up in front of the fireplace as many of our guests did each winter.

In summer time we had overhead fans whirring away from the high ceilings on the verandas & rooms, keeping the air turning & cooling the temperatures down somewhat, although summer at The Flamingo was our down time, as the fierce Australian summers kept people away or cooling off in the cooler mountain air or at the beach.  For all that, summer was a busy time for gardening & preserving foods & making improvements around the house for us, in preparation for our busy time during the cooler months.

In winter, we relied on the 9 open fireplaces for heating.  This was a time before pollution was a consideration & our rural environment provided a never-ending supply of firewood, back then, we considered homes heated by electricity alone to be an enormous waste of energy.  Homes with more than two or three chimneys were considered a symbol of a superior level of comfortable living, although there is no doubt about it, open fires & wood stoves do burn a lot of wood & require constant tending, keeping our old Groundsman busy chopping wood & feeding those fires all winter long. Continue Reading

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