A bit of housekeeping before we commence. Reader feedback indicates that insensitive Trumpian appellations are too political for Column 8 and that making fun of folks necking powders is ignoring the fact that they were banned in the 1970s due to severe health risks associated with phenacetin. Here\u2019s hoping tales of butcher shops and switchboards will pass muster.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s a Geelong Cats v Brisbane Lions AFL Grand Feline Final,\u201d notes George Zivkovic of Northmead. \u201cWill it be a case of pride coming before a claw? Or will one team win by a whisker? Depends on the pounce of the ball, I guess. Thankfully, no cheetahs on either team. I\u2019ll paws now, but you\u2019ll know where to find me on Saturday afternoon.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMy late wife, Gai, was operating a manual exchange (C8) in the foyer of a plastics factory in Melbourne in 1970,\u201d writes Dave Williams of Port Macquarie. \u201cSitting on a chair on castors, mind obviously in neutral, she inadvertently put a brass-tipped phone line against her mouth. She came-to sitting on the chair right across the foyer, with a sore mouth. No permanent damage, but this might explain her later propensity for Afro hairdos!\u201d<\/p>\n
Still on the phone, Margaret Collins of Terrigal writes: \u201cMy parents (father was school principal in the 1970s) lived in Boggabri when it had a manual telephone exchange. When my aunt in Sydney tried to phone my parents, she was told by the operator that they were out to dinner at a neighbouring property and put the call through to the hosts. My aunt couldn\u2019t believe such a service existed. No secrets in those days! The exchange (and grapevine) also knew when we returned from holidays, university or had the measles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a child, I was awed by the (long gone) Richfield Meats butcher shop in Hurstville,\u201d says Wayne Duncombe of Lilyfield. \u201cSawdust (C8) on the floors and the butchers on a raised platform, seeming to tower over shoppers, wielding enormous pronged lances to skewer their customers\u2019 selections. It was like no other butcher shop I\u2019ve ever seen. Sixty years later, C8\u2019s series of vignettes has brought it sharply back to life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart Martin of Mangerton knows how to harness the power of advertising (C8): \u201cRemember Carnation Milk? Red can, white carnation, \u2018from contented cows.\u2019 Our uni rag changed the script on an ad to read \u2018Reincarnation Milk – From cremated cows\u2019 Nobody noticed!\u201d <\/p>\n
Column8@smh.com.au<\/p>\n
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Include name, suburb and daytime phone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bit of housekeeping before we commence. Reader feedback indicates that insensitive Trumpian appellations are too political for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-164090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}