Pop a Man to remember

You might be wondering why I call this site "ianslifedownuunder", the reason is I have always been called Ian so long as I can remember, and it stayed with me, But my first name is Albert, I don't mind either.

Thank you for reading about my life.

I need to tell this true story and my involvement when I was a Young lad about 1950 I was living on a Farm as I have mentioned many times, this also includes my Brother Laurie (deceased) he was five years my senior, we had chores to do every day and one of them was boiling the water in a copper with a wood fire underneath, the copper was outside the house in a washing room without any lights, once it started to boil it was bucketed out and poured into a Bath inside the house, we all took turns in the bath, this particular day Mum told Laurie to get the hot water and put it in the bath, I usually held the lantern so he could see to dip the hot water out of the copper, this evening this particular evening I put on a tantrum and didn’t want to hold the lantern, so he was dipping the hot water out of the copper in an almost dark room, the copper was built into a cement block and quit high for a young lad of 14 years, while Laurie was dipping the water out the bottom of the bucket with boiling water caught on the top of the copper and spilt all over the front of his body, he was screaming with pain, mum not knowing what to do searched for something to put on the scolded body, she was looking for oil but couldn’t find it in the panic, had she used oil he would almost certainly would have died, she then grabbed the packet of Bi-Carb Soda as we always had a packet in the pantry for many uses, she plastered it all over Laurie’s burnt body then took him to hospital about 10 miles to Pingely hospital in the farm truck. The Doctor then told her it was the best thing she could have used on his blistered burnt body.
Now the positive part of this story Laurie’s blistered body healed without any scares and it healed completely and there was no sign of any blisters on his scolded body. So any one reading this KEEP A PACKET OF Bi-Carb Soda (without aluminium) in the pantry should one of your Families ever gets scolded or burnt. I believe it would have the same effect if you got burnt by fire.
Don’t ask your Doctor, if he has not already told you he wouldn’t know about old remedies such as cheap Bi-Carb-Soda, it’s all about drugs today, no money in simple remedies, you should then pass this information on to him and all your friends.


Some of my other Blogs  

www.suppressed-aussies.blogspot.com    

http://yamaha-viragoxv400-1983.blogspot.com.au 

www.shroud-image.com

www.fremantle-wa.com

www.burirambo-power-riders.com

http://health-helpers.blogspot.com.au

http://what-we-all-should-know.blogspot.com.au

http://perth-downunder.blogspot.com.au

www.kunming-yunnan-china.com

http://patent-inventers-downunder.blogspot.com.au

POP a Man to Remember A TRUE AUSTRALIAN

Listening to Marcia Langton on Q & A inspired me to write this, also a part of my life.

I’m sick of listening to bleeding hearts about aboriginals and the hardship they are having, and the so called persecution.

I need to tell this story about the time in my life when I was spending most of it with my Step farther, we called him Pop, from the earliest age I can remember up to about thirteen I spent a lot of my time working with him, we lived on farms in Western Australia, and for a short time in South Australia. Pop and my Mum had five kids but before they came along he took on three kids from another man my Father. That alone was a kind and generous thing to do, especially at that time, coming back from the War, he was a Prisoner of War, my Mother and Pop came from the same small town Perenjori, a wheat growing district north of Perth, Perth being the capital City of Western Australia.

Something extraordinary about this man was, he had aboriginal blood, it was never an issue, we just thought of him as Pop, he worked hard and bought all of us kids up as equals as if we were his own, having  Aboriginal decent was never an issue, and this is what I want to write about mostly.

He may have had faults, like any of us, being half white had nothing to do with them, no one is perfect, and any faults he had I would forgive him, knowing what he went through during the War,  being a prisoner of War and later bringing up eight kids.

From all of us eight kids I probably knew him better than all his five kids, at that age in my life where I was able to work with him on a War Service, Land settlement Farm in Perillup, allocated to him after the war, as he was a Returned Serviceman, we worked together mostly weekends and school holidays until I left school at age thirteen, we cared for sheep, milked cows, plowed the ground, spread seed and super phosphate, he did contract fencing on other farms also contract plowing, I drove the tractor whenever I could, we also put up a telegraph line.

Later in my life when I become a shearer, we went shearing together, on several farms, I had only been shearing about twelve months up to this time, aged seventeen, and it was a good experience working with him again. I had been away from the Farm for a few years working on a Shearing teams.

 Pop was kicked off the Farm as he would go off on drinking binges, apparently the stress was too much, Mum and Pop had some difficult years together, I didn't know about the difficult times they were having because I was away and going to the North of Western Australia for a few Months at a time, It wasn't till later that I was able to be with Mum and understand her dilemma.

I give Pop credit for the good things he did, and admire him for his strength not to give in, knowing  how he could have been, he never called himself Aboriginal or blamed the White Man for his life, he was a Man and worked hard, he never asked for much, he didn't loiter around the Parks and feel sorry for himself, he didn't blame anyone for his unfortunate life, he played a Mouth Organ and a Piano Accordion, and sang Country Western songs at Parties held in Shearing sheds, I think he learnt to play while he was in a prison camp, he came back from war stuttering, what affected him most was the Share farming with other Farmers they cheated him many times, he was kicked in the gut so to speak.

  He went to war and fought for his country and never talked about the difficult times during the war, he did what he was able to do and he did it well.

Jim Feehan. His Kids Meryl, Jillian, Maureen, Colin. Ross. Kids he cared for, Laurie, Elaine, Ian

His War Medal he gave them to me just before he died.