Merricks (and Somers)

So, what's this all about? See here
Is there a complete list? See here

A place I associate with my my childhood, and in particular the period between moving back to Melbourne after living in Tasmania and the later two years spent in north Queensland.

Uniquely it is something associated with my maternal grandparents and for that reason precious. It is also something I've only just remembered. I think we spent two holidays in a decrepit weatherboard house, but it might only have been one. I have the feeling though that there was a visit of 'rediscovery' and remembering.

Anyway one of our holidays was an Easter break that coincided with my birthday, and one of the 'things' we had with us in the car on the way down was a guitar, my guitar, my birthday present. I have no idea where in Merricks the house was (and perhaps still is), who it belonged to or how we secured it.

Judged by this site, the place hasn't taken off since I last visited. My memories are of a house in a fairly run-down state but at that age I was more interested in than intimidated or appalled by the curled lino and peeling wall paper. Also there was no indoor loo, and the area was not then connected to any sewerage system. So we used an outside loo, the contents of which were to be collected periodically. Also the water to the house was delivered via a water tank on a platform that towered above the house and a pump that had to be primed when we arrived.

I remember flapping flywire and I remember evenings spent in a fug generated by mosquito coils. Do these things even exist any more? This was when and where I learned to light matches, because we let these things extinguish at our peril. Green coils of 'stuff' that smouldered and allegedly supressed unwelcome flying biting insects.