First Post for Bruce: Redneck Charlie

At the risk of breaking Internet convention, I thought I'd cross-post a little poetry I'd previously posted here, just to get in the habit of contributing to the Adelaide Plains Chapter and Verse blog. 'Redneck Charlie' was originally intended for an Adelaide Plains Chapter and Verse meeting in March, so it probably, more rightly, belongs here!

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Charlie: rusted out, four-wheel-drive, shit-bucket. Conveyor of cray pots.

I remember the late nights on Flinders highway driving home, air from the engine warming bare feet through a rusted cabin. Sand and shell grit falling away from toes and hems as they dried out.

Charlie was my first drive. Off-road. It helped that I didn’t have a road to keep on, nor that I had to dodge any trees. Charlie made short work of whatever got in the way as long as I kept him in first gear.

Mind you, the prickle bush could swipe back, so it paid to keep the windows shut –  an advantage not afforded by the tractor I once got up on two wheels.

I never knew where Charlie went. One day he was there, and the next, Dad brought home a white Ford ute, V8, cassette stereo, broken antenna and all.

Charlie probably deserved to go out with a bang, and Dad was fond of blowing things up at the time.

~ Bruce

What we did yesterday.

Yesterday was Thursday 13th December. This of course means it was the afternoon for the AP Chapter & Verse meeting. There were supposed to be four of us there, but in fact only two of us showed up. One of us didn't bring the homework she was supposed to bring, because she hasn't done it yet.

Did this mean the meeting yesterday was a failure? Oh no, it certainly didn't mean that! This meeting had one member's homework presented, and loved by the other member. It had a fun writing exercise that resulted in a lovely and heartfelt poem, and a weird and wonderful piece of flash fiction. Things were talked about, planned, expanded upon too. It was a fine meeting, by anyone's calculations.

And the evening didn't end at the usual venue for our meetings. Last night was the night of the Christmas Party for the North Eastern Writers in Tea Tree Gully. The members and a couple of potential members car pooled and tootled off to the RSL hall for a night of words and friendship.

Much fun was had on the night, with quizzes, a poetry slam, food and drink, and a new potential role for one of the members - a stand up comedian? Ah, make that sit down comedian and I may be in for that!

It was a late night, that's for sure, but it was an extremely enjoyable evening, well worth staying up for!