VW Combi - Wobbly Wagon

1973 saw the make over of the VW combi van dad had purchased with the idea of doing a long trip around eastern half of Australia. He worked on it with Martin Challenger who was the spray painter. On the front lawn they sprayed it a beige colour, dad decked it out with a sleeping platform and extra windows. The sleeping platform was very innovative as you could push it back in the day time to use the bench seat in the back. We all slept in the van and thought it was a motel on wheels. I remember bits and pieces of the trip, the funny bits and the horrific bits as we ended up being stranded in Hughenden, Qld for a number of weeks. All up I think we were away from home about 3 months. In those days the road south past Alice Springs was not bituemised, not many roadside stops along the way and no air-conditioning. We left in the wet season so it must have been a pretty hot trip, but I don’t remember that heat at all. It was exciting to be going on a long trip dad made a huge tuckerbox and mum had her wig sitting on its stand at the back of the combi. When we pulled in to Oodnadatta mum opened the side door for us girls to get out and at the same time dad opened the back door. Well that wig decided it had a life too and blew out the side door into the spinifex and sand in the 30mph wind, tumbling and showing off. Mum said “Kim - quick get my wig” and because I was a fast runner back then I went off after it. I finally caught it and picked it up. It felt like a gutted rabbit real limp. I gave it a good shake and mum took care of it from then on. We all laughed so much. That night mum washed it in some boar water at the same time she washed her own hair. Both lots of hair looked unusual, to say the least. However, mum was not giving up on looking beautiful for the next stop and managed to get it into some kind of shape and the wig was perched on the usual stand at the back of the car when we set off in the morning. Looking back she must of thought it still looked better than her own hair, which is confusing. The next stop was Parachilna and just before we pulled in to the service station mum asked me to pass the wig over so she could put it on. It wasn’t until we all got out the car that I noticed mum had the wig on back to front. Like it was really low over her eyebrows and high up on the back of her head. By this time mum was talking to the attendant and I said “Mum, you have got your wig on back to front” I think it was the slap followed by the “Insolent Little Bitch” which made me realize that there was a right time and a wrong time to discuss wig issues. Love you mum.