......Organise a party Saturday night. These parties had a bad habit of lasting until the early hours of Monday morning, but more about that later.
Cappy has raised an interesting detail in "Mabel from the 8-mile farm."
This piece of war history is still under the Official Secrets Act, and nothing has ever been released.
NES Readers are recommended not to loosen their lips about this piece of history because Australia has precious few Warships left, and the Rougue SAS ex soldiers are hired to shut people up.
However Turbo is prepared to take the risk, out of pride in Mabel Buttock, Australia's version of Schindler and his list.
Mabel didn't have a very happy schooling being the butt of many jokes and catcalls of "They're SMALL", but this made her tough. She spent most of her day in the library until School Bus time for the run out to the 8 - mile Farm.
Her parents were in the cropping and sheep business.
Turbo had the pleasure of flying over the 8 - mile farm a week or so ago and it's as pristine as it was in WW2. Dingo Gully, which sheltered the little columns of Jap prisoners as they were escorted to freedom has not been degraded by the erosion, which is a credit to Mabel's son Saito Buttock and Grandson Minato Buttock.
When WW2 was at its height, Mabel had ridden a horse into town to watch the film Schindler's list.
It was said she was very thoughtful after that, and without telling anyone, got an old binder out of the shed and cut 20 acres for straw.
Her father Gordon McTavish Buttock was bemused at this but she said she wanted the hay for the horses, and that's what Gordon told the neighbours.
People who have travelled to Japan will remember going to night clubs and seeing the sextet dancers.
There were only two dancers but the cleverly arranged structure each was tied to contained two extra Straw Men. [For NES readers this is where the "Straw Man" argument comes from.]
Mabel started smuggling straw men into the camp two by two, with the Straw Men dressed as cleaners the same as Mabel.
No one looks at Cleaners, and the Australian Guards ignored them, (They were from Queensland and Tasmania).
Six hours later three cleaners strolling out through the gates didn't ring any bells, and at the 8 - Mile, Mabel started Australianising them with the Queensland clothing of the day, Brylcreem, and spray tan in a dark shade, so they looked like Queensland Cane Knackers.
They then had to ride up the gorge, over the secret trails of the Great Divide and down into Wollongong, where everyone else looked the same anyway.
From there it was a ship to Malaya where they stayed at a Turbine Resort for the rest of the war.
In fact they stayed on three years after the war until Grantley Turbine booted them out.
In this way Mabel Buttock saved three thousand lives, and after the years of Tech School in Malaya many came back to Ford and were the backbone in producing the Ford Falcon.
Not many people know that Mabel Spent her last years in the Royal Suite of Melbourne's Windsor Hotel, paid for by Cappy's father who .....................