CHRISTMAS IN THE DUST.

 Christmas in the dust.

It is truly amazing how a song can bring back a memory.

It's December 

I wake up to a crazy wind, go out and weigh down some sheets of iron with big rocks and get ready to Hunker Down, turn on my little 28 cm Palsonic TV and no surprises the reception is snow but i managed to hear an update about a dust storm in the North of the state.

At this point I went back to the radio, again reception not great, then around 10am I could see it up north, like a wall of red, and I can honestly say at that point I was not worried at all.

Now of course I can be honest now and say it is still the worst dust storm I have ever experienced, in part because of location and conditions.

To describe it now there is a movie called "The water diviner" putting aside my disdain for Russell whom I later met in person and wish I didn't, there is a scene with him and his sons that is as close as can get to showing anyone how intense it was at times.

So lets get some logistics out of the way for full context, I was still building my first humpy, I was out of the camper trailer which thank your gods was already packed up for I fear it would certainly have blown away with other stuff including but not limited to such things as an empty 10,000 liter galvanized iron rain water tank which went rolling 180 meters away. 

                              Freeling SA mar 2016.

So my "house" was just fiber cement exterior walls and a corrugated iron roof.

There was only one 3x4 meter enclosed and insulated room, my bed room.

It was a shed, with a room, you could still see the rafters and wooden framework inside, no insulation or gyprock nothing.

I had no other noise in my humpy and was just listening to the wind, at one point I thought i heard something, then through the sliding door I thought I could make out flashing lights, so I went to investigate.

I had to follow the sound, it was rock music, and the lights for the dust, I stopped and realise only a few more meters and I would not even be able to see my house, then the lights stopped.

 so I went back to the car and began beeping the horn, the music stopped, I turned on my hazard lights which is what I think I had seen.

                         Close to accurate size map, the word "Investigate" is about where they were.

 I kept beeping and eventually 2 figures appeared, they came to me and shouting at each other I said I heard the music are you ok ? 

They said, we can't see to drive (yes it was that bad) and the car was playing up, so I invited them in to wait it out inside, they said they had 2 friends and went back for them and some stuff. 

I kept beeping and stayed by the car, they came back all 4 blokes and each with arms full, one carrying a big esky, 2 had a carton of beer each and one with 2 shopping bags. 

When we got inside they explained the car an XF ford with no air filter was stalling and it was not safe to drive due to visibility so they pulled over, such was the dust that my house just 80mtrs away was as invisible to them as they were to me.

They had pulled over 20 minutes earlier but after realising they were parked far enough off the road they decided to crank the tunes and wait, and soon after turned the hazard lights off. 

When I was half way to them.

                                 *Not my image but it looked like this for the most part.

The storm was insane but we got inside, we all introduced and cracked a beer, father and son plus 2 step sons had been out fishing. The esky was full of crabs, and they had some whiting, beer, whisky, snacks and tunes, They were Jake and Gareth with Travis and Toby.

I explained my situation and the TV radio etc and how I was busy with paper mache, plugging all the holes where dust was visibly blowing in under the ridges in the corrugated iron. 

We worked like a team it was excellent, after a beer break Jake and Gareth went back to the car with Gareth at my car with lights and horn while Jake went for the rest of their food. 

Tobes and Trav got straight to work tearing up paper and soaking it in buckets and i busted out the portable 2 burner electric stove top, since it was only second hand carpet patches on a concrete floor I moved them aside (did I mention I hadn't finished building this house yet?).

We ended up sitting around my 6ltr pot on the burner on the floor by the 28cm TV watching a VCR Simpsons tape and cooking 2 crabs at a time.

In a short time we had plugged all the gaps with paper mud as Gareth called it but it was still crazy, we would take turns writing stuff with our fingers on the TV every 20 minutes or so. 

At one point we just boiled up a pot full of claws, it was good fun times. we had plenty of beer and snacks, the bags were full of chips and peanuts etc plus a bottle of scotch and some seafood sauce, everything except lemon really. 

By this time we resorted to some backround tunes and it was getting dark, Jake used my landline to ring his wife and Toby and Trav's mother who demanded they be back by tomorrow for Christmas.

The storm wasn't letting up so it was decided to stay the night when Jake started skulling the whisky, one last dash to the car for blankets and a double airbed. 

I busted out my finest dusty linen and had the bunks in what was going to be the spare room, Jake slept in the recliner.

We were up late and watched David Letterman on a fuzzy screen as the wind was slowly getting less and joked about our predicament.

To be sure it would have been a memorable day / night even if I hadn't met these guys but the company was more than welcome, even Patch seemed calmer with them around, maybe it was just the salty treats. 

In any case the next day the worst was over and we got the wagon going without too much trouble, the lads where on their way by 0800 but just before they left, among other left over treats Jake handed me a cassette tape, The one I had heard when I found them.

Now I listen to it every year..

The band was -The mark of cain.

The album - Ill at ease.

Regards 

©J. W. Newell. 2024.