Pine Coning

When Lyle and I lived at Tin Can bay for a short time, I used to go “Pine Coning” with some friends of mine. This was a very local occupation. Some people actually made a living doing this work. We did it for “Pin Money”and fun. It entailed going out into the commercial pine forests and picking up dry pine cones from the ground. These were collected in trailers with a four sided cage. I had my own trailer, some people used their car boots and collected cones in bags. The collected cones were then transported to a holding depot, from whence they were crushed and processed into a commodity called Sokerol. This product was used for soaking up oil spills and was sold all over the world. There were smaller packages about shoe box size that were for the purpose of disposing of household cooking oils. The cones had to have the needles that were caught in them removed and had to be totally dry. Strong protective gloves were a must.

The friends were a married couple called Carmel and Adrian. Carmel and I were always making our lunches special, taking comfortable chairs to sit on etc. Adrian used to tease us abut this habit, he would relate to all and sundry, lists of things we would have with us to indulge our comfort. He passed the comment one day, that, next we would be taking silver and crystal out with us. This was a good challenge to Carmel and I. We secretly did just that, even down to a bunch of flowers for the table center.

We snuck back to the car and set everything up whilst Adrian was still picking further down the row. You should have seen his face when he saw what we had done.

Another aside to this story is, sometimes I used to go out with Lyle, who was unable to pick, but would sit in the car and listen to music just to keep me company. Now I had my own special theory that gave me reassurance in regard to any slithering sliders that may have been in the forest. This theory was that snakes would not be in the pine forest as the pine needles would be too difficult for them to move over. The Tin Can Bay and surrounding area was housed an abundance of Taipans which are one of the most deadly snakes in the world. Two very good friends sometimes came out to the forest with Lyle and I, to help me to pick. The friends were Peter and another friend, the very much loved Albert, who sadly is no longer with us. On one of these days Peter called me over to where he was standing, he invited me to look into the bin which gathered cones were kept in. Yep there was a small Taipan, I very nearly fainted I just love snakes NOT! And of course that blew my theory right out of the water.

Another thing that caused great mirth for Albert and Peter, I can still here Albert’s laughter as I type this. There were often cut stumps that we would sit on eat our picnic lunch. On this particular day there were three stumps and four of us. The three men chose a stump and I berated my Lyle about not letting me have the one he sat on. His reply to me was “Sit on you Gloves”! Peter and Albert ribbed him about this for a long time. By the way I did find myself a seat to sit on.

Great truths that little children have learned.

1. No matter how hard you try, you can’t baptize cats.

2. When your Mum is mad at your Dad, don’t let her

brush your hair

3. If your sister hits you, don’t hit her back,

They always catch the second person

4. Never ask your three year old brother to hold a tomato.

5. You can’t trust dogs to watch your food.

6. Don’t sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.

7. Never hold a dust buster and a cat at the same time.

8. You can’s hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk

9. Don’t wear polka dot underwear under white shorts.

10. The best place to be when you’re sad is Grandpa’s lap.

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Great Truths that Adults have learned.

1. Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.

2. Wrinkles don’t hurt.

3. Families are like fudge..mostly sweet,with a few nuts.

4. Todays mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut that held it’s ground.

5. Laughing is good exercise. It’s like jogging on the inside.

6. Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fibre,

not the toy.

Great Truths About growing old.

1. Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

2. Forget the health food; I need all the preservatives I can get.

3. When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do

while you’re down there.

4. You’re old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair

That you once got from a roller coaster.

5. It’s frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody

bothers to ask you the questions.

6. Time might be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician.

7. Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone. .