Town

My grandmother had eight children. In the time I had with her she and my grandfather lived alone in a big house. They lived in a suburb in Melbourne's east at the end of the railway line. It didn't seem to matter that the family had left, she spent most of her time in the kitchen cooking. She cooked for the school fetes, where for 60 years she was the toffee apple queen. She cooked for the Red Cross, and her church. In time each organisation made her a life member of theirs for her tirelessness. 

When she wasn't cooking we talked and she spoke of "going to town". She spoke of Melbourne as town however in the time I knew her I doubt she ever went.

In the past few days many people have spoken of going to town.  April, one of our senior cultural instructors. Visited the local clinic with a toothache. The doctor said the best thing was to go to town and have the tooth removed because she had an abscess under a tooth. She did. Kym, a teacher, had an appointment in town for orthotics.

Meanwhile another teacher had her parents visit for the week and on Saturday they too had to go to town for a few days before they flew home. Town had not had such significance in my conversations for sixty years.

As if these anecdotes weren't enough. This week Kym will take the seniors into town on an educational visit. They will visit three opportunity shops. The aims are sound. The children will see retail in action. How some things are discarded, how they are priced, how they are displayed, the type of product most people want, the item pricing,  etcetera. Significantly they will have to see retail is no place for shame. Shame,  is the inculturation of being embarrassed when doing something that draws attention to, you,  the individual. For instance it is culturally expected not to look another in the face, yet in retailing it is the thing the retailer does to gain the buyers' confidence. There are, as you see,  many good reasons for these isolated children to visit town accompanied by their teacher. 

As significantly a visit by someone from town is just as important. We have no one here able to service the Xerox machine. There is no glazier. Search as you might, air conditioner engineers cannot be found. Therefore, it was unsurprising to met Nino, the chef, in the kitchen. We met Nino last year. For four days a week he lived away from his young family preparing meals for the school. (The children are fed breakfast, lunch, and fruit twice a day. The school provides balanced,  nutritious meals and it teaches the children the importance of diet. It is hoped a good diet across the population might go some way in reducing diabetes and early aboriginal death.)  Nino now makes the journey from town just once a week. He purchases the food in Alice Springs, prepares and cooks all the meals. Under supervision the meals are reheated and served by local staff.  Nino is much happier being home with his family but his presence indicates once again the paucity of expertise when living out of town.

A visit to town shows a benefit of a trade agreement with China. We paid the ridiculous price of $7 for an electric kettle.  However a walk to the local roadhouse illustrates why going to town is preferred to shopping locally.  Sinead paid $7 for 1.5 litres of water and a small soft drink at the roadhouse. (Perhaps the remote tax regime is supposed to cover any shortfall.)  In my case I paid $2.25 for 1 litre of plain label long life milk at the community store. Admittedly any profits go back to the community so I shouldn't feel bad except I don't, as so many others don't, enjoy a remote income tax position.

Remote living has disadvantages it is true. Shopping,  generally any service industry, and fuel - let's not start on fuel - all make for hardships of one kind or another. The upside is almost of equal value. It is peaceful, even ideal to live in a remote area especially when it can be punctuated by visits to town.