Journey of an Ordinary Man

[...] Journey of an Ordinary Man Chapter 14 p.1 ©Norm Wotherspoon 2011 Chapter 15–The Bottom of the Pit Falling Down, Falling Apart – 24 December 2011 So long [...]

[...] and possibly more to come, I thought I might set up a Blog site. Google, I hope this works! Norm Wotherspoon [...]

[...] once loved me. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah’, sang the Beatles, but for me, the song had ended. Norm Wotherspoon 1974 Miss Kluge and I parted ways, quite quickly, just after the 3rd of April 1963. [...]

[...] Of neglected chances gone, Of empty days I’ve wasted, Or just sit and linger on? Norm Wotherspoon 1973 The First Day: Was I nervous? In-CREDIB-ly so! Brother Les helped a lot – he [...]

[...] he could balance a spanner somewhere on his person that one does not discuss in mixed company. Brother Les leaves home: Les performed much better than I in his Junior Certificate, and he was offered a [...]

[...] Bert tipped me from my stroller when we were visiting relatives (???) in Kyogle, and that my brother Les fell from the running board of a car, I laughed uproariously, and consequently received the [...]

[...] Bert told me, many years later, I received my first belting as a result of this incident. My brother Les started Prep School at the Albert State School, and one day ran home in terror because he had [...]

[...] also arranged that I would board at the Bulimba Hostel (at Bulimba, of course), and that Brother Les, who at that time was staying with our brother Bert and his Bride Carmel at Graceville, [...]

[...] in Oxford Street Bulimba, just a few blocks from my first home in Brisbane at the Bulimba Hostel. Peter’s sister Wendy lived there when she was on holiday from St Hilda’s School at [...]

[...] on Monday May 1st 1961, which was Labour Day/May Day (a Public Holiday). Les met us at Bulimba Hostel, where Ern met the manager, George Lambert, a tall, forbidding man with piercing dark eyes. I’ [...]

[...] I never learned to serve properly). Brother Les, who had moved back with them after I left Bulimba Hostel, was by this time working at the Mitchell Post Office, so there was room for little Norm. [...]

[...] and Measures (including, of course, the Division of Occupational Safety, with its Statistical Data Section). I was greeted as something of a minor celebrity, but for what, to me, were the wrong [...]

[...] of his absent staff. The following Monday morning saw me reporting for duty at the Statistical Data Section of the Division of Occupational Safety, on the fifth floor of the State Government [...]

[...] me. At work, I achieved my daily/weekly targets, but the time and effort spent in the Statistical Data section had become a necessary drudgery that provided the income to pay for my dilettante [...]

[...] we were allocated for infantry corps training, I became part of D Company, 6 RAR. Of the 56 National Servicemen in my Kapooka platoon, only five of us went to a platoon of D Company at Enoggera Army [...]

[...] young men who comprised South East Queensland’s contribution to the first intake of National Servicemen. The day passed in a blur – a roll call, boarding, flight, bus trip, another roll [...]

[...] soldiers. Half of C Company were transferred into D Company (which had contained National Servicemen only). ·        My brother Bert gave me a going away party a couple of weeks [...]

[...] (the majority of the regular army soldiers were as young as or younger than the national servicemen, and they were ALL 21 in Vietnam). It was not just the young who succumbed to [...]

[...] . Her major role in my life was giving birth to me, and nurturing me. Because my stepfather, Ern Saunders, was so dominant in my growing years, he was responsible for almost all of my learning about [...]

[...] Chapter 3: ERN SAUNDERS – Maryborough: The Early Years Two Years – Age 16 Enter Ernest Saunders After my father died[1] [...]

[...] to know something of my real father, so strong had been the influence of my stepfather, Ern Saunders[2] from the time my mother married him in 1947.  We moved from Bowen to Maryborough [...]

[...] 11:00 in the morning, at the top of the staircase, on the first floor of the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau (QGTB), at 90 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. In the space of two heartbeats, I rose [...]

[...] died in Vietnam. It was reluctantly approved that I should commence duty with the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau (QGTB) in July. OLD FRIENDS 1 Do you remember Peggy and Lesley, and the lovely [...]

[...] of late 1967 – I worked without great enthusiasm in the Publicity Section of the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau; I drank a lot, especially from Fridays after work through to late on Saturday [...]

[...] my growing years, which all seem, to me, to shed some light on my character and that of my stepfather Ern. I seem to have had an affinity for getting into deep water, as instanced in the opening poem, [...]

Chapter 3: ERN SAUNDERS – Maryborough: The Early Years Two Years – Age 16 Enter Ernest Saunders After my father died[1], life became a struggle [...]