Aged 9, I almost considered running away from home to join an orphanage, such were the adventures of the orphans central to many of my favourite childhood stories. Being parentless, or being adopted by abusive parents (or better still, parents who ‘collected ashtrays and art’) seemed loaded with possibilities. My friend Giselle and I spent a great deal of time plotting to run away from home, making lists of ‘provisions’ and one time even packing my Cathay Pacific travel bag with clothes, books and a packet of Arnott’s Assorted Biscuits that we somehow imagined would sustain us for days.
I wonder how many children had these fantasies? If not for books and films that glamorised the whole notion, the idea would not have crossed our minds. When we visited a circus, the caravans dotting the field around the tent, seemed like exciting cubby-houses-on-wheels, ripe with the promise of travels. More likely they were stuffy, miserable pods, but it would take another decade for us to realise that.
Giselle and I knew nothing of the hardships of street life of course, and had decent families – a fact more or less confirmed by the fact that the Running Away Caper could be endlessly postponed (“I can’t go this week, we’re going to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” … “Not Friday, we're meeting Grandma at the Redapple Restaurant” etc. )
Despite being planned to the ‘nth’ degree, the venture never did go ahead.
I had to laugh reading this, reminiscing about my many running away from home adventures. Everyime I ran away I would fill my bag with only & all my underpants!
ReplyDeleteNot once did it occur to me to pack a change of clothes or a warm jacket, toothbrush etc... I just made sure that I had clean nickers for each day!!
I had completely forgotten the Redapple Restaurant.We always went there for family birhday's. My cousins & I would have to eat all our meal before we were allowed a raspberry spider! When we were hyped up, our dear old Grandma would make all us grandkids laugh hysterically (when our parents were'nt looking)she would pop out her false teeth into her pretty lace hankie, & grin like an old crone!!
I remember an old auntie doing that - and it makes me realise that 'back then,' there seemed to be no shame about having false teeth!
ReplyDeleteDid you have a running away 'plan' ? Ours was to catch a bus into town, then one on to Gawler (I have NO idea why, we didn't know anybody there) from where we would walk or hitch-hike to Sydney. Obviously we didn't know anything about King's Cross.
As for our luggage, didn't even think about knickers. We had pyjamas, a cardigan each and - very important - colored pencils. Giselle wanted to bring her father's rifle to shoot rabbits ... ergh, imagine two nine year old girls trying to do that?!
My dream wasn't an orphanage but a boarding school, Enid Blyton's St Clare's series made a big impression on me, having girls around all day long would have been a dream come true. I had three younger brothers, hardly any girls in the neighbourhood or on the school I went to, so this seemed like paradise to me.
ReplyDeleteNumerous Mariannes here, as on Facebook! MM, I guess even the boarding school scenario is one of "be careful what you wish for." The food could be pretty awful, and any friction between girls will be amplified 100x when they live under the same roof for a whole term!
ReplyDeleteI loved those books too, although I preferred Mallory Towers to St. Clairs. Did you read Mallory Towers too? You might also have read the Chalet School books then? I enjoyed those too.