Reminders ot times past

Oh boy, I had all but forgotten this blog page and its a few years ago when I was last here. Social media became the flavour of the month and brought to light a number of people who I have had no contact with for up to forty years in some cases.

Oh the usual nonsense goes on with those around me. Fun and games, and you never know who is going to pop up and from where. then the stories really start coming out. I have been accused of stirring grey matter between ears because I mentioned events that happened decades ago.

One case in point was a bomb blast at the Hotel Tasmania a week after a group that I was with attended a cabaret there with Liv Maessen as the guest  vocalist. I was told that she was there the night when the bomb exploded outside the Hotel. It certainly sent a parking meter through the window of the Chinese Restaurant next door.
Live Maessen you can see her biography on Wikipedia, but there is more to her story than is available there. She was one of Australia's darlings who rose to stardom during the period when radio stations banned playing pop records from overseas. This led to a number of Australians making their names during that period.
Maessen just faded from view and littler nothing has been heard of her since. She had a distinctive silky contralto voice that raised goose bumps on you and we had the pleasure of her company between her onstage performances that night.
For a few of her songs click on the links below. Hopefully all will work.
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Poetry also produced a plethora of comments from some of the most unexpected places. Friends in New Mexico commented, then their friends hoped on the wagon. The poems I threw up from School days included.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Inch Cape Rock, Sands of Dee, The Lady of Shallot, The Man from Snowy River, Clancy of the overflow, The Ride of Paul Revere (based of American history), then out of all of this a poem about early American Base ball.

In the meantime I still operate as a tourism information officer with the Burnie Information Centre at the Makers' Workshop which has now passed into the hands of the University of Tasmania. So there we are in the middle of a seat of learning like a "Pimple on a pumpkin." or a "Shag on a Rock". not sure that we will be there all that long. I can see the University edging us out the door at some stage.

So there we have it. For better or worse still on deck and smiling.