00:00
If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold,  then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Six-O with Kaylee Harris and Guy Rowlison. Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese.

00:34
Well welcome to the Big 6-0, if it's the first time you're with us, welcome.  And of course  I'm joined with  the woman that's probably proof that caffeine is not required  to maximize the volume. Kayleigh Harris, how are you?

00:52
I say that and I've got a coffee in my hand but I'm probably having double dose with you here. I'm laughing because you know when we join Riverside you put your name up on the corner of Don't you dare tell anyone what we've got up on screen. just thought that you wrote your name, that's very funny. My name isn't Hugh, let's just say that. Okay. My name isn't Hugh. Yeah. And I don't have a Scandinavian surname.

01:19
Your big spunk you. Oh my gosh, that's very funny. I'm sorry. Completely thrown us off the track. But this time we want to talk about family holidays when we were growing up, because I think I suspect that they were the same for a lot of Aussie kids, right? Would you agree? Yeah. And they didn't involve, you know, six weeks in some small African nation. They were all pretty basic, really, weren't they? Yeah. It somewhere up the coast. If you were lucky, you got as far as the Goldie.

01:49
Yeah. And there's usually like an EH Holden or an  EU Falcon or something involved  in  the trip and the stories that went along with it. Yeah. Yeah. You want to Tell  us.  Oh, where do you start with family holidays? Look,  we had a few, we had a few.  Predominantly though, it revolved around 11 months of planning for the same holiday every year.  And  even as a

02:19
an eight year old or a 10 year old, whatever it was, you knew that Christmas was a big time of the year. And you knew that come five o'clock on boxing day morning, you were heading up to the Goldie.  And the day before,  or the two days before the car had to be packed and dad had to wash the car, make sure the air pressure was right. was with that? What was with dad's washing the car before you go and hit the road? mean, doesn't that defeat the purpose?

02:49
Yeah, no, it had, the car had to be washed and it was vacuumed and the tires had to have been blackened and you know, you had to be up at Sparrows on boxing days to get away early because every other bugger was going to be getting away exactly the same time. And it would take 14 hours to get to Queensland. Oh my gosh. mean, the freeway up the coast these days is a lot better. think the only place you really stop is sort of Kos Harbour. But other than that, it was, it was a, it was a trunchup.

03:18
coast, wasn't it? Oh, it was amazing. And I think that  I was born in Queensland. So for us,  every year going back would be to see family and see grandma and grandpa and uncles and aunts and cousins and stuff like that.  But like you said, we'd be up at three o'clock in the morning, you grab your pillow, you go out and jump in the back seat with no seatbelts and you put your pillow up against the window and you'd have a sleep until, you know, got a bit lighter.  But one of the things I remember fondly of those trips to Queensland is

03:46
My sister and I would be sitting in the back seat  and if dad would overtake another car, we would  press our faces up against the window on the side of that car and we'd both shove a finger up a nose and then we'd put a stupid look on our faces. So when we went past the kids in the back seat of that car would see us.

04:09
and start laughing.  Or either that or we gave them the middle finger because our dad was cooler because he was going faster. I mean anything, anything to make that time go past because it was such a long trip to Queensland. It was, wasn't it? You know,  if you were like us,  the first indication that you actually got it were the toll gates on the central coast. Like there used to be those toll gates. Just before Kowan,  yep.

04:35
That's right. Hornsby to those toll gates, is which is about 10 Ks or something. It was bumper to bumper. And for those listeners that may not have grown up in Sydney and Australia for that case, Hornsby is sort of an outlying northern suburb of Sydney. And if you're heading up the coast towards Queensland, which is  the state sort of just immediately north and New South Wales, there were toll gates and there used to be little baskets in them and used to have I think it was like

05:02
20 cents that you had to pay and throw into the basket to go continue going up the that was in the freeway because you were paying  and how many times do cars backed up because  some idiot 20 cents  or or missed the basket oh  yeah like like  it was it was a bucket that was about as big as Tasmania  and you throw the 20 cents in to keep driving get the little green light that would come on that's right yeah and and off you go

05:32
No, was just a  green light. Just a green light. I'm assuming there was a camera there. I mean, I think everyone had that honesty sort of thing anyway,  that there may have been a camera. It might have been there, it might have been not. But everyone used to throw that 20 cents in and off they'd go, wait for the little green light,  except for that one person that would miss the basket or, oh, forgot about,  oh, yeah.

05:53
Yes. somewhere up around the oat milk factory up somewhere in Newcastle and then you'd continue on through Bulla Deela and throw up because you'd be going through the Bulla Deela bends. uh Anyone that hasn't done it will be wondering what on earth we're talking about but yes the Bulla Deela bends was a fun. Which was a very windy ride over a mountain.  Yeah. Mum used to pack the lunch or the morning tea so you'd make sure you stop at Tarri or wherever and so our regular stops would have been Tarri,

06:23
and then we might've stopped at Coffs Harbour because of big banana. Yeah, you'd stop at a big banana. Yeah, and  then usually Ballina. then we'd go on and Dad would always say, oh, best fish and chips are in Ballina, we need to stop here. And I'm thinking, right, okay, maybe we do, maybe we don't.  But what about in the car, apart from putting your finger up your nose and pulling faces? Oh yeah, I know, right? Did you play any games in the car to pass the time play ice-fie.

06:50
We played that because I think every kid played I Spy. uh But  no, we used to fight a lot. My sister and I fought a lot when we were growing up. And I can remember my mum sitting in the front seat and she would,  she used to constantly say, will you girls knock it off?  Because,  and she'd put her hand back between the  seats and she'd whack us on the legs.

07:11
because we'd be fighting and carrying on and we just fought like girls do it  that siblings do I guess at that age. But  yeah and mum would pack the lunch to save money  and if we were lucky we would stop somewhere like you said at Ballina  maybe get some potato scallops and mum would tear off a little bit of the paper and hold the scallop in it and  pass it back to us and all those things that

07:34
You remember, and then dad trying to find radio stations up the coast, you know, rural radio stations and because they'd come in and out of that fade in and out. you'd find the local station and yeah. In the, in the days of AM radio and dad, we'd be coming back and we were, we were into cricket. So like dad had have, you know, whatever the station, the cricket, usually the ABC or whatever, but it would fade in and out and you'd be listening to, know,

08:01
to be in Ballina or whatever it was that you were listening to on the road. But I remember the games, it used to be like the order in the court, know, where you'd monkey wants to talk and you weren't allowed to talk for five minutes and you're trying to be making your siblings, you know, you'd  do something and the first one to talk is a whatever. So we had all those games, but I remember the first time I actually went on a little holiday with a friend in their car. And I can't remember where it was somewhere up the coast. I have only been up to the central coast and they used to have the punch buggy game.

08:30
And I had no idea what punch buggy was.  Well,  in simple terms, you drive along and the first person to see a Volkswagen Beetle got to punch the other person in the arm or wherever.  Great. I remember the conversation with this person and they said, you want to play punch buggy? And I'm thinking, great. And before I even had a chance to know what it was, I've got this punch in the arm because he'd seen a Volkswagen Beetle. And that was my initiation into punch buggy because

08:59
I just got punched in the arm. What was that for?  Punch buggy, you know?  Or the other one was trying to work out a few words from the number plate at the car in front. you know, if it was, I don't know, KAH, which is my initials, you'd go, is it kangaroo something, something, you know, and just try and come up with something creative out of the number plates. My girls used to do that and I never knew that game. So I was never very good at it as an adult. And they're just like bang, bang, bang.

09:29
Wow, what is this game? But  if they are entertained and having said that, I, we used to bore them a lot and they have fond memories about this. This is, this is their holidays  where we used to play a lot of beach boys and whatnot in the, in the car on the way up. And  yeah, nice for us. And, but they have fond memories about that now. So do you have any fond memories of, like probably not listening to the cricket, but fond memories of either.

09:56
you know, what was on the radio or what was said or because they were, they were like 12 and 14 hour trips. That was a long time. Yeah, I can just remember each town that you could, you would go through or you would come into as you were approaching that town, there'd be a sign on the side of the road saying to be Ballina or something and the frequency so that you knew what to tune into and you knew how to find that local radio station. can remember that.

10:21
But I just remember it was mainly music, listening to music and stuff like that on the radio. There was no other ways to listen to music. No, you couldn't sort of get the Wi-Fi happening or even... I don't even know if we had a cassette player in our car back then. We didn't, we just had a radio. the old HR holding with no seatbelts. But I do remember the fighting. I remember my sister and I fought a lot and upset Mum and Dad. And then Dad started driving to Queensland overnight so we'd be asleep and wouldn't fight.

10:50
And then we'd shot, we were either tweed hands at sunrise, you know.  Oh, and that's the thing, isn't it? Like, it was a quest, it was a mission, it was military precision, usually. And, you know, it was. If you left at three o'clock in the morning,  as you guys did, we didn't leave till five, we were quite civil. But the fact that every other bugger was leaving, and so everyone was convinced if they left early, they'd avoid the traffic. That's right, yeah.

11:14
And everyone did that. And everyone did exactly the same thing. lots of fun memories as well as the metal seatbelt that would burn your leg or the  vinyl seats in the back when you go out and, OK, let's go and stretch our legs and then you hop back in and burn your backside on the plates and all that sort of thing. then  after you go again, wind down the window, you're hot, down the window because it's an Australian summer and there was no air conditioning in those cars.

11:40
Certainly wasn't, but when you actually got to where you were going to your destination, like we would get to, grandparents lived at Keira on the Gold Coast. I know Keira really well. Yeah. Yeah. We'd stay at their house and go down the beach every day. that was, it was so different because

11:58
Kids were just left to their own devices. I can remember sometimes grandma would come down with us or mom and dad would come with us, but we would just, my sister and I would just go out into the ocean. I don't think there was, I don't think we were swimming between the flags.  Maybe we were, I don't remember them. But you just sit there for hours and hours on the beach making sand castles and swimming and getting sunburned.  And  that was  the holiday.  And there was another thing too, back in the day.

12:27
I remember doing this. I used to smell like fish and chips sometimes because  my grandmother used to mix up a mixture of olive oil and vinegar after you'd been in the sun.  the olive oil was supposed to, if you got sunburned, well, hello, if you got sunburned, you probably should have been doing something about it. But if you got sunburned, a bit of color on you as it would be back in the day, then the olive oil would replenish  whatever the sun took out and the vinegar would take the sting out.

12:55
take the sting away. Yeah. Well, for my grandma it was butter, which effectively cooks your skin. Skin's burning anyway. no, no, will take the sting away. we're, yeah, we were effectively cooking our skin. She didn't mean anything delicious. She didn't know. Well, there's probably things that we did to our kids that, you know, they'll look at in another 10 or 20 or 30 or whatever years and say, oh my gosh, I can't believe my parents did that. But they use the information they had at the time. And, you know, yeah, there's probably a lot of reasons that

13:25
you probably had things burnt off you and I've had things burnt off me because of that or we've got lucky.  But do think those  family holidays, do you think they,  I always remember there used to be a little bit of tension. I don't know whether it always brought families together when they're on holidays or the kids were left their own devices and mum and dad had sort of like a week or two weeks. Oh my gosh.  I think it was stressful, more stressful for the parents.

13:50
to be on holidays, though you, I guess, we wish it wasn't, we wish they got a chance to relax. But as I said, my sister and I fought  on the way there and on the way home being stuck in the back seat of the car. But once we were on holidays, there's some of my fondest memories  of my time with my sister with those things that we did on the Gold Coast, like going to SeaWorld um and spending hours on the beach, stuff like that.  SeaWorld, wow, you were rich.

14:16
What? No, we weren't actually, I had an uncle working there. So one of my uncles did the  ski show, was involved in the ski show. Wow, you're famous. He was.  And  yeah, so we would be able to get in there at a very reduced rate. And so we spent a fair bit of time at Sea World growing up. And then just down the road from Sea World, there used to be Marine Land.  There was another version of it, I think, that was down the road. And then years later, there was

14:44
Also on that peninsula at Southport was  Birdlife Park. Yep. Yep. After my uncle left SeaWorld, he went and managed Birdlife Park. So we would go there for holidays.  Yeah. You know, on the property, had a house on the property and it was just amazing. Yeah. I mean, you obviously had family up there.  My folks,  even, ah I think it was just before they got married. How wrong was that to actually go on a holiday with your

15:11
girlfriend or boyfriend before you were married. But they drove up from Sydney for a weekend to the Gold Coast and came back in dad's 57 Volkswagen. And I think that was always just a, you know,  a fond place for them. So that was, that was always the holiday. Thankfully we didn't have to go up in a beetle. I mean, that would have been  a whole lot of fun.  Oh yeah. remember also when

15:36
Around the corner from my grandparents place at Cura there was like a news agency and they had comics and I would love, I'd go around there and get my Richie Rich comics and all the different comics and because we had to have a nap in the afternoon and I'd go back and mum said you don't have go to sleep but you didn't have to lie down, know, have a lie down nap. And I'd read my comics and then I'd go back the next day and swap it out for a different comic. could, you could return them and you could borrow them, not buy them.

16:05
I think you could return them for like five cents or something and get another one. And  that was another fond memory for me of the holidays of reading the comics. Wow, comics. That's another podcast altogether.  The  kids actually look at comics anymore. I wouldn't think they do, they? I don't know. Can you buy them? comic or... Yeah. One a Scrooge McDuck comic or something like that.  I've still got...

16:34
I've still got a box of comics. Like I'm saying 40 or 50 comics just sitting up there. Scrooge McDuck, Richie Rich, all those sort of things. I might take them on next holiday. Might take them on the next holiday. Oh good, I'm coming now. I want to read them. I can remember my grandma used to make fruit salad for us while we were there, you know.

16:55
Lot and I couldn't and I could never work out took me used to work out why Grandma's fruit salad was so much nicer than Anybody else's fruit salad and it was years later. I worked out that she used to sprinkle icing sugar on it and It was so good and I can we have some of grandma's fruit salad, know addicted to it and then one year I think it was 1974 I was 10 and My parents bought me the single of January by pilot the song

17:25
and for Christmas and grandma had an old record player and I said grandma can I put my record my new record on? She's like all right.  So I put it on  and put the needle on it and turned it up and I just thought this was the best thing ever. This song was so good. As soon as it finished I put it back to the beginning and I did that about 15 times and finally grandma goes will you turn that racket off?

17:51
That's another memory. Put on bit of Perry Como, something sensible. right.  Oh my gosh. So apart from Queensland, did you go anywhere else for holidays as a family? We did.  When I was  14,  the family, I had an aunt who'd moved to America, aunt and uncle, and mum and dad took us to  the States  for a big family four week holiday to see.

18:18
the family over there. That was a next level trip. it was, and again,  my sister and I fought the whole time. I can remember mum and dad took us to Disneyland and my sister and I had an argument. So dad had to go somewhere, had to take me somewhere to another side of Disneyland while my mum took my sister somewhere in another direction before we killed each other. uh I remember that. But yeah, we, that trip to America where we got to know our cousins for the first time and oh

18:45
It was just, yeah, was next level. But I do remember it being very stressful for mum and dad because it would have cost them a fortune. What an adventure though. What an adventure for a 14 year old to  go that far. Universal Studios  and  we went to New Orleans and my aunt said to my mum, when you take the girls to New Orleans, if you walk around Bourbon Street and around those, you know, the French Quarter.

19:11
hang on to the girls because people grab them off the streets and sell them for slavery in South America. And I can remember my mum, were walking up, was tourists everywhere and mum lost sight of me for a minute and next minute I was like, oh my god, can't believe it, she screamed, oh my god. You she thought we'd been sold for slavery to South America. So it's funny the little things you remember about the trip.

19:37
You were wandering off looking for Richie Rich comics, weren't you? I was. I was looking for Sean Cassidy actually. Oh, don't go there. Don't start, I know I won't. Don't start. Sean, please do something about this. Get in touch with Kayleigh. Did you ever used to send postcards? Remember postcards? Wherever you went, you'd have the postcard and the let the revolving stand out in front of the newsagents and you'd...

20:02
you'd spend ages trying to find just the right postcard to Just the right postcard that really resonated with your holiday, right? Yeah, definitely. love sending postcards. And you used to get home before the postcard actually ever arrived, usually? Usually, yes. Yes, so you'd post it and then auntie someone or a friend, you'd usually send one to a friend and you'd get home and then they'd get the postcard three days after you got back and you think, oh.

20:28
And you try and cram in as much as you could on the left hand side of the back of the postcard of what you'd done on your holidays. And it was really weird because knowing that everyone who touched that postcard on its journey back to Sydney or whatever would could read what you'd written. It was just out there for public consumption. Yeah, that's a good point, isn't it? I mean, all these privacy things that you've got going on today  and  you've got  male people just saying, oh, look, Kayleigh's

20:56
done this or Kayleigh's doing that. Yeah, yeah, good. That's great. I'm sure there was a lot of laughs. Yeah, I found a postcard that I because the one trip we, Mum and I and my sister flew up to Queensland to see Grandma and Dad, we had to work. uh

21:11
I found an old postcard that I wrote back to my dad in little children's writing and it's Dear Daddy, I love you. I miss you. I wish you were here. Love, Kayleigh. You know, and it brought it to you. I was looking at it. Oh, wow. You know, I remember that little girl. She missed her daddy. Yeah. Yeah. I have to say, we went on a we didn't go to America as a kid, but I remember we went on a I must have I must have been about 14. Maybe that was the time. And we went to Fiji and that was

21:40
Yeah, that was a whole nother sort of experience for the kid that's just used to seeing Broadbeach or Kira or, you know, Southport. do you remember about Fiji back then? I remember that very quick, I apologize to all my Fijian friends out there, but I got very tired very quickly of another Polynesian dance sort of thing. I'm thinking, oh, there's only so much culture I can take in a 10 day trip. But I do remember

22:07
really, really vividly, it was a, I think it was a friend of dad's, that there was one of those Carver drinking ceremonies. and this bloke, and I don't know what's in these things. mean, allegedly it's, you know, it's quite toxic, but I remember this very quiet sort of man became very boisterous and all of a sudden he was alive for the party. And so I don't know what they put in those things, but I, I remembered, I remember that.

22:36
I remember, you know, a bit like North Queensland where you actually virtually got a golf club out and started hitting toads because there were a lot of toads everywhere. There were toads all over the road, there? Yeah. In the cane burning season. That's right. So there's a lot of those little things that you remember. We had a girl and you may or may not know her. We won't use their name, but I remember being in year three and

23:05
They got taken to the US. That was their holiday. They used to go on a holiday to the US. And I was so jealous because I couldn't even picture what that was like. The closest I got to the US was watching The Wonderful World of Disney on a Sunday night on TV. But they went there. And once again, up until that point, was the Goldie once a year and sometimes Long Jetty or the entrance on the Central Coast. Yeah, it's like War Royce.

23:31
Boy, we're home of the brave, land of the free. Yeah, that was the extent of my global travels. Central case and... When I was 14, I was obviously in high school, but I can remember it was a really big deal. And when I got back to school to start, you know, in January, whenever we went back to school, all the kids were like, what was it like? What was America like? And we were very popular because our parents must be super rich, but they obviously weren't.

24:00
but they, and I think mum and dad went into a significant debt to pay for that trip. But, you ever go camping as a kid? No, we weren't a camping family. I didn't go camping until I was in my twenties and then started going away with friends camping. But  yeah,  not my favourite holiday idea. What about you? oh Once again, we went camping once, I think as a family and it was up at a place called Scott's Head.

24:29
which is sort of  on the sort of  mid-North coast of New South Wales.  And I remember the tent and I remember it hot and I'm thinking they're big old canvas tents. And even then, you know, I must have been about four or five. I remember thinking how hot it was. uh But we had friends that used to do the caravan, you know, the caravan park thing. ah that  would be their annual pilgrimage to go to the caravan park and do that sort of thing. And the stories that they've got of the  friends that they would see once a year. uh

24:57
So it would be little Kayleigh or, you know, or whoever. And every year they would reconnect with those,  that family and those friends and they'd have a ball. Something we didn't get to do, but  so many of  the people I know used to do that sort of thing. And I try and transpose that into our kids and maybe our kids' kids. And would they, would they settle for that? What would they settle for these days? mean, yeah, no, it's hard to know, isn't it? With all the things they have in their life. I can remember.

25:26
Deb Tickle is one of our listeners on the podcast and you and I both went to school with Deb. I can remember Deb and I have been friends since we were very young because our dads were friends and Deb moved up to Sortell near Coffs Harbour and I would go out and stay with her for a week for holidays, for Christmas holidays and we would go out with her friends and we go down to the beach and we go, there was a place near her where you could hire

25:55
canoes and we'd get canoes and just go up the river and I have very fond memories of Deb and I, couple of girls, know, like hanging out together for a week and yeah. Yeah and I remember the thing where it was the standard fare was we'd go to the beach in the morning, we'd come home, usually a salad sandwich at lunchtime, bit of a rest and you need to have a bit of a rest.

26:19
Well, when you're eight or 10, you don't really need a rest, but mum and dad probably do. Mum and dad do.  And there was usually an  ice block or something thrown in the mix there. were lucky. That's right, if you were good. If you were good. Yeah. And that's the adjustment to drag you from the beach to come and have the salad sandwich, then to have the rest. And I don't remember what we did in the afternoon. I do remember bringing home a dog from a holiday once. What?  Yes, now. And it was at Keira. Oh no. It was at...

26:49
Kira, we rented... That's what happened to grandma's dog.  Oh, sorry.  How did you bring a dog home? Tell me that story.  We were renting a Queenslander almost... ah It was almost across the road from the beach at Kira.  it was... I remember  the holiday because the tail of a cyclone had actually sort of hit further up the coast and they'd closed the beach and all that sort of thing. Anyway, there was a dog. There was this black dog that was next door.

27:19
the, I don't know whether the people were on holiday. I don't know. It was out on the street.  It was just down on the street.  And I just remember convincing dad that the people that lived there, I don't even know if was the dog that was next door. Now I think about it, but there was, I convinced dad that this dog had been left behind by the people that were living in that house. So you had to take it on board. And so we needed to take it. Now, mum didn't know anything about this.  Mum wasn't in the car with us. She actually

27:49
flew that particular year. She had a few medical issues. She flew. So we brought this stray dog home. You and your dad drove back to Sydney with a dog? With a stray dog in the front seat of the car. Oh my goodness. And it got home, much to mum's surprise when we got home, to say, oh, good to see you. How was the trip? Random dog just spent 14 hours in a car with us.

28:16
didn't know the proprietary rules about, you you really shouldn't do that sort of thing in the car because we can only wind down the windows. Yeah. So yeah, I got a dog out of that holiday. Oh my gosh. Better than a postcard, right? Better than a postcard. Absolutely. That's amazing. Oh, and I just remember when you were talking about that one of the other very fun things about beach holidays was collecting seashells.

28:44
And there seem to be so many more seashells on the beach than there are these days, but I used to love, so you could collect the best shells on the beach.  Those holidays, just a bygone era, isn't it? Whether it's the seashells, whether it's,  you know, stopping somewhere to eat the packed lunch that mum made or whatever, or, you know, having that... car overheating.  Oh! Yes! Every time we went up there in the hold and it would overheat somewhere.

29:13
Oh, yes. That's right. And you never wanted to drive too close to the car in front because you needed the airflow through the radiator and you'd stop at the BP or the shell or the golden fleece, which doesn't exist anymore. Yeah. Um, you know, and I think the man probably came and still put petrol in your tank back then in the days too.  Yeah. That's, that's another podcast about those jobs that don't exist anymore coming up right now. Hey.

29:42
Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. Hey, all right, I gotta go. You know, I think I might go and plan the next holiday. I've got till what December to think about it. Yeah. See you. All right. Speak to later. Bye.

29:55
The views and opinions expressed on the Big Six O are personal  and reflect those of the hosts and guests.  They do not represent the views or positions of any affiliated organisations  or companies.  This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice. Please consult with a qualified professional for guidance on any personal matters.

30:18
Ah,  and before we go,  let's give credit where credit is due.  Kaylee Harris and I came up with all the genius content for this week's episode.  Our producer,  Nick Abood,  well he keeps the lights on and makes sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast.  So thanks for keeping us on track, Nick.  Nick?  Nick?