Stumbling Into Happiness: The Family Gathering March 10

The Family Gathering

The drive from Mt. Dandenong to Nathalia took us a little over three hours. We went from the highlands and hills around Melbourne to the flatlands of farming and dairy around Nathalia. Halfway from Melbourne, we took the traditional lunch stop at Nagambie which Daniel family members have been stopping at for 60 years. Of course when they started stopping there it was halfway into an eight-hour ride. On this day we’d only been on the road for a little over an hour when the car was magnetically attracted to the off ramp. We found a beautiful place for a pot of “frothy” and a meal. “Frothy” is a local brew that is quite refreshing. Then it was on to Nathalia.

By now we had been driving on the left side of the road for a couple of days. The turn signal and the wipers were on different sides of the steering column. Yours truly had mastered the switcheroo but our intrepid Aussie, Mary kept turning on the wipers every time she wanted to turn left or right. I thought a little incentive might help so I began to charge her AUD$1.00 every time the wipers went on and there was no precipitation. By the time we reached Nathalia, I was up AUD$7.00.

Mary’s brother and sister-in-law (Gerard and Susie) offered us one of their farmhouses while we stayed locally. We checked into the place and felt like real farmers except that we didn’t do any work – we just looked like farmers – except that we didn’t have any gumboots or hats.

THE SQUABBLE

We drove to the IGA in Nathalia to pick up some food and drink for the evening and also for the next family party the next day. I suggested that we should bring a little extra to share. At this point, Mary began a lecture right in the produce department of the IGA assuring me that there would be no sharing at this upcoming party and that we only needed to feed ourselves. I said, “But darling, remember our visit to Uncle Hec and Aunt Elaine the day before. We were told to bring what we wanted to eat because Hec and Elaine don’t eat much. And when we arrived with our food, the table was laden with food and Hec and Elaine were tucking in like a couple of racehorses. I’ve never been to a Daniel Family event where there wasn’t enough food to feed half the town.”

I’ve spoken to my sister, Elizabeth,” Mary said her index finger jammed into my chest, “and she has assured me that there will be NO SHARING of food at this party.”

“I am so sure that there will be sharing of food,” I said, slowly backing out of the finger buried in my chest, “that I am will to go double or nothing with the $7.00 I’ve won so far.”

Nothing more was said until we arrived at Elizabeth’s house the next day. We’d been walking along the creek and stopped in for a toilet break. I could hear Mary and her sister cackling in the next room assuring each other that I was about to lose $7.00 on this foolhardy bet.

We rested that afternoon, knowing that the event that was to begin at 5:30 might last well into the wee hours of the morning. The Nathalia Lawn Tennis Club was the perfect place for the gathering as it gave plenty of space for the old folks to talk and the young kids to run around.

We found a place to sit and opening our little lunch bag to eat the sandwiches we’d made for ourselves. No sooner had we taken a bite of our chicken sandwich than a table few of nieces at the next table began to share their chips (French fries) with us. Without thinking Mary plunged a hand into the chips and I had my phone at the ready – incontrovertible photo evidence. Then her brother Chris brought around a tray full of antipasto items to share. Pizza, cakes, and more were passed around and shared. It was a rare moment for me that I milked to the hilt – like a man who’d traveled through the desert of “wrong” for so long – it was an oasis, a temporary respite knowing full well that the payback would be swift and unrelenting.