KDW

Ordinarily I don’t think that much about Australia. But when I saw this scarf I knew I had to have it.

It’s not silk or anything — just polyester. But I like collecting fabric souveniers such  from other countries, and this certainly fit the bill. Not only does it give a basic topographical reference, but also native animals and plantlife. And yes, the colors really are that garish.

Here’s a close-up of the kookabura here. It reminds me of the old song my uncle Hans (John) Dittrich taught us kids. There were two verses, and it went like this:

Kookabura sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, kookabura, laugh, kookabura.
Long may your life be.

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Nice, right? Until you get to the second verse, that is…

Kookabura sits on the railroad tracks
Along came a train and smashes kookabura flat
Poor kookabura, poor kookabura
Your life ends like that.

I looked the song up on the web and there are other lyrics, such as kookabura eating all the gum drops from the gum tree — a eucalyptus– and getting a toothache, or laughing at the monkeys, or burning his pants off when he sits on an electric wire. I guess it’s like when little kids used to sing I’m Popeye the Sailor Man but changed the lyrics to include naughtier and grosser things than eating spinach. Hans also taught us Waltzing Matilda, but this was a more complicated song so I don’t remember it as well.

But he certainly had a more than casual interest in Australia. At times he wore an Australian bushman’s hat, and there were books about Australia around my aunt’s house. I remember one with a picture of a tree in it that looked like a milk bottle.

Maybe he had visited during his WWII service?