When my husband was a kid, his mum Jenny – a PR maven and producer of Hey, Hey It’s Saturday – showed up at home one day with something for him to play with: a lion cub borrowed from the Melbourne Zoo for the afternoon.
Chris had a ball. He and the little lion play-wrestled on the lounge-room rug. He tempted it to play chasey with a bit of string. Carried it into his bedroom and showed off the Kiss Army and Kenworth truck posters. Hand-fed it meat hacked off a stray chop in the fridge. Was shattered when the cub was eventually driven away.
This week, the federal government announced a social media ban for Australians aged under 16. Credit: Bethany Rae
A couple of years later, he and his mum, brother and aunt were travelling in the US. One night, the party met up at a restaurant with one of Jenny’s mates, a fella from Montana called Neville. Chris already knew Neville. As an occasional visitor to Chris’ place in Melbourne, he told great yarns that hinted he was involved in diplomacy-slash-spying.
Barely had Chris finished his Philly cheesesteak when Neville gave him a head nod. “Come with me, son. Got something to show you.”
They slipped into a corridor. Neville slid a .44 Magnum from his jacket. “Have a hold,” he said. Chris was like, “What?” One minute the best thing in his life was his moon boots, the next he was waving around a Dirty Harry shooter.
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Neville gave him a wink, popped the gun away and they both went back to the table to check out the dessert menu.
The entertaining of a child with a deadly weapon and a wild animal – both stories fascinate me. Probably because of what might be seen, these days, as a lack of parental responsibility, but which – for me – suggests that parenting back in the day was more individual, less constricted by what others thought.
For better or worse, sure. It was all a bit ramshackle, the way we’d wolf down Coco Pops – probably illegal now – and disappear into the suburbs while our parents put on Hot August Night and got on the crème de menthe. But our parents decided what we did, saw and were exposed to – while having almost zero interest in how we amused ourselves, as long as we didn’t smoke much and came home at dinner time.