Being the church youth leader, I decided one holiday period to organize a bus trip for about 40 of the young people from our church. It was a five day trip from Brisbane to the inland country of New South Wales which then returned through the northern coastal region of that state. It was a very eventful time, as you would expect with such a youthful and high-spirited crowd. Now one of our planned nightly stay-overs was at a very large and established caravan park in Ballina. It was a huge tourist park complete with a community hall to cater for their obvious mature local cliental. The hall was being used this particular evening as a venue for a game of bingo. Directly adjoining the hall was the male ablutions block, separated only by a thin fibro wall. Well a gang of our boys, that had just completed a rather strenuous game of beach soccer in their swim-togs, decided it was time to head for the showers and abult. Now the growth in shower facilities had not quite matched the growth in tourist numbers staying at the park. So, there was the resultant queue lined up and waiting. By the time I arrived at the block, I noticed our lively group including Johnny Tomlin, Lindsay Stewart and Robert Booy all waiting in the line ahead of me. There was lots of in-line jostling and jousting as they became increasingly restless at the wait. Finally one fatherly gentleman open the door and walked out of the small one man cubicle only to be swamped by the boys determined to wait no longer. They piled in like a group of footballers heaving forward in a push-over rugby scrum. I was not keen on the idea of communal bathing and was quite happy to wait for a more private opportunity. As one stood waiting in the line, one could not help but listen and chuckle at the commotions and descriptors coming out of cubicle 1. Of course, my contained smiles and strained disinterested demeanour made it obvious to those other mature folk, who joined the line after me, that I had nothing to do with them -Nothing whatsoever! Lots of boys one cubicle many raised eyebrows in that line, I tell you. When the noise levels eventually died down we could hear the calls of, 11 – Legs eleven 7 – God’s in Heaven 8 – Garden Gate then as clear as a bell BINGO! The calling stopped everything went quiet – and then after a tense wait, the caller continued, choosing to ignore the prank call from cubicle 1 of the shower block next door. Now, cubicle 1 was positioned against the end besser-brick wall and was fronted by a very tight common area. When the door to the cubicle opened, it came towards you in the queue making it very difficult to easily see inside. I had already reasoned that cubicle 2 was going to be the next cubicle vacated, and so I took up my position there in anticipation. I had previously given the knowing nod to an elderly gent who had gestured for approval to take up the position outside “the boy’s” cubicle 1. By this time they and gone quiet, choosing to attend to the serious business of getting the dirt and salt off their bodies rather than just the boisterous tomfoolery. Well, it was the door to cubicle 1 that opened first. Tom came out soaking wet from the half opened door. The elderly gent, seeing my disinterested movements in the cubicle’s direction, decided to reach for the handle and make cubicle 1 his own. The door was suddenly pulled from his grasp and slammed shut from the inside. His very perplexed posture and gaze in my general direction was met with a simple shrug of the shoulders. I had quickly decided that this mature youth leader did not know what was going on either. Soon after that Robert pops out but pushed the door shut as he left. Same perplexed posture same disinterested and unknowing shrugs. Next time the door opened and shut he did not move, but just stood there with a surreal uneasy wariness. By this time my shoulders were giving a shrug but with a lot more vigour, more from the contained chuckles than from my feigned disinterest. Finally, Pip emerges from round the door and the exasperated cultured gent is heard to declare with a huff to the waiting queue – Thank goodness, for that! to which Pip replies No, theres still one more in there.
