Getting to Know Brisbane (14)

July 14, 1943 (Wednesday)
     We have to have ration cards for clothes and tobacco.
     It rained a little during the night, and was foggy this morning.  They gave us 4 blankets last night, and straw (stuff-'em-yourself) ticks.  It was rather chilly, too.
     4 of us started down town about 10 A.M.  We took the "train" for 2d, getting off at Queen and Edward Streets.  Lady conductor, partly open train.  It reminded me of the cable cars in Frisco.  We wandered around sight seeing.  Chemists = drug store (and only drugs and supplies).  Timber merchant = lumber yard.  Ironmonger = hardware store.  We went to a bank to have our money changed.  For $46.25 I received £14 3/ 11d, the £ being $3.26.  We looked in at several shops and bought a 1/ lottery ticket.  The lottery seems to be the universal vice.  Everywhere you see "casket shops" and all sorts of people buying.  A ticket sells for 5/6d or 6 to a ticket of 1/ each.  The drawings are weekly and are a Queensland affair, the profit going to the hospital.  We bought booklets and carefully went thru a book store.  3/6, 2/6 and 1/6 for the things.  There seem to be plenty of flashlight batteries at the hardware stores.  We ate in an ordinary place on purpose.  We could hardly understand the waitress!  ...  We had steak, with 2 kinds of potatoes for vegetables besides a leaf of lettuce and small slice of tomato!  And the dessert was a "sweet" - "sundī" (the "milk bars" are the malted milk places) - 6d or 9¢ for one!  We looked at butcher shop windows.  There is a great profusion of meat and at ridiculously low prices.  Fine steaks at 6d (or 10¢) a pound!  Long 3' bars of soap for 1/1 (or about 17¢)!  Clothing is rationed.  I stopped at lots of "Tobacconist and Hairdressers" - combination cigar stores and barber shops - but no tobacco.  There are lots of U.S. brands and stores.  I saw Woolworth's, Macy's, Penney's, Sherwin Williams Paint, Dunlop Rubber Co., etc.  Finally I found some tobacco at Finney's Dept. Store, 1/2 = 19¢ an ounce which is high.  It was bulk mixture.  No pipes!  I bought a razor strop for 13/8 ($2.19), which is about a $3.50 value.  Later I bought more tobacco - Capstan Navy Cut Flake 2 oz. for 2/6 1/2d (?) and "Champion" which is quite dark and heavy.  It is all cut plug type.  Too expensive!

A residential street in Brisbane

     Padre [Griffiths] and I found a Masonic Temple and went in and signed the register and looked about.  One member invited us to a 3rd [a third degree Mason is allowed to attend meetings at other Lodges] at Acacia Lodge next Monday.  They have a bar, to which I shall return later!  Nice, solid-looking men.  Then we hunted up the main Masonic building on Anne Street.  It is a grand building, but we were at the wrong time for the caretaker.  I stopped in a saddlery store.  Their stock saddles are English type, but a bigger leg flap and seat and a sort of projection in front and behind the leg comparable in use to a "bulge" on the breaking saddles.  No horn!  For they don't use ropes.  These sold for some £16 and didn't look to be very good leather.  None of the stores appeared to have as cosmopolitan appearance as ours.  In fact they all seem to be "dinky" and with a mneager supply of goods.
     Last night at our officers' club I bought a 10/ chit book, divided into 6d chits, for the bar.  Small glasses of beer are 6d, wine 12d or 1/.  The beer was cold for us.  It was sweetish and I like it better than ours.  It is stronger in alcohol.
     Our bed rolls and footlockers arrived.

Horse-drawn cart

     Oh happy day!  The first mail!  I had 3 V mail letters [V- or Victory-mail letters were written on specifically-designed paper that was then microfilmed and sent overseas where it was enlarged and printed close to its destination; 2575 pounds of letters could be reduced to 45 pounds] from Beth!  Words fail me!
     I was astonished at the number of horse drawn vehicles - large 4-wheeled wagons, 2-wheelers, etc.  There are a lot of small cars and a few wood-burners of some type.  "Tyres" = tires.

Wood-burning automobile

     At lunch the smallest spoon even for ice cream, was a small tablespoon.  I saw one "Digger" eating with a fork in each hand, but conveying the food to his mouth with the right.  Another ate with his hat on.
     The sugar is very grandular - grains about 3 times that of ours.  But it is cane sugar.
     I weighed myself downtown for 1d - 11-5 1/2, which is 11 stone 5 1/2 pounds of 159 1/2 pounds, a stone being 14 pounds.
     The toilet paper her is a marvel.  It is puncture proof!  It is about the strength and smoothness of our brown wrapping paper, and gray in color.  The plumbing is old style - overhead tank type of toilet, faucets close to the side of the bowl, even in modern buildings.
     Everyone has bomb shelters or slit trenches in all vacant lots and parks.
     Street car stop is "Hail train here" post.

July 16, 1943 (Friday)
     Having recouped my strength, I set forth (having had a hot shower and shave - lovely) about 10:30 A.M.  4 of us took a cab to town for 2 bob each.  On the way down, I asked the driver about fishing.  He said to see Jack Grī-him and spelled Graham, G, R, HI, HAICH, HI, HEM!  I went in and out stores, looking for a gift for Beth.  They have scarcely any purses, and the few good leather ones have very poor workmanship and cost £2 17/.  The special dealer at Allen and ? had 3 gems, too.  I looked at jewelry shops - they have lots of unset gems but are not allowed to set them.  Best one is apt to be badly strung.  I heard one man ask what a 48 point perfect blue white diamond woulod cost and knowing the cost in our country (a la Beth's ring), I'd say things are no cheaper.
     Christie just told me to put down in my diaryt that he shot an 84 on the golf course yesterday.  I ran into Omer and we had lunch together.  Then I went to the Masonic Club bar and had a glass of been and a lot of talk with a fire insurance salesman.  The to another quar and took the Lone Pine launch for 2/ up the river 1 3/4 hours (~ 12 miles) to the koala bear farm.  Adams, Vinicor, and Farquar went along - among others 2 nurses who were mildly on the make for Sparky and I, and 2 Australian nurses, one of whom got out ot Tabruk just 5 hours before it fell.  There were over a dozen koala bears, including small ones.  They are very hard to raise and eat only gum (eucalyptus) tree leaves.  They also have kangaroos, wallabies, birds, emus, etc.  then we came back to town by bus for 9d (the zoo was 6d).  We ate at Lennor's - food wa good for 5/ but not exceptional.  Beer was 6/ a pitcher.  Then back home to bed about 8 P.M.

July 17, 1943 (Saturday)
     6 letters waiting for me, mailed all the way from June 21 to July 5, both regular and air mail.  the one from Sam Tyson in Fla. about 10,000 miles in 10 days.
     This morning I had my first spell of censoring.  It was for the 17th Repl. Bn [Replacement Battalion], Co. K.  Most of the men had been sick or wounded and were waiting to return to their outfit.  What those fellows don't all write.  I learned that "dog faces" are soldiers!
     In the afternoon Armstrong, christie and I went to the races at Albion Park, where the Doomben Cup is to be run next week.  There are 3 grades: Paddock (13/), St. Leger (3/) and Flat (1/).  We went in the Flat end accidentally (they let us in free), but got a very big kick out of it.  Everybody was betting!  There were dozens of rivate bookies, and also the pari-mutual (?) betting.  It is easy to see why the poor stay poor - betting!  I bet 2 bob on Crafty Clare and she came in about 10th.  Chrisite (of course) won, lucky as he is.  So the next race I gave him 2 bob to bet for me and I also be on another.  Christie's horse won me 6 bob so I wa just even.  He came out £1 1/2 ahead!  Then Armstrong and I went downtown and saw the zoological gardens - Krape Park in Freeport had more at one time!  We came bakc out for supper.  Everything in town was closed.  We saw a show in the area based on "The Devil and Daniel Webster".

July 18, 1943 (Sunday)
     There is a bird around here that looks like a sort of magpie, but tamer [peewee?].
     Venetian panels = Venetian blinds.
     4 of us went to St. Andrews Presbyterian Church downtown.  It is quite a large church and quite Scotch.  We ate at the American Club - nothing else open!  Saw a raft of full Col's and 1 Brig. General.  MacAurthur is supposed to be in town, as well as Admiral Halsey.
     Rumor has it we are going to Rockhampton, 300 miles north of here, to set up a 1000 bed hospital for the 42nd Division which is just coming out of the islands - be with them3 to 6 months while they res up and then go back into action with them!  Scuttlebutt?
     Torch refills = flashlight batteries.
     It sounds funny to hear the men shooting craps saying 2 shillings, etc.
     Our nurses are at "Indooroopilly" [a suburd of Brisbane where Camp Columbia is located].
     Cigarettes are 40¢ a carton, being tax free outside the U.S.A.
     My left traverse arch has been paining me for several days.  I taped it this morning.
     The paper says there was a heavy frost with temperature of 45° and 61 degrees of humidity this morning.  How can it be?
     "Fanny" is Australian slang, does not refer to buttocks but to the front!

July 19, 1943 (Monday)
     I went with Christie to play golf at the Royal Queensland Golf Club.  The Prince of Wales played here 20 years ago!  It cost us each (servicemen) 1 shilling.  To rent clubs 2/.  We had tea and scones before we started - 1/.  After the first 9 we had lunch 1/6d for tea and sandwiches.  We had a shower and shaved and played the last 9 and had beer for 1/.  About $1 for all of it!  The grass is dry, but it is a good course.  I did the last 9 in 58 - George in 47!
     Still no mail!  Rumor has it that our orders are in, and that we'll move to Rockhampton soon!
     In the evening Padre Griffiths and I went to Acacia Lodge #330 in S. Brisbane, to a 3rd degree.  It was a Queensland Charter.  Things are very much different!  I hope I can remember the differences to tell in our lodge when I return!  When we got as far as downtown (about 11:30 P.M.) the power went off.  We had a hot dog, Australian-style - very tough skin!  We got rooked on a fancy ice cream deal - 2/ for a dish!

July 20, 1943 (Tuesday)
     Boy - cnesoring for 6 hour today.  It really plucks at the heartstrings to read some of the loneliness and love.  One fellow wrote, "I be the officer that has censored my mail will think I'm a lovesick fool.  I hope he is married or in love, so he can understand how i feel." So I wrote at the end of the letter, "You're right.  I am married and I am in love with my wife!" and signed it "Censor".
     A V from Oliver Waite [a friend from Trinidad].  No mail from Beth for a week.  Some of the letters of the men indicate that they haven't had letters for so long, and apparently write nasty remarks about the other person not writing, and then receive 6 or more letters at once, and are promptly sorry.
     2 letters this afternoon from my Honey!  Marvelous!  Everything is rosy again!

July 21, 1943 (Wednesday)
     10 officers and 100 men leave tonight on an advance party to Rockhampton!  We are to act as a station hospital, with 1000 beds, for the 42nd Division returning from combat.  It is practically 100% malarious.  They are on suppressive treatment, from which they will be gradually withdrawn and sent to the hospital as they relapse.  Withdrawal will be staggered in groups so we aren't swamped.  Then after about 5 months we are to return to combat with them!
     This evening we drank up our remaining chits - beer, apricot liquer, cherry brandy, Soleol [?] wine, etc.