The Death of the Aussie Shindig
Apparently, the number of us going to, crashing or having, parties has fallen off a cliff.
The numbers are particularly astonishing for young folk who rarely go out and, as the boys would say:
You can read all about it here, or, if you’d prefer to save a stack of time, simply read on…
Anyway, once upon a six pack and a bottle of Passion Pop, we Aussies partied like legends. Or used to… I don’t know, I haven’t been out in quite a while.
In the distant days of the 1980’s I can’t recall a weekend where there wasn’t a party to go to (granted many of them were engagements or weddings… to-mah-to, to-mate-o).
We regularly held, or went to, backyard BBQs, saw live bands in backyards (hey, even I did a few backyard gigs back in the day!), card nights, sing-a-longs, pool parties, fire pit nights, Fondues’, bring a plate or the numerous times I wandered out to burn some rubbish and wound up having half the neighbourhood round for some fun times.
Some folks even went to parties which seemed to consist of smiling couples tossing their car keys into a fruit bowl then taking them out again (which were quite popular, apparently, but doesn’t sound terribly exciting to me?)
But now?
If the stats are to be believed, then get-togethers and in particular, partying, is down the gurgler. As stated in the article (for those of you who didn’t click the link), in the U.S., young people spend 70% less time partying than 20 years ago, and we here in Oz aren’t far behind.
Have we traded in our eskies for endless scrolling and Netflix marathons? It turns out, many of us, would prefer to go to the gym instead of getting blotto and trying to work out how the party hosts’ stereo works.
People! Have we lost a war?!
Yes. Yes. We have.
Still, I get it. Everyone’s knackered. Workplaces don’t just want your body, now they want your spare time and your soul. Parenting’s become a full-time Uber gig as young mums and dads ferry their offspring to their various extracurricular activities now (‘Don’t kids’ own pushbikes anymore?’ asked the old man tapping away on my keyboard).
And, even more astonishing, teenagers aren’t drinking much anymore! What the… I mean, good for them! And their healthy livers.
But, how are the young folk, or anyone for that matter, meeting each other, how do you meet your next boy/girl/he/she partner? How many good friends are you missing out on because you’re at home locked away from society? Where do people show off their latest outfits, or listen to the latest band, records? How do budding comedians get an audience?
Hell, I’ve lost count of the times I went to a party and the next day wound up at the beach, or quite often, pulling an engine out of a car, with my new besties (getting it back in with all the parts it came out with was the real trick).
Which reminds me, one of those bastards still has my good torque wrench! And who did get my treasured beach towel with the wallet pocket sewn onto the side? Come to think of it… where is my old leather wallet?!
Ok, these parties weren’t all fun and games.
Couple broke up, there were fights, people drank other people’s booze, old grudges were re-ignited, stuff was stolen, strangers would use your furniture for nefarious purposes, (hell, some arsehole once took three quarters of the treasured cassettes out of my car at a New Years’ eve riverside bonfire party! Of course, they rather conveniently left the ‘Wham’ tape that turned up uninvited and never got played) there was always someone trying to give you drugs and somehow, in spite of a pre-party code of secrecy that was tighter than the anything the Jesuits could have imagined, the uninvited village idiots and the usual arseholes always managed to turn up unannounced and cause their patented brand of mayhem.
But that was the whole point! We were learning how to engage with other people in society while enjoying booze and salty snacks.
And now, it seems, we’ve had enough? Our social lives are frozen in time.
I suppose the answer is to get out there and party hardy, but, you know, I’ll be busy then…
The Late Post
We apologise for the inconvenience
For those of you who woke up early Sunday morning and opened your inboxes in a fever of excitement to see what Greg ‘n Doll had been up to this week, I apologise for the lateness of this blog post.
BUT! We have been working on something musically which I’m very personally very excited about. Basically, I’ve got a new music app/toy, and it’s been chewing up a lot of my spare time… and possibly driving my neighbours insane?
Speaking of spare time, it’s been ‘a week’. You know, one of ‘those’ weeks where the moment you think you have spare time, you discover you don’t.
Man, those weeks suck.
Plus, there was some medical stuff too which left us chronologically bereft, as well as sore and nauseous.
Oh yes, Doll bought some new shoes.
But, in the interest of quickly hammering this stupid blog post… sorry, lovingly crafting this weeks’ epistle, I’ll cover all that next week.
That’ll give you something to dive out of your beds for next week!
Quote of the Week:
Doll said something very funny, relevant and insightful last night.
Oh, how we laughed! I told her that she had just earned a coveted spot in my Quote of the Week.
But, this morning, neither of us can remember what she said…
Happy Snaps
Mid-winter in Queensland is a tough gig:
Love the garden colours at this time of year too:
And the delicate pong of the bush:
Burning off in full swing:
And it even rained a little bit:
Old Gladstone saying - ‘Rain flushes out many hoons’:
Purloined from Substack
Bucharest’s public swimming pool looks amazing:
Brisbane’s new Olympic stadium is taking shape:
This week Trump took on Big Bird and Elmo:
A rare find!
Hey, thanks for popping by, let’s do it all again next week!
Cheers,
Gb
