Crio’s Q: Moments Measured in Time

Barry Nicholls* mused:

“I measure life’s key moments through cricket. The end of primary school spells Australia – West Indies 1975-76 (when) we hammer them 5-1. Year Nine the Centenary Test, Hookesy’s five fours in a row and Mr Davis making history at least accessible. So my question is how do you measure moments in time?”

It’s a good topic for crio’s Q? this week.

Wimbledon finals, Melbourne Cups, even relationships or fashion – most of us have pointers to moments in time.

 

*Barry Nicholls is an author and Almanacker. His most recent book, “For those who wait: The Barry Jarman Story”, will be reviewed on this site. 

Comments

  1. John Butler says

    Year 11 – 1979, Jezza & Harmes
    My fleeting year at Uni, 1981- Parkin, Dominator and Fitzy
    1987 – Travelling through Britain and Europe, Rhys and Kenny Hunter
    1995 – Working on a property down in Baxter – The whole team God bless them.

  2. Mark Doyle says

    Key moments in time have to be personal. Moments in time as a sports supporter are essentially meaningless. Participation in winning junior grand final teams at the community level of football or cricket are more meaningful than those as a supporter of a winning AFL team. Leaving school and moving away from home is a key moment in time. Losing the cherry is a very important key moment in time, but not necessilary the best. Travelling to places for the first time and meeting people are also key moments: for me these moments include living, studying and working in Germany in 1973 to 1975; travelling in France, Spain and Italy in 1974; travelling in Turkey and Morocco in 1978; living and working in Denmark in 1986 and travelling in the other Scandinavian countries; travelling around Australia in 1989 and 1990; trekking in the Himalayas in Nepal in 2008 and cycling around Vietnam in 2011. These moments have resulted in many memorable experiences and lifelong friends.

  3. I have moved around a fair bit, so here I was living.

  4. Moments in time as a sporting supporter may be meaningless for some but for others, who neither have the means or the inclination to do the trendy European gap year(s) bit to hone their great self professed intellectual prowess and social status, they will just have to enjoy the simple little local gems that come their way.

    There have been countless psycopathic cultural facists over the years who has failed to grasp the beauty and benefit that diversification of thought brings to human kind. The fundamentalist intollerance of cultural and intellectual diversification is one of the greatest threats to humanity.

    Moderates of the world unite.

  5. happiness.
    As a kid on the mound at Adelaide watching the Chappells in the Shield.
    Cornes’ mark and goal for the Bays’ 1973 flag.
    Standing around a keg with footy club mates watching the Borg/McEnroe classic.
    “Kingston Town can’t win!”. A day and a life of memories shared with my brother.
    Journeying to Scotland for Seve’s Open.
    First time at the SCG when Tugga drives Dawson for four.
    landmarks in my life.

  6. I had a coffee with an old school buddy this morning.
    Somehow Ali’s name came up.
    I recalled how my Yr7 class were taken to a room to watch the “Thrilla in Manila” by old Laz Gimesh. Marto, still wounded, lamented that he was in Bernie Nicholls’ class and hence was listening to him bang on about gymnastics or something instead of sitting on the floor with us watching the fight.
    That was Yr 7 for us!

  7. Alovesupreme says

    In my childhood it was very much measuring the years by xxxxxx’s Cup. I was delighted to read a biographical piece by Les Carlyon, who also grew up in country Victoria, but pretty much at the other end of the State, that his folks used the same appelation. Iirc his quote was “we haven’t had a decent season aww…. since Wotan’s Cup”.
    I sometimes use the method of recalling big moments/dates in my life as an antidote for insomnia. I can not only recall pretty well every Melbourne Cup result, or Grand Final match-up,going back to early childhood, but I can usually place where I was – if I wasn’t there, where I watched it or listened to it (if I’m going back far enough to the days prior to direct telecasts). I also have similar recall for FA Cup Finals the 1970s, some Wimbdledon finals, and an occasional test match.

  8. Yeah Peter, I can retrace years by that method….e.g. was at Rooster and Woody’s mates’ farm to watch when Pies nearly beat Brisbane – thus can find the year. No hope otherwise!

  9. Actually, just remembered an old friend has been down this week from Q’ld. She recalled a time when we first went to her place in the Sunshine Coast hinterland – all I could offer was that her partner and I watched Penrith win their first flag. That is my only signpost to locate it within a decade!

  10. It has always seemed to be music that has marked moments in time for me.

  11. Alovesupreme says

    Crio,
    A postscript correction to my post last night. Carlyon’s reference was to “the Trump’s Cup” not Wotan’s; obvious enough, they wouldn’t be remembering a 100/1 winner – unless they were in your game.

    I also recalled one memory of experiencing a Grand Final that would be of interest to Matt Zurbo. On that infamous day in 1958 when Hooker Harrison and the Weed determined to resist Melbourne’s assault on the Magpies historic achievement. I neither watched nor listened to the match. I was attending a Polwarth League Preliminary Final, where Coragulac defeated Beeac. Where was the match played? Dean’s Marsh Recreation Reserve. The Dean’s Marsh footy club has long been extinct, and the village a few ks inland from Lorne is now a sort of yuppie week-end getaway.

    In those far-off times, portable radios existed but weren’t in wide use, so the tremors of the upset at the MCG travelled from the few people with access to a broadcast by word of mouth among the spectators.

  12. Mick Jeffrey says

    1996: Using the Olympic Games Diving competition as a tool for multiplication and addition using decimal numbers in Gd 7 (which was the final year of primary school in Darwin), just weeks after virtually spending maths classes playing darts! There was one lesson that went almost to the start of lunch, so we spent 5 minutes watching the Boomers vs Dream Team 3 semi final.

  13. Olympics (or World Cups for others) operate as a kind of “4-up” with their regular cycle being enough apart for life to be in another phase. Ashes tours had a similar effect.

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