Almanac Book Preview – ‘The Hugamug Club’ by Andy Thurlow

 

Andy Thurlow is an Almanac contributor from way back. He’s also an author of several books, including Kieran Modra: The Way I See it, A Singular and Outrageous Blessing, and Painting Martha, reviews of which you will find on this site. His new book The Hugamug Club is now available. We asked Andy to provide us with the background that led him to write and publish his latest effort.

 

 

 

Once my social cycling and coffee-ing club in the Barossa Valley, which I called ‘Sprocket Rockets’, was up, running, and thriving, I realised that many retired people are looking for any excuse to meet and enjoy adult company. Creating this opportunity in the Barossa was really money for jam. We’ve got great bike trails, cafes, restaurants aplenty, a Mediterranean climate, and very pretty rural scenery.

 

So it wasn’t that difficult to form another club called ‘The Hugamug Club’, for people who enjoyed the social coffee-ing, but were not that keen to push pedals.

 

This club also took off, and it was at Hugamugs that I started more in-depth chatting to the 5 ministers in my book.

 

When Pastor Brian Schwarz started telling me that he played in 5 Sturt premiership teams in the 1960s, was in the SANFL Team of the Year in 1967, and has played on Royce Hart, Des Tuddenham, Alex Jesaulenko and Ron Barassi, I was all ears. Mind you, Brian is most humble, and I had to squeeze this information out of him I’m an inquisitive fellow and I wanted to dig deeper! Why did a champion footballer in a championship winning team in SA’s top league head off to Papua New Guinea as a missionary when at the peak of his sporting career?

 

When Pastor Robert Voigt began talking about playing for Sturt around the same time as Brian, and then about how challenging his childhood had been, from poverty to being anonymously sponsored to attend college, he had my full attention. How did a boy brought up in a house with dirt floors end up as a President (now Bishop) of the Lutheran Church of Australia (SA/NT)?

 

Pastor Jim Bryan still speaks with an American accent. If you think that the road to becoming a minister is just smooth sailing, you need to read Jim’s story. He’s done it tough. And in my book, we hear the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about Jim.   What Steen Olsen wrote in his brilliant foreword, ‘This is an honest book … sometimes almost too honest’, applies to all five, but particularly Jim. How did a lad with undiagnosed dyslexia and brought up in New York City end up pastoring in rural Freeling and survive, let alone thrive?

 

Pastor Len Gerschwitz is just adored around these parts. If you are looking to model yourself on somebody, Len would be a good choice. By way of interest, Len can also play football and has won 2 Mail Medals and countless other awards playing as a much younger man in the Streaky Bay League. But Len was not an academic. How did this young farmer, keen to leave school as early as possible, return to college and struggle to matriculate go on to become such a much-loved and highly respected minister?

 

And the Reverend Amel Manyon only had to say the word Sudan to spark my interest. Do we have any idea what is going on there? It’s shocking! But Amel’s story is inspiring and amazing. What miracles did it take for a Sudanese mother to leave her beleaguered native country and become the first Sudanese woman ordained in the Australian Uniting Church?

 

So, you see, it wasn’t a difficult book to write. The 5 ministers opened up their lives. They revealed things which they had not even told their own children. I hope you all enjoy reading The Hugamug Club.

 

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