THE BETHLEHEM PUB

1. A country pub is not a proper place for women,
the last place on earth to try and have a kid.
So when Mary and her tired old man arrived that night I rustled up a bed of straw out in the shed.

2. I run the country pub in Outback Bethlehem,
a home away from home for stockmen interstate.
For when the picnic races stir the dust out here
a man will ride a hundred miles to meet his mate. (music bridge)

3. The pub In Bethlehem is rough as honed-head toads,
and what I’ve seen would turn a shearer green and white; like the time young Bill fought Blue, the old man kangaroo till beer, and blood, and fur flowed down the street.

4. I’ve seen men drive their horse in for a drink or two,
and with their stockwhip clear the beer-glass of its foam
while Fred, the pet galah, whose language turned the air dark blue,
would screech his old refrain, ‘Well, stone the flamin’ crows’. (music bridge)

5. You should have heard the cursing from the stockmen when I said,
‘We have a pregnant woman with the horses in the stalls’.
You should have seen them drinking, mate, and heard them sing off-key: ‘Why was he born so beautiful, why was he born at all? (music bridge)

6. At first I also wondered if Mary’s child belonged out here.
He may as well be born among the mulga bush out back.
Yet Mary seemed a sister to all who found her in the shed
and Jesus seemed a brother to drinkers, drovers, blacks. (music bridge)

30.9.24
 

Back from a Break 

During September, Dorothy and I travelled
to Norway and the UK.

After long flights
- Adelaide to Melbourne,
Melb to Dubai (14 hrs),
Dubai to Oslo (7 hrs) -
we did Norway in a nutshell
from Oslo to Bergen, then
the Hurtigruten Cruise 
up the west coast of Norway
and back again.
Then an 8 day Trafalgar tour
and 4 days in London,
before taking the direct flight
(16 3/4 hrs)
from Heathrow to Perth.
We're a bit tired (!) but we'll still be a part
of the LWA convention and the 
General Convention .

See some of you there.