Whaling Station © irene waters 2013
I was four. My cousin Jenny came to stay. I hated her because my brother preferred playing with her than with me. She had already shown herself to be a scaredy-cat, having come to school with me she had cried so much that my father had to come, collect her and take her home.
We went to Byron Bay for the day and visited the whaling station. Unceremoniously, the whales arrived in the receiving bay and were pushed down the timber pallet-like slide to the concrete slab: big, black and shiny with white blubber oozing from the wounds and blood dripping to the cement floor. Jenny started to cry, ran away and was sick. I was happy.
© irene waters 2013
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
What a great illustration of how major impressions can become a backdrop to a much smaller story. Lovely way to fit two stories into two short paragraphs! You might be interested in this essay, which uses one story to tell another. Perhaps tying the two together is how the writer coped with the second memory: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1996/06/24/1996_06_24_080_TNY_CARDS_000376447
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Thanks Johanna. I have just read the link – loved it. Carmel Bird wrote “writing and life are sometimes very hard to bring together” – perhaps this is one way of doing it.
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Reblogged this on Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) and commented:
Throwback Thursday is where I reblog early posts from the archives. I grew up near this whaling station whilst it was still operating and this is a child’s memory of one visit.
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My Dad took me to see a dead whale down on the Cape when I was little. It was pretty gross – the smell was horrible. I felt sorry for the whale.
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I know I would now too Noelle but at the time I was to busy with cousin conflicts. Hopefully most of the world has stopped this kind of slaughter. Have just been down in the harbour in Wellington and the Sea Shepherd is docked. It is the anti whaling vessel that attempts to stop the Japanese taking hundreds of whales in the Southern Oceans.
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I’m not sure anything can stop the Japanese; there are problems with whaling in the Atlantic, too. These magnificent, intelligent creatures should not be killed!
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