Luxuriating in the Bath House - Lois Daley

Well I am back from my trip to the Island of my Ancestors and a meeting with a well loved Ferrywoman.

She(the ferrywoman) in her day was a wild woman who loved many men,she was a great dancer and loved fun..She came from a very strict background and was often given a caning for being out too late ..She was expelled from St Josephs Catholic school here in Port Melbourne on more than one occassion....asked too many questions

I do remember when in the 1940's we had American service-men billeted here in Port Melb and they loved to come to our homes for a home cooked meal....

Maureen was tall and slender and wore her long fair hair in a dark fishnet type hairnet.The seamans mission hall had dances every Sat night for the servicemen, and she and her girlfriends all around 18 or 20 went with the rules to follow...No going outside with any sailor. No dancing with just one person,no dancing too close etc etc etc.

I don't doubt all these rules were broken...But I do remember the servicemen giving us kids coca cola,lollies, Mum got stockings cigarettes for the men (and Women) ..

My Ferrywoman married an American serviceman and after the war she went with him to visit his family on the farm in Alabama .. She only stayed for 6 months and was home without Jimmy ,he was to follow later.
I will not bore you with her description of the farm in Alabama as some might have relatives living there......but I don,t think it was Maureens' vision of a farm. I wonder if I will see her at the bath house?

My story is now of my trip to the Bath House in Duwanish.

Now I do have problem with my figure and how I view my body( and others view it too)So I will wrap my big white hot towel around me,walk to the edge and just slide gracefully in...Ah I will love it I know having been in my Brothers Spa many times (He is rich)

Sliding into the water it has a salty perfumed taste or is it me wishing I was home by Port Phillip Bay... The round rocks below the surface I think were heated in some way or perhaps the bath house was built on a fissue in the ground where it is constantly fed by hot springs... No matter it was glorious on my body... I was looking foward to a massage but missed out,never mind there is always tomorrow ...

When I was a working woman I gave myself the luxury of a full body massage once a week for an hour and after it was over I just seemed in another body and driving home and my car was like being on a cloud taking me to oblivion,I was feeling like this and never wanted to get out of the bath.... But hunger and scented tea with dry crackers and lovely cheese, beckoned. .

I sat with other travellers and enjoyed the company and the banter,we laughed and laughed ,letting it all out as women do when they get together.

I had not felt this relaxed since I had packed my bags on leaving Australia .. I was now not pining for home and the thought of returning in several weeks was daunting..... but I put it all behind me ,as I knew there was much more of the journey in the Umbrian mountains in Italy yet to come WOW I thought Wow..... More laughter with many jokes shared between us.