We had planned our day out to Green Lake for ages. It was the day of new years eve and Patti, Kaye and I were all packed up for our ride to the lake and our picnic..We were teenagers on a mission.
We had our bathers and towels and had made sandwiches and cordial and taken some apples and oranges which we carried in the baskets on our bikes. Kaye was to bring a rubber ball to play with.
The alarm went of at 5.30 and I leapt out of bed and had a quick wash, got dressed into my shorts and blouse, had my cereal and was ready at six o’clock for the seven mile ride. Patti and Kaye met me at the front of the school and we happily set off for our day out.
It was a glorious morning and we laughed and sang out loud as we pedalled out to the lake. There was no one about and it was such an adventure to be the only people on the road. It seemed that we got there in no time as we were feeling very refreshed and extremely eager to have our first swim.
The lake looked marvellous, glimmering in the morning sun, the diving board had just been mended and we were keen to have our first dive after it having been broken for some time. We were the only people there and it seemed as if it was our own lake.
We quickly changed into our bathers and hit the water We swam and swam, dived and played ball and sun baked and swam some more. By lunch time we were starving so we ate our lunch and had a drink. My Mother had always said to wait an hour after eating before going swimming so we decided to have a lie down. I guess that all our bike riding and exercise caught up with us and we all had a sleep.
We awoke at 2pm and the Mallee sun was beating down on us and we were very hot, we raced each other back into the lake and had another swim. Kaye was a very good diver. she had won the diving at the school sports and she did some swallow dives from the board. Patti and I were not the same standard as Kaye but we loved diving. I did a couple of belly flops and we played some more catchy with the ball.
Kaye and Patti were to go to the New years Eve dance in the hall that night and both of them had lovely ballerina frocks to wear. My parents thought I was too young to go as I was only fifteen and I was very envious of them.
We soon realised that we had to get going if the girls were to be going to the dance.
We packed up our things, changed back into our shorts and headed off. We had only gone a short way and my legs started to hurt and get quite red and I found it quite painful to pedal. Kaye and Patti were feeling that it was an effort to ride also and were very tired.
We continued on our way and the further we went the more sunburnt we felt until we could hardly ride our bikes at all.
There was a sound of a car coming behind us and we stopped to see if it was any one we knew. It was Mr Bell in his utility who stopped to have a chat, he took one look at our red legs and faces and offered to drive us home. He put our bikes in the back and we clambered in after them. He moved the dog into the front seat. It took hardly any time to get home.
He dropped me off first and I staggered inside. My Mother was aghast to see my red face, arms and legs and remonstrated to me about being sensible. She smothered me with calamine lotion and made me lie down. I was hurting all over and crying with pain.
My brother and sisters came to into my room and could hardly believe that I had been so foolish.
I could not put my shortie pyjamas on only the top and I hurt so much. I had a fever and did not know what to do with myself.
Patti and Kaye were taken home and Mrs Johnson got such a fright to see the condition that they were in. She informed them that would not be attending the dance that night. Patti burst into tears as she had been looking forward to wearing her lovely new dress and had told Dennis Walsh he could have the first dance with her. Kaye felt dreadful and did not care. Patti rang her Father at the farm on the party line to ask if she could still go to the dance, he did not know the extent of her burns and overruled Mrs Johnson
Patti got dressed and headed off to the hall, her pink dress did not look as nice as it should have as she was very red. She had the first dance with Dennis, it was a Foxtrot and Billy then asked her for the next dance which was a Pride of Erin. The Pride of Erin is quite an energetic dance and Patti was not feeling as well as she had expected and as she did a turn fainted on the dance floor.
The music stopped and soon she was surrounded by concerned people. Dr Ventriss was there with his wife and carried her out to his car. Patti ended up in hospital with third degree burns and stayed there for three days. Kaye recovered fairly quickly and I blistered and peeled and had to be confined to bed for a few days also.
I did not ever look at Green Lake in the same way again and at a school reunion forty years later drove out to revisit the scene of my woe. The Lake was bone dry.