Twitchy
and
nervous due to another restless
night trying to prevent
Chicky, the cute Curlew, from being murdered
by the Barking
Owl , I stumbled out of bed , fed the Curlews
, made porridge and coffee for my wife and
returned a bottle of
milk
to the frig. As I turned away, there was one almighty explosion ... glass flew ... I stood there
stunned , shocked by what had happened. It turned out that an
old glass soda
water syphon , which used to be common in hotels, one of
seven atop the frig, had fallen onto a
Depression glass fruit bowl on
the bench . The syphon , put out by the brewery company
Tooth and Co. Pty. Ltd., NSW, fortunately, did not
smash.
What had caused the
heavy bottle to fall
? Had there been an
earth tremor ? Surely not moved by the
strong wind that blew during
the night ? A poltergeist ? Leering at me like
the killer
puppet-Chucky- at the front of the
syphon collection was the Beenleigh Rum character
jug. Experimenting
showed that the frig
rocked considerably when the
door was closed and the bottle must have eventually boot scooted
off the end of the line.
The
syphons , some filled
with coloured water , above, were used to
advertise softdrink and brewery companies . There is one for Webster’s Soft Drinks Pty. Ltd., Narrandera and Griffiths, and
Sheekey’s, Wagga Wagga
, Pty. Ltd., both of NSW. Bought at a New Zealand antique fair are ones for
C.L. Innes & Co. , Auckland
and Hamilton ; Grey and Menzies
Limited , Gold Medal Mineral Waters, Thames, Auckland and Waikato;
C. Matthews, Wellington . Thompson’s Pure Soda , Purity its trademark, in a British
Syphon Company , London, bottle is thought to have been bought at
a garage sale in North Queensland .
