Our scruffy Shipping Reporter looks like the wreck of the Hesperus as he lurches about searching for books, ephemera, oddities , collectables . Of late, however, his forays have been limited because he has been actually feeling like the poetic wreck , wracked with pain , little strength in his hands.
This resulted in him being taken to Townsville University Hospital on two occasions and visits to GPs, a variety of scans, continuing to baffle medical science .
Coming away from a medical appointment , he managed to slip into an op shop and found a solitary item of interest , an entertaining 1975 book, Shop!, written and illustrated by Ted Schurmann .
In the form of hilarious stories behind items sold in a shop in the Victorian town of Bullawollock in the l930s , it is illustrated with receipts and cartoons.
One story , dealing with the sale of a packet of poisoned wheat , grabbed the attenion of the groaning Shipping Reporter because a considerate daughter of his had whipped up a smart bag filled with wheat which when heated in the microwave brought welcome relief when applied to sore spots , of which there were many .
The story tells how a grumpy town resident , Mrs Sankey, refused to have dealings with several shopkeepers- the baker because he had delivered a loaf of bread containing a mouse, the butcher because his crumbed cutlets had been dipped in sawdust. She also disliked a neighbour and his chooks and had beaten up his Rhode Island Red rooster with a broom.
When she came into the above shop , having publicly stated she would never enter the premises, she refused to sign the poison book for a packet of poisoned wheat , but agreed to enter the fact that it was for mice.
The great Schurmann illustration explains how the annoying chook's belonging to Mrs Sankey's neighbour had subsequently been seen enthusiastically pecking at something on the road, at first thought to be the poisoned wheat bought by Mrs Sankey.
There was a curious suggestion that they could have actually downed jelly crystals or even Aspros. If it was poisoned wheat , their owner said they had never been healthier , cackling and crowing with great gusto.
MEDICAL UPDATE : Placed on steroids by a Kiwi doctor, our decrepit waterfront roundsman claims to be almost human , nearly as robust as a Rhode Island Red rooster.
And a young, arty , thoughtful great- granddaughter , with a recent interest in Mona Lisa, has kindly presented the Shipping Reporter with another wrap around wheat pack , above .
(Poison ,Chooks,Townsville.)
