I’ve had an interesting, if somewhat curious end to my day, one with a conversation with a lovely blog follower whom I actually got to meet in person, and who quite remarkably knew of the religion of Coonyites. This is the first person, beyond my childhood who I’ve met that has heard of this religion, which leaves it remarkable trademark scars on young lives living in a modern world… and we realised we had very similar childhoods in an odd sort of way. I’d only four out my father had been brought up by a Coonyite Stepmother about 12 years ago, having thought he was always Anglican! Anyway, I knew little of the religions history, so have googled it (of course, and you know I love Mr Google) so I am including a very brief history lesson for you on it as well. This one’s for you Leanne, not that you needed educating on it!!

Wikipedia says: ‘The Cooneyites are a Protestant sect which split from the nameless church commonly known as Two by Twos; the church was originally called “the Tramps” or “the Go-Preachers” founded by William Irvine, often referred to today as “The Truth” or, confusingly, “Cooneyites”. References to the term “Cooneyites” prior to 1928 refer to the group described under Two by Twos. After that time, followers who were expelled from the Two by Twos along with Edward Cooney are called “Cooneyites”. In some areas, the Two by Two church, which has gone under various labels, has continued to be labeled as “Cooneyite” by outsiders up to the present. Both the Cooneyites and the Two by Twos reject the term “Cooneyite”.‘

Following this, I spend a lovely half hour on a balcony with a group of Aboriginal Australians from the Kimberley’s, and we shared stories, and anecdotes about life, about dementia and very briefly about each other. On the farm where I grew up, we had a couple of Aborigines working for us when I was young, one I remember knowing as Sam, and who I thought was about 7 feet tall, with incredibly white teeth. I told them the story of when I was a little kid, and after my very first trip to the dentist, I went out and asked Sam how he managed to make his teeth so white, as I was keen to get mine looking as white as his. Without blinking, he said he used charcoal to clean them, and that was the reason for them gleaming so brilliantly. After six weeks of being very disciplined about using charcoal after the toothpaste twice a day to white my teeth, I could see no difference.

When I (very disappointedly) mentioned this to Sam, he laughed so hard he doubled up with laughter… of course, he was joking! These lovely new friends of mine saw this as particularly funny as well… It was a relaxed, amusing and delightful way to end my day, with new friends and stories about life; in fact, it was exactly what I needed as it has been a particularly tough one today!