Even Then You Were Doing It All Right

I had breakfast with my Mum this morning in St Kilda. In the cafe they were playing Beatles’ songs and I was humming along to ‘Get Back’. This is what she said:

When this song came out I was living in Vienna. One night we went to party up lots of stairs in somebody’s apartment and they were playing this song. It got really hot with all the people so we opened up all the windows to cool down. Later when we left the building the people in the other apartments poured buckets of water all over us. They hadn’t complained about the noise or anything, they just poured water on us.

What time of year was it? I asked. Were you there in the cold?

I was there from winter till spring, so yes, mostly very cold. Our landlady would light this little coal pot-bellied stove at 4pm every afternoon. But we never got home till ten at night, so it was always stone cold by the time we got there. We were cold; cold for months and months.

But then spring came and we were so happy. I remember walking through a park one day in early spring and coming across that famous statue of Mozart. I was just so excited I gave him a big hug.

May 1st is just the best time to be in Vienna or Prague, anywhere like that. May Day is the real workers’ holiday, there’s music on every street corner, everyone out partying.

This was also when she bought the infamous cape I now have.

My Mum was cooler at 19 then I will ever be.

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