Or…
“How to piss off a v. young-looking 49 year old”
I’ve known Robby since she was 3.
Her folks moved into our road in the early 1960s and they became Mrs jb and my best friends.
No-one else came or comes even close.
So it was natural that I’d get called upon to babysit the “Littlies”, as Isla called them, on occasion
Fast forward to 1976.
I was back in NZ on vacation and the Eagles were playing Carlaw Park.
I was nominally going out with one (or both?) of the Milnes twins, identical twin schoolteachers whose Gran lived next door and who had just returned from Philadelphia.
(We used to joke that Mum and Mrs Milnes would be quite tolerant of bigamy and would be more than happy to see me marching up the aisle with a bird on each arm. Seriously…)
And it was obvious that we were going to see the Eagles.
Robby’s eyes lit up when she heard, so I bought her a ticket and off we went.
All chattering away quite happily, with Robby getting quieter by the minute until she leans over and whispers in my ear “Don’t you DARE tell them that I’m still at school…”
Fast forward to last month.
I’m back in NZ haymaking on the farm and discover to my ABSOLUTE JOY that Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe are playing the Civic Theatre in Auckland on one of my 2 nights in town.
Ask my mate Houghton, Robby’s husband, if he’d be interested.
No (there’s no accounting for taste…), but Robby would.
Tickets bought, pick her up at the ferry from Devonport, great evening, phenomenally good concert and we’re on our way back to the car when she bumps into some friends.
Usual introductions, how do you know Robby? etc
The usual “Oh, I used to BABYSIT Robby when she was a Littlie”
More than a whisper this time.
“I just HATE it when he does that….”
Stand by me – Ry Cooder from Chicken Skin Music
Tattler – Ry Cooder from Paradise and Lunch
Do you want my job – David Lindley and Wally Ingram from Twango Bango Deluxe
Do you want my job – Cooder-Lindley Family from Live at the Vienna Opera House
I was tempted to yell out for the latter as an encore, but I was worried that Ry (he wrote it) might take me up on the offer and I’d be stuffed.
Going back to work for a living?
Heaven forbid….
You Must Be From Away 
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