Kookynie (614 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.3 on 20 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by jeveux... (View user info) at 2005-10-23 20:44:07 EDT
Dear ubersite,
This is a serioius piece of writing i did designed to explore the effects of globalization.
If you had time to read it i would be very much obliged, though i must warn you it totally lacks sex, drugs and decadence.
Thanks alot.
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The town was born in 1887 with the discovery of gold. Thirty years later its wide streets were lined by grand, stone buildings mixed with corrugated iron and timber homes. It had a post office, a brewery, six pubs, a small cinema and, of course, the pride of everyone in town, the Grand Hotel. The gold was the life blood of the little town and the global market for gold was the heart. It's just too bad they bled the town dry.
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People call it the ghost town now. We moved here in 1894 to help build the Grand Hotel which still stands today. It is one of just twelve buildings left in Kookynie, and usually accounts for half the population at any given moment: It has ten rooms and our town has ten residents. I am the owner of the once famous Grand Hotel and at the end of this season I will pack up the belongings Eliza and I have accumulated over the years and move us away to the townhouse my son has already bought us in Darwin.
I won't ever take tours around the abandoned gold mines or give a history of our little town again. Never again will I describe to a group of city slickers how once upon a time Kookynie was a thriving little mining town of five thousand people and never again will they look around, startled, as they realise that now all that is left is the hotel, which is also the general store, and the Kookynie Museum with its collection of photographs, memorabilia and antique bottles. There is no post office.
I understand that the economic global machine has done with this little town and I understand that's life; the gold dried up in 1913 and since then the population has dwindled from five thousand to just ten of us, all in our seventies. I understand that my son is right. There is no hospital and there is no doctor. There isn't even anyone although the thought pains us. Our children were born here, and our parents made their fortunes here digging for gold. The town survived eighty five years without gold but it has been slowly dying ever since.
When I was a young man I could never understand why the blacks didn't just become miners too. I never could see why they would turn up and our doorstep and beg for food. One of them, an older man, used to come by a lot. I still remember his first visit. He was dressed in the traditional clothing, and I wondered why he still clung to his old ways. Unlike many of the younger men he didn't seem to be drinking. He came to the front gate and spoke to me (for I was sitting on our veranda).
"White man," he said,
"White man, do you have any food for a black man?"
I took pity on him and invited him to share my ham. My father was still at the Hotel and I knew my mother would not mind. As we ate he told me what had befallen his tribe. Half of them, he said, had become miners. Depressed by their misfortune at the fields, and repeatedly tricked in to spending the little gold they found, they quickly turned to white women for comfort, and then to drink. Now, he said, there were so few young men in his tribe that it had fallen apart, forcing everyone into the nearby mining towns. He came to Kookynie because he had a cousin here but so far could not find him.
We finished our meal in silence and I was amazed that after letting him share my food he still asked for money. I refused him and he thanked me anyway then left to find his cousin. At the time I did not understand why he resented his situation but now I do. It's the memories. Just as he, at such an old age, could not forget the way of his life, I cannot forget the way of mine. This little town is in my blood. This little town was made of gold. Gold is in my blood.
Like the old black man I have nothing at my destination, "civilisation," my son calls it but family. No friends (for they are all here in Kookynie, and will move elsewhere in spring), no job (what good is an old hotelier in a metropolitan city?) and no home. A house, yes, but a house is not a home. It has no memories, or at least, not mine. I did not build it for my wife and I did not raise children in it. I do not know it as I know my house here, and it offers only the comfort my hotel rooms offer my guests. It is only a place to stay, not a place to live.
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We have been living in Crest Avenue for a year now. There is an RSL down the road and I have many new friends. We see my two teenage granddaughters regularly and they are beautiful. The older one Alyssa is sixteen and my son has bought her a car. She drives to our place after school on Wednesday and takes us out to do the shopping. After the shopping we always go out for an early dinner and sometimes even see a movie. The movies are so different today. Before the war, when we were young, Kookynie had a cinema. The seats were wooden and hard and there were only four new movies each year but I can remember every single one. Every time a new reel arrived Eliza and I would dress up and go out for a night to see it. Afterwards, we would walk back down the main street to the Grand Hotel to meet my father. In the cold desert night our breath condensed in the air as we walked along linked like two little steam trains in a happy unison. In the desert night sky we could see all the stars and we could taste the freshness of the air. Our romance, the best time of my life, was at Kookynie.
A year ago we moved to Darwin and we have turned the house into a home, but our spirits still yearn for our desert town and the Grand Hotel. Its broad veranda was the place of so many moments. Our engagement, our wedding and the christening of our children all took place there and it's a fair bet that the children's conception took place at that hotel as well. We may have made a new home in global but when the gold dried up in Kookynie and when the town started to die I started to die with it. If the life blood of that town was gold, then gold was in my blood too.
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My first serious piece: http://www.ubersite.com/m/75291
User Reviews
Submitted by Beer_bong (user info) at 2005-11-03 04:00:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Kookynie is a funny word. I'm not reading the post, but I like saying kookynie.
Koooooooookyyyyyyyynieeeeeeeeeeee
Submitted by crazyaardvark (user info) at 2005-11-03 03:34:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Not bad, not bad.
A few comments though
1. Avoid cliched phrases, eg "This little town is in my blood". There is always a better way of saying something than a cliche.
2. Some of the sentences could be shorter for impact. Your short sentences say a lot more than the longer ones: "There is no post office", "I understand that my son is right". They are emotional without screaming it.
Submitted by bitterlemon (user info) at 2005-11-03 03:16:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
this was quite good.
between +1 and +2 but i'll give you the benefit since i liked your other posts
Submitted by jeveuxgagner (user info) at 2005-10-25 03:30:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
thanks for the comments faidel.
the whole date thing is an issue.
also you're right about the urbanisation, i don't really know how to get around it but i have to change that shit.
Submitted by Faidel (user info) at 2005-10-25 03:17:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It wasn't the "Kicker of all asses" but it did more than make me smile. Plus I like you. And I want to balance out LordoftheIronicNames. He irks me. Same sorta way that a disfiguring rash on someone else's face would. It's uncomfortable, and something the world doesn't need, but easy enough to ignore.
Back to your writing, the perspective was good although I dunno how convinced I was that it really was someone in their 70's (which would put the time of writing at circa 1960? Didn't the writer say they moved there in 1894?). However Australia, and possibly a lot of other places in the world are full of these sorts of towns. It's not really a result of globalisation, but more so of urbanisation. People move away from the country to the cities to find opportunities.
Keep writing.
Submitted by Dead_0hi0_Sky (user info) at 2005-10-24 13:58:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
what, no cowbell?
denied.
Submitted by Average_Dan (user info) at 2005-10-24 13:48:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by jeveuxgagner (user info) at 2005-10-23 20:30:25 (#)
Ranking: 2
well i've got nothing even vaguely relevant to linkwhore to this
good post.
-=-=-=-=-=
AAAHHHAHHAHAHAHHAH!
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2005-10-24 09:48:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Needed more sex, drugs and decadence.
Sorry, had to be done though.
It was ok.
Submitted by jeveuxgagner (user info) at 2005-10-23 22:01:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
because the other title was shit and i posted it at like 2am or some shit.
sorry
Submitted by Whiplash (user info) at 2005-10-23 21:56:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Why did you post this twice?
Submitted by jeveuxgagner (user info) at 2005-10-23 21:32:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
yes, i am overly sensitive. But its ok, my daddy hits me when i cry and im learning.
thanks for telling me what you really thought even if you couldn't help calling me a 3rd grader which, i might add, is one of the most horrible insults i've been the target of.
Submitted by Xcuses (user info) at 2005-10-23 21:29:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I only got as far as the first sentence.
Submitted by lordofthedance (user info) at 2005-10-23 21:26:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
This is honestly rated. I didn't like it. Why post it twice? Not getting enough attention? I like how it "explores the effects of globalisation". Seriously, it didn't do that at all. In fact, I think it was more designed to explore the effects of poorly written 3rd grade papers on my sensitive eyeballs.
Anyway, I'll leave you alone now. You seem overly sensitive and take to heart everything internet strangers on an anonymous forum say.
I'll change my rating to -1 because it wasn't bad for a 3rd grader.
Submitted by jeveuxgagner (user info) at 2005-10-23 21:12:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
eat = it in retard language ok?
Submitted by jeveuxgagner (user info) at 2005-10-23 21:11:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
sometimes i take myself seriously, sometimes i don't
um
ok i give in
you're right
i am a retard
and whatever else you may call me.
also thanks for pointing out the spelling error.
dude, im sorry you don't like my stuff, seriously i am, but if you don't like eat feel free not to read it.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2005-10-23 21:11:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Just once I'd like to see honest ratings without
all the crap. Just once.
Submitted by lordofthedance (user info) at 2005-10-23 21:07:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
I am Australian you retard.
You've already posted this piece of shit once. I didn't rate it the first time because I didn't want you to get your knickers up in a bunch but then you had to post it again. Now my eyes are bleeding.
Your posts really suck and the saddest thing is you seem to be taking yourself really seriously.
I hate to correct spelling errors but Arguement = NO. Argument = YES.
Submitted by jeveuxgagner (user info) at 2005-10-23 21:00:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
lordofthedance, you're a prick
seriously, grow up,
just because you didn't get the joke for one of my post, got into an arguement with someone who liked it, and had a little tantrum doesnt mean you have to go around -2 ing everything i do
this is the post he didnt get
http://www.ubersite.com/m/77278
i dont blame him either, the main people who liked it were australians.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2005-10-23 20:57:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I gave this a +2 earlier today. It still deserves one.
Submitted by lordofthedance (user info) at 2005-10-23 20:54:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Post your school project somewhere else dork.
You get an "F" for fuckwit.