So I went looking online for some information about my Grandfather,
Clayvel 'Jack' Badcock, just to see what sort of a write-up he's got.
There's a great image of him on a 1930's cigarette card...
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Its got me thinking a lot about the whole Australian obsession with sport(s) and how different, and in fact 'opposite' French culture is with its grand tradition of Art, Intellectualism and Beautiful Objects!
Australians seem to feel more comfortable with the humility and humble state of the human condition, always seemingly aiming for homogeny and the safety of mainstream popular culture. Why are we such an insecure culture? Why always a trend towards wanting to be someone else, or deriding our own points of origin...?
I think also it's the fact that I'm in Melbourne at the moment and it's a city which always makes me aware of the power of conservatism, even in the most multicultural of metropolitan environments! I keep seeing pairs or groups of people, men, women, kids...all dressed as each other, matching! Is life so very frightening that people here feel that safety is in wearing black, or copying Paris Hilton's latest Long-cardigan-and-slim-jeans-and-long-leather-boots-with-a-floppy-cap-and-big-shoulder-bag look?!
This brings me back to the floppy cap...the Baggy Green cricket cap my Grandfather is wearing in another of his Cigarette Card portraits (not included here). Its an iconic garment/accessory and its function is more symbolic than physical. I think of the two my Grandfather had, my cousin has one and the other is in the National Cricket Museum, if such a thing exists...I cannot remember where it is.
I have his travelling trunk from the 1938 World Tour to England via Europe and Egypt. If anyone is interested, my Grandfather made a silent film of the whole trip which is in the
National Film Archives and has been put on video. Its a really fascinating documented event...and my Grandfather being the sparky provocateur he was, has spliced in shorts of the local
Cataract Gorge in Launceston when it was in flood...right in the middle of the Swiss Alps!!
So I think what I'm really pondering here is how and where do I fit in to all of this...and how can it benefit the Teacosy* Revolution?!
There are aspects of my Grandfather's story that inspire me and that I wish to adopt and assimilate into the Revolution in order to keep a sense of diversity and inclusiveness, especially where sport is concerned...and yet it must not dominate the Revolution (the sport, that is!)...I will weave together a magic combination of Australian and French cultural sensibilities to create my ever growing Teacosy* Revolution Manifesto...which I really want some time to work on and get finished...life can be quite frustrating like this sometimes!
So we raise our tea cups to all the women and men in sport, and especially cricket, as they break for tea, mid-match, and enjoy the socio-cultural patina of an iconic pastime...Here's to you, Gamp*!
*Gamp was the name his first Grandchild gave Cleyvel 'Jack' Badcock, of Exton, Tasmania in the late 1960's!
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