On a recent shopping exhibition in a nearby town, my family and I stopped for lunch at our local KFC. As my husband stood in line for our order, I sat outside with the kids. My eyes scanned the car park behind us and it was then that a particular vehicle caught my attention. An old white van, dirtied with dust, and strangely hanging off the rear bumper, was a collection of rubber thongs.
Now, in Australia, thongs are not only those skimpy pieces of underwear, but also what we wear upon our feet. In some countries, they are known as ‘flip-flops’, but we know them as thongs. After all, it is only in Australia where you can compete in thong throwing!
Bemused by this strange collection, I wondered why anyone would want to have rubber thongs attached to the back of their car. Then it dawned on me that maybe this wasn’t just anybody, but none other than Mick Taylor. When my husband returned with the food, I mentioned it to him and he believed anything was possible out here. We were in a country town, surrounded by farmland and not far from that, acres of bushland of National Park. I had watched Wolf Creek and it gave me chills* – the thought of something like that happening out here, nobody would know. I turned my back upon the van which was beginning to remind of a particular scene from Silence of the Lambs and ate my lunch.
Our car was parked a short distance from the van and as I passed, I noticed whoever owned it had gone to great lengths to put them all on (and there were quite a few pairs). If this wasn’t Mick Taylor proudly displaying his trophies to the world (in which case, it was a good enough signal to stay the hell away), then I was puzzled by the whole idea – Mick Taylor or someone with a bizarre foot fetish? Either way, I got into the car and quickly closed the door behind me.
*Wolf Creek 2 is due to release across Australia on 20 February, 2014.
Are you a collector? Do you perhaps collect something a little out of the ‘ordinary’? Have you seen anything lately that fired your imagination? Did you watch Wolf Creek – what are your thoughts about the movie? Are you thinking of seeing Wolf Creek 2?
Image by Debbie Johansson
I couldn’t watch ‘Wolf Creek’- it creeped me out! That’s why I can’t read Steven King. But, I do have a thong collection – in the Aussie sense of the word – because I decorate them. I’ve pasted the pics on my twitter page. I like the one’s you’ve got on, Debbie, lol!
Hi Tima. Ha! I like what you did to your thongs. Unfortunately, those in the photo are starting to fall apart and they’re one of my favourite pairs. I know what you mean about Wolf Creek. There was one scene in particular that completely caught me by surprise and made me jump (I like to think I’m a seasoned veteran of the horror genre)! I might watch Wolf Creek 2 when it comes out on DVD – much safer. 😉