Cheese Ums

Long ago you could buy Cheese Ums Pringles , you know those fancy chips that come in a cylinder all stacked on top of each other. Then for some reason they stopped importing just one flavour - Cheese Ums , the ones in the orange pack , why on earth they did this I will never know ( unless I mail them I spose ) , years passed and I missed my cheesy friends immensely , sometimes I would try the red packet or the green one in a vain hope they just changed the packaging but alas Cheese Ums were gone......
Then came the age of the internet and I discovered that Cheese Ums still existed in the real world , it's just that they weren't making to our shores.
Often I would get confused and ask myself " why why why ? " while wandering aimlessly in the snack foods isle at Coles in Woy Woy , surely this was a cruel and unusual form of punishment
A couple of week back I was in one of those cheap arse stores that sell cheap arse crap for 2 dollars , some of these stores also sell out of date or damaged food stock.
Then like a beacon I noticed a familiar shade of orange ......could it be ? yes like an Indiana Jones Lost Treasure there they were - a whole shelf full of Cheese Um Pringles
Trembling , I examined the container , for I would not be fooled again and get stuck with some weird ass Pringles flavour , the wording was in some kind of Asian language , I scanned the store for an Asian person to translate the text for me ..... no luck there.
Surely the orange colour was a standard Pringles colour that bounded all languages and denoted that cheesy heaven lay inside , I bit the bullet and decided that 1 dollar would be have to be invested in my search for the truth.
Later that night I opened the can of Pringles and was soon swimming in a familiar euphoria of cheese laden delight that I had not experienced since the mid 90's - nirvana at last !
I have decided to keep the location of such Pringles secret from those who would buy up all of my favourite fare , so just sit there and drool at the supplied photo - you ain't gettin buckelys out of me !

Feedback

A few weeks back I received an email from Esse Newman a descendant of the Davis family from Blackwall and Davistown. Esse had seen my article on Rock Davis the shipbuilder in a recent edition of the Peninsula News and was after any information I had. Esse was tracing back her family tree as a gift to her grandmother Rhys Davis and I passed on what I had , most of my story came from the memoirs of Ephraim Ward which were re told in Swancotts book Good Old Woy Woy , this book and others he penned are invaluable research tools.
My mother purchased these books in the 60's from the man himself , in fact she used to wheel me in the pram down to his house in Booker Bay and sit there and listen to his stories with me on his lap , the books I now use are signed copies and are very rare.

And last night I received an email from Dave Coggins who was researching his relatives, Jerry and Addie Mahony , funnily enough my last article for the paper mentions this colourful old Woy Woy character who seemed to attend every town event.

Dave also sent me a link to the website he has built which contains photos and stories about his family in Woy Woy in the 1900's , Addie Mahony had guest houses at Spion Kop and then Woy Woy Bay , the site is an absolute treasure trove of old time reminisences and photos of the old Railwayview guesthouse , definately worth a visit so do click on this link , you won't be disapointed http://www.mahony.id.au/

Thanks Dave