>>253525After that visit to Broken Hill, I then went camping for a week down around the Mendinee Lakes area (see
>>253007) .. While I was there, I realised I'd forgotten something...
A few years after we met Jack in 1981, he did a television series about Safe Outback Travel (based on his book
>>253108)-- which then made him the household name in Australia.
In one episode, he says the most _essential_ piece of outback survival equipment that you must have when travelling in remote areas is... a deck of playing cards.
If your car/4wd breaks down seriously and you're stranded out in the middle of nowhere, he says the thing you must do is to first-- find some shade, sit down, boil the billy, and have a cup of tea while playing a game of Patience(/Klondike). It'll calm you down, you'll be able to think about things clearly... and some smartarse will appear out of nowhere and tell you to put the red 10 on the black Jack.
My younger brother Tim, who is now a Cop in the Northern Territory, has been repeating Jack's joke ad nauseum /constantly for the past 30 fucking years!/ .. I'm the camping guy in the family, and whenever I go on a trip, he'll tell me to bring a pack of playing cards without fail...
At Mendinee... I realised I /did/ have a pack of playing cards on me.
And it was Tim's birthday in a few days...
I made a change to my camping plans, and went straight back to Broken Hill, and to the Absalom Gallery again. I asked for Jack, and explained that I would like him to autograph the deck of cards-- turning them into Official Jack Absalom Outback Survival Playing Cards! :D (Suck on that, Bear Grylls!)
I posted the cards up to my brother, and when he go them he was over the moon-- everyone at the cop station was told the story about the cards, and our early brush with greatness with Jack Absalom...
