The Land Before Avocado

If you want to know about Australia's recent past, you do not need to travel there; it's all here, written with an objectivity and wit that will both shock and amaze, especially those of younger years who will be astonished by the descriptions of the times. They may even battle to think them possible. This is a tale of Australian society but it goes to show how repressed and suppressed peoples have been due to the authority of governments everywhere due to stigma, prejudice and particularly the premise that the heterosexual white man is in charge. Not everywhere by any means but mercifully, this control is now being questioned as societies around the world where people can and do object, where they can achieve a greater equality for those previously yet all too recently, who were marginalised. Long may the movement continue. This is a testament to those movements and a window into Australia's diverse peoples.

I was born in the land of Oz one decade before Glover, and so was a child in the 50s, a teen in the 60s and young adult in the 70s. I can certainly confirm to his doubting-Thomas son that the picture painted of Australia in this period is true. There were some cultural idiosyncrasies in this book that evaded my life, and my partner hadn't heard of such things either, but this was only a very small part of these entertaining, historical musings on a country that had not yet come of age. I can truly identify with the condoned corporal punishment of school children during this unenlightened period. My aunt tells the tale of simultaneously being issued with a primary school class and a leather strap in her first teaching job (happy to say, she never used this weapon on her unsuspecting little wards). I clearly remember the fear instilled in me when one pedant lined up and strapped everyone who didn't know the answer to a maths problem. Needless to say, hearing this weapon cruelly connecting with children's hands wasn't condusive to giving a correct answer when my turn came around. Richard Glover's book brings back memories of antiquated laws, doubtful heroes and biased attitudes. One can see why Australia was not recognised in the world arena, and yet reading this brings back nostalgia for a time lost. It was not all as bad as it sounds. Read this and be either absorbed or amazed (depending on what era you've come from).

I laughed so much on the trip down memory lane and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Would have recommended it to everyone. The last couple of chapters though lacked the same humility humour and balance. Turned into political rhetoric quite unexpectedly and unnecessarily. We can think and conclude for ourselves. Pity, really.

This book is so delightful and funny. It is so true and brings back so many memories. You can’t put it down. It should be on every bookshelf or iPad. I love it, so glad my neighbour recommended it.

Sad and funny and true. I lived it. Born in 1942 I can relate to most of the social mores, news stories, fashion disasters and hypocrisy.And yet I still maintain I had a terrific childhood up to the age of 10 years. Grandparents next door or nearby, my mother's sister like a second mother, cousins like siblings; living in a dead end suburban street where the neighbours' gates were used as Rounders' bases; the milkman, the breadman, the greengrocer all delivering and the corner stores which gave credit.I still have a friend of 73 years from those days. She attended the kindergarten my mother ran from home during World War 2.A back yard of fruit trees, and ducks and chickens and Grandad's bountiful vegetable garden next door.Saturday afternoon movies at the Sun Theatre cost 9 pence to go in and 6 pence to spend and 6 pence bought aniseed dumbells, ripe raspberries, milk shakes and black cats. Occasionally someone would drop a bag of Jaffas and they'd go rolling away towards the screen down the sloping concrete floor.Mr. Feldt supervised voilent or romantic action on the low slung canvas seats.The family of brothers who manned the Rising Sun bus service knew where we lived and dropped us safely home even if we'd lost our bus money..Picnics and swimming at Bluewater and Blackwater Creeks, now probably infested with crocodiles as indulgent greenies have permitted their spread as far south as Proserpine.Staying overnight with my friend at her family zoo and watching her Dad ride the old crocodile; trying to catch an emu and ride the billygoat. Or weekending with her family at "The Bohle" where mud crab catches were so bountiful they were boiled up in the backyard copper.And wonderful Magnetic Island where we spent 4 weeks each Christmas with extended family in a beach shack whose windows were pushed out and then propped by poles. We took live ducks and "chooks" on Hayle's ferry with a luggage pile like intending migrants.Even as a child I was aware of some dark elements under the surface and the hard time my mother had boiling up washing in the old copper, but the security of attending the same school from the age of 4 to 18 under the watchful eyes of family, friends and neighbours gave me a confidence that was true wealth and has permitted me to live an adventurous life without fear.

My only complaint is I wanted it to be longer. What amazing memories of driving without seatbelts, smoking on planes and the stitched up attitudes prevalent in suburban Australia in the 60’s and 70’s. And, youngsters, it’s all true. Most entertaining.

So true.......unfortunately the author, because of his age couldn’t go back to the 30’s and 40’s.Lots of laughs.

This is a comic review of Australia in the 1970s. Glover begins in 1970 in Canberra, Australia, when Gus decided to put chairs outside his café so that his customers could enjoy pavement dining. It was illegal at the time, and the police were called. The public debate became known as The Battle of the Chairs, and Gus won. Gus’s café still exists today.This book has a million stories of 50 years ago in Australia, when life was different – Glover takes a look back at what used to be. Some things were serious then: women couldn’t get a bank loan, school canings were regular punishments, no-fault divorce did not exist, women had to resign from their job after marriage, human rights didn’t respect the rights of all humans, sewerage stank, and the life expectancy was 12 years lower.But there was a lot of joy too: kids could play all day – just ‘be back by dusk’ – children played ten different sporting games all in one day, the ice-cream van arrived regularly, films were shown outdoors on large screens, and packing twenty people into a Volkswagon car was not illegal.Interspersed throughout the book are interesting black-and-white photographs. The book is nostalgic and often hilarious, and sometimes embarrassing, but mostly mildy amusing – was it really like that? Well, yes, it was. Thank goodness for cultural revolutions and progress. This is a good book for a laugh, and to see how much has progressed, but also to see how much further we need to progress.

“We didn’t even have iceberg lettuce. Well, we did – but it wasn’t called iceberg lettuce. It was just called lettuce. The reason? There were no other kinds.”The Land Before Avocado is a book by Australian radio presenter and best-selling author, Richard Glover. In it he explores life in Australia during the time in which he grew up, the mid-sixties through to the mid-seventies. He explains that recent conversations with incredulous millennials about things both common and rare during that time led him to research the accuracy of his memories.He starts with a clever little warning in the Smart Traveller website style which neatly summarises the land before avocado. And then he goes into detail. He “surfs the sea of happy nostalgia” but wonders if it was really all so great. Apparently, older Australians are particularly likely to say the past was paradise, but maybe that’s because they themselves were then younger, fitter, more attractive, with knees that didn’t creak.There's plenty in this book that will raise millennial eye brows and stimulate their scepticism, not the least of which being parenting and teaching philosophies that relied on corporal punishment, and the illegality of outdoor tables at cafes. Meanwhile, readers over fifty sagely nod in agreement that yes, they remember it well (if not always fondly), and mentally add their own experiences.In telling us what there was and wasn’t in the land before avocado, Glover cites many examples about food, clothing, leisure activities, cost of living, and transport, and details some of the hilarious aspects of life in those years. In fact, he lists fifteen things worth reclaiming from the 70s, and many of that vintage will agree.But, lest we “indulge in deluded nostalgia” Glover also reminds us of the downside: the horrendous road carnage, archaic divorce laws, gender inequality, censorship, alcohol laws that virtually encouraged drink driving and binge drinking, people smoking everywhere, and an attitude to believing adults over children that gave paedophiles free reign. Certainly, if you were homosexual, Aboriginal, a migrant or Catholic, the late 60's/early 70’s wasn’t such a brilliant place to live.Glover challenges the belief that things are getting worse, more difficult, and more violent with hard facts, and he ends on a very optimistic note. But this book should definitely come with a warning: Do Not Read This Book whilst consuming food or drink, whilst travelling in the quiet carriage on public transport (as your guffaws may disturb other travellers), and, for readers of a certain vintage, with a full bladder. A hugely entertaining read.

Not a bad read, but perhaps too old for someone younger than 50 (in 2023).There were some funny elements, mainly truths that when reminded about them, they inspire you to laugh.Some hard times too, in the 1970s.

The book certainly covered the 60s a 70s well and it was an enjoyable read and memoir of how things were back then. However, I do have one complaint and this was the way Richard maligned the writer van danikin. He has no right to cal the man a thief and fraud. I challenge Richard to visit some of those huge monuments in South America and then try to agree that the natives cut such large stones. Some of the stones are too big to be lifted even now. Van Danikin never said the aliens built these huge megalithic, he just suggested that maybe another earlier civilisation built the..

I bought this book based on the blurb. It sounded great. It was okay but it was not worth the kindle price.The reviews describe it as 'Hilarious, laugh-till-you-weep stories, very entertaining' - I don't agree. I didn't weep with laughter, nor did I find anything hilarious.It did bring back memories of the Australia I knew as a child - but the overall tone of the book was to denigrate 'then' and 'laud' now. At one stage the book discusses the Australian Cultural Cringe, then makes that cringe alive and well in the author's current perspective of our history.I was disappointed and basically feel I wasted my money.

For one who was in his 20’s and 30’s during the 70’s it was eye opening to be presented with so much that was wrong in our country. Fortunately it was revealed with great Australian humour characteristic of Richard Glover