Ben wanted to know why, a couple of weeks before, I had painted peace signs on the road up and around the hill across from the house.
"Just for a laugh mainly", I said, "and the really funny part was getting busted by the Mayor of Mosman Park as I was finishing the last one".
It was a hot summer night in 1985 and I was walking down Bay View Terrace on my way home from a cocktail party at Alex's house when the idea came to me...
Still dressed in my oversized black tux, and barely able to walk in a straight line, I took a 4 litre can of white paint a 3" brush and painted my way back up the hill.
2 hours later exhausted elated and covered in paint I had painted 32 peace signs on the broken centre white lines.
My joy was short lived, the only car I had seen all night was coming towards me.
It was the local newsagent out delivering the Sunday papers. The local newsagent who was also the fucken mayor! Shit...
He was pissed off, he was so pissed off he grabbed my paint can and tipped it out over the adjacent bowling green... It was at this point that I ran down that hill and into my bed.
The mayor might not have liked my work, but the public did...
Ben must have liked this story as he wrote about it in his first novel Stark, a great dystopian novel populated by pastiches of Fremantle characters.
The main character was called Colin who to gain the attention of the love interest Rachel paints dolphins on the road.
I did claim responsibility for my actions with this hand delivered letter of confession...
So there you have it, my 15 minutes of fame...
