Background InformationAre you old enough to remember “Spotto”? It was a game devised in the 50’s by the Caltex motor oil company to amuse the kiddiwinkles on the annual summer forced relocation from Melbourne to Uncle Cyril’s and Auntie Maude’s place in Kickatinalong, a nondescript seaside village somewhere near Queensland.
The FC Holden would be as hot as a bastard as there was no airconditioning in those days and the combination of the clear plastic cover on the upholstery and the emission of bodily fluids and gaseous vapours was a lethal clag-like recipe for stickiness and whingeing.
Father’s mantra, complete with eye-popping, grimacing and vein-throbbing was “If youse kids don’t pipe down, I’ll stop the car and then you’ll know what a thrashing is!” This was normally after he’d given out a few summary backhanders for practice.
Ah memories, good times.
Anyway, Caltex’s answer to this was to amuse the rugrats by providing a form that was available at petrol stations listing items to identify en route. The happy little vegemites would cheerfully shout “Spotto – Tractor!” or “Spotto – Man with Hat!” and be amused for 200 miles or two minutes whichever was the lesser.
If all this has given you a warm nostalgic feeling, and a longing for days when men were men and cars weren’t airconditioned, you can view the Spotto form here….>
Digression. A lady radio announcer on 4BC described her car travel adventures as a kid and the ultimate in backseat whinges – “Mum! Darryl’s looking out my window!” You can imagine the whine in the voice and the propensity for instant beating.
What has this got to do with SMB?
Patience: all will be revealed. (Can someone suitably anal please advise me what the difference in usage between the half colon and full jobbie is?)
An element of the bizarre rituals is the promenade. The promenade occurs after the immersion, which occurs after the invocation of Martina Navratilova’s name.
The promenade is not only designed for its exercise value and to show off the figure, it is also a reconnaissance mission to seek out the white pointer, normally exhibited in pairs. The rules are as follows:
The first person to shout “Spotto!” may be eligible to claim points.
- A pair equals two points, one point for a singleton.
- If you can’t see ‘em; you can’t call ‘em.
- A “Spotto” call that is found to be not of the correct gender reduces the claimer’s score by two points.
- A majority of participants may revoke an ugly “Spotto”
- The person with the most points on the return to the northern flag area wins.
- Leering, pointing,leaping in the air and shouting “Phwoar” are discouraged and may result in disqualification. Discretion please.
Lean times in Spotto this year.
Six points in Baja, not Mooloolabaja
Filed under: Bizarre Rituals
