A Christmas Encounter with the Coppers in Surrey
Western Australian Zoe Healey shares her experience of meeting for the first time with the Copper family.
It was a strange experience for an Australian to see the Copper family in action. There sat a family who could trace their history back to the 1500s in the same town... whereas my family has only lived in my home town of Fremantle, Western Australia for three generations! Until I came to London, I had never seen a building or heard local history that was more than 150 years old... how could I possibly understand or empathize with the songs and stories of the Coppers?Well, as they say, you are fascinated by what you haven't got, and this seems true of Australian interest in the Copper family. I noticed on my third (sorry Garry) visit to the Copper family web site that it was hosted at my old university in WA, by someone who has never seen the Coppers perform, and lives on truly the opposite side of the world to Rottingdean.
And despite my claims to have nothing in common with the Copper family history, as Bill Bryson pointed out in his book 'Mother Tongue', the colonies (USA and Australia) actually speak an older form of English and hold to older English customs than the Mother country. Bob notes in his book 'A Song for Every Season' that his dad Jim referred to the dreaded outdoor lavatory as the 'dunnick'... and people claim that 'dunny' is an Australian term!
I saw in front of me a family that truly understood the 'mateship' that was essential for the survival of the Australian pioneers and is still a big part of the Australian nature... people who live of the land know the importance of family and friends. This kind of empathy is inherently taught to the next generation, I guess. And upon reading Bob's tales of the historic Copper schemes and the Rottingdean characters and pranks, I was reminded most of all of the Australian knack for entrepreneurial 'laziness' and practical jokes.
The Copper Family index
New: 29 March 2001 | Now: 29 March 2001 | Garry Gillard