Leo, Roving Reporter
Report from: My desk
Story filed: The Bathurst Arms Fair
Hi folks, Leo here. A couple weeks ago me and a friend of mine (and as children under 18 years old had to be accompanied by an adult) my mum went to the Bathurst Arms Fair down at the showgrounds. This wasn't the first time we've been, we went in 2019 before Covid. As one would guess that there were a lot of firearms, and well, one would also be correct in saying there were A LOT of firearms - from flintlocks to lever actions, bolt actions and some modern things that go bang. It wasn't just a room full of guns, well it kinda was but there were swords, bayonets and knives galore, which were all very cool (and expensive) but my favourite thing was going though all the old military surplus stalls and checking out the cool clothes. One stall in particular was really cool. They had a bunch of East German officer caps from the cold war, Not sure if they were original or replicas but they seemed pretty legit. One cap fitted my head like a glove but unfortunately they were out of my price range. My friend and I went around the stalls trying on different military hats and looking at some helmets and we agreed that there were some really good looking bits of gear. My mum was at the other end of the stall going through a rack of old military coats and shirts. Amongst them were British, Australian and East German naval coats and I think that these were all original. My favourite was the East German naval coat. It would have made an excellent winter coat for the cold weather, unfortunately again like the officer's cap we did not purchase it (I think everything there was a bit overpriced as it was 80 bucks a coat. I don't know, maybe I'm just Scrooge McDuck?). On our way out we passed one last clothes stall - nothing too interesting about this, but there was a lovely original 1973 RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) coat that caught my mum's attention. She showed me and I thought it was quite interesting too, I tried it on and it was a little big and missing one brass button. Apart from that it was reasonably priced, looked good on and I could grow into it and it would be great for winter. The Arms Fair was a lot of fun; I got to hang out with one of my best friends and I had a really good time. Anyway, I've got to head off now as I need to pick up a 1973 RAAF coat from the dry cleaners.
Until next time
Leo Roving Reporter
