Nambucca Heads in summer is hot, tempered by a north easterly which once cooled the town during the afternoon. Tourists with their terry towelling hats, pink zinc noses and double-plug thongs would descend on the beaches in the morning and then around lunch time arrive like a swarm of locusts in the main st, Bowra St.

A morning lying in the hot sun and surfing the breaking waves would create a hunger and thirst that was insatiable. The first port of call was generally the bakery.

At the time the bakers was the local example of the Holden Motor Car manufacturing plant.

It started after you walked down a flight of stairs to where the bread oven was located at the rear of the building. In this area was located a production line that churned out all manner of delights that could be made from flour, yeast, water, fat, salt, gravy and beef mince.

After the bread, pies and sausage rolls came out of the oven they were put on a trolley, then into the lift where they ascended towards their final destination, the shop window.

On this level there was another oven where the pastry cook created Chelsea buns, vanilla slices, cream horns, and a plethora of cakes, tea, sponge, fruit etc.

But the most sought after delicacy around holiday season was the cream bun.

At the height of the Christmas holiday season, around lunch time, there was always a queue of ravenous beach-goers lined up outside the bakery with the line extending west along Bowra St, past Graces Milk Bar and almost to Tommy Crockett's junk yard.

It was almost impossible to get a car park along Bowra St at this time of day. However, one particular vehicle always seemed to find a park directly outside the bakery, The Dunny Truck or Pan Man.

It was a truck designed for one purpose only - to transport overflowing pans of human waste from the outside toilets located at homes throughout 'The Heads' to a destination generally unknown by most residents.

Now, not only was there a swarm of hungry tourists outside the bakers but also a swarm of blowflies which always followed the truck as it made its hazardous journey up and down the steep slopes of the town.

Mr Loveday, the proprietor of this essential service, was an extremely courteous gentleman. On one particular occasion on a very rainy morning, a lady came out of her residence on a sloping site near the headland to find Messr Loveday prostrate on the footpath with the contents of the toilet pan covering his extremities.

The lady, obviously shocked, didn't know what to say, but Mr Loveday had a well rehearsed greeting for her, "It's a lovely day, madam!" He said in a very deadpan (lol) manner.

Mr Loveday loved his pies and cream buns for lunch. As his truck lurched to a stop the cargo which always threatened to spill onto the roadway took some time to settle. This gave the blowflies an opportunity to feast on the contents.

So we now had a situation which unbelievably did not dissuade the line of hungry tourists from pursuing their goal. Mr Loveday would wait in line, eventually receive his lunch and then get back into his truck.

No, he would not move off to enjoy his goodies away from the main street, but sit contently in his truck and enjoy his lunch.

On a boiling hot day in the middle January it was a smorgasbord of sights and smells. I will let you ponder on that for a moment!

The septic system eventually did makes its way to town but on the flipside many kids did teach themselves to read sitting in the outhouse with a newspaper and torch or a box of matches.

Peter Fuller, Nambucca Heads