Two-Up

Today was ANZAC Day (today was? - even I get confused by the time difference between myslef and my audience), and they take it very seriously. ANZAC Day stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and is the equivalent of Memorial Day and Veterans Day combined. It began to commemorate the tragic defeat at Gallipoli during WWI, but has since expanded to include veterans of all wars as well as anyone who has or is serving in any branch of their military. It is also the only day of the year when it is legal to wager on Two-Up. Thus in the interests of social research, we boarded a bus and headed towards the Wooloomooloo Bay Hotel and the renowned Two-Up game there in. (I didn’t make up that name, and I can never quite pronounce it properly.)

We arrived downtown just in time for the big parade down George Street. We settled into the crowd in front of the Queen Victoria building and joined into happy applause as regiment after regiment passed in front of us. Nestled in between uniformed marching bands, groups of decorated veterans waved to the spectators, their faces beaming with pride and happiness. The vets wear their medals and decorations over their left breast. Family members may wear their ancestor’s medals, but only on the right side – lest they be accused of posing as a veteran to get free drinks later at the pub. Lots of people held hand made signs saying “Thanks” and shook hands with everyone they could. Almost everyone sported a small sprig of rosemary to commemorate Gallipoli, though no one I asked quite knew why.

It was the most smiles I have ever seen downtown at once.

There is a marked difference in attitude towards veterans here than in the United States. They are genuinely revered and given considerable unquestioned respect for having willingly taken on such rigorous assignments. The Returned Service Leagues are very active in the community and invest in youth outreach programs to ensure that the traditions of respect and honor are passed to the next generation through example. I know we have organizations such as the VFW, but it seems to me that they are more cloistered and exclusive rather than embracing the wider community.

After the parade, downtown was awash in sailors, soldiers, officers, and bagpipe players in full tartan regalia, including feathered hats, skirts, and long plaid cloaks. I never did find out exactly what branch of the service they represented, but they were a delight to behold. Perhaps they are a special forces regiment, called out in extreme situations to irritate the enemy with their noisy instruments of torture. A US destroyer was docked in the navy shipyards as part of the festivities, but I didn’t see any of our boys around. Perhaps they didn’t let them off the ship for fear of the renowned rowdiness of Australian servicemen after a day spent in the pubs. Indeed, most of the veterans were sporting broken noses, as much a badge of their service days as their medals.

We walked down to the wharf in Wooloomooloo – a collection of daggy pubs turned yuppie swank…except for the Bells Hotel. It’s still daggy. A lively game of Two-up was underway, as the crowd stood around with fistfuls of Australia’s brightly colored notes, hooting and cheering as they called out their wagers. Random members of the crowd were occasionally drawn into the center of the circle to run the game. Two coins are placed on a small flat stick, as gamblers shout out heads or tails and the amount of their wager, waiting for someone else to shout back and take their bet. But they don’t just shout their bet. They also just seem to shout and cheer just for the fun of making so much noise. Once the noise reaches a sufficient decibel level, the coins are flipped off the stick into the air. Whichever side of the coin has at least “two-up” wins, and then there is much shouting as the wagerers exchange money and immediately start yelling out their next bets.

Now, Australians are no strangers to gambling. There are pokie machines in every pub and you can wager on just about any sporting event, including women’s water polo. But it is only legal to gamble on Two-Up on ANZAC Day. It is a small tribute to the memory of how those poor bored soldiers passed their time on the beach while they were waiting to be massacred by the Turks. And I suppose it is otherwise illegal only because there is really no way for the government to get a cut of the action.