Summer Nights, Silver Screens and the Family Stone's Next Big Idea

By Noni Hazelton, Special Correspondent

If there's one thing the people of Dabney Meadows enjoy almost as much as a good bargain, it's having something to talk about. Fortunately, this summer they're getting both.

The Family Stone Co-op, the town's largest grocery store and unofficial community meat market, has announced a partnership with the Hunka Hunka Burning Love Drive-In to deliver a season of outdoor movies, picnic suppers and summer treats that promise to keep locals entertained right through to autumn.

The collaboration was unveiled this week by Family Stone Co-op proprietor Dot Martin, second-generation owner of the beloved grocery store founded by her parents, Frank and Elsie Stone.

For those who are somehow unfamiliar with the store, the Family Stone Co-op sits at the heart of Dabney Meadows' life. It's where people buy their groceries, catch up on local news, discover who has been engaged, divorced, arrested or elected, and occasionally remember what they originally came in for.

Dot runs the business alongside her five adult children, a situation she cheerfully describes as "mostly organised chaos. People think because we're family, we all agree on everything," Dot laughed."That's because they've never seen us decide where to stack the tinned peaches."

The announcement comes as the Co-op launches its annual Spring Sale of Winter Stock, a tradition nearly as old as the store itself. Shelves are being cleared of soups, puddings, hot chocolate mixes and cold-weather comforts to make room for the store's new Summer Siesta Range, a collection of foods designed for long lunches, lazy afternoons and warm evenings outdoors.

Customers can expect barbecue favourites, picnic hampers, fresh salads, local produce, ice creams, chilled drinks and enough snacks to sustain a small football club.

Or, as Dot puts it, "Everything you need for a good summer except sunscreen and common sense."

The Summer Siesta Range will play a starring role in the Co-op's partnership with the Hunka Hunka Burning Love Drive-In, which plans to screen a series of classic films, family favourites and crowd-pleasers throughout the season. Moviegoers will be able to purchase specially prepared picnic packs and movie-night treats supplied by the Co-op.

Hunka Hunka Burning Love owner Barry "The King" Kingsley says the idea grew out of countless conversations between customers, "People would buy snacks at the Co-op and then head straight to the Drive-In anyway," he explained. "We figured we might as well save them the trip and supply the picnic treats all here...on site."

The first movie night is expected to draw visitors from across the district, with organisers hopeful that the program will become an annual summer tradition. The excitement has already generated plenty of discussion around town. Will the movie be Jaws 3 or Spaceballs? Barry isn't saying...just yet.

Outside the post office on Tuesday morning, local resident Irene Dobson described the collaboration as "the most exciting thing to happen since the bakery accidentally ordered two hundred kilograms of maraschino cherries."

Meanwhile, retired mechanic Ron Barker expressed enthusiasm for the Drive-In's return to prominence, "Movies are good," he said. "But honestly, I'm just going for the choc tops and seeing who turns up with who."

As for Dot Martin, she's pleased to see the community coming together. The Co-op has weathered droughts, floods, supermarket chains, economic downturns and more than a few family dramas over the decades.

One particular family drama remains something of a local mystery. Asked whether the store's success might convince her former husband to return after famously leaving town years ago with what locals still refer to as "that woman from the caravan park," Dot smiled politely before changing the subject to tomatoes. Her children, meanwhile, suddenly became very interested in stacking oranges. Some topics, it seems, remain off the record.

What isn't a secret is the pride the Martin family takes in serving the community that has supported them for generations.

Open seven days a week from 6am until 6pm, the Family Stone Co-op continues to supply everything from groceries and gardening supplies to birthday cakes, emergency milk runs and unsolicited life advice.

Now, thanks to a new partnership with the Hunka Hunka Burning Love Drive-In, they're also helping deliver what may be Dabney Meadows' most memorable summer in years.

Bring a blanket. Bring an appetite. And if you're hoping to avoid town gossip, perhaps bring a disguise as well.

#Storytelling #LGBT #QueerFiction #ImmersiveExperience #SmallTownMystery #AustralianFiction #SerialStory #ArchivalJourney

Daz James

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