March 1973, the headlines inside the chapter
Vietnam, Women March, Dark Side of the Moon
At the Wagga Baths and in the schoolyard, Christian hears clocks ticking, voices calling for pride, and news that feels heavier than the heat. The month is crowded with change. Below is the real history woven through March, with what happened and why it presses on the chapter’s air.
29 March 1973 ~ Last US troops leave Vietnam
What happened: The final US & Australian combat troops were withdrawn from Vietnam, ending over a decade of direct military involvement. Newsreels framed it as the close of an era, though debates about duty and sacrifice kept running.
Why it matters here: At school assembly, Mr Kelleher’s speech on “pride” echoes the headlines. Christian hears the phrase combat troops withdraw and feels its double edge, a victory claimed, but with graves fresh in the cemetery he walks past each morning.
18 March 1973 ~ Women’s Commission in Sydney
What happened: International Women’s Day rallies and marches brought thousands into Sydney streets, calling for equal pay and an end to workplace discrimination. Newspaper photographs showed placards and young women leading chants.
Why it matters here: In Wagga, Maggie rinses her blouse and folds shirts in silence. Christian senses the gulf between the language of pride and duty voiced by men like Kelleher and the quieter work and endurance shaping his own house.
Pop culture in the air
Pink Floyd released The Dark Side of the Moon this month, a record whose clocks, voices, and uncanny calmness slipped from London into Wagga’s poolside speakers. Teenagers everywhere heard it as new, strange, and immense.
Why it matters here: Christian does not know its name at first. He just hears clocks and questions while water drags him under at the Baths. Later, a Year 10 boy’s tape recorder repeats the same sounds in the library, confirming it wasn’t a hallucination. Music here doesn’t entertain, it pierces, and lingers in his notebook.
Why these headlines deepen the story
March is a month of endings and echoes. Australia closes its Vietnam chapter, but the rhetoric of sacrifice lingers in classrooms and assemblies. Women march in the city, while in Wagga silence still weighs heavier than change. Local heat and noise, bins, cicadas, Baths, press on boys’ skin as much as belts or whistles. And over it all, a new album asks strange questions that Christian does not yet answer, but cannot stop hearing.