Where the hell is everyone?

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,27574,25051191-2862,00.html

[Herald Sun] 14 Feb 2009--The Marysville Bowls Club hums with chatter. It's open, finally, for the first time in 12 months. About 15 bowlers roll on the new drought-resistant grass.

Colin Paul, 83, a crack rifleman who served in World War II, watches. He is armed with walking sticks. A recent fall has slowed him down.

Paul is the oldest bowls club member. Like the youngest member, who is a year 9 student, he has less than eight hours to live.

The bowlers play a couple of games. It's 11am on Saturday. The sun is heating up.

John Cartwright, 78, goes home and gazes at the photo of his wife, Jean, on the lounge room wall. This is his daily ritual. She died a decade ago from cancer.

Jean is 19 in the shot, taken when they first met. Cartwright has never really recovered from her loss.

They were married in the 1950s, two locals in the "honeymoon town" to which Melburnians would bus for a weekend of tea and scones at English-style guesthouses.

The relics of the era endure. As does the mood.

Marysville, according to the official guff, is a "place to relax and unwind".