Spock Misses The Point

It took a while before either of us spoke.  He started the conversation by saying, “Waste of life eh?”  I said, “What was that?”  He was pointing out a young guy sitting on George Street with a sign, waiting for handouts.  The boy looked no older than 19 or 20, and in good health.  It was a mystery to both of us why that young man wasn’t looking for work.

He then said that there are a lot of country folks coming out to the big smoke looking for work, as a lot of families just couldn’t make ends meet.  The topic of the drought came out inevitably.  I mentioned I’d been to Hill End and was sad to see where the creeks used to be are just river beds.  Dead animals everywhere, trees barren and earth dusty.  He said he was in Hill End doing a bit of prospecting, only there was no water in the creek, so they had to bring the dirt to the nearest lake and then wash the dirt there.  Hard work.

I noticed a bit of country in his voice, so I asked if he had been in the city long.  It turns out he was a country boy.  His family sold the farm and went to Tamworth around the late 50s.  When that happened he started travelling all over the country, working as he moved along.  He had worked as a shearer, a carpenter, a postman, a cook on a ship, a miner, a fruit picker, and even a kangaroo shooter.  But when he first came to the city he trained as a morse coder.  He would transmit the telegrams using morse code.

He told me a story of the time he was living in Walgett, when he worked as the telegram coder / postman.  One day there was a big flood, and he was delivering telegrams to the Walgett hospital which was a bit of a way out of town.  He saw water at the bottom of a hill and rode his bike down, only to discover just how deep that water was.  The bike got washed away, and luckily he managed to scramble out of that water with the soaked telegram.  He made the delivery, got back to the post office, and the post master asked him where the bike was.  He told his story, and the post master decided that he was going to deduct two bob off his wage until he’d paid the bike off.  Keep in mind this guy is now 70 years old (yes, and drives a cab) - two bob back then is no laughing matter.  But as luck would have it, when the flood receded, he found the bike hanging on some wired fence somewhere.  Guess you never know your luck.

Apart from travelling around the country and working, he has also travelled overseas with some mates.  He plays golf, though not so much now.  The hip and knees are starting to give way at 70.  He still plays though, just not as much.  He taught his two sons how to play golf and tennis.  Yes, he has two sons.  7 and 10 I think.  Great story about how he met his wife too.  She got into his cab one day.  She got his number somehow.  He went overseas.  And upon his return, she rang him.  And eventually they got married.  He became a father at 60, and he seems proud and happy about it.  He said one day he was planning to retire and the next thing you know, he was married with kids.  So at 70 he is still driving cabs.

He still goes to the pub and sees his mates twice a week, although they used to meet at the pub every day.  He still likes it, as it lets him get away from the family a little, in a healthy way.

A good-natured, adventurous, worldly country-born Aussie.  True blue and warm.  I gave him a tip on the fare, we wished each other a merry Christmas and we went on our ways.

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