A 90th birthday without the guest of honour - His life , my memories

When birthdays come around I sometimes wonder what type of person they would have aged in to.
No doubt he would  still  be throwing orders around and more than likely still loving an alcoholic beverage of some sort. And if he was in a nursing home he would  con someone to bring it in for him.

My father was born on 26th August 1927 so this year I wish  we could celebrate his 90th birthday, with him as the guest of honour.

He was born in Bendigo, the son of Bertha and Daniel Kairn

The  brother of Marjorie ,who he adored. Oh yes they had their minor disagreements but he loved to drop in to check up on her and enjoy a cuppa or quickly thrown together meal.

 I do not know enough about his early years and those chats  are something that time did not allow. And there is no one left to fill in all those gaps.  I would think that school was not his most favourite place as he was the type of person who would rather learn in his own way. This report card shows that he certainly did not excel at all subjects

I know he was a Volunteer Plane spotter on one of the towers during the second world war

What drew my Mother to him ?
Due to them divorcing and the relationship having been destroyed for a long time prior to the divorce , that was a question that was never asked.
Why do we not ask these questions as it shows where we have come from and what makes us who we are.
In his younger days Gordon was a bit of a looker so maybe that was the attraction. At this time of his life worked at Bradford Mills in Kangaroo Flat and made some great long standing friends. In the early days they had some great social outings. I remember many long time friends arriving for the Sunday evening barbecue in the shed.

I wonder, if  Mum  knew that he was quite a drinker , if the marriage would have happened. I was told that this bit of information was kept away from her before the wedding.

 Four children, three girls and a boy were the result of this marriage ,born over a span of twelve years.


Speed was one of Dads favourite past times.
He loved motorbikes and fast cars and occasionally hit the ground or another object .

As a young betrothed woman, then a young bride Mum must have been so stressed not knowing if he had had an accident of some kind whilst out riding with mates.
Some of the stories old Jimmy told me made my hair curl about the way they used to ride.

A Panther motorbike similar to one that Dad rode. Jimmy an old friend of Dads who rode with him, gave me this photo.

Many times we went to the Calder raceway and watched the car races and if we weren't heading to Melbourne  we would attend races at the local race track held at what is now the show grounds.
Great fun to see the cars zooming around the track , creating mountains of dust.
And often those cars would end up in our wrecking yard.



Dad was before his time and was recycling before "recycling " became a buzz word.
But back then, we needed to repair and re use things. So there was a definite market for second hand car parts.
He leased a yard and office space in Bendigo where he set up his wrecking business .
Prior to this he was in the suburb of Kennington where he had a few cars scattered around their rented property.

I loved going in to the workshop in Bendigo. I remember going down the rickety stairs to the cellar and climbing up in to the old shed out the back which housed an old boat.
Cullen's fruit shop was a few doors down and the bottle yard was across the road.
Joan was the book keeper and there were a few grease monkeys working on the cars.

Lyttleton Terrace Bendigo

I can't remember how many years the business operated out of this shop but the next move was to a large block of land in Flora Hill. Dad turned his hand at building his huge shed, complete with office, mechanics pit and toilet block. We all had a hand in holding  the massive steel poles while the concrete was poured around them, or making the huge roof trusses . The lift up door was interesting as strong winds would play havoc with it as you were attempting to pull it down and sometimes the wind would blow it off its tracks. This parcel of land was in three titles so the shed was on one, the house on the middle one  and the third and all areas around the buildings were covered by cars.

The view of the back yard, and this was tidy . At one stage we had cars balancing three high. They were a challenge climbing in them.

Dad was clever. And I always remember him tinkering with something. If Dad  could not find the tool that was required for a specific purpose he would just have a go and make it himself. And most times he was successful. In those days many business transactions were  carried out by handshake  and a lot of payments were paid in goods needed or perhaps not needed but taken anyway. A small pony was the result of one such payment and possibly another was a large wooden hulled boat which took up a massive amount of room in the shed.
Whenever there was a travelling circus in town we would be given tickets to the shows and if we went with Dad we were allowed to visit around the caravans afterwards . The showies always liked to use Dads knowledge of repairing bits and pieces.

We always had interesting machinery arriving in the yard. One day we could hear the steam roller in the distance being driven up the hill and it stayed on our nature strip for quite a few years. A Bren Gun carrier was another arrival; goodness knows what job he did to be paid with a Bren gun carrier. Or he may have been reading the For Sales . Maybe he thought it may come in handy one day.
A very useful purchase was a large bus. The seats were pulled out and replaced with bunks. Dad was clever like that. It sat out on private property at Lake Eppalock for a while . So we had a few camping holidays out there. I have no memory of it being sold but I guess it must have been.
A favourite creation was the little jig to go behind Trixie. A nice burgundy red colour with little rubber tyres. We travelled around the neighbour hood enjoying the era of horse and cart, or in this case pony and jig. It was always a favourite to head over to see Auntie Marj, and try to keep Trixie away from her garden. Sadly the cart was wrecked after Trixie wrapped it around a power pole

Dad did teach us girls a few things about cars. Some days we were able to help him as we could  grab tools that he needed . I wonder how females would have been treated back then if any of us had decided to be mechanics. I would be curious to know  if females even were allowed to apply for "male " dominated jobs in the early 1970's.

Dad loved his cars and always had a passion for Jaguars. Many "dead " Jaguars littered the yard.

He was certainly before his time and obviously did not have the confidence or foresight into the way the future would go. We drove a Toyopet ; a very modern car back then  It had been used at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics to drive the Japanese  officials around. I can't remember when Dad took possession of it. Funny though, I do remember falling out of it. Yes a silly little girl who opened the door while the car was in motion. Only slowly mind you as we were entering a family friends property.  Toyota was not a well known car company in Australia the 1960's. Dad was  asked if he would be interested in selling Toyota cars but his answer was " Who would want to buy Japanese cars " Yes the war was still in many peoples minds back then. And look at how popular Toyota cars are now !
I really wish we had photos of his Ford. You see it was converted to gas. Yes, a gas powered car in the 1960's. And the cylinder sat on the front seat. He really cared about safety. !!
He never marketed it  as his answer was why would people want gas powered cars.
Just think what could have been !
When there was talk of creating a Flying Club he was one of the first to put his money on the table. He was a founding member and his name is on a board hanging on the wall at the members clubhouse. The club is still going strong.

Quite a few useful and decorative wrought iron furniture pieces were made by Dad.  I think we all have something made with the twisted steel, whether it be something for outside or an inside piece. He was meant to make the metal railing to go around the front verandah and also the back steps but that never happened . Luckily no one fell off. But at least the one for the back verandah was made..

One piece of equipment he made and I loved to use, was a "hot wire " table. It probably did not fit all regulations but that was never a concern to Dad. The hot wire was used to slice through poly styrene to make shapes. He made many advertising signs for businesses and some very colourful Christmas decorations. I loved cutting out the decorations, but you had to go quickly and smoothly or else the wire would melt a hole in the poly styrene .

He also tinkered in beaten copper , and some of those were hanging in some businesses around the town.
In his later years his vegie garden contained some interesting plants. We use to ask "What on earth is fennel ? " And he grew heaps of it.  And all the funny named herbs. Yes, foods that are now popular in five star restaurants.
He enjoyed making tomato sauce or versions of sauces. I was cautious when it came to taste anything. Once he invited us into the laundry to see his latest batch and offered us a bottle. We declined as we could see the insects sitting on top as the lids were not yet on. He had no idea they were there as  his eyes were not that good ! His potted meat was something that I stayed away from. All sorts of meats were minced up to go in to the mix. I remember that big cream bowl with bricks weighing the top down so the contents would press in to a solid shape.

Dad always had a prolific vegie garden.

He had charcoal pits so he could make his own charcoal to use in his forge. I have no idea if he sold it to others  but I imagine he would have had a market for it somewhere.

He was always using equipment for uses that it was not designed for. He used his welder to cut steel, which apparently is something that you didn't do. And he owned an oxy set so no idea why he did not use that !
He loved having animals around him. His dog and pigeons, and Trixie the small pony lived to a great age.
He lost his licence in the  early 1970's so made friends with many bus drivers. He also walked a lot and had various watering holes along different routes that he took.
One of the biggest fights he had was with the local council.
As the town grew out and houses popped up around the business, then complaints about visual impact started.
The pressure that the council put on him was enormous. Many requests for higher fences so the neighbours could not see the contents of the yard. It was a fight that went on for many years with Dad travelling to get legal help outside of Bendigo as it was a closed shop in his home town.
And more people around meant more theft. Quite often people would scale over the back fence and help themselves to what they wanted.
In his final years he moved in to a variety of boarding houses but still maintained his workshop. His house was long sold but at least he still had somewhere to tinker. He had an old caravan in the shed so he could sit somewhere comfortable and enjoy a cuppa. Whenever you visited him at the shed he would offer a drink and a biscuit. You quickly learnt not to have anything as the biscuit was inevitably quite stale as the packet was left open.
He was a person who in his later years, loved looking after others.
There was always Christmas turkeys to hand out to greatful recipients. A delivery job that took many hours and many beverages to down along the way.

You often wonder what would have been. What would life be like if history had gone another way. Would he still be requesting drives around town all the time ?Would he still be tinkering ? I wonder how he would have coped with the growth of technology.   Would he have loved the internet ? I would imagine he would enjoy researching things using google.

I have friends who are lucky enough to be celebrating their parents 90th bithdays .
And I have friends, like me, who have been living without their parents in their lives for sometime.
No parent  celebrations.
No reason to have that big party.
No longer able to learn about family history

This was the end result of a light plane crash at Bendigo . No idea of the date