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JIMMY JONES – WHO WAS HE?

Glad you asked. 

And I wish I could answer.

But I’ll have a go anyway.

While Jimmy (James Henry Jones) was part of my life throughout my childhood, teens and early 20s I never really knew him. I don’t think anyone did – including Jimmy himself most of the time.

But he would have been one of the biggest and most mysterious characters of all time to me. When I was younger I always just took him for granted – but now that I am older and have had a chance to reflect and reminisce on my younger life – there he is, not exactly standing proud and tall – but there, VERY much a presence.

So who was he? There are a few facts which we do know about him. He was born in New Zealand (in 1885, apparently and I do recall him proudly describing the day of his birth as being the same day that they hung Ned Kelly – but I wouldn’t swear to that) but no-one knows anything about any family or much about his early life. My late father recalled that Jimmy came to us as a ‘cowboy’ in January 1945. Apparently he was drafted into the New Zealand Expeditionary Force when the Great War broke out, but then deserted, throwing away everything but the boots which he wore for life. And I mean for life – they were the only shoes of any sort I ever saw Jim wearing.

According to my father, Jimmy moved through various employment in different states, through which he accumulated a wealth of knowledge. He was a Seventh Day Adventist or Christadelphian and claimed to be a Russian Communist – apparently, shortly after he arrived at our station, my grandmother asked if he would like anything to read. His response? ‘Do you have any Judge Rutherford tracts?’ 

I do recall clearly that Jimmy was not a talker – at all. And when he did talk, the topic could be months or years after the event had taken place. An example of this was when he was being driven home from the local town (60 k) after his annual holiday. I believe he had been enjoying a drink or two – or three – or…  The journey was the usual completely quiet event but for Jimmy suddenly announcing his opinion about a friend who had died years before. ‘Clarrie dead hey! Best place for him, the sod – no hereafter for him!’ Guess they were not best friends. On the whole, Jimmy’s entire vocabulary could be counted on one hand – two at a stretch. His main words were: ‘Woosh. Woosh’ – to this day, no-one knows what it meant but it was Jimmy’s favourite line. He did also mention the weather on the odd occasion: ‘Hot, eh?’, ‘Cold, eh?’ or whatever was relevant.

His hygiene was not the best and we always knew when he had showered or bathed, or whatever he did – about once a year. He’d come to his meal (in the main station kitchen) and simply say: ‘Water hot’. That’s all it needed. We knew. Mentioned above are his boots – I was trying to remember his general wardrobe – or lack therein. All I can remember is a very old cloth cap (similar to those that I have seen coalminers in the UK wearing in the past, in films), a deep blue or brown denim jacket and long cloth pants, kept up with a string tied around his waist. As can be imagined from this – the poor old bloke did smell – badly.

His duties on the station did diminish over the years. Milking our cows was one of them – and it was quite the vision watching him after a day in the afore-mentioned local town – particularly when he tried to walk up a rise into a westerly wind. Something like this – not quite in a straight line and often backwards – for three steps forward, he would take one back. And the cows must  have enjoyed those particular milking efforts – very light on if at all!

My father recalled one particular evening when Jimmy asked one of the other employees what time the sun went down. Upon being answered, he’d tell them there would be a corroboree about an hour later. And sure enough – around the mentioned time, spurred on by a good few alcoholic drinks, Jimmy came out of his room, dancing and singing. Quite a sight, so I have been told.

Jimmy was also an excellent writer – beautiful hand writing and excellent command of language. I believe several books were discovered under his bed after his death and these remain in safe-keeping on the station for any of his relations to claim – if they do. One of his other hobbies was absolutely unique – he made models of lyre birds and bunches of flowers and worked on perpetual motion. His tool kit consisted of pliers, tin snips and soldering iron (solder he obtained by melting it out of tins) and his material: wire and thin pieces of tin. His lyre birds and flowers were cut from tin and fashioned into the most beautiful, colourful and incredible works of art. His ‘perpetual motion’ was not so successful but did display an amazing sense of creativity and imagination – his efforts were complicated machines of arms, levers and all sorts of things – but sadly, none worked. Further evidence of his imagination was in his dart for shooting rabbits. It consisted of a short piece of number eight fencing wire, sharpened at one end and let into a tube of rolled tin. The other end of this tube had a short strand of rope inserted in it and towards the front, a form of fin. The thrower, along the lines of a ‘shanghai’ was a piece of wood held in the hand. On the top was fastened 15 cm strip of rubber (old motor tube) with a slotted piece of leather fastened to it. The fin on the dart was fitted into the slot on the leather, then drawn back as far as possible – and released. The dart would have been lethal for a long distance as the pointed wire, which such force, had good penetrating power.

Jimmy Jones (or James Henry Jones – that part we do know definitely) passed away in the mid 1970s. An amazing and unique character.

TO ANYONE WHOM MIGHT WISH TO CRITIQUE THE ABOVE FOR ANY ‘MODERN’ REASON WHATSOEVER, PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT THIS DID ALL OCCUR IN THE 1970s AND EARLIER.

No Looking Back – School’s Out and Life Begins (Pt XI)

Chapter 8 – Life After School

There was not a chance in heck that I would return to that school for another year, even with all the extra goodies thrown in to tempt me. Instead I tried to settle into my allotted duties on the station. Sadly, after a few weeks, this did not work for me either. I didn’t have any money and in hindsight I realize that this was partly the reason that we were all offered the chance to spend that first year after school at home, to save a bit of money for ourselves while working up there before entering the ‘real world’ or whatever we decided we wanted to do.

But it didn’t work for me and I found myself heading for Melbourne. For the life of me, I cannot remember why, unless someone else was going over there and I decided I wanted to go too. And I did. I was very fortunate in that Dad’s youngest sister lived there with her husband and three daughters, my cousins. The main thing I remember about that visit was buying two puppies. I have always been hopeless where pet shops are concerned and this time was no exception. These two puppies were in the window and I fell in love. I was initially only going to get one (not giving any thought at all as to where they would  go while I was still in Melbourne and then getting them home with me…none of that occurred to me at the time) but found that I couldn’t leave one so bought them both. They must have stayed with me at my aunt’s and uncle’s house then I think we flew them back to Adelaide, all at others’ expense. And it must have been arranged that someone would meet them in Adelaide and then take them up to the station. None of this occurred to me. All I wanted was those two dogs – and I got them.

I must then have returned to our station and those two dogs. In fact I then had three dogs because I still had my gorgeous little Australian Terrier that Mum and Dad bought me when I was still at school as is mentioned above. He was always my favourite. I loved those dogs so much but tragically none of them passed on naturally. Spound (Spot Hound shortened – she was white with one big black spot over her eye) drowned, I believe her sister, Blound (Black Hound shortened – needless to say she was black all over) died from snake-bite and the third, my beautiful Australian Terrier, survived distemper but the after-effects were awful. Mum and Dad kept offering to have him put down but I just couldn’t bring myself to let that happen. Poor little thing was suffering and must have been in so much pain but I just couldn’t do it. Finally, on one visit to the station, Mum and Dad told me he had finally passed on. I don’t think I asked why – as devastated as I was, I accepted that.

Back from Melbourne, I settled in Adelaide for some years. In 1973 I lived in a hostel in North Adelaide and attended business college. I had high hopes for myself there, as did my parents I think – but while I did not have any of the problems I endured at boarding school, it seemed I was not made of secretarial stuff either. My typing was OK and still is, but shorthand – forget it. And the rest of the subjects were equally useless. I graduated with a certificate, as opposed to a diploma. About half way through that year, I became very ill and was taken up to the station so Mum could look after me. While away, we got a call from the head of the hostel to tell us it was being closed down. So we had to find alternative accommodation. I was home for a while (a couple of weeks, I think) and Mum found another hostel which happened to be just down the road from my old school.

I finished that year and then it was time to join the workforce and find a flat or similar to live in. It happened that my mother’s old family home had been divided up into five separate flats, since the family had grown up and moved out. My grandparents had lived in the first flat and the last one had been used for any live-in help they had ever had. I can well remember the last tenant in that last flat, a lovely lady who never married but I always enjoyed her company and was thrilled when she came to visit Granny and Grandpa when we happened to be there too. This lady eventually moved on and I moved in with different flat-mates at different times.

I applied for a number of different employment positions, all involving office work. I did get a position in an engineering firm which was within walking distance of home. I stayed there for some months. Can’t say that I loved it – but it was work and did bring a small wage in. Then I went to NZ with a friend whom I met at business college and I had been asked not to return to that position when I came home. OK. Fine. I didn’t like it anyway and had planned to resign, but not before finding something else. However, they got in first, so that was that.

Another position I held for a short time was that of nanny/nurse for an orphanage. That was a live-in position and really interesting but for some reason that escapes me now I was not there for long.

After that, I successfully tried to get into nursing. However, at that time I had also been accepted for a position in the world of computers with one of our banks. By that stage, I didn’t need to give this much thought and I opted for the computers. And in hindsight, I am glad I did. I stayed with that bank for some years, eventually being sent to Canberra to help out over there. I cannot remember how long I was supposed to be in the ACT but I was there for 11 months. I absolutely hated the work but loved my accommodation, which happened to be one of the residential college in the ANU (Australian National University). When I first moved into this college, I was terrified. So many students. But after a week or so, I realized I needed to get out and about and did so, never looking back. I made some wonderful friends during that year, all of whom I have since lost contact with but the memories remain and they really were fun times.

At the end of that year, when many of those students moved on either into other colleges or sharing houses elsewhere in Canberra, or whatever, I decided it was time for me to move on, too. So I requested a transfer back to Adelaide. The manager and powers-that-be were not happy about it, but I told them I would resign if I couldn’t be transferred. I realized I was dicing with my job, but I was beyond caring – I just wanted to leave. I was very lucky in that I was granted the transfer and returned to Adelaide at the beginning of the following year.

When I did return to the bank in Adelaide, I found that I was allocated to a different group from before and while the girls were nice, I wasn’t as happy as I had been. After a few weeks back I was called aside and asked if I would be interested in going to Melbourne for a few weeks, all expenses paid, to ‘trouble-shoot’ and train a new employee. Now this sounded wonderful, so I accepted and off I went. I lived in a lovely suite in one of Melbourne’s best hotels, again within walking distance of the bank. I was there for a few weeks and made some wonderful friends, although lost contact with all of them. Some lovely memories there, too.

I was nearing the end of my time in Melbourne when I discovered to my elation that my bank balance was looking pretty jolly good. That was also when I made the decision to leave the bank for good and head overseas. With further investigation, I discovered why my bank balance had looked so good – it seemed I had been paid my Christmas Club cheque twice. So I had to pay that back but luckily, I still had enough to be able to fund an overseas trip.

l planned to spend about two years overseas, working and traveling, as so many do. I ended up going with a friend from the bank as well as my middle brother. My friend and I lived in a house that had been purchased especially for Australians and other international travelers. My brother went up (down – whatever) to Oxford University and stayed with one of his friends who was a student there. I found a position as an audio-typist for an insurance company and quite enjoyed the job, but was not so keen on my accommodation. Things did not work out with the latter and after a few trips over to Europe and Scandinavia, then up to Scotland, I decided to head home, back to Australia. My brother had already gone but he only ever planned to be there for a few weeks anyway.

We had flown to London on my 24th birthday. My friend and I went up to Scotland for Christmas, really hoping for a white one as we realized this might have been our only chance to ever see a white Christmas. However, as luck would have it – apparently it was too cold for snow. In fact, I don’t think it snowed while we were there at all. Darnit!

Meanwhile, my brother was due to return to Australia in time to help with shearing on the station. Now picture this. Being winter in the UK, it really was bitterly cold in England when he left there – and of course Australia was right in the grips of a typically searing hot summer. My brother must have been collected from the airport in Adelaide and went straight up to the station. He was due to muster the sheep for shearing. No time to acclimatise himself to the huge difference in temperature and I understand that this was just too much for his body to handle. Trying to shelter under trees in our Australian heat did not help. It was next to useless and I seem to recall that he actually collapsed. He was all right but it would not be something I would advise anyone to try to do. Not if you have a choice – he didn’t and therefore suffered for it. 

While I was in England my youngest brother and one of his friends flew over and stayed with us for a night or so. Then they moved onto Ireland. But they must have returned as they were able to see me off when I flew back to Australia not long after.

In those days Adelaide did not have an international airport so if you wanted to leave the country, you had to go through either one of the eastern states or Perth. As it happened, one of the girls that I worked with in London was Australian and we became very great friends. And still are. She is actually also a Godmother to one of my daughters. As I had never been to Perth and she lived here I decided this was the perfect opportunity to see it. I had been here for only a couple of weeks when I decided that this was where I wanted to settle. My family knew I would never return to Adelaide to live and was just waiting to see where I would settle. So it was no surprise to them when I called to say I was heading home, but would be returning to Perth to live.