The Pines

I talked to Jod about the horse eating Lyle's cabbages. He told me it was Billy Holman's horse 'Kim'. Bill was at school same year as Jod and was "a good bloke," I agree. Jod continued as memories came back.

"Bill was a bit of a hero for a while. A group of us was standing around my bird aviary in the back yard under the pines when we saw a big rat scurrying along the top of the fence. Without hesitation Bill pulled out his knife and threw it at the rat. In a total fluke it hit the rat fair in the guts and skewered it at some distance. It made Bill famous for a bit."

"What became of Bill, do you know?"

"He died, in the mid 60's. Got bucked off his horse and hit by a passing truck, in Waimerie Dve. But somebody told me that, I can't be sure it's right. It was later when I was in the railways. But I never saw Billy Holman again so it could be right."

The Pines were a great part of our childhood. A sort of local community playground, without play equipment, just the trees which were heavily branched enabling them to be easily climbed. You could move along through the trees hanging over other people's back yards or climb to a comfortable position close to the top and see the neighbourhood for many blocks, watch people walking to and from their homes or in cars, hanging out washing, gardening, or other activities they wouldn't do if they knew they were watched.

For some of the neighbours it was irritating to have kids in the trees above watching them. Jod particularly liked to annoy Eric Jewell next door. When he was in his backyard splitting wood Jod would climb along above him and shake branches and the dried needles would shower down on Eric and get down his shirt. He'd curse and yell at Jod to piss off, Jod refusing, as he knew the not agile Eric could not climb up and catch him. Eric complained to our parents but Jod always claimed he didn't do it on purpose, Mr Jewell just came out and split wood under where he was climbing.

At different times the pines hosted our knife throwing, the trunks being good targets as we imitated the western movies, sword fighting with home made wooden swords a la Robin Hood, shanghais were big for a while, digging underground hideouts (this was banned after one filled with water after big rain and nearly drowned Meredith when she slipped in) and most of all in my case, a place to kick the footy with my mates. As kids it was long enough that our best efforts would not go over the fence, it being much bigger than the back yard. On weekends sometimes we'd go through the pines to kick the footy on Sherwood oval with dad. Lyle could kick the ball a mile we thought, so he liked the oval, and I think showing off. On the way back he'd always impress us by kicking the ball from inside the pines right over the top into our back yard. Sometimes he didn't make it and the ball would wedge somewhere high in the trees and one of us would have to climb to get it. As I got older say about16, I tried to kick the ball over and found it was quite easy, but to us as young kids Dad was like superman sending the ball spiraling over the pines. Sometimes it'd smash into the roof of the house and mum would go crook. I think he liked to annoy her. They often argued on Sundays in particular, sometimes it was quite heated and Lyle would jump in his car and rev it to blazes and drive off for an hour two.

The Pines were full of bird life. Maggies, mudlarks, ravens, currawongs as well as blackbirds sparrows, thrushes, starlings. Jod was a full on birder all his childhood, as were many of his mates. They had egg collections and roamed the various bush areas in the district, competing with their collections and always on the look out for nests of the rarer varieties. Jod sometimes took fledgings from the nest and raised them as pets at home. He had magpies, a mudlark, and a raven and a currawong at different times. His raven would sit on his shoulder as he rode to school on his bike and then fly home when he got there. These pets stayed around for a year or so and then disappeared. The mudlark came back now and again for a few years as friendly as ever.

A memory of the pines was seeing a young local ride in one Sunday morning carrying a bottle of beer. Sitting on his bike lent against a tree trunk he uncapped the bottle and slowly drank it with rests between swigs. I was in the the back yard with Lyle who watched him from the fence and said to him "Having a sly grog are you?"

It was Mick Longeno, who was a year or so older than me. He must have knocked off the beer from somewhere as he was well under age. He answered Lyle, "That's right," and continued drinking at his own pace. Sadly Mick was killed in a car accident a year or so later, along with Mark Fenton. They were in the back seat of an early Holden turning right into Bales St. from Waverley Road late on a Saturday night when a speeding Mercedes crashed straight into the back. The two in front of the car survived the impact and escaped the resulting inferno but the rear passengers had no chance.

Another memory of the pines is watching Steve Edglow climb to the very top of one tree and hold the leader with one arm and then lean out so it bent over, and grab the leader of the next tree with his other arm and stay there in suspension all the while laughing like a maniac while we expected him to fall at any minute. Steve was a daredevil, a bit mad really. He was in Jod's year at school. His brother Graeme, a year older than me, was a nice kid and we knocked about together for a year or so. A sister Dianne was in my year at school and there was another girl Trixie in Meredith's year. They were always quite poor as Mrs Edglow was a single mum. Steve joined the army after he left school and was a cook there for 9 years. He went to Vietnam. He left the army and did many things and would have an interesting life story. Last we heard he lived on a yacht and sailed all over Australia and Asia, but Jod can shed no light on what became of him. Jod tracked down Graeme some years ago but he said Steve had fallen out with his family and they hadn't heard from him in years. Jod says he thinks the yacht probably sank in a cyclone taking Steve with it.