General News
17 February, 2026
An Ordinary Life: Well lived, worth remembering
I stood transfixed watching as uncle Jim performed his daily “ablutions”.
Shaving with the cut-throat razor was almost choreographic with a mixture of sweeping motions and delicate pirouettes.
Any small nick was a disaster and required immediate attention with an appropriate application of tissue paper to arrest any bleeding.
At the end of the process, the tissue was removed and he smothered his shaved face with after-shave lotion. His reaction was to fan his face with his hands.
His black hair was parted in the middle, and smeared with Bryl cream. He wouldn’t leave the mirror until there wasn’t one hair out of place.
Before he started his day in the taxi he donned his blue cotton shirt (always dry-cleaned) and his trousers (black) from Spotless, the dry cleaners. His black polished shoes were mirror-like.
Finally he put his black bow tie in place and he was ready to go. Well nearly, any speck on the taxi’s windows was picked off and the seats were dusted. A spray of air freshener was essential.
Jim’s alternate driver was a former VFL footballer remarkably similar to Errol Flynn.
Bob Roberts was cleverly nicknamed “Two Bob”.
Jim was looked up to by his fellow cabbies at Silver Top. Jim, like his brothers, was boisterous but soft-hearted.
On numerous occasions a passenger down on his luck was taken to Jim’s home and fed. If necessary a bed was provided. On several occasions I came home to find a complete stranger in my bed.
In the morning he may have even given him a few bob.
The annual Silver Top Picnic saw Jim in his element.
He was never short of a tale to tell.
His greatest moment came when he won “Taxi of the Year”.
Warringa Park was a fantastic venue and the kids were treated to unlimited treats. Races were run round the oval with every participant being rewarded.
Jim’s dog, Betsy, was devoted to him. She nurtured one of his old socks as if it was a puppy.
Jim was “squeezy” in the face of the slightest mishap. Amazingly when Betsy was about to deliver a litter of pups and he was alone he assisted her delivering four pups.
One was stillborn and Jim found a special place in the Edinburgh Gardens to bury it.
Jim started as a 16-year-old working for his father, Charlie, in the cartage business.
On Charlie’s retirement Jim inherited 50 percent of the business which was a Mack truck which sat in a shed for decades.
On the sale of his taxi he moved to Heidelberg and he and his four sons found work at C.I.G.
Although labouring on the assembly line, he had the aura of a managing director.
In his youth Jim, along with his three brothers, achieved state cycling titles, riding for the powerful Carlton.
Much of their success came at the Exhibition Board Velodrome. They rode alongside such greats as Mockridge, Opperman, Guyatt and Stewart.
All the family had their roots in Carlton and were fanatic Blues fans. Watching home games they were entrenched on “Spitter’s Hill”. If the Blues had a good win Jim would load up with Chinese from Lew Kew Ming’s takeaway. Lew had a pigtail and a Manchurian moustache.
Uncle Tom and Jim were close friends with Bob Chitty, the “Ironman” from Carlton. He was so tough he played on Saturday after severing a finger on the Friday.
Chitty played the role of Ned Kelly in an early version of the outlaw — Tom said Chitty didn’t need the armour.
When Jim was doing the night shift he wasn’t happy with next door’s tom cat which miaowed outside his window disturbing his sleep.
Jim and Auntie Pat were both hopeless at going to bed and equally hopeless at getting up in the morning.
I close with an image of Pat and Jim on their wedding day. Pat, a vivacious blonde, and Jim, her leading man.
Like all their contemporaries they were movie fans. Jim thought Alan Ladd was the greatest, and rated “Shane” as the greatest movie of all time.