A chat with Jock at the Tailem Bend Hotel, South Australia.
"I was born up the river at Mannum, all my rellies are from over there, but I left to find work. I started out working in a roadhouse and then working on a broccoli farm but then I got work at an iron foundry in Adelaide. I was carrying a shank all day, full of liquid metal weighing 150 pounds at a time for 8 hours a day. Between 6 men we’d carry 191,000 pounds of metal a day. Was good money. In ‘74 I was knocking out 370 bucks a week, which was great money in those days. But it fucked your spine. That’s why I got this walking stick now. Used to be my dad’s when his back went. He said to me, ‘I’m going to leave this with you when I die because you’re going to need it to.’ And he was right. This old walking stick is my most constant companion now. That and my hat. My hat’s the first thing on in the morning and the last thing I take off at night. Inside, outside, wherever, I wear my hat. I wear them out, until they’re just holes held together with f...