Ross

Click hereI grew up in Townsville.  It was a great place to grow up.  Any picture of it showing green means it just rained.  It is not green.  We lived on the road up to Castle Hill.  We had no neighbours on three sides and after cyclone Althea we had none on four sides.  It was where I saw a python in a tree that had just swallowed one of our cats.  The python had – not the tree.  It was 18 foot and taken to Taronga Park Zoo.  It was impressive to adults, let alone a traumatised kid.
My first ever mate lived down the road.  He is on Facebook.  We say hello but we are not  each others face.  When I say “say hello” it would be pointless if we verbalised it.  We type hello.  He lives fairly close.  It is long as the crow flies, but a jet would hardly get started and be there.  By car it is inside an hour.  As long as there are no traffic jams.  They can add hours to a trip.
His family seemed fairly well to do.  His dad owned a laundromat.  It had several outlets.  My mate and I had to look after one of the shops one time.  His dad caught us wrestling in the serving area.  Not a good look for a service outlet.
He was one of the funniest fellows I have ever known.  It used to get us in trouble in church sometimes.  We were both Presbyterians and part of a choir. 
There are a few things I remember about his place.  They had a great Beatles collection.  We did the whole sing along thing to a lot of those songs.
I associated with him back in the days when a person could have an air rifle without needing to get all sorts of permissions.  There was a fly on a barrel.  He had the gun and I said to him “there is a fly on that thar barrel.”  I actually did not say it like that, but do so now for dramatic effect.  I more likely said “see that fly on the barrel.  Shoot it off.”  It so surprised me when he did.  Not that I had an affinity with the fly.  It was just I did not think he could do it.  But he could and he did.
My fondest memory of his place was go-carting.  He lived at the bottom of a steep hill.  We had go-carts and we were not afraid to use them.  They probably would have been better with brakes.  Still, stopping was what the dirt pile at the end of his driveway was for.  We would start our decent at the top of the hill.  It meant going up someone’s drive way but they probably never knew we were there.  A look out would be posted to advise when no cars were coming and the coast was clear.  To help us slow down, we would travel over the verges as well as the road.  It would only last about 30 seconds but what a 30 seconds it was.
He joined the air force.  He had a major motor cycle accident in Singapore(?) that almost cost him his life.  Fortunately a Christian police man attended to him.  The whole incident changed his life big time.
I was totally amazed when I asked my boss (who was formerly air force) did he know him.  Without hesitation he dialled a number and said, Ross there is someone here to speak with you.
I think Ross and I will be friends forever. to edit.