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Wool Shed Kitchen - Copyright 2021 Maxwell Jefferies
Max's Blog
from the
shed floor
from the
shed floor
7th November 2024
My Life Story - episode 9 - The girl next door, Graeme's wedding and stock-car racing.
My Life Story - episode 9 - The girl next door, Graeme's wedding and stock-car racing.
History, heritage, biography.
Some images expand on click.
Some images expand on click.
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Stay tuned for Episode 10 - Back to Bassendean, Beth & Ken's wedding, new car & employment.
Have an awesome day! Cheers, Max.
Stay tuned for Episode 10 - Back to Bassendean, Beth & Ken's wedding, new car & employment.
Have an awesome day! Cheers, Max.
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Previous Index Next
Previous Index Next
Wool Shed Kitchen - Copyright 2021 Maxwell Jefferies
Max's Blog
from the shed floor
from the shed floor
17th August 1969 - Three spectators lost there lives at Forrestfield on Sunday and a further fifteen were injured, when a Hot Rod being raced by Warren Levy, a twenty year old Balajura man, rode the wheel of a another hot rod in front, causing Mr Levy's hot rod to launch into the air and over the spectator safety fence.
The accident happened during the last lap of a hot rod race as the field were entering the main straight, Levy's car climbed the steep embankment, clearing the spectator fence and crashed onto the tops of some parked cars, right where many spectator's were gathered, the hot rod flipped and rolled several times.
The accident happened during the last lap of a hot rod race as the field were entering the main straight, Levy's car climbed the steep embankment, clearing the spectator fence and crashed onto the tops of some parked cars, right where many spectator's were gathered, the hot rod flipped and rolled several times.
A few months after we moved into the Maylands house to start another woodyard, a family moved into the old shop-house next door (see previous blog). Our house was in better condition than theirs, but both would be torn down and a block of units built on the site sometime after we left. They were: Ted and Elaine Picks and their children, Ann, Victor, Martin, Nancy, Kerry and Lynette.
I was 14 when we moved to Maylands and very shy, having NEVER spoken to a girl. I was ripe for the picking by a Picks girl!. Working out in the bush all day, it took several weeks for me to notice the oldest girl next door was more than just a kid. Ann was 12 when she moved to Maylands.
Ann attended Cyril Jackson Senior High School were I had attended previously. It took a year or so before Ann and I started talking together. I left very early to go to the bush each day and came home late, but I did notice the girl-next-door walking down the street at times.
By this time, I was a bit smitten with Ann, and would "spy" on her if she happen to be in her back yard!
Somehow we managed to go walking together one day down a side street and Ann took my hand - and that was it. I was a goner! We were the best of friends for seven years before our marriage. But it was not all smooth sailing in our relationship for her dad disliked me but her mum didn't, so would occasionally allow us to meet without him knowing.
Elaine and Ted, Ann's parents.
The East Street Jetty in Maylands - we would go prawning in this extensive shallow area off to the right, in the Swan River. We had to wear heavy shoes/boots as there were cobbler fish with poisonous spikes on their head that you could step on. Sometimes we would be pulling the prawning net in water up to our neck.
Occasionaly Ann was able to come on a Jefferies family outing. She came along on one prawning night and as we were picking out the prawns from the seaweed, she said, "Where are the prawns?" She thought prawns were red. Well, they are after you cook them! She had lived a very sheltered life, but I would fix that.
My oldest sibling, Beth, on her birthday in the Maylands house.
Young love - Ann and I at the Perth Royal Show in Claremont, on an un-official date.
Another un-official date, this time at Mundaring Weir, with Elvie and Phil. I was 16 and Ann was 14.
This was one of the last times Mundaring Weir over flowed. Pictured is Phil, Elvie, Steven, Peter and Paul on the Mundaring Weir outing.
One day my dad came home with a part built timber 17 foot boat in pieces along with the plans, a Hartley Design. Not sure if he won it in a card game or bought it real cheap down the pub! Probably the later. It had all the cross ribs and some timber, mono nails, marine glue and a few extra timbers. Since I had gone through woodwork at high school, I gladly took on the job of finishing it, which I did with help from Graeme. Graeme did the final fibre glass coating on the hull, making it very strong. This boat was used by anyone in the family over a number of years. Dad called his grandaughter, Graeme's daughter Trina, "Honey", so he named the boat, "Honey Too".
Graeme married Margaret Tulley at a little church hall on Guildford Road, Bayswater, and had their wedding reception at a small hall in Maylands.
This was a double wedding and double reception as Graeme and his best mate, Colin, married the two Tulley sisters, Marg and Dallas. Colin lived next door to our sawmill house and his family purchased our service station from our family.
This was a double wedding and double reception as Graeme and his best mate, Colin, married the two Tulley sisters, Marg and Dallas. Colin lived next door to our sawmill house and his family purchased our service station from our family.
Beth's fiance, Ken, a farmer from Kondinin.
Ann and I on our first official date at Graeme and Marg's wedding. From this time on, I got a little less hastle from Ann's dad, but it didn't really stop until we got engaged.
Our cousin's Arthur and Ashley, who also cut firewood around the Glen Eagle area. Their dad, my Uncle Len, also had a woodyard but in the Morley area.
Elvie and husband, Phil.
I got my drivers licence on my first attempt a few days after I turned 17. I had been delivering small loads of firewood to local homes from our yard in Maylands in a small truck while I was 16 years old. I bought Beth's Ford Cortina Mk1 from her as my first licensed car.
My cousins, Art and Ash, were into racing stockcars at Forrestfield Speedway, so I decided to join them. I found a Ford Zepher for free and ripped out everything except the shell, engine and transmission. It was a straight six cylinder, but did not have the power of a Holden. That was okay as I was only out there for the fun of driving. In the middle of summer, dressed in my footy shorts and boots, I welded up the rollcage inside the car and got severe sunburn from the welding arc.
It was more dangerous to be a spectator at the track than being a driver. One cousin was sitting on the back of his ute with a friend, watching the races, when a tyre came off a race car and flew between them into the bush behind. A few spectators lost their lives at Forrestfield. Speedways today have very tall fences all around them.
Ann aged 16, with Nancy aged 12 on a very rare holiday for their family, in Geraldton.
In Ann's last year of High School, her father would not give her the money to purchase the required school books for the year, so my mother gave her the job of cutting the larger firewood blocks into smaller pieces that would fit into a wood cooking stove, then putting them into large, strong paper bags which customers could purchase. She was paid $1 per bag to keep up with the supply through the year, which was enough to pay for her schooling supplies.
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