Meeting ---- (Gone) ------
Meeting John/athon (gone) moretti.
Now Gone is an interesting fellow, I can't give an exact date that I met him as I did not write in my diary for a period of weeks, beginning 15th march and diary entries resumed on the 9th July 2006.
All I have is a few jotted notes about him and memory to go on. I had a new home/base, but was called to work for the important Easter period at a caravan park owned by a mate.
(thats another yarn).
Anyway the first time I met him was rather uneventful, Nothing too much to say, I just had a feed and walked in to the bar at the Arno Bay hotel, A bloke sat next to me asked "Hard day?", to which I replied , "no not really, fairly easy one, You ?".
"every day is an easy one when you are retired" he said, or something to that effect.
Then he asked one of the 5 magic questions, "wanna game of pool?".
So we played, and he soon met a friend of mine who found me at the table, we established he was staying in the park and had seen me working, I do remember him laughing and saying he admired my honesty when being asked about a hard day.
After a few drinks, I headed back to Patch(my dog) about 2100.
Next day almost lunch time, I am fighting the incoming sand dune in a section we are going to put in steps and a boardwalk over to the beach, and Gray (the boss), comes along with Gone.
Gone has asked him if I can have half a day off to go on a charter fishing trip with him for couple hours thisarvo, So Gray asked the second magic question, "do you want to go fishing?".
Why yes, yes I do, Gray was cool and all I was thinking was who is this bloke ?
He explained he had purchased a charter for 2, but his mate had not shown up, I tended the dog, Knew she would be in good care, and hitched a ride to the marina, It was an excellent run and I knew the charter operator well, about 3 hours in all, caught a heap of fish although only had my mind on one which I kept, a 88cm Mulloway. To this day the largest one I have ever caught.
Keen to see how I cooked it John joined me at the BBQ area later, I scaled it and gutted it and that is it, Wrapped in foil and a good dollop of Butter, proper butter inside the stomach cavity.
Then I took the dog for a walk, had a shower and headed to BBQ, Gray and Sonia were there with salad, and I did it my way, hot and fast, whole package never turned was on for 3 minutes, then sat next to hotplate for another 3 minutes or so to finish steaming/stewing in its own juices, and cool to edible temperature.
After G & S were done they packed up and left, we had all had a good old chat and a feed, Gone and I sat around to chin wag over a few beers, as he had none it was my shout and I simply walked the 100mtrs back to get patch and a six pack. Thats when he began to open up, and at this point so does my memory.
His story was a solemn one, a "Cinderella tragedy" he called it, a term I have never forgotten.
So as he began to explain "I am a multi millionaire" At this point I remember my judgmental self thinking, yeah yeah, rub it in, or probably bulldust.
He said all the money in the world can't buy him back his life, and he warned me, when you are working hard you might forget to go fishing, he said that he had not been fishing before today since he was 12 years old in another world, I just began to listen, and spoke only when spoken to, I sat patiently as I was happy, had beer, Patch and someone to listen to, he was a tad depressing but hey, I know these ol blokes, they are way better than TV.
I learned horrible things, so will try to keep it as sharp as I can from memory, He (Gone) was a 10 pound pom (the free ones), for readers who don't know, they were European kids, teens mostly sent to Australia as cheap labour, many of the youths were treated no better than slaves.
After losing his father to the war his mother had 2 young sisters to look after, he was all but a street kid, trying to get by, One day when he was fishing, another lad told him of free passage to another country and promised work for good wages, Thinking it best he signed up, changed his name pretended he was 16 and was on his way to Australia.
Upon arrival in Adelaide he was sent to a camp with some others and soon after on a train, The Ghan, headed north to work on a sheep station, (our previous discussions had bonded us on this in retrospect, I was familiar with the country he worked), He had been near the ocean all his young life it so it was a shock, and he hated it, they worked him hard, he tried to run away a couple times, hence the name Gone.
He ended up doing most of 6 years straight there and left with very little to show for it, his mother had also since died, Now 19 he had a train ticket back south and nothing to look forward to, In town he found a job at the Port, loading and unloading, he found a small place to stay and began to save, enjoying being back near the ocean he said he didn't know why he never went fishing, just didn't think of it or need to.
2 years later with a little saved he had a dream of a plot of his own to raise sheep, as many of the the war allocations to soldiers were up for grabs cheap, and he had met a girl.
They were both 21 and he began to court her, but turned out she was one of the big union bosses daughters, a warfy as we called them, so he stepped aside to avoid a roughing up. She however was intent on him, and eventually her father came round, next thing he knew he was king of the port, his father in law gave him a job as a supervisor to loading and unloading activities, he said it definitely softened him, he had never had it so good, at 22 married with first son on the way, No more heavy labour and his father in law purchased 3 of the former soldier plots in Willmington SA. where they moved to begin raising children and sheep. This is where it got dark and sketchy.
All went seemingly well for over a decade.
His wife died while he was 38, leaving him with 2 boys age 11 and 16.
Just after his 17th birthday his son simply vanished, Gone he said. The now 12 year old went away to a boarding college in Adelaide at his grandpas request.
Gone and his father in law never spoke again after he agreed to send his son to town in his care.
He had only held out hope he would find his eldest son by staying put and threw himself back into work acquiring more land and sheep, as well as venturing into modern dry-land cropping and generally building his wealth.
Years later in the late 80s his son did turn up, he was gay, and HIV +, He passed in 1990 but not before telling his dad that he had raped his younger brother before he ran away.
This broke him and he became a recluse until 2001, he received an inheritance he never expected from his father in law who had passed.
In a bank deposit box he found a note saying he would need every cent to help his youngest son, a total of $17 million in assets but no cash was his, he sold the lot, even his little sheep empire as he called it as well, all except the homestead and 500 acres, in case his surviving son ever showed up there, or maybe for his wife's memory he wasn't sure, but he still owned it when I was listening to him.
I remember well it was a friday, and he said just one week earlier he had finally seen his son, in a court room, sentenced to life (25 years) non parole, for the rape and murder of a 10 year old boy.
He was too late, he never cried once, but he did get choked up, and about that point I remember him sort of snapping out of it, (for want of better terms), and he never did disclose how much money he had in all, but just that since it all he felt he had nothing left, he was determined to spend it all before he died as he had nobody to give it to and he was going to travel.
Around this point he asked me the third magic question, "will you work for me"?
Around this point he asked me the third magic question, "will you work for me"?
However I had to stress my loyalty to Gray which of course he appreciated and said we would need a few weeks for some parts to arrive first anyway, explaining he wanted some modifications to his ute/ touring vehicle.
The next day I was on light duties being sat, we weren't to busy then. So early irrigation and toilet cleaning, I could choose when to knock off, so at around 1500 I grabbed the dog went to see Gone, and we went fishing with my gear in the tidal creek, Gone had me do a slight detour after asking the fourth magic question, "do you want a beer?".
So we swung by the pub and picked up some beers and steak sangas (he even bought one (sanga) for Patch and off we went, on the out going tide we caught about 2 or 3 bull mullet each, keeping only 1 each, he discussed the modifications he wanted to the ute and what parts we would need. by about 1900hrs we were eating fresh fish and chips, and we parted about 2100, me with a list of parts to order.
Next day true to his name he was Gone, I did not notice on Sunday morning chores, Sunday was usually the one day of the week I knocked off at 1200 in a given week, although hours were flexible with Gray as long as you were around when it was important. So Gray told me he had stopped in the office, left a note for me and an envelope, a big envelope, and he had booked back in for 3 weeks time, I was due to be leaving in 2.
Curiosity had the best of Gray too so we went back the office, the envelope contained $5000 and a note asking me to order the parts and he would return.
Gray helped me order what parts we could that arvo on his office computer, and a few we left as we knew we could get them on a town trip in the given time.
3 weeks later and during this time was my birthday, then with all the parts in hand, he was true to his word, and Gone returned with his band new land cruiser with customised tray to be like a fold out camper trailer. Gray had let me stay on the week for free and then I set to work for Gone using Grays work shop to add the modifications he wanted, we removed the under tray toolbox, replaced with storage box for 2 x 14.5 volt batteries and an inverter, installed 6 Led lights Including one on lead for outside, put spotlights on roo bar and other bits n bobs.
However one thing I couldn't figure was to safely attach a BIG screen TV that wouldn't be in the way of the fold up. However I did slip in an idea, next day we were off on road trip to Pt Augusta early, where I picked up a small projector, and a screen, we also got a bunch of junk food for locals, pizza and KFC as per orders they paid, and a DVD player with free DVD, Gone's choice of movie was a new version of -Around the world in 80 days- with Jacki Chan, It was a book he had read many years ago whilst onboard the ship to Australia.
Before dark I had a mount for the Projector ready, and the screen crudely hung from the fold out camper on the tray, power all hooked up to mains park stuff just for a systems test, it was again a Friday night, and just as it got dark I was adjusting the mount for projector to re-runing open credits, a few kids began to play around and a few in the park asked what was going on, Gone was excited to tell them, and welcomed them to join us. Last thing it took me was to hook up the speakers I already had, they were pretty small it wasn't very loud but good enough.
And so Gone and I, with Patch, Gray, Sonia and Syd + about 20 park patrons sat on fold out chairs or blankets on the grass to watch the movie under the stars, with people popping corn and making milo and tea on little gas stoves and sharing it around with yo yo biscuits to dunk it was a night I will never forget, Gone was caught in the movie and atmosphere, he seemed happy. As we packed up he was very gracious to me.
The next day we basically finished up setting him up with what he wanted. Then Sunday after we went fishing on a morning tide, and I ended up in bed early that night. Then the following day, even though he had booked and paid for my accommodation and another 5 nights in a cabin, he was true to his name again.
This time leaving more than double my normal wages for 12 days in cash, The DVD and a Note that simply read, Thanks for listening, Gone...
I don't have much more to say about that, but I learned a lot from him and despite warnings still fell into some of the same traps over time, as he said, "some fish for food, some fish for money, some fish for recreation, motivation does not determine the catch"...
©J. W. Newell 2024.
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