|
My first close contact with Jimmy Hanton
was in the year 1924, when I commenced work with the firm, Koch and Sharrad.
In 1910 my parents, together with their family, moved from Wallaroo to
Pinnaroo and took up land on what was known as NO.l,
At the age of 14, I left school and went to work in the blacksmith shop of
Wesphalen bros. (Ern and Emmil), after six months, I left there and went to
work for Mr. Tom Gilbert, he had several projects in hand at that time, and
I worked with him on the new Pinnaroo institute, the new Commercial Bank,
and the houses he was building for Arch Halliday and Jim Kenny.
The following year, I obtained work under jimmy Hanton as I wanted to become
a blacksmith, I stayed there almost five years, until about 1929, when the
country was beginning to feel the initial effects of the great depression,
To get back to the subject of this article, I found jimmy to be an
exceedingly skilled tradesman. In fact, I feel quite justified in describing
him as an artist in his trade. Some of the lovely and delicate scroll work
he grafted could only be described as absolutely beautiful, this scroll work
in steel (or iron as it was in those far off days) on the buggies, sulkies,
drays and wagons that were made at Koch and Sharrad's,. Was truly artistic.
I have no doubt that, even to this day, some of them are preserved in the
museum in the Pinnaroo showground.
Another recollection that I have of jimmy was his outstanding patience. This
was particularly manifest at wheat carting time, when the horses for the
wagons used for carting the wheat into the railway sidings, had to be shod
so they could travel on the hard metal roads. These horses would only leave
the farms at harvest time, and consequently, they would be very nervous and
disturbed, and the job of shoeing them would be a very difficult task, jimmy
was the man who had this very onerous duty, his patience was almost
infinite. I cannot ever recall his losing his temper or resorting to kicking
a horse in the ribs, or belting it with his horse rasp, the only means I can
recall him using to quieten the horse, were his voice or the nose twitch,
and the nose twitch was used by the person who was holding the horse,
sometimes, and as a last resort before the crush pen, he would drop a marble
in the horse's ear. This method would sometimes have the effect of
distracting its attention, thus quietening it sufficiently for the job to be
completed.
Sometimes, the job of shoeing merely one horse would take up to half a day,
and by that time, it would be a very exhausted jimmy Hanton who went home to
lunch, via the path he had worn through the park by his comings and goings
each day.
His marvellous patience also extended to other fields. I can recall the
years when he was band master of the Pinnaroo brass band. What he put up
with in trying to mould some of us dumb "players" (?) into bandsmen was
nobody's business. Some of us were always up to some trick to upset the
practice times, this was particularly so in the case of Jock Chaplin. He was
a demon for this kind of thing. For myself, I don't know how he tolerated me
for so long. I used to play what was known as the Flugal horn, an instrument
which was a little lower in tone than the Cornet and even now at the age of
77, I still cannot read music. I don't know how I got away with it I think
it must have been due to jimmy's inbuilt kindness. I am sure that if he had
ever asked me to play my part of the musical score solo, I would have been
clean bowled, stumped, caught and run out all at the same time, as I have
said, his patience was infinite,
As the result of his patience in training me to become a skilled blacksmith,
I was able to come to Adelaide and eventually set up my own business (and
later take in my eldest son Ronald Maynard) firstly as a farrier, and then
in general engineering, a profession which I occupied until my retirement
some years ago, the business of Maynard O'Connor and son Pty. Ltd. Is still
carried on by my son and his son here in Adelaide.
So then, I would like to pay my humble tribute to a truly great man in his
field, and also a great and valued friend of those far off days. I can only
wish him well, and I do so on this wonderful occasion of his one Hundredth
Birthday,
Maynard O'Connor
|
