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Nudda newbie
Topic Started: Thursday 7-10-2010, 04:02 (465 Views)
Lucky Eddie
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Just to say Gday - another newbie.

Perth based.

Cheers
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Topcat
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Hi Lucky Eddie,

Welcome to the forum.
Feel free to post what detecting gear you have & what experiences.
Don't be afraid to ask questions if you are a beginner as the members
are more then happy to help.

Cheers

Ted
Cheers,

Ted


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www.havewheelswilltravel.iinet.net.au
"I believe that if life gives you lemons,you
should make lemonade & try to find somebody
whose life has given them vodka, & have a party"!!!!

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Nightjar
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Welcome Eddie,
Tell us, when you get settled, about your hopes and dreams and why you class yourself as "Lucky."

Cheers
Peter
Good luck & safe travels
Peter


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"Aging seems to be the only available way to live a long life."
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DAYLEDUGAHOLE
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Cause Lucky Phil was taken
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Lucky Eddie
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When I was a kid, my ol man was an alcoholic and didn't send much 'quality' time with me growing up (unless you count sitting alone in the work ute for hours on end outside the Dianella hotel as "Quality time").

Fortunately, My grandfather only had one child - my mother and always wanted a boy, so when he saw me being neglected by my own father - he took me under his wing.

His name was Eddie.

He was considered by many to be "lucky".

He was truly a "7th son of a 7th son (of a son of a gun from county cork in Ireland).

He was born around the turn of last century, and grew up in Harper street in Midland, thru the great war and great depression that followed them the 2nd world war etc.

Him and his 6 brothers were know'd locally as the "Harper Street Howlers" coz they were always getting their asses whupped by the other Midland based youths and would be seen howling all the way up Harper Street to their house pretty often.

"Lucky Eddie" spent some time with one of his brothers after ww1 and around the time of the depression dry blowing for gold out Coolgardie way and made about 4 pound 10 shillings and sixpence a week if they shoveled dirt all week for 12 hours a day and thats what they had to do to make a wage in the great depression times.

In later years whenever we would have to dig any sand etc - Lucky Eddie and his Brother Ernie, would always speak in Australian colloquial slang, which I never really appreciated until i was much older and not long before they both passed away...in their 80's.

When digging they would always tell me to "bury it to the makers mark".

In those days with the old Stanley brand shovels the brand name was on the tang of the shovel part way up the handle - if the sand wasn't heaped at least that far up the handle you weren't getting enough in each shovel full - they were a couple of hard bastards - but that's what life had taught them.

I think Ernie actually learned that saying in prison - shoveling gravel for a penny a ton.

Then again they were also both firemen on steam trains so they may have learned it shovelling coal I am not sure.

They had many many sayings that have persevered thru my family via me to this day.

My own 2 now grown lads don't at all seem interested in maintaining the tradition tho...more into Ipods and text speak etc.

Anyway Luckie Eddie was lucky in many ways throughout his life his term as a fireman lead to a lifetime as a steam rain then later diesel engine driver for the railways - which meant that as an essential service he couldn't be drafted for the war effort & he had a steady income of a little over 5 pounds a week thru the rest of the great depression.

I remember him telling me that he had saved up some 50 odd pounds which was a lot of money in the great depression era.

A local builder in Midland had built a new brick and tile 2 bed one bath home in Dudley street Midland sometime around the 1930's during the great depression and he was going bust with no new construction work. he wanted to join his ww1 returned serviceman brother in a land holding up the country in the war service settlement scheme and needed 10 pounds to bye his way in to the partnership.

He also owed 40 pounds in back rates to the local shire.

Luckie Eddie bought himself a 12 months old home by paying off his back rates for 40 pounds and giving the builder 10 pounds to grub stake himself on a farm.

This he never had a mortgage payment in his life.

Imagine buying a new brick and tile home today for the equivalent of 10 weeks wages, that's how bad things were in the great depression.

He told me of driving trains loaded with sheep that couldn't be sold for a 1 penny each!

They were feeding themselves and families on boiled wheat - they couldn't afford to eat one of their own sheep worth maybe a half penny!

I was regaled with many such tales of life in the old days by Lucky Eddie.

Lucky Eddie was a keen old rock hound - and we'd spend many days away together collecting this or that semi precious stones by the ute load, (he'd drive and I'd load the ute!).

he was a member of the Mundaring lapidary club in those days (the 1960's) and we would go all over chasing pink chert or tourmaline or serpentine or Toodyay stone etc and he would tell me all about geology etc.

He never actually polished any stones much that I can recall - he would tumble a lot of them but he had the machines to saw rock (diamond saw) and the rotary polishing tables etc etc.

He was more of a collector - every trip away would yield a ute load of one gem or another and they ALL got stacked on the rear of his block in Dudley Street Midland.

When he died in September 1987, his wife and my mother called in a bobcat and tip truck and had the lot hauled away to a rubbish top or landfill somewhere and paid the guy for it!

If they had rung the lapidary club they could have sold the lot!

I was working away in the country bye them and wasn't told until after the fact.

The next thing they did was sell up every share certificate he owned...many say this single sale triggered the Oct 1987 wall street stock market crash!

Lucky Eddie had never sold a share in his life, he just bought them and kept them all his life!

When the brokers saw his whole portfolio sell in just one day they figured he must have known something no one else did and everyone get out of the market- hence the crash!

He bet on the gee gees all his adult life - he had a system.

When he won big at the races, he used the winnings to buy his shares.

He tried to explain his system to me one day!

He would back the jockey, not the horse.

Top jockeys rode about 150 winners or more a year to be top jockey i.e 3 winners a week.

His system was to analyze all the top jockeys rides and try to pick those 3 winners!.

He also had a double up component.

For his first bet of the week lets say he net for argument sake 1 unit on the nose (for a win)!

If it didn't win he would do the same for the second bet - another unit on the nose of one of the top jockeys rides.

If that didn't win he would double up - for his 3rd bet and have 2 units on his 3rd bet of the week.

Odds were that one of the 3 bets would come in!

Theory was that if it wasn't the first or second it had to be the 3rd by the law of averages.

Occasionally his 3rd bet would also be at long odds and when they came in he cleaned up!

The winnings went into shares!

He had a separate "betting bank" a certain amount out of his wages each week, and he stopped at the 3rd bet until the next week. Probably without a mortgage his whole life he spent what other men spent on paying their houses off!

Anyway those years spent growing up as a lad with Lucky Eddie were great times and gave me my love of the bush (and fishing - something else we shared).

My user name of Lucky Eddie is in honor of my long since past grandfather!

My 2 lads middle names are Eddie and Ernie after Grandfather and his brother (my uncle).

They spent a lot of time with the police boys club it was in those days - and each was pretty handy with his fists - Edd was a pug boxer of some repute.... but they told me a few tails of their misdeeds as well.

Back in the great depression Ernie trained Ed - and traveling boxing troupe came to Perth and set up down at the Esplanade on the river foreshore. Silver City or something it was called.

Anyway the two of them stumped up some cash to back Ed in a match against the boxing troupes pug and according to Ernie's re telling of the tale Ed had the best of him, after 3 rounds - BUT the referee was from the traveling troupe and gave it ti their man on points!

They were robbed, or so they claimed, so the pair of them waited up the terrace until the pug from the boxing troop walked past on his, own and they dragged him into an alley and Ed beat the crap out of him on a matter of principle.

They were guys from a much tougher ear than any of us will likely ever know.

But that one incident aside they were pretty decent guys, who ha a good values system that rubbed off on me at least a little bit I hope.

I remember growing up - when it came to advice etc one of the things he told me about fighting!

Quote:
 
Never use your fists until your feet are tired!


My login as Lucky Eddie is in honor of my Grandfather Eddie of the Harper Street Howlers, who was born and died inMidland and spent his entire life living between his childhood home Harper Street and his adult life in the house he bought for 50 pounds during the great depression in Dudley Street Midland.

The old house is still there to this day almost 100 years later now and occasionally I drive past just to remind myself what it was like spending holidays etc up there with him as a kid growing up.

Not a lot about me I know, - maybe next post!

Cheers and beers from me - Big ears!

1. From time to time it is necessary to water the tree of liberty with the sacrifice of human blood. (and this is fast becoming one of those times).

2. He who would willingly sacrifice liberty for security deserves neither.

3. Madness takes it's toll - please have exact change handy!

4. There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary code and those who can't.

5. I am not totally useless - I can always be used as a bad example!.

6. Ee does NOT equal Em Cee squared! Einstein was wrong and I can prove it.

7. M = Δ T (Mass Equals Change in Time)

8. Gold is always where you find it! (and usually the last place you look).
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