Brought back some memories...
As kid, maybe 13, 14? .. I had two friends who lived on a hilly street. There was one house, and an empty block
between their homes.
We strung a wire line from up the Gumtree in Gibbo’s backyard, across the two blocks between, tensioned and
secured it firmly up the Peppercorn tree in Smithy’s place... Maybe about a 20 to 25 foot drop, over the distance.
We had a bent piece of 1 inch water pipe, about 2 feet long which we put over the line, then held onto with both
hands on the ends of the pipe.
The slope of the hill gave us a pretty rapid descent down this flying fox line. We called it ‘Swooping’
Lady that lived in the house between used to go apeshit when we flew across her yard, lifting our feet to clear
her clothesline. Her name was Mrs Sautag, unknown ethnicity, maybe Polish? Lithuanean?... German?? ... but we used
to refer to her as Sourpuss, because of her nature.
School Holidays came, Gibbo and I were at Smithys place, down the hill. Simmo was not part of our group, a bit
of an outsider and a bully.
Anyhow, Simmo decided this day that he was going to try our flying fox line, without our knowledge or approval.
He climbed the fence into Gibbos back yard, picked up the pipe, and shimmied up the tree.
And then launched.
Simmo was a solid guy, a bit heavier than us, and the trees bent a little more which dropped the line and made it
steeper, so a much more rapid speed was achieved.
As he sailed over Sourpusses yard, she gave a shriek and swung her broom at him. Being distracted in this manner,
he caught his legs on her clothes line, (which shredded his shins from the kneecaps down) and this impact gave him
a swinging motion... unfortunately he was at maximum backswing as he reached Smithys Peppercorn tree, and
used his face as a brake instead of his feet, which was our preferred method of absorbing the impact.
Fractured his jaw and cheekbone, and several facial lacerations which needed stitches.
Now to be fair, with the pain it’s understandable why he was distracted, let go of the pipe, and fell 15 feet,
thereby breaking his ankle and his collarbone in the process, but he should have held onto the pipe with one hand
as he left the flyline. The free falling pipe was only milliseconds behind as he slammed into the ground, and it belted
him on the head causing concussion, and split his scalp, which required several more stitches.
When school resumed a week later Simmo kept his mouth shut (not that he could do much else, with it being wired)
as to how he became so ‘disabled’ and it was a common thought among other students that he maybe picked on
the wrong kid, and got a flogging. After his recovery, Simmo seemed to keep clear of Smithy, Gibbo and myself,
which suited us fine altho we had nothing to do with his actual injuries.
(Apart from an occasional sneaked look in his direction, and a snigger or two...)
