A HIGHWAY OF DEMONS - CHAPTER TEN

WJ delving back into his own past?

A HIGHWAY OF DEMONS by Whispering Jack

CHAPTER TEN - SEMPER FIDELIS

They were huddled together inside their winter coats on the Saturday afternoon tram that rattled up St. Kilda Road in the direction of the Junction. The two small children listened attentively as the old man in front of them rehearsed his lines, the words bursting out loudly with graceful eloquence and in a strange tongue.

The few passengers in the almost empty carriage looked away sheepishly as if they were in the presence of a madman. Had they been equipped with the knowledge that the old man was a famous actor, renowned worldwide as the doyen of the Yiddish language theatre, it would have made little difference. Nor that he was saved from horrors of the Holocaust by an accident that stranded him in this far away land, half a world away from home when the hostilities of war broke out.

The war was now a thing of the past for the travellers as the carriage wended its way through the cold mist of a grim wintery day. The American sitting by the door was reading an edition of that day's Sun News Pictorial bearing the date, Saturday 4th July, 1953. The pain of the smashed shoulder, the migraine headaches and the long sleepless nights were almost gone.

He stared, then smiled at the actor who looked back at him to answer the question that was asked only through his dark eyes. The explanation that he was minding his granddaughter and a neighbour's son was followed by a nodding of heads and both of them returned to their roles, the American reflecting on the news of the day and the old man losing himself in a world of ancient folk tales and fire and evil spirits from distant lands.

They piled on in their numbers at the Junction. The majority were men, most of them half or fully drunk and some of them angry. They were the football crowd coming from nearby Junction Oval where 12,000 had witnessed a close contest. The old actor rolled his eyes when he heard one of the newcomers cursing and swearing to the effect that the Saints had just beaten the Demons by four points.

Apparently, errant kicking for goal, weak coaching and poor umpiring were offered as the causes of the defeat but it would all have been different if "that effing young 'un' Barassi would have kicked truly at the end".

"Fair go mate. It was really only his first game and he's going to be a player so bugger off you drongo. Fair dinkum, when they were handing out brains, you must have been outside taking a p ..."

They were fighting on a crowded tram, fists flying, bodies heaving and the old man grabbing hold of the two small children to keep them out of harm's way. By the time they made their way out of the carriage, he almost wished he would have listened to his daughter-in-law's suggestion about taking them to the afternoon matinee but he was a dramatic actor of quality and didn't want to be involved with "drek like those old Errol Flynn movies or with people dancing around and Singin' In The Rain."

As they stood at the tram stop, the old man saw the American who had also alighted, thumbing through a road map and looking confused. The offer of help to find his destination was accepted and, as fate would have it, he was looking for an address in Carre Street, Elsternwick right next door to where the families of the two children lived together in shared accommodation.

They walked home and the old man remembered it was American Independence Day. Congratulations were followed by shared wartime experiences. The American had fought with the Marines at Bougainville and then drifted back to the South Pacific and finally to Australia. He was bemused at the fracas they had witnessed on the tram between two supporters of the same football team.

"The motto of the United States Marine Corps is 'Semper Fi' and it means 'Always Faithful' or 'Always Loyal'. We succeeded in the end because we were loyal to each other. Those guys should be on the same side. When they learn that, only then will they win."

It was a simple philosophy for a time less complex than today. The last they saw of him was when he turned to salute as he took the path towards the door of number 4 while the old man and the two children moved on to number 6.

TO BE CONTINUED

For the record, Melbourne did play St. Kilda on Saturday, 4 July, 1953 at the Junction Oval and the Demons did lose by 4 points.

St. Kilda 6.2.38 7.4.46 9.6.60 11.7.73

Melbourne 2.2.14 4.10.34 5.14.44 8.21.69

Melbourne Goalkickers: Bob McKenzie 3 Ken Albiston 2 Geoff McGivern Maurie Reeves Peter Schofield

Ronald Dale Barassi made his real debut after having sat on the bench for four quarters in his 'first' game earlier in the season and had the chance to make a hero of himself in the last quarter but missed a clutch goal.

He went on to become the greatest Demon ever and played in six premierships in a decade culminating in a famous victory in his last game for the club on 19 September, 1964.

The hallmark of that successful team was the loyalty instilled into the club by the late Norm Smith but things changed in the following year. All that is a story for another time given that WJ has yet to make it to 1964 ...