McCormack Funerals Ken Leatham Order of Service Booklet | Page 4

decided to spice things up a bit and talked younger brother Dick to get into the centre of the reel. Well, we rolled it down the hill with Dick snuggly tucked in the cavity. We laughed & yelled as the big reel gained momentum down the hill. About half way down we began to worry as it was going very fast, bouncing & bucking around, we broke into a run after it, all of a sudden the laughter gone. We got Dick out at the bottom of the hill, it was on its side & we pulled a very sorry little brother out. He was battered about & couldn’t stand unaided, he’d had the ride of his life. Then all of a sudden the childhood days seemed to end, we were focused on pointed toed shoes and growing sideburns. Ken left school & went to work shearing for Les Perin on the farm. All though this time Kens big interest was shooting & it stayed with him all his life. As a kid it was rabbits & foxes, then later him & Max Scanlon chased pigs all over Tolmie. As the deer began to breed up in the bush this became Kens passion. For the next 40 years he chased sambar, eventually making it his business, building the hut & guiding shooters. He was an excellent shot & I think started as a kid with air rifles. I remember Ken & I laying in the long grass by the fence with a slug gun waiting for John O’Briens horse to graze his way up towards us. The big gelding was relaxed & feeding then BANG!, a sudden withdrawal of the stinging appendage & a fast gallop to the other end of the paddock. In time he would forget & graze on down to us only to receive the same treatment. I think John O’Brien might have found his horse a bit timid & hard to catch. Such excellent target practice stood Ken in good sted for his hunting future. Hunting didn’t take all his time though for when he was about 19 he turned up at home with this beautiful blonde. I remember thinking “Crikey! She looks like Jayne Mansfield!”. It was Jeanne, who would be his wife for the next 45 years. That was the end of his years at Bridge Creek. He & Jeanne moved into a flat in Mansfield & then out to uncle Llyodies farm where he