BROTHER NUMBER 6.
RAYMOND.
Raymond was the youngest brother and was under me by about 2-3 years.
As I sat down to write about him it became very much apparent to me that he could very well be the most difficult one to write about.
Ray is very much like the Phantom.
He stands quietly in the background scratching his nose and does not project himself forward unless he has to.
He kind of appears out of nowhere then suddenly disappears .
Also a product of Wellington Tech Ray served in the Zenith Fruit in Manners Street, then with Alan in Zenith No 2 in Titahi Bay then with Bill and Neville at Zenith Garden Centre in Lower Hutt where once again he became the invisible man quietly plodding along in the secondary Park Avenue branch just along from KFC which I imagine Ray would frequent.
As quiet as he was he could be a very deep thinker analyzing situations then expressing it in his own definite manner.
Ray was not one to sit still and let the grass grow under his feet literally.
Mostly you would find him in the garden with his hands dirty.
I reckon if you found an old oak tree with weather beaten bark on it that would vie with the toughened skin on Ray’s hands.
In his time he must have lifted tons of rocks and tilled acres of soil.
I remember the stonework he did at Karori where without telling anyone he simply started to build stone and concrete walls, fences and even a fish pond.
All by himself and all by hand.This was at Homewood Avenue where we lived in the big white house.
Just leave him alone folks to do his thing his way and it would be done. He was the kind of guy that they would have needed to build the Great Wall of China or the railroad track running from east to west across America.
Damned hard coolie type work without a plan but through sheer grit and determination he would get there.
2.
Ray had a multitude of hobbies.
One minute he was playing the piano, then the next it was a trumpet, then the next a guitar, then the next whatever would take his changing fancy.
I don’t know if he was brave or simply did not know the dangers of some of the things he did.
He would buy a boat and tow it to the rocky bays around Wellington then set out on his own with his deep sea diving gear to search for fish or crays.
No one knew where he was because he was gone before we arose and then he would be back hosing the salt water off his craft.
He and I toured the South Island some years ago.
Me on my Triumph Speed Twin and he on his Silver Triumph Twenty One.
There was a time we were approaching I think Dunedin and the road was steep and covered with loose metal.
I traveled it gingerly being careful not to brake hard or I would skid and slide then suddenly Ray rocketed pass …a silver blur… and I thought ‘Cripes he is either brave or stupid going at that speed on gravel..!!’.
As it was when I caught up to him at the bottom of the incline he said he accelerated and just couldn’t stop so went along with it although scared stiff.
Ray had suffered several falls on his motor cycle.
Once before heading north on State Highway 1 a car pulled out on him causing his bike to veer and skid.
He went down and returned to Wellington with his shoe full of blood from the fall.
Our South Island trip also traversing a winding downhill road he was following me then I saw his bike go over sideways and trapped him under it.
His pack had shifted unbalancing the unit. It was really hard to lift the bike off him but luckily he was unhurt.
We rode all the way to Queenstown then back up to Picton.
Then he had an interest in cars…and they had to be English.
Sorry I believe his first car was a locally assembled Rootes Group Singer Gazelle a high end version of the Hillman and Humber marques.Was it a Lotus sportster after this that rode like it had no springs or was it the 2.4 or 2.8 Jaguar Mk4 that could really rocket and leave the cops behind.
I think he had a big Rover with a South African engine after that then some other English car that developed rust holes as big as your fists.
The last car I saw him in was a BMW.
3.
For a long time Ray had the Touch of Death for any investment.
Nearly every company he bought into seemed to turn sour.
He was by nature though a very analytical person and studied the horse races by numbers hoping to strike the winner.
However, this guy never gave up on investing and things must have turned to gold by the looks of the $400,000 house he ended up in Upper Hutt.
He is still working the land doing landscape jobs and even now at his lengthening years still is stocky and strong.
His face is tanned and ruddy from all the years of exposure to the elements and where all the other brothers had to have bypasses Ray has avoided this by swallowing the statins to prevent plaque build up in his arteries.
I don’t think he needs the stuff.
For a guy on constant move surely all the blood in his veins would have flushed any fat stuff through.
Does the Phantom walk a lone path..??
This it seems is what Ray has always done and continues to do so.
I think that he is never less alone than when alone.
Draft 1
28th December, 2007.
