Peter Harries

The songs came much later in this morning's talk. 

 

Peter was born in Meckering - where, he said he only stayed one week before moving on to Dowerin with his parents.  His dad built a new house with all the finest fittings, including hot and cold water taps in the bath.  The only disappointment was that there was no running water!  His father also put in a 13,000 gallon rainwater tank - which was half sunk into the ground.  Apparently it was the laughing stock of the town as they thought it was so big that it would never get filled.  Imagine their surprise, after one very heavy downpour when 5 1/2 inches of rain was deposited on the ground, when the tank not only filled up, but overflowed.

 

Living in those days was quite different to now and Peter recounted stories of his Dad going away to war; of being allowed to go to the travelling movie theatre every few weeks when it came to town; of finishing high school and going to work in the railways; and of moving around in the countryside and moving between jobs.  

 

He also recounted meeting his name sake through some unusual circumstances.  He was in Pinjarra working as a West Farmers Agent and needed to order a Hills Hoist for a client.  He phoned Hills Appliances in Perth only to have the person at the other end of the phone say "Peter Harries".  Over the years, apparently our Peter was mistaken for the other Peter on a few occasions.  It turned out that their wives were both called Patricia and our Peter's wife Patricia was phoned one day by a friend of the other Peter inviting her out to lunch at the airport.  She duly went out there with children in tow but never saw - her - Peter so had to do without the promised lunch.

 

Peter worked  in a number of professions, including singer and entertainer and as our meeting came to a close he managed to sing us a few bars from a few well known songs including 10,000 miles away; Click go the Shears, Wild Colonial Boy, Pub with no Beer and Waltzing Matilda.   He included a rendition of Waltzing Matilda without opening his mouth - just in case there were flies in the room.  He says he received his OBE last year - "Over Bloody Eighty". 

 

He finished by saying that he had lots more to tell us - so maybe that's an invitation to get him back to a meeting at some point in the future.

 

Thanks Peter, it was fun.