In the late 1950s I purchased a black Morris Minor 1000 sedan.
As a single person it suited my requirements excellently. However, as it was a small 4-seater vehicle, there wasn’t a lot of room to cater for bulky golf sticks. Nevertheless, my brother and I managed and went regularly to Elsternwick and Yarra Bend golf courses. However, its main use was for domestic and personal purposes.
In November 1962 I invited some friends from Wodonga to visit me in Prahran for the purpose of attending the Melbourne Cup. I drove out to the Flemington racecourse and my friends and I had a very enjoyable day.
In the evening, after the races were over, we adjourned to the Federal Hotel in the city where my friends had booked accommodation. The Federal was well known to country people and had a good reputation for meals and entertainment. At the entertainment, two of my friends befriended a couple of nurses and I loaned them my car to take the nurses home to their hospital.
The entertainment concluded and one friend and I waited n their room until the boys returned. I don’t remember how long we waited, but it was some reasonable time. On their eventual return I set off to drive home to Prahran. As I worked in the city, I knew the road well and often travelled by car to work, which was nearby. As was usual I drove down Spencer Street and Clarendon Street, South Melbourne. For whatever reason I missed a veer in the road and collided with an electricity pole. This caused considerable damage to the car and I didn’t fare too well either.
I woke up in the Prince Henry Hospital with nurses flitting around everywhere. I had sustained a fractured skull, a punctured lung, a fractured sternum, 12 fractured ribs and brain damage. It was a serious situation. I stayed in the hospital for about 10 days. My brother Basil visited me daily. Eventually I returned home and did not go back to work for about 2 months. My main concern was my frequent brain “slides”. I don’t know how else to describe them. I was placed on “dilantin” medication for “the rest of your life”.
During my rehabilitation I lost my sense of taste and my sense of smell went haywire. I could not bear to be in the kitchen while a meal was cooking. Eventually I returned to work and life carried on normally. Some 6 or 8 months later was transferred from my auditing position at work back to administration in the Benalla office.
The car! What happened to the car? I visited a wrecker’s yard and there it was, sitting neglected with a massive crunch dead centre in the bonnet. I noted that the internal rear vision mirror was shattered. It had penetrated my forehead. The car was a write-off.
Footnote: The medication “for the rest of your life” was terminated in May 1988.
Ray O’Shannessy
July 2020
As a single person it suited my requirements excellently. However, as it was a small 4-seater vehicle, there wasn’t a lot of room to cater for bulky golf sticks. Nevertheless, my brother and I managed and went regularly to Elsternwick and Yarra Bend golf courses. However, its main use was for domestic and personal purposes.
In November 1962 I invited some friends from Wodonga to visit me in Prahran for the purpose of attending the Melbourne Cup. I drove out to the Flemington racecourse and my friends and I had a very enjoyable day.
In the evening, after the races were over, we adjourned to the Federal Hotel in the city where my friends had booked accommodation. The Federal was well known to country people and had a good reputation for meals and entertainment. At the entertainment, two of my friends befriended a couple of nurses and I loaned them my car to take the nurses home to their hospital.
The entertainment concluded and one friend and I waited n their room until the boys returned. I don’t remember how long we waited, but it was some reasonable time. On their eventual return I set off to drive home to Prahran. As I worked in the city, I knew the road well and often travelled by car to work, which was nearby. As was usual I drove down Spencer Street and Clarendon Street, South Melbourne. For whatever reason I missed a veer in the road and collided with an electricity pole. This caused considerable damage to the car and I didn’t fare too well either.
I woke up in the Prince Henry Hospital with nurses flitting around everywhere. I had sustained a fractured skull, a punctured lung, a fractured sternum, 12 fractured ribs and brain damage. It was a serious situation. I stayed in the hospital for about 10 days. My brother Basil visited me daily. Eventually I returned home and did not go back to work for about 2 months. My main concern was my frequent brain “slides”. I don’t know how else to describe them. I was placed on “dilantin” medication for “the rest of your life”.
During my rehabilitation I lost my sense of taste and my sense of smell went haywire. I could not bear to be in the kitchen while a meal was cooking. Eventually I returned to work and life carried on normally. Some 6 or 8 months later was transferred from my auditing position at work back to administration in the Benalla office.
The car! What happened to the car? I visited a wrecker’s yard and there it was, sitting neglected with a massive crunch dead centre in the bonnet. I noted that the internal rear vision mirror was shattered. It had penetrated my forehead. The car was a write-off.
Footnote: The medication “for the rest of your life” was terminated in May 1988.
Ray O’Shannessy
July 2020
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