MITCHELL, Thomas

Memories of Tom Mitchell in the Early Years
Recollections by Dennis Isbister, a cousin

Living next door to Tom’s family in terraced housing in Union Street, North Sydney, witnessed many events(both good and bad) and laid the foundations for our upbringings in the 1960s. There are a few memories of those days that I would like to recount here involving Tom.

Always a keen member of the scouting organisation from cubs to seniors Tom relished the outdoor activities of camping and hiking and the friendships that evolved over those early years. Close to our terrace houses lived a Billy Stinson who also travelled the scout route to senior scouting with Tom.

Last century I remember we went walking round Berry’s Bay just down from Dumbarton Street off Union. Dumbarton Street was steep, even going down let alone walking upward to home. It was also too close to the train line that served as a shunt to the Luna Park service area for trains.

Eventually we all walked along the tempting not-often used tracks and found soon discovered unexpected mis—adventure. Tom fell and broke many of his teeth on the steel tracks. Blood flowed freely all the way home up that steep incline of Dumbarton Street. It took ages to fix his stitched up face and replace those cracked teeth, but it was done some months later. It took even longer for the family inquisition to stop, never to resolve how it had actually happened.

There was another incident later in that same century. We had travelled up to the Gold Coast to celebrate the end of secondary schooling (for me). On the way home I was allowed to drive the old yellow VW just outside of Coffs Harbour after Tom had driven most of the way through heavy rain along that two lane road that then served as the Pacific Highway. He soon went to a peaceful and deep sleep but was suddenly interrupted by the VW doing a 360 degree skid. It was clearly an operator malfunction. Surprisingly I was made to walk around the VW to freshen up and after a few “deleted expletives” (as the Americans would want to say) continue. He was too tired to realise what had just happened simply because we were still facing the right way southward and more-so on the left hand side of the road. I never did get to drive the VW again, though.

Our condolences to the Mitchell family for Tom’s passing.