WEBVTT - Conversations with Cornesy - Jim Mavromatis 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.240 Welcome to conversations, everybody. My guest in the studio is 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:06.320 Jim Mavlomatis. I hope that rolled off the tongue properly. 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.920 Jim is a veteran of the Vietnam War who joined 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.600 the army when he's a kid, had nine years in there. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:18.880 Fair to say he came back slightly damaged. But he's 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:23.200 involved in an organization called Guitars for Vets. It's a 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:27.440 nonprofit organization. It's tried to help ailing and injured veterans, 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.319 providing them with free guitars and music lessons and using 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.120 the power of music to heal veterans. It's fair to 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:38.120 say Jim was damaged and his life story is interesting, 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.880 starting as a kid growing up in Port Pirie, running 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.240 away from home when he was fourteen, joining the army 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:48.920 a few years later and serving in Vietnam. He joined 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.400 us in the studio. Jim Mavramartis, thanks for your time. 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.040 How are you? Thank you for a long time. 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.720 It has been a long time, and what a story 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:00.640 you have to tell. Look, tell us about Guitars for 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.319 Vets first. I'm really interested in in the backstory though, 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:08.720 your mum and dad's story and your early days. But 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.679 you're here to talk about guitars for vets. 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:17.160 Guitar for vets. It's been in America for a long time, 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.640 especially like after the Vietnam War and the number of 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:25.160 casualties they hadn't the number of really lame people over there. 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:30.400 It's in their brain. But I've become very passionate about 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:34.920 this because I'm seeing the results of the guitar. I 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.000 had a guitar when I was fifteen. That was the 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.320 first guitar. And when I went to Vietnam and I 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:43.880 came back on a stretcher, I had to leave my 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:47.440 guitar behind, and that was a real killer. I'd spent 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.200 I'd spent eight months into a park with all these 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:56.600 hookworms and old tropical disease, tropical diseases. Yeah, And I 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.760 got posted to the Army apprentices School at balcom And 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:04.080 and I was nowhere near the fitness or the body 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:08.639 that I had when I was prior to going to Vietnam. 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.520 But when I came back it was just absolutely so weak. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.600 But my passion for a guitar was still there. I 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.720 never learned to play guitar. I just picked it up 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:24.320 and I would ask somebody what's a chord? And they 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.280 showed me and that was a C chord and a 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.919 D chord and a G chord. And then I just 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.680 naturally picked it up. But I didn't go to a teacher. 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:37.639 I didn't read any books or what's TV or look 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:43.240 on today? Was a blue teeth or blue YouTube by me. 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.160 It's just said I had a neck with it. And 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:52.400 when I was a orderly sergeant walked through the lines 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.120 talk to the kids, and one of them had a guitar. 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:00.240 And his name was David Cox, now young cock. He 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:01.959 were rusty, as we used to call him because he 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:07.000 had red hair, and he became he was doing an 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:11.320 electrical trade, but it was more of an electrical technician, 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.560 and he used to show me chords and and and 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:17.560 then one day I just picked it up and started 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:23.880 playing Proud Mary. And they're looking at me doing bar cords, 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:25.840 and that's all I could do, you know. I was 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.960 doing barks up here and barkours down there. They were fascinated. 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.200 So every time this big sergeant came through the thinking 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.720 he's here, and they'd be running to all the different 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.360 huts and the huts would be packed seeing this sergeant 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:40.160 playing a guitar. 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:41.160 Did you sing as well? 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.600 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a good singer to I 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:47.240 don't mind. Dam My wife says to me, you know, 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.360 if I sunk for a chick shit, I'd get maybe truckload. 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.720 I was there for three years. I was having I 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.480 was having a running all the time with the rs 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.080 M there because he hadn't been to war and I 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:07.480 was still I was very psycho. Nothing worried me to 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.200 go to a pub and to abuse people worth they're 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:15.240 making too much noise, like throwing glasses at him, or you. 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.200 Were damaged by absolutely realized. 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:20.640 And I wasn't the only one there. Guys, there were 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.640 I've seen one or two of them punch a person 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.799 in the seat of a car and go through the window, 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.800 the side window. You can imagine how strong they are 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.760 and no sense, no feeling. A number of times we 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.039 would go down the beach at Mount Martha and dig 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.960 a hole and put our beer in, and some sneaky, 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.960 little bloody what were they they were signalers would come 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:46.880 along and try and knock off our beer, and a 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.560 number of those went back with broken noses and years 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:51.279 half cut off. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:57.520 So so David Cox reintroduces you to the guitar. So 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.200 how did that's? How did that get? How did that become? 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:04.880 I was I'd been married for quite a while and 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:11.839 we moved to Dromana, and then we moved to Roastbud, 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:17.680 not far apart. We came over to Ocean Grove and 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.960 I got this phone call and it was David Cox. 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.440 He said, Hey, Jim, I'm no sad, because he always 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:28.280 calls me saying, they said, I'm setting up. I've been 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:33.839 to America. How he got involved with Americans? That something 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:38.239 that he had done with his electrical tech trade or whatever, 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.200 and went over there and they used his part in 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.040 planes apparently anyway, so he became very familiar with the 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.080 numbers of people people, and they took him to and 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.960 like our RSLs. I don't forget what they call their things. 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:56.480 But they introduced him to guitars for Vet's USA, and 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.920 there's all their guitars come from the top, you know, 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.960 Martins and Fender and all that. And they could be 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.240 electric or they could be acoustic, could be acoustic, electric amplifiers, 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.240 the whole works everything. The car companies would supply them 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.520 with vehicles. Well, we do all our own stuff. We 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.479 don't get grants from anybody. So Dave said to me, 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.279 I want to start this up, and I remember you 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:22.560 playing the guitar and I thought, will you helped me? 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.360 And I said yeah. That was twenty sevent eight and 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.240 we've been doing it ever since, and so far we've 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.760 put over six hundred veterans through this program, and the 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:35.320 six hundred veterans that we know haven't committed suicide. And 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.080 that's been our whole objective is to I'm. 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:40.840 Going to come back to that the work you do 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:43.920 and how you do it. But it's interesting about you 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.320 just in those you know, the few minutes we've been 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.880 chatting and the moments we chat before the microphone was 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:56.800 turned on. Your life is full of you know, turmoll sadness, 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:01.520 adventure and obviously trauma. Can we go back to the 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.760 start year of Greek heritage to tell us about mom 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:06.200 and Dad? 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.520 My mum and dad have got a story. I've already 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:16.600 written it, and it's amazing me how she has she 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.800 survived him. And my dad came out here in two 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:26.320 thousand and nineteen sixteen. He came out to Australia nineteen sixteen. Yeah, 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.200 and my grandfather came out roughly about the same time. 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:35.960 That's my father's my mother's father. He came out eleven 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:40.080 years before he brought his family out from Cyprus. In 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:42.560 that eleven years he was supposed to get a lot 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.560 of money because he had been tee told the streets 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:49.240 of streets in Australia just paved with gold. So like 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:54.560 most of the refugees they got over here. And so that. 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.880 Was just post war during the World War. 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.000 No, no, just after World War one. Came back. Yeah, 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.480 because my father went to jail in World War two 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.840 because he had an Italian passport. But just put into 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:12.560 one side. We'll get to My grandfather came out and 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:17.520 he became a gambler and a womanizer and whatever you 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.480 do when you're away on your own for a long time. 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:25.480 And meanwhile, my mom and her mum used to do 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:29.360 all the work. She had three brothers and they would 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.400 go off and help other people plant their crops and 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:37.720 pictures the back back inside sight, yeah, where the temperature 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.960 ge just about fifty five degrees most times in summer, 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.520 so she had a tough life. They used to walk 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:49.280 twenty kilometers to they'd load up there their donkey with 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:55.640 bamboo baskets. My mum made Doiley's Grandma would have made 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.079 all these pickles or whatever, and they would walk twenty 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:00.240 miles to the market. So they get up there in 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:05.199 the morning, go twenty miles to the market donkey, and 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.079 when they got there they'd sell all their stuff and 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.040 buy other produce that they could take back loaded up 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:12.840 the donkey, and then they both got on the donkey 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.320 and came home. They could go to sleep, because the 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.880 donkey did this so often, used to just walk up 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.840 back and forth on his own. And Mom used to 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:22.480 tell me that there were a number of times she 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.400 had actually fallen off the donkey. Well, well they're going home. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.040 So they're still back in Cypress. 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.200 Your grandfather they were still living in Cypress and Grandpa's 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.200 out in Australia. Drink you're having a great time. 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.160 How did they catch up with him? 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.160 The mail wasn't like it is now, Okay, So you's 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.559 got to go on to from your village to that 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:45.840 village and then to that place, and then it goes 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.840 on the ship and goes to say port said, and 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.640 then it goes to wherever then the freemantle and it 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.440 was months, you know, maybe six months in between mail. 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.880 So where was your grandfather was here and that later 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.440 on poor period he went to period Fisherman. 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:06.000 Was poor period. This is another story. Port period is 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:11.000 a transition place for all the especially the Greek men 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:16.240 would come on these steamers and they'd go to Fremantle 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.640 and then from Fremantle they would get on another steamer 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.400 and they would go from Fremantle to Adelaide. That steamer 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.400 would go to Melbourne to Sydney and then back again. 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:29.520 We need to take a break because this is a 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:34.520 fascinating story. Well cover the guitarist Vets charity, but Jim Mavramatis, 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.400 the ambassador for Guitarist Vets, is in the studio. But 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.000 I'm more interested in these early days. Back shortly, folks, 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:44.600 Welcome back, everybody. My guest in the studio is a 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:49.640 gentleman called Jim mavra Martis, a veteran of the Vietnam War. 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.600 Mavramartis means black eye in Greek, and he said, that's 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:58.000 what I'll get if I don't pronounce it correctly. But 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.640 just tuned in. It's an interesting story. Family. Mum's from Cypress, 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:06.120 dads from Greece, and his grandfather came out. He womanized 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.400 spent all his money. But eventually, obviously your mom must 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:10.760 have caught up with him. 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:16.440 Yeah, eleven years later he built this humpy out out 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.680 at Bungamma, which is seven kilometers out of Port Pirie, 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.920 and it was made from ash that he got from 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.600 the smelders that was like fly ash and he could 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:30.720 mix it up and he would make these that was 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.840 called piase in the old days, where they put two 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.280 planks together throwing all the rocks and then pour in 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.480 the cement that they had or mud, and they just 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.640 tamp it down and then they'd lift the planks up 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.040 the next day and do the next row, next row. 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.200 The windows were just holes in the wall and with 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.920 corrugated iron on hinges that would shut the wind own. 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:59.800 And many a time as a kid that we would 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.360 we would ride our bikes out of Bungamma and come 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:07.079 back with But my grandfather used to have lots of 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:12.439 lots of plants as well. He had tomatoes, great tomatoes, carrots, onions, 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.280 all the vegetables you need, and he would load them 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.200 up on his bike and he had handlebars that went 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:22.320 normally that way. And somebody in the smelters welded on 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:24.959 handles going the other way, so he could put a 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.480 great big box in there, and in the box he'd 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.840 have bags with tomatoes and onions or whatever, and used 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.440 to get out where the men would gather at the 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:37.840 smelter's gates. But this is another story. And he would 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:43.080 just get there and go carrots, carrots, kurtles, and people 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.400 would buy the carrots from him and the onions and 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.440 whatever else he had. So he was getting paid that way. 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.400 But to get into the smelterers you got to have them. 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.600 You had to have a number, so that was another thing. 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:56.560 He'd be at the smelters waiting to get a number. 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.240 So when they called they wanted laborers for the day, 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.439 they'd callers, so he'd go in and you'd work. Well, 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.079 he was he was like a donkey. He had He 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.440 had no sense of what how hard the work is 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:12.840 that he was doing. And he'd work his guts out 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.079 all day, ride his big bike out the Bungamma, go 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.160 and tend to his garden, get up in the morning 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.440 and and he would load up the bags again and 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.679 ride into period. And I used to say when did 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.360 he sleep, you know, and when when did he take 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.760 a break. But he managed to find the time from 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:34.640 knocking off at the Smelterers and coming to the Guffernil, 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.280 which is a Greek club, the guff and Neil, right, 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.800 they said, in there they'll gamble, and to keep those 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:47.400 gamblers in there, the proprietor would come out with big 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.240 gloves of bread and cut off grape slices and sticks 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.439 of salami. You give them, you know, give them drinks 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:55.680 and make the coffee and all this, and they stayed 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:56.120 and played. 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.240 I'm more interested in what happened when his wife and 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.600 you're going to get it, daughter caught up with him. 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.360 You're going to get it. He finally got enough money 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:08.360 to bring them out. The mother, my grandmother, my mother, 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:16.320 and their four sons. And unfortunately, the uncle that I 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.520 was named after, Jim, he was involved in a car 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:24.400 accident when it rolled. He was underneath the car and 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.200 another car came along with these old t forwards, right, 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:29.240 and they tied a rope on this car and a 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.160 rope on the car, and they actually got the car 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.800 off him, but the rope broke and it went down again, 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:41.320 and the petrol tank was pierced, and he was ended 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.920 up drinking petrol and he died. I think he ran 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:45.600 out of petrol. 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:51.800 He can't make a joke about that. Okay, that's your mom. 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.160 What about your dad? How did your dad get here? 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.720 He came. He came out on his own. He came 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:03.080 out on his own when he Jesus well, nineteen sixteen 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:06.760 he was it would have been eleven eleven. Still, yeah, 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.240 we come out with other families. That's what they did. 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.120 You know, they look up because at the island that 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:16.720 they were on and Castell, Roudism was ind by the Turks. 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.880 So just like when they were in Usa per year 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.320 where he was born. He was actually born on the 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:27.400 ship and when they got to Castell, Ladies and they 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.080 got off there, and then another steamer took him to 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.840 to Port said, and then they went from there to 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:38.760 Alexandria and got on the steamer that brought them to Australia. Now, 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:45.320 his father, his father, another grandfather, had a girlfriend. This 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:51.000 is the Greek men, had a girlfriend and had a wife. 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:56.320 He had he had six boys. Your dad's dad, Yeah, 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.880 dad's dad. He had she he had six boys and 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.880 girl with his girlfriend and with his wife. He had 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.720 six boys. Now they came all the way from did 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.280 they meet each other. No, that's the whole thing. And 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:15.600 the only time they met was when that my father's 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.840 father died and they were at the funeral and we 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.680 had a photo of one family on this side and 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.080 one family on that side. But when they got off 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:28.960 here in Adelaide, right, he put one family. I don't know. 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.640 I still don't know how he made contact with people. 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:36.720 I mean there was no phones, no phones whatever. And 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.400 he ended up putting one family at one end at 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.920 Gilly Street and the other family at the end of 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.600 Gilbert Street. So he's got them. He's got these two families. 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.280 But he had to work, so he went to the 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.720 steamer and said, you know, can you give me a 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:53.880 job or whatever? And they got a job on the steamer. 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:59.560 And he has gone back and forth from Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney. 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:04.480 Like that for so how many kids were the third kids. 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:08.679 Thirdey kids. So he would when he got back, Dad, 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:10.520 you'll get off the ship. And you didn't go and 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:12.560 mix with this family. They're mixed with that family. 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:19.080 I don't know how the study missed. They didn't didn't. 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.119 The place is full of Kakody's. But you would know 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.520 you most well. You would know George Kakody who had 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:27.280 sat George. 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.240 Motives not the name, doesn't think about Okay. 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.919 Anyway, he ended up with in the one of his 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.119 yards next to bib stillwell, okay, so. 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:40.760 How did how did this Greek man marry your Cypriot mother? 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.160 Because they they clashed, don't they? 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.680 They do? But my father was also a gambler. Okay. 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:50.600 So when he started going to the Greek clubs and 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:54.960 womanizing and drinking as well, and my grandfather owed my 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:59.160 father a lot of money. And when the daughter came 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.280 out and the mother and other boys, he says, here 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.160 that pays my debt. Okay. So he gave my mother 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:09.280 to my father. They got married and within twelve months 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:13.600 she was having a baby. And then he was in 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:18.800 real debt and ended up in Western Australia. Your dad 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:24.800 or your grandfather, my mother, my father and the boys. 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.560 I went to West Australia, West Australia, and then my 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.040 father was a gambler over there. He was a fisherman. 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.200 He was working with not Raptors, the other big fishing 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:41.600 group Angelikas angel Harkas. Him and Michael's father or grandfather. 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.280 He just got to school together on a donkey back 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.560 in Greece, and I used to get all those stories 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:51.200 as well. Anyway, So they came because he got into 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.840 debt gambling in Western Australia. My mom decided, you're going 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:56.639 back to We're going to go back to Port Piriy, 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.960 all right, So on the ship back to Port Pierry. 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:04.000 Now they they clashed. It didn't. It doesn't sound like 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.000 a harmonious relationship. 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.280 Believe me, it wasn't. You know. I had three sisters 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:14.280 and a brother, and my sisters were married off at sixteen. Yeah. 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.240 I mean, goodness, what they did in those days. And 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.800 my brother became a biky and I don't know what 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:21.680 he did. He died. 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.639 That sounds so dismissive. But that sounds so dismissive when 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.120 you said he died, so well, what else? 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:33.800 I mean? Obviously good bodies in Vietnam? What's another body 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.119 is your brother? Yeah, but it's just a shell. Okay, 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:44.320 a bit callous, but death is part of living, you know, 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:45.720 dying as part of living. 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.560 Yeah, I guess. But they were so that sounded like, 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.800 as you were saying before he came on here, your 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.040 mother and father's relationship was quite violent. 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.560 Well, it would be classed as it would be classed 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.400 as me stick violence now, but that was the way. 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:04.239 That was a way a lot of men. 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:05.680 Sounds like she gave as. 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:07.360 Good as she she did. She did. 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:13.280 Jim Mavramatis is my guest, Folks, fascinating story back shortly. 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.760 My guest in the studio is Jim Mavramatis. I hope 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.440 I'm saying it correctly because it means black eye and Greece. 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:21.080 And he said he give me one if I didn't 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:25.000 say it correctly. He's an ambassador for Guitars for Vets 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.560 and organization which helps veterans who are troubled suffering with 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.920 post traumatic stress disorder, just helps and get the back 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.880 on track. But I'm being distracted by his family history 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:40.199 and the way they immigrated and how they settled in 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:44.240 Port Pirie. Mum and Dad's relationship was quite violent. Your 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.800 mother was a victim of domestic violence. She gave back 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:49.960 sometimes as good as I can't imagine she gave back 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:52.480 as good as she got there being a she must 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:52.800 have been. 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.920 Yeah, he didn't. He didn't actually beat her up. Okay, 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:02.560 it was the womanizing and the aga and there's no money. O. 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:08.320 You run away from home at fourteen? How why it 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:09.040 led to that. 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.359 My mother was forever hugging my brother, you know, because 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:17.000 his name was nick named after my father's father, which 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:19.320 is the right thing to do, and I was named 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:22.920 after an uncle. But but I never felt the love 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:25.919 from my mum because she had four miscarriages before I 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.960 was born. And then again I thought that I was 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:34.639 the result of a miscarriage because I never felt love. Really, 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:37.960 I never, never, I want. I lived out on the 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:42.040 farm with my grandpa and my uncle from like I said, 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:44.719 from at the age about seven, and then there was 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:48.080 no chasing me to say come home, come home. And 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.720 my uncle con was like my father. He was a 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:57.159 merchant navy, and he was genuinely like a father. I 0:21:57.200 --> 0:21:59.119 loved him. 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:01.440 He gave you that love back. 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:05.280 Oh absolutely, yeah, yeah yeah. And as I got old, 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.040 as i'd come home from leave from the army, I'd 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.080 go straight to the farm that he had and we'd 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:13.720 set out under the grape vines, drinking wine and having 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:14.359 a great time. 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:16.680 So how do you make this decision to run away 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:19.159 from home? And where do you go? 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:26.040 When I was fourteen, I had a girlfriend and I 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.600 went around her place and her big brothers just said, 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:31.280 you can't see her again? 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.160 Well really? Was she Australian? 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.520 Yeah? Yeah, And I was pretty upset about that. And 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:43.199 we had this coffee bar in Port Perry called the 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:47.879 Coconut Grove, and i'd go there because a lady behind 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:51.919 the counter chick, she was absolutely beautiful and would feed me. 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:55.640 And that particular day I went there and this guy 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:58.919 said to me, Jim, I'm sorry your girlfriend's left you 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:02.439 and she's coming with me now. So that that upset me, 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:06.440 and I at that age, you know, it was really hard, 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:10.680 you know, fourteen and losing your girlfriend to some dickhead. Anyway, 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:16.080 so what's happened? So I just went home and I 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:19.480 went in home and I got my little sugar bag 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:22.280 that you always had on my bike just in case. 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.600 I found some empty drink bottles, just like they do now, 0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:28.560 because they were worth they were worth six months, I 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:34.040 think it was sixpennies and I just jumped on the 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:36.240 my bike and I thought it's a long way to 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:38.520 Wala and I was just out of Poor Perrie. So 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:40.639 I threw my bike in the bushes and I had 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:42.199 thumb to ride and I got to ride all the 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:43.960 way to Whaler and I was great and the guy 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:47.480