Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes

only things that fell under his spell. People were the same. Everybody liked him. And he had time for everyone – everyone except Mum and us kids. I could never work out why he was like that. We idolised him. We sat around and waited for any attention he was willing to show us. A lot like that dog actually, only our chains weren’t quite as obvious.
    Dad always moved close, said things softly and looked you in the eyes when he spoke to you. His eyes were deep, dark and soft. His voice was slightly husky, maybe from fighting or more likely from smoking so many cigarettes. But it had a warmth that people found attractive. There was a sense of him being wounded that seemed to come out whenever he wanted to move someone. He could turn it on and off like a tap. Those same eyes looked cold and menacing when he needed them to. I’ve seen him look at someone and say nothing and have them cowering like a scared dog. It would happen in a second. He used to do that to Mum early on but she became more defiant over the years. I’m sure that when his mannerisms didn’t scare her anymore he turned to more violent methods. He had a way with words too. He could make you feel like you were the only person in the room but that too could change in a second. Even when he lost his temper henever raised his voice that much. The tone hardened and then it felt like you didn’t exist.
    Anyway, the dog became really attached to Dad and every day Dad spent time with that dog. He fed him and brushed him and for a little while I think the dog thought his life had finally turned a corner. Things were looking up for him. They were as good as they could get for an Alsatian on a chain at a building site. But it didn’t last. I’d seen this happen before; in fact, it happened to us all the time. Dad got caught up in some other stuff with the builder and stopped spending time with the dog and within a few days it turned back into the Hound of the Baskervilles. The poor guy. Dogs don’t understand why people change.
    One day the dog got off the chain and terrorised the neighbourhood. I think he might have bitten a few people. He chased us down the road, through the house and over the fences until finally someone got hold of him. They took him away and we never saw him again. I think we were told he’d gone on holidays to a nice farm where dogs ran free and had fun with other lost dogs.
    We then moved to Tea Tree Gully for a while but our stay there didn’t last long. We never stayed anywhere for very long, I don’t know why. Mum and Dad were fighting again, we were all on edge and as usual things were going from bad to unbearable. This time we were off to Gepps Cross.
    Gepps Cross hostel was about five miles down the road from our first hostel and it looked very similar. Same corrugated iron huts, same sort of people living in them. Basically we moved from one tin shed to another tin shed. But our new shed came with a lot of fringe benefits, at least for the kids.
    This hostel was also surrounded by trees, and in one corner there was a pine forest, which meant there were a lot of animalsand birds living there. Well, it really wasn’t a forest, more a grove of pine trees, but after Cowcaddens, where there were no trees at all, this place could have been the Black Forest of Bavaria for all we knew. We used to climb trees and look for old birds’ nests and of course we hid from each other out in the trees. It was great fun. Last time I drove out that way, the forest was still where we left it, and it doesn’t look very big at all. But I remember it being huge and dark and if I was alone it could be very scary. Then again, any time I was alone was scary.
    My older brother John said to me one day, ‘Come on Jim, you’re coming wi’ me and we’re gonnae play cowboys.’
    I was happy to be included in anything John was doing; he was my big brother and I worshipped him.
    â€˜Where are we