What it won’t tell you is where he lived, or why it matters to me and my family. See, I know that for a few years, helived at Linda St, Coburg. I know this because he lived at my Grandma’s house.
Even though Linda St was, strictly speaking, zoned to North Melbourne, it was a Carlton street. The Sydney Road tram provided easy access to Princes Park on Saturday afternoons. Also, the club secretary lived on the corner and his family sometimes billeted country players giving it a crack in the big time. One of them was Ian Collins (http://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php?page=Ian+Collins). There were plenty of kids from the country plying their trade with the Blues in those days, including Bryan Quirk and Vin Waite, and a Carlton-friendly house was always welcome.
So a kid from Morwell named Bruce Williams that ended up staying with my grandma and her two teenage sons. Maybe due to being a little light, Bruce got a few injuries that, even though she was only the landlady, Norma had to help him through. This was the case when he broke his jaw. Twice. So it happened that for a few months in the early 60’s, a lot of soup was cooked, strained and sucked through a wired, clenched jaw at Linda St.
The reason Bruce Williams’ wired jaw is significant to me is that although it happened some 26 years before I was born, it’s what cemented the Carlton connection in my family. It’s why I was handed a Carlton jumper at birth. Why on my second birthday cake, there was a Carlton player figurine sandwiched between the two candles. And why on Tuesday, as I turned 33, the same figure stood atop the cake.
Through a series of events beyond my control, before my birth, without ever knowing it, I became a Carlton person.
How did you become a Blue?
Ben Birchall is a writer, musician and co-hosts The Breakfasters on 3RRR in Melbourne
