Type:	Ex Student
Name:	Leon  Payne
Address:
	, NSW, 2144
Country:	Australia
Phone:	Work: 0288684311  Home: 0296463146
	Mobile: 0409945153  Fax:
Email:	lpayne@premiercabs.com.au
Birth date:
Marital Status	Yes
Married Name:	Payne
Spouse or Partner:	Lynette Reid
Childrens Names:
Years:	1962 1963 1964 1965
The story so far...
The Life and Times of Leon Payne in less than six pages. Just to fill you all in after leaving school and managing to scrape in the Schools Board A certificate, I got a job at the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited at 98 Brisbane Street, Launceston. I had applied to join that bank, The Bank of New South Wales, The Commonwealth Bank and the Commercial Bank of Australia. The one I most wanted to get a job at was the Bank of NSW where a friend of mine Ian Young had been working at for a year. Also Bob and Dolly Dyer were promoting it heavily at the time and I always liked BP Pick a Box. Anyway the only reason I got the other was the manager of the CBC sent me a telegram on the release of the exam results and the others posted theirs. I grabbed the first thing at hand, but would you believe all the others wanted me as well. But it was too late I signed up with the CBC before the fool changed is mind. I often wonder what course my life would have taken if the CBC wrote a letter that arrived at the same time as the others. It would have been my last choice. During that time many happy hours were spent with you guys that I don't need to go into as your memories are no doubt as lucid as mine. The only period I have trouble remembering, courtesy of a company called Boag's, is most of it. Anyway after working there for three years and probably realising my health was deteriorating to a point of no return, the Bank transferred me to Sydney onto the relieving staff. It didn’t help. We were a bunch of blokes that travelled the country replacing other permanent staff when they went on holidays. In those days people only got 3 weeks a year so for the next 2 years I was in a different town once each three weeks. Well sort of, about 25 per cent of the banks branches were in Sydney so when we were here we had a base at Forest Lodge which was a boarding house that did not charge us when we were not there. But allowed us to leave a some of our stuff so we didn't have to take everything we owned everywhere with us. There were about 60 people on the relieving staff which meant about 20 of us were resident at Forest Lodge at any one time, the rest were scattered all over Australia. By this stage I had transferred by alliances to another company called Resch's. God knows how the Bank ever made a profit. It was not uncommon for one of us to lob at Forest Lodge for the weekend on his way from Brisbane to Melbourne for a Monday start and meet up with another on his way from Melbourne to Brisbane the same weekend. Organisation was not the name of the game. I remained in that capacity from 1969 to 1971 and then was appointed to the travelling Audit Staff which was the same deal. The difference was we were only in a town for about 4 or 5 days depending on the size of the branch. They grounded me in 1973 but in that time I had worked in 367 different places and performed 375 stints. There were 8 repeats. The majority of it was in New South Wales, but I also did a few gigs in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia and would you believe once in Launceston. So suffice to say there is not a lot of Sydney or the bush I haven't seen, courtesy of the CBC Bank. By the way it was their policy to ensure we stayed in the best available accommodation where ever we went. But would you believe that after 4 years of that, to this day I still could not care less if I didn't see the inside of a plane, train, hotel or motel room ever again. There were some lonely nights but due to some obliging young ladies some weren't. It was great knowing you would be out of town in two weeks time hopefully never to return, but in some very small country towns timing was paramount to keep chances of longevity at their best. However increased exposure to risk always increases risk and that was proven beyond doubt in a little place called Dungog, the town on the old Ten Dollar Note, an item that refreshed my memory of this incident for many years to come. It had something to do with the mates of a bloke who was engaged to a local lass. He had joined the Navy and at the time was indisposed in other places. In his absence he had appointed them his Power of Attorney to ensure no harm came to the love of his life. I prefer not to go into detail other than to say I was very happy when they replaced the $10 note with plastic. At some time in the early 1970’s another good friend of mine from Trevallyn, Perry Dean decided to inflict his personality on the metropolis of Sydney. He stayed for a short time with his brother who had a house at Croydon and got a job in a department store called Farmers at Burwood. It bears note here that Farmers is no longer in existence. We thought it would be a good idea if I moved out of Forest Lodge and Perry out of his brothers. We rented a house in Claremont Road at Enfield with another work mate of Perry's. The management of Farmers must have been very kind people because in a very short period of time they had given us many household items to start off with, such as lounge suites, kitchen essentials, electrical goods and even a state of the art stereo system. Thus began another year or two of fazed memories and many successful parties. We thought it time to leave when the daisy chain of rip off beer can tops (remember them) reached through every room in the house and out the back door. Another good reason for our sudden departure was the case of the mattress that accidentally caught on fire one night doing a substantial amount of damage to the interior of the home. It was here I met Mary who I subsequently married in 1973. Although happy at first the marriage declined and was over about the time that I met my new love Lynette. That was in 1989. During those years many things happened which would take up another book like this is almost turning out to be. Basically we bought a unit, I remained in the bank until 1979 then resigned and bought a taxi which I sold in 1984. From 1984 to 1989 I did various jobs such as care-taking of the block of units I lived in, some DJ work and even did a stint as a hot dog salesman outside some of the great live band venues Sydney had in those days. Don't laugh it was a business I got into with little outlay and subsequently I earned more money selling hot dogs than I have done for the rest of my life. $800 for about 3 hours work was not uncommon. It's a game I would still be in but all the live venues dried up and so did the game. I guess during those times I got to see just about every big live band there was going around. We are talking Crowded House, In XS, Divinlys, The Mental, Cold Chisel etc. Great times and lots of late nights. Anyway I 1989 I got back into the taxi industry by obtaining a job as a radio dispatcher with Premier Cabs. That's were I met Lynette and we are both still there. In 1997 we moved to a Global Positioning Automated dispatch system which meant the end of the old 2 way taxi radio. I stayed with the company and am now responsible for Customer Service and a few other things. We also supply live traffic reports from 6am to 9am to 2 Sydney radio stations and one Statewide station. I do that too. I also do a Drive Time Show one of those on Thursdays from 4pm to 6pm. Its work I really love and would love to get into it full time and probably will fairly soon. My working day is 6am to 2pm and Lynette’s is midday to 8pm.We don't get to see each other as much as we would like but in the long run it works out O.K. We quite often get away for weekends, Sydney is a great place for that with the South Coast, Blue Mountains and Central Coast all within about 2 hours drive. It is very difficult for me to take an extended period of time away so we break our Annual Leave into two. Two weeks of that are always spent in Surfers during the Indy Grand Prix, we have been to every one except the first. We are not rev heads but its is a great place to be during that time. The other we go somewhere else, in the last couple of years we have spread our wings somewhat going on cruise last year and to Norfolk Island this year. With the advent of this 40th. the thought of Tasmania looms large for next year. I have only been there twice since I left in '69 for a holiday as such. The first was in 71 when Perry, Norman Hollingsworth and myself celebrated our 21st. Birthdays conjointly at the Trevallyn Bowling Club, the other was in about 1990. Unfortunately aside from the time I was there with the bank the rest of the trips I have made have been for a purpose and mainly a sad reason at that. Dad passed away in 1973 and Mum in 1985, my much loved Aunt in 1997, David's Bennell’s Dad was another. It is a pity that nearly all my trips have been for that purpose but lets hope next year may be a little different. Lynette has always been very keen to see the place but due to our love of warm weather, and mine of water, boats, diving and sand we always seem to migrate in a northerly direction. Anyway that's my life in about five pages, there is a bit more to it than that of course, but most importantly I have very few major regrets, Cheers, Leon