“I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO RAGGY?”

“Who?”

“You know he’s been around for years, can’t shoot for shit but has no trouble getting his mouth in gear.”

“A Federation Member?”

“Yeah! At Monarto in South Australia but I reckon he was a member of Field and Game Australia too.”

“I remember him, a little short fat prick who used to grovel around on the ground picking up shells that missed the bin. That used to piss me off, why didn’t he leave them for the people who set the course, they get paid don’t they?”

“I saw him at the Nationals in Tassie, still shooting shit and still picking up shells but he was a lot quieter than I remember.”

“I heard he had some health issues and lost a daughter to cancer but I don’t know the facts.”

“I wouldn’t ask him, you would probably get his life story.”

Born Stephen John Ragless at the Calvary Hospital in Adelaide 29/1/47 to Glad and Peter Ragless.

Younger brother of Lester and Clive. Older brother of Paul and twin girls Anne and Kathy.

I went to Black Forest and Plympton Primary Schools and got to intermediate standard at Plympton High School.

I started an electrical apprenticeship in Jan 1963 with Ellis and Clarke in Kent town with a broken leg from being thrown off the back bumper of a hotted up Morris Minor on full lock. I have done a lot of other stupid things but I want to keep most of them to myself in case I want to write a really big book.

At the new Chrysler factory at Tonsley Park in 1965 I Fell eight metres off a scaffold onto a concrete floor while pulling cables into a switchboard. I was lucky to fall on my head, A few days unconscious and a broken collarbone but no real damage-damage- damage.

I was at Naracoorte when the power went through, Mount Gambier at Softwoods, Millicent at Apcel and Cellulose, Pine Cap Radio Station at Alice Springs and various wheat silos throughout South Australia.

In my late teens I had problems with so called friends and spent a lot of time doing my own thing.

While I was working in the country I fell in love with, no got the hots for then fell in love with a sixteen year old Dutch girl Leah who I married in November 1968 about six months after I started with Carrier Air Conditioning. We bought a house at Hackham and Wayne was born.

After four years with Carrier and six months as a contract manager with a small contracting company Leah and I started Selgar Air-Conditioning in Jan 1973.

We started out doing small jobs and subcontracting to other larger companies. Work picked up and I was flat out. Leah had Wayne and a new baby Michelle and was helping me make fibreglass duct on the back veranda at night. I would wake up about four in the morning alert and ready to plan my day, invent or solve problems.

I had a good wife, two kids and a share in a family shack at Point Turton ten metres from the water with great fishing and a boat in both places. Every weekend was full and I looked forward to the challenges Monday would bring.

I was working hard but taking a four day break every fortnight, travelling the outback, fishing and enjoying life to the full. At about twelve Wayne started surfing and we moved to Seaford and have the best location for surfing and fishing within 30km of Adelaide right at our back door.

About 1976 I took on an old work mate (Dave) as a partner and concentrated on residential and light commercial sales and service with about three people until about 1984 when I started manufacturing an air-conditioning unit I had a patent on. I developed this and played around with a few other inventions for the next few years.  Our second daughter Hayley was born in 1981 and our family was complete. We worked out of an old house on Deacon Ave. at Richmond until about 1987 when Wayne started his apprenticeship with me.  My accountant, Leah and I bought Cronin Wire Products in 1987 and relocated it to an old factory at William Street Mile End South.

John and Pauline Borg had bought a shack near ours at Point Turton and he got me interested in clay target shooting about 1988.

A short time after moving to William Street Dave and I parted company and along with the contracting business I took on warranty service for Daikin and Bradway (now Temperzone).

The Air Conditioning and Wire business flourished and about 1992 we bought a factory in Rosslyn St. I still loved work and thrived on the challenges of a new and rapidly changing industry. My work was all word of mouth with many repeat and satisfied customers.  We travelled with the kids everywhere shooting or fishing.

In 1997 I turned 50 and started to consider my future and wanted to slow down in about five years.  I had about six to eight employees or sub-contractors but it had become a job and I started to look forward to the weekends.

Wayne had finished his apprenticeship and was back and forth between Bali, surfing, fishing and other jobs so I offered to teach him the business. He was not interested and hated driving to bloody town everyday anyway.

I too was sick of driving to work and decided I would set up at Seaford, built a 42metre X 17metre factory, and put everything in it to make anything out of steel. Wayne would grow up and see it my way and I would grow old proudly messing around with all my toys.

About the time I realised that Wayne or neither of my son in laws were interested in the business or the factory and my efforts to get some of my employees or sub contractors excited failed, I was back on the tools and still running six to eight people.

 In a rush to get ductwork in before the ceilings at the Marion Bay Tavern I stepped on a timber with two bloody great knots that let go and I fell about 3 metres on my back. I was not badly injured but was only about 100mm from a pipe sticking out of the floor that would have certainly caused serious injury or death.

While waiting for the ambulance and lying in bed for three days I decided on plan “me” I sold the factory, sold the machinery and got rid of all the staff and sub-contractors. Jim and I paid off Rosslyn Street; Cronin’s was still kicking goals so I had enough to retire on if I did not want to fish a lot or shoot a lot.

The phone didn’t stop ringing and my business limped on without my interest or commitment and with whoever I could get to help at the time. My experience got me through but the stress caused by work schedules, customer dissatisfaction and not achieving my own standards caused me to lose sleep and the pressure built up.

I had dropped all my long term customers and was working mainly for one developer with their own issues, tight schedules and a “get it finished, sell it off and move on” attitude.

Problems on these jobs caused loss of sleep and stresses that compounded caused a major breakdown.

I feared losing my family, home and future and I would be charged with fraud and go to gaol.

Three weeks in the mental ward at Noarlunga , two years under a shrink and a bucket of pills later I still imagined the worst. If a boat came close while I was fishing I thought it was the Police making sure I didn’t try to drown myself before they got around to arresting me.  If a plane went overhead at the club the Police were taking photos and were going to shut the club down (and it was all my fault). Every hour of every day had these fears and they compounded to include all friends and family and I would silently apologise for the shame I was about to bring on my entire family.  Michelle was diagnosed with cancer early 2009 and passed away in December.  My illness prevented me from fully feeling that grief and I can only imagine the pain and anguish this caused Leah. I stopped telling Leah or others my fears as nothing was going to save me.  A terminal illness was a wish and would have been a blessing.

The pills I was on numbed me to a point where I did not want to get up in the morning and I looked forward to going to sleep at night so I could forget my fears.

I considered ending my life on many occasions and my inventive mind planned many alternatives but I never considered shooting myself.  Along with Leah and my family my support crew included many friends I have in Sporting Clays and wether the thought of shooting myself would bring more anti-firearm pressure on them or I was afraid I would miss, blow my ear off and then have to fix the hole in the ceiling I don’t know but I decided to get on with life the best I could until I was taken away.

About three months ago after talking to my doctor I decided to stop the pills and my fears did not get any worse. A side affect was that I would wake up at about four in the morning with a clear head and time to think.

I had withdrawn from all the contacts and good friends I had in the building industry and knew they were now all against me but I got up enough courage to ring just one of them.

When he did not hang up on me I continued contacting my old friends and I spent that much time on the phone I may have to sell this story to pay the phone bill.

I decided to face my fears and invited the person concerned with the jobs in question to contact me if he had problems with my work and I would compensate him for any losses he has suffered.

To this point I have heard nothing and I don’t care,  I am now strong enough now to handle anything that comes along.

 All the fears I had went the moment I posted that letter and I have the energy and excitement for life I had not four years  but fifteen Years ago. I am awake early and see it as a way I can make up for lost time. After solving world hunger and global warming (sorry climate change) I intend to concentrate on my shooting and hope get in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest person to shoot his first twenty five straight. I can trace the problems I had to fear, and fear in many forms governs all our lives.

After Leah and my family I value my friends and about five hundred of my friends shoot clay targets.  A lot of these have been concerned about me and my family through what up to now has been a very bad but private episode in our lives and your concern is greatly appreciated.

 

22/10/12