When you're about to turn 90 it is a great time to start telling your stories, just so the grandies can't say later on, "I wish we had asked grandpa all about when he grew up."

For Jim Harvey, true blue Eaglehawk resident, his stories are ones of an unremarkable life, where Jim rang the joy out of his days by doing simple things, pastimes that of necessity didn't cost large sums of money, and ones where he could take 'mum and the kids' on picnics for a memorable day out.

Like many of his friends he left school at 15, to do general pick and shovel work. He proved a good worker and was hired on as a sanitary worker, when the 'night carter' would come and empty the toilet pans in your home.

With no sewage to most homes, Jim's boss was kept busy. Jim could see an extra truck and driver would come in handy so, at 16 he went along to the police station, put his age up, and asked to be tested for his licence.

"Are you 17 already?" Mr Baker the policeman asked.

Thirteen months later, a cousin came back to visit the family. He was working on a large sheep station called Wombuna in South Australia and told Jim there was a job going there.

"What would I be doing?" Jim asked quietly.

He was told he was needed as a jack of all trades to look after the 5000 sheep. "That's my trade," Jim said, settled himself on the pillion seat of his cousins Harley Davidson, and for the next 240 miles, rattled his way to SA.

But family was to prove too important to this Burrough lad, and within seven months he was home again.

Read more stories in our Seniors magazine here and settle in for an afternoon of great local stories and a puzzle or two.

The Country Roads Board was Jim's next job, and after seven years of travelling around, driving their machinery and being away from home too much, Jim decided it was time to get his own truck and work closer to home as his three kids, Janis, Kevin and Sharon, were growing away from him and he wanted to be much closer to them.

"The kids came first for us," Jim said.

Over the years Jim has played lawn bowls, and liked it immensely, but it couldn't hold a candle to a day out in the bush.

"We would load the ute and go up to Gunbower Island cutting and carting wood for our families. I loved the freedom and the scents of the bush. It was the best day out."

Jim was 75 years old at this time, and always had his own vegie garden and would grow ox heart tomatoes, onions, silver beet and zucchinis.

"No, I didn't put mine in the Dahlia and Arts festival, but cousin Hughie did. He would grow these huge pumpkins, and he won prizes a few years in a row. Then the next year, his pumpkin was beaten by three pieces of insignificant looking rhubarb which broke Hughie's heart, and he never entered another show."

But what make his eyes sparkle all these years later, was as the owner, trainer and driver of a trotter.

"I went out to Junortoun with my young brother, to see Jackie Wilson about a hack. I'd never had much to do with trotting, never even harnessed one up, but my brother said he would take the horse down to Lord's Raceway and give me a trial. So off we went, and all I can say is, it'is lucky the horse knew what it was doing."

Jim has a steady calm demeanour, which he said he was in need of, because it turned out he was expected to "sit on a spider with bike wheels" to drive the thing.

His first trotter was called Hogan Raider and it obligingly won the Nyah Cup and was in the placings 64 times after that.

"My young brother was in the game too and he fell on hard times and wanted me to buy all his gear, as his horse was no good really, it would jib, and decide to race when it was ready, wouldn't even go out the gate when you asked her to.

"But I leased another horse to use his gear, and her name was Kathleen Spring and after two years in my training, she was happy enough with me, and went on to win the Wedderburn Cup and many a placing afterwards."

Today Jim has five grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren, with quite a few of them living in the same area of Sailors Gully.

Read more stories in our Seniors magazine here and settle in for an afternoon of great local stories and a puzzle or two.