In the wake of last week’s story on the sale of the old Gazette office in Main Street – with Ian and Dorothy Thomas and Malcolm McQualter reminiscing about their time in the building – long-time Pakenham identity Don Jackson wanted to share this memory.
Don said the Tombstone Epitaph sign was a prank by local builder Eddie Fleming, but he was unsure of the timing or its origins.
Well, the Gazette this week tracked down Eddie, who now lives in the New South Wales border town of Howlong, who was more than happy to elaborate on the episode.
He said it dated back to the late 1950s and was the brainchild of his boss Harold Jenkin who ran Pakenham Builders in partnership with Colin Smith.
Tombstone Territory was a popular US- based western drama of the time and its local paper was the Epitaph.
The builders, including Eddie, thought it would be funny to transform the Pakenham Gazette sign in the dead of night, but all the scaffold and commotion attracted the attention of the crowd leaving the pictures.
Their handiwork also drew a crowd the next day, which didn’t impress an embarrassed proprietor Herb Thomas at first.
“After a while he saw the funny side and had a laugh about it,” Eddie recalled.
The prank almost landed them in trouble with the law. The same night Futcher’s store, opposite the Gazette, was vandalised with splashes of red paint and police initially thought the two incidents were linked.
