Pakenham icon Robbie McGregor earned his stripes by his willingness to help people – and the help the community provided him in return.
But a hilarious story that came to light at his 50th birthday celebration back in 1991 revealed a rare occasion when this help was actually no help at all for a frustrated employee of the Post Master General’s office (the phone service provider back then).
Local ambulance driver John McMillan had guests rolling in the aisles at a party thrown for Robbie by racing stalwart David Bourke when recounting the story.
It was at the time the PMG was converting the Pakenham telephone exchange from a manual to an automatic system. The first phones to be converted, naturally, where those of the town’s emergency services.
Robbie McGregor was a regular figure at them all – the ambulance station, the CFA, the police station and the doctors’ surgery, helping out with deliveries and odd jobs.
This particular day of the phone changeover John – the only ambo in the one-person station in Main Street – had been called out to a job when the phone rang.
Robbie, pottering around as he did, picked up the phone and gave his usual animated greeting of ‘Hello’.
“Who’s that?” the PMG technician asked.
“It’s Robbie McGregor.”
“Where do you live Robbie?”
“King Street,” he replied.
The puzzled technician muttered that he must have crossed the lines and hung up.
A little while later, Robbie had finished his duties at the ambulance station and rode his bike up the road to the fire station in John Street to sweep the floors.
The phone rang there.
“Hello,” Robbie said.
“Who’s that?” an increasingly puzzled and now frustrated technician asked.
“It’s Robbie McGregor…”
It’s unclear what the technician actually said next, but it’s a fair bet that a few expletives may have got an airing as he set about fixing the non-existent problem of crossed lines.
