Leo Mays celebrated his 95th birthday on Saturday, November 30 surrounded by friends and family from near and far.
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It was the end of the Roaring Twenties, the Charleston was in full swing on dance floors around the world, the first Academy Awards had been handed out that year and on November 30, 1929, Leo Mays had just been born.
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Ninety-five years later, the world is a different place, but Leo still oozes that ’20s classiness, from his walk to his talk, from his head to his toe; and boy, does he have a few stories to tell about his 95-year life.
While Leo was born in Charlton, he spent a good chunk of his teenage years in the Melbourne CBD where he rode 20km a day to reach work to earn a whole $1.75 a week.
Leo remembers the day World War II ended.
While streets filled with people feeling a mixture of relief and overwhelming happiness, Leo was more worried about the fact that his suit had caught fire from fireworks that had been set off in celebration.
At the conclusion of the war, he returned home to Charlton and taught himself to sign-write and paint.
It was when he was painting a bridge with his father that he met his future wife, Dorothy, who rode her bike over that same bridge every day to get to work.
“She would always say hi to my dad, but never to me, so I always called out to her,” Leo said.
“I used to tease her and tell her I was eyeing her off while she rode her bike across the bridge because it was the days of the miniskirt.”
They married in 1955 and after beginning their family — three sons and pregnant with their daughter — Leo and Dorothy shifted to Stanhope where they bought a petrol station and Leo would take up part-time work as a school bus driver.
Back then, Leo lived to work, putting in 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for over 30 years.
They then swapped Stanhope life for a similar set-up 10km down the road in Kyabram, taking up the petrol station business on Albion St and buying a plot of land a few hundred metres away to build a house.
Once Leo had retired from full-time work at a fresh 53 years old, the family took to the road and travelled across Australia; but there was one location that stuck out for Leo specifically.
It was a seaside suburb some 1576km from Kyabram called Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast that had captured Leo’s heart.
Since their first fateful trip, which cost them 40 cents a gallon to drive there and $20 a week to stay, Leo counted that he had returned to the seaside town over 35 times.
“It was practically a second home — I even have bowls trophies from competitions I won up there,” Leo said.
His daughter, Glenda, said Leo used to be able to recite every town along the way to the Gold Coast in order.
With a microphone in hand, Leo had no shortage of stories to tell at his 95th birthday celebration.
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After the passing of his wife, Dorothy, in 2021, Leo spends most of his time in Kyabram close to family, living by himself in a cabin behind the family home where his daughter Glenda now resides.
Leo, an avid reader, keen bowler and golfer, talented poet and loyal Carlton fan, was planning to retell all of these stories at his 95th birthday party his family held for him on Saturday, November 30.
In fact, he specifically requested that this article be published after his party, so his best stories were not spoiled.
Joining him will be the characters from those very stories, including friends from Charlton, Stanhope, Kyabram and even Burleigh Heads, and of course his four children, 11 grand children and seven great grandchildren.
Leo said even though he was turning 95, time had not stopped ticking for him just yet.
“Some of us are past 90 and keep looking at the ton … don’t give up yet, there’s more to be done,” he said.
