Search options (Page 91 of 116)

When I was a kid we had family friends who would tell me about Russian Jack and for some reason at one stage I thought I would love to live life like him. .He was the last person living the life of a  Tramp here in NZ who preferred to sleep outside.  I was only a boy  a passenger in a car  visiting the Wairarapa, on this day we saw Russian Jack walking along the side of the road. I remember as a kid thinking I have seen a piece of history and it felt exciting to me. My parents didnt get it but looking at him out of a passing car stayed in my mind.

'Russian Jack' was known throughout the lower North Island, his real name was  Barrett Crumen. He was born in Latvia, in 1878 and by the 1900s he was working as a seaman on small coasting ships in New Zealand.

He then took to labouring on the back country stations of Wairarapa. He was an immensely strong man who worked as a scrubcutter and shedhand at Awhea Station for many years in the period around World War I.
As the years moved on, so did Russian Jack, mostly through the roads of Manawatu and Wairarapa, but in the years after World War 2 also exploring much of the North Island.
He was originally very tall and strong, but as he aged, he seemed to be shrinking and his feet were giving him more and more trouble. In mid-1965, he was admitted to Pahiatua Hospital suffering from frostbitten feet. He was transferred to a geriatric ward, where he was asked why he had roamed the roads for so many years.
"Man oh man, I vos FREE! Free to have a beer, have a smoke, - happy what you can call all the time, you know. They was free days."
He died on September 19, 1968.
1989   Bob Lovell a  New Zealand folk singer wrote this song  below about Russian Jack . Whenever I hear it I see a picture in my mind of me as kid looking at Rusian Jack from the car. The video attached has some photos of Russian Jack.

Guitar capo 3rd fret, play these chord-shapes
C                                 Dm
Look down the road, and who do you see
                                            F                       C
An old man in ragged clothes, a tramp to you and me
Must be summer, 'cause he's back again
Russian Jack's a tramp: yeah, and that's his game.

He'll chop a little wood, for a meal and a cup of tea
And sleep in your barn, if it looks like rain
He don't like children, or so they say
When Russian Jack's around, you'd better stay away.
Em                                  F
Don't you go down to the river
Em                F
Better stay away
Em                                  F
Don't you go down to the river
                                      C   -   Dm - F - C
. . . Russian Jack's there today.
A white Russian immigrant, or so the story goes
Came here in the '20s, after revolution days
Ever since then, he's wandered dusty roads
His swag on his back, and his billy swinging free

They say he's got a sister, on the East Coast somewhere
Who he visits every Christmas, to drink a Russian beer
The last time I saw him, was nineteen sixty-two
On the side of the road, beneath a shady tree
Don't you go down to the river
You'd better stay away
Don't you go down to the river
. . . Russian Jack's there today.
Hear that he died, in an old people's home
His legs were so crippled, he could no longer roam
Sad ending for, a harmless old man
Who didn't seem to fit, any kind of social plan
Look down the road, and who do you see
An old man in ragged clothes, a tramp to you and me
Must be summer, 'cause he's back again
Russian Jack's a tramp: yeah, and that's his game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xL-rjs2VQc