A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.
Groucho Marx
Design & Purpose by Tex
Born in Springvale and raised in Upwey in the Dandenong Ranges of Victoria, I was the only sibling of five who caught the railway genes from my father. Alan Houston was a draftsman by trade but also a keen railway modeller, spending what little spare time he had in the 1950s drawing blueprints of Victorian Railways locomotives for local ‘O’ gauge modellers. As a child I would lay on the lounge room floor dissecting every nut and bolt in large General Arrangement Plans of locomotives.
Exit stage left & right
Like most children I had opportunity to engage my talent for the stage. Unlike most children, the engagement ended on the same night, without me moving an inch. Rather than parading around in costume for all at Upwey Progress Hall and judges to rate, my parents thought it would be clever to make a ‘static’ scarecrow. I was lifted out to the middle of the parading circle, left standing there for what seemed like an eternity, then carried off with a special merit award for ‘not moving’. There was method to my parent’s madness, by the time I was six it was obvious something was wrong with my feet, the ankles just weren’t forming correctly. They thought it would get me out of ‘parading’ for too long…
Top photo: Tex filming Dr Brendan Roach ripping out another archaeology lecture on site at Laodicea, Turkey.