Lets get Peanut man into the AFL hall of fame!

[joffa corfe]

Todays 'Y Generation' Football crowds don't know what they missed in the 70's & 80's. Only us 'Baby Boomers' and the 'Old Timers' can remember the good old days of the VFL.

Standing Room.

Splinters in your backside from wooden bench seats.

Lining up outside the ground at 6am to get one of the very few precious seats around the fence.

Watching the 'Two's' to see how the young recruits, and the senior players recovering from injuries or lack of form, were going.

Working out where you would meet your mates at the VFA game the next day.

Throwing a five or ten cent coin at the cheer squad walking around the boundary with an outstreched blanket at half-time, while the 'Little League' players played their usual entertaining match wearing the club colours of the two teams playing that day.

Running out onto the ground at the final siren to kick the Sherrin with your Dad, brothers, some mates or even total strangers.

Forming a queue around the ground prepared for an all-night vigil to present your Seasons ticket to the club secretary the next morning to be able to purchase the treasured Finals Series tickets.

Sometimes the club would leave the few lights on around the oval so supporters in the Finals ticket queue could have a 'hundred a side' impromptu footy match on the ground between 10pm and some ungodly hour of the morning.

And if you didn't join in the footy game, you would sit around an old 20 gallon drum with a wonderful hot fire blazing in it, and listen to the old-timers yarning about the days when Bobby Rose, 'E.J.', Hayden Bunton, the Colliers, and so many other champions graced the suburban fields across Melbourne.

And of course, the Peanut Man. Nobody who went to any of the VFL grounds in those days will ever forget the Peanut Man. Nearly everyone bought peanuts from him, and you didnt even have to leave your seat. He could throw the bag of peanuts from almost any distance, and never miss the outstretched hand that was waiting for them.

The following story was published in 'Hot Pies', an 'unofficial' Collingwood FC fanzine created by well-known Magpie supporter & cartoonist Fred Negro, that was distributed last millenium. It appeared in issue #4 (August 1999), which was also the issue that also featured the sad farewell to that wonderful battleground, Victoria Park.

The story was written by another Magpie fan, John Dear, and it will bring back memories for everyone that attended a VFL game back in those wonderful 'Good Old Days' of VFL footy.

***
'The Peanut Man'
(by John Dear)

"Earnuts, twennysensabag!"
"Earnuts, twennysensabag!"

I wonder how many regular footygoers of the seventies and eighties remember that familiar gravelly chant that for some of us was as much a part of the game as the game itself.

He was there every week, at Victoria park, the rotund little man with eyes wedged between a tousled mop of hair and black rimmed glasses that were held together with tape, threadbare brown jumper with more holes than material and pants that always alluringly showed half the crack of his shapeless old arse.

In fact, the huge hessian sack of peanuts he lugged around over his shoulder was the most attractive piece of material I ever saw him adorned with.

Perhaps that was just the clobber he wore when he sold his peanuts at the footy but I always suspected that if I saw him in the city on a Tuesday or walking through the gardens on a Sunday morning he'd have the same gear on and possibly even a sack full of peanuts over his shoulder.

He was that type of bloke. He didn't care about fashion, he was far too old for that. He just sold peanuts for tweeysensabag at the footy.

He was a bit of an institution, the Peanut Man. He was a relic of the gritty, industrial inner suburban school of hard knocks. A survivor.

When you saw the Peanut Man you thought of the Great Depression and Collingwood boot factories. Phonse Kyne and gladstone bags.

I saw him plying his trade at Waverley a few times but it just wasn't the same. He was a little piece of the past walking the boundary line, out of place, his aura swallowed up by the cavernous, concrete mountains.

People didn't see him in all his dilapidated glory out there, they just saw a funny looking old bloke with a sack.

They don't want peanuts for twennysensabag at Waverley, they want Hyperspace dogs that cost $27.50 or Alpha Centauri burgers in exchange for their first born from the 48th floor snack bar.

They want to be served by people who are dressed like Captain Kirks love children, not bloody old deros with sacks.

"Don't go near that dirty old man, Trent, I don't like the look of his sack."

No, the Peanut Man belonged at Collingwood. He belonged on the working class gravel terraces, surrounded by blue smoke haze and corrogated iron fences and chimneys.

I think about the Peanut Man now and then. When I go to the footy I always hope that raspy chant will come wafting over the crowd. It doesn't anymore. Maybe he died.

Maybe he got mugged by an Elephant.

If he died I hope they buried his sack with him, I wouldn't like to think it could go on without him.

I liked the Peanut Man.

***

What a great story!

I am certain that I read somewhere that he did die a few years ago, but I cannot confirm it anywhere. I also heard that he used to drive his Mercedes to every VFL ground on the Saturday to sell his beloved bags of peanuts. I also heard that he died a very rich man. I hope that he was rich, because he was certainly a rich part of the tradition of the old VFL days.

It is time that characters like the Peanut Man were allowed to be nominated for the 'AFL Hall of Fame'.
I, and many others, certainly would not object.

I just wish I knew his real name!

The Peanut Man...a true VFL Legend!

[Magpie_Dan]

LOL I think I remember him. Was a fair while ago but im pretty sure my dad used too buy them for me all the time. It wasnt too eat them either because I eat peanuts I dry reach LOL, but it was too throw them at the opposition and the umpires! After I ran out of them, I would just use the stones on One Eyed Hill.

Wonder if Eugene Arocca remembers the Peanut Man or the stones on
"One Eyed Hill" aye Joff?

[zoia]

yer i remember him, someone told me he passed away

[neil]

I remember him and throwing coins at the cheer squad

[fan4collingwood]

I can remember him very fondly, walking around the boundry line, buying peanuts off him every week! He must have walked many many miles around Victoria Park, great idea Joffa. He is part of our history and a hall of fame spot would just bring back floods of memories to Collingwood supporters!

[jonesy86]

There was a guy who sold peanuts at the footy who was a friend of my grandparents. I'm not sure if it's the same guy.

He passed away a while ago. I think he used to have a magazine shop in the city as well.

[magpietragic]

Yes I remember the "peanut man" I also remember the "three pole seating" around the boundary line, but no one complained there was a mad dash for those precious "seats"

[fan4collingwood]

I was a Vic Park by 9.30 game day to rush for these seats.

It was on the south side of the Sherrin Stand, between the Rush and Sherrin stands and only one row of seats then.

[skaman]

Yes, I remember him Joffa. Kinda reminded me of a demented Bud Costello. He certainly had more crack than Harlem showing. Always got a bag or two. He used to scruff my hair occasionally as he walked by. Absolute icon of my youth. Wish someone had a photo of him!

[Steamroller]

[jack_spain]

Joffa, thank you for that great word picture of when footy still had a human face.

Now sadly, it's a little more like George Orwell's vision of the future, "Imagine humanity with a jack boot stomping on its face forever!"

You know we didn't have comfortable seating, no instant replays on the scoreboard, no gourmet food in the Hassett Room or whatever, but what we had was spirit and vision and hope. As the old prophet once said, "Without a vision the people perish."

God bless the peanut man and all the kids who used to sell meat pies on those cold wet days at Victoria Park (remember when winter was always wet and cold - another sign of how stuffed the world is becoming). Now excuse me while I grab another hankie.

Thanks for the memory Joff!

[handy point]

Every time I read these superb recollections, I feel ripped off that a one/two combo of geography and time prevented me from taking part in it.

[Proud Pies]

god i'm old!

[John Wren]

[skaman]