Last week the Cootamundra Herald ran a snippet regarding Cootamundra icon Anthony ‘Chook’ Sheather back in town for a visit.
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The response on social media to the story was massive as locals recalled their memories of a unique man who would go out of his way to help anyone; he is indeed a credit to Cootamundra.
“He went to Coota Public for a while back in the late 70s, where he used to lift the lid on the bins when the girls needed to put rubbish in...perfect gentleman,” recalled Lisa Bartel.
Chook was legendary for travelling around on his bicycle with a trailer on tow.
He would carry the school bags of students in his trailer to save their backs and come Friday and Saturday night his trailer was the perfect ‘taxi’ for those leaving local licenced premises.
Scott Moran was one of these. “Our old taxi driver? $2 for two blocks?,” he wrote on the Cootamundra Herald’s Facebook site.
From Col Watkins, another memorable practice from Chook.
"Great bloke, used to perform karate when the CountryLink coaches came in, Colin Buchanan was there one day and wrote a song 'here comes Chook'.”
There are not many people around who can lay claim to having had a song written about them but there is no denying the loveable character of Chook deserved one.
Karen Bowditch shared a memory under Chook’s story of being out on the town one night.
“We didn't really want to walk home then all of a sudden out of the blue come Chook with his cart, so we got in the cart and he took us up the road to get pizza and then took us all the way home eating pizza with him, your heart is as big as your character,” Ms Bowditch wrote.
Another story of his big heart came from Claudia Lyon Santander who wrote “So caring, so polite. He rode all the way out to St James Church, Stockinbingal to wish me all the best on my wedding day”.
A champion fella, Chook moved to Sydney in 2005 and at 48 years of age still resides there today.
His visit home certainly got people talking.