This story was taken from todays Sensis (they publish White and Yellopw Page Directrories) web site ....
"A tale of woe
21 Jul 2010
Last week, retiree Phillip Badger visited our QV office (in Melbourne) to flick through our phone book library and see if he could find the original holder of a 50-year-old phone number. Newsroom was intrigued to say the least and caught up with Phillip to find out why.
This story starts way back in the early 1960s, when Phillip Badger bought a beat-up MGTC. The 34th of its kind ever built, the car was aptly nicknamed 'Tale of Woe' due to its number plates, WO676.
After a few years on the road with very little maintenance, Phillip's 'Woe' was deemed un-roadworthy and laid to rest in the backyard of his family home. Although the kids loved it, Phillip's frustrated wife eventually told him to get rid of the MG and so it was taken apart and stored under the house for the next 20 years.
In the 1990s, Phillip and his brother Jim found themselves a little bit flush and decided to restore Woe to its former glory. They eventually hit the road in 2004 and the antique MG has been purring like a kitten ever since.
But it wasn't enough for Phillip just to have Woe back in action; he joined an MG club and to 'fit in' needed to know the full history of his car, which is the oldest registered MGTC in Victoria. Phillip decided to undertake the mammoth task of searching for the fellow who sold him Woe 50 years ago.
Phillip started at the library, where he searched through reels of old newspapers on microfilm to find the original classified ad. Thankfully, he had remembered his was the only car advertised for the bargain basement price of 100 Australian Pounds.
After just a few days behind the Microfiche, Phillip found the number he was looking for: JW1681 (the JW indicates the area of the phone line, in this case in-and-around Northcote, Fitzroy and Alphington).
Now Phillip is trawling through our copy of the 1960 Melbourne White Pages to find JW1681 and its corresponding name and address. What happens if and when he finds the number? Well, he will work his way through subsequent phonebooks to trace the name and address until, hopefully, he traces the owner. What a task!
While Phillip said he was kicking himself for losing his car's original registration papers, we think the retired psychologist is enjoying the challenge. When we asked if he had analysed his own behaviour, Phillip responded that the diagnosis was a mild case of obsessive compulsive disorder!
Phillip has promised to keep us up to date on his hunt.
Good luck Phillip! Our fingers are crossed!"
