Many parents would be less than proud if their child up and left school of their own volition at 13, but after Ray ‘Finny’ Finn did just that, he went on to give his some of their proudest parenting moments.
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His father, Finny Snr, found him fishing by the river one day when he was supposed to be in class.
Finny explained he’d excused himself from the institution he felt didn’t fit him before the legal age for leaving school was raised to 15.
After some negotiation, the school and Finny Snr agreed to release Finny from the chains of the education system, so long as he entered the workforce.
Finny Snr helped set up a job up for his son, but on Finny’s way to see the manager, he landed different employment all by himself at Fairley’s, a well-known department store in Shepparton at the time.
He might not have had the mettle for the long school stretch, but he stayed working at Fairley’s for 27 years, rising up the ranks to management before one day spontaneously quitting after a change of ownership delivered unfavourable changes.
With no job and no real plan, Finny headed to the bank to see if they’d loan him five grand to start his own business.
Unfortunately, they turned him away because he had no capital to contribute.
As fate would have it, he then walked by a mate named Nick, who was on smoko outside the local credit union, and explained what had happened. Within minutes, Nick had written him a cheque for the $5000 he was chasing.
“It felt really good, I felt important; I had $5000. Mum and Dad never had five dollars,” Finny said.
Soon after, Ray Finn’s Manchester opened in High St, Shepparton.
Finny’s wife, Anne, said she was terrified of working with customers in the beginning.
“Dad wasn’t even allowed to have a lunch break,” their daughter Deanne Finn said.
“Mum was too scared to be up the front by herself.”
That was 35 years ago.
Anne got used to her new role alongside her husband in retail and the business took off.
It became known for its heavy discounts and sales so popular they required security to control the swarm of customers that formed a three-body wide line that stretched down the street and around the corner.
There were times the guards had to keep the doors closed and trickle two or three waiting customers through them each time two or three left.
Finny knew his stuff.
And everyone in town grew to know and trust he and Anne, along with their daughter Tina Sicali, who has also worked in the family business since it opened.
Deanne, who currently works at the shop, has helped out on and off throughout the years, while the couple’s only son, Michael, pursued another pathway in the medical field in Melbourne.
The business has also employed several locals during its time, many of whom have become fond friends of the family, not just their workers.
After a year in business, the store’s name changed to Finny’s Manchester after many suggested it made sense because that’s what it was more commonly referred to around the traps.
Finny’s mum and dad were battlers.
He said they worked hard, seven days a week, but never had much to show for it.
His mum didn’t grasp the concept of her son having to pay rent, saying, “They should be happy to have you in here!”
His father would drive his van to deliver stock to the store and park it on the footpath so he could admire the shopfront.
When Finny questioned his dad about why he would just sit there and stare at it, he said proudly: “I just love looking at the name.”
Throughout their years running the Shepparton store, the Finns opened a second location in Bendigo, which traded out of three different spaces across more than 14 years.
Owning a shop and being well known in the community because of it doesn’t necessarily make you an endeared part of it.
It’s who you are as a human that wins hearts.
Humble, friendly and charitable, it’s easy to see why Finny and Anne (and their family) are loved by locals.
A few years ago after the devastating drought in NSW, the pair took the proceeds from their charity jar in-store and hit the road delivering care envelopes to farmers each containing $500 cash and messages of support from Shepparton.
They left them in mailboxes without making themselves known to the recipients. They were never looking for the accolades they deserved.
“I knew what it was like to have nothing,” Finny said.
“And I was one of many in those times that had nothing. It was just the way the world was.
“Coming from the background that I come from, all us kids come from, was that I should never ever have had a shop, so I appreciate it.
“Just to watch it grow and grow by chance, not that I wanted it to, and snowball, is a pretty good feeling.”
On the same trip they gifted nine envelopes also containing $500 cash to all the students of a rural school to take home to their families so they could “go out for a nice meal” somewhere during the tough time.
These are just a couple of stories of the many anonymous cash and stock donations the couple have generously given during their time as business owners.
And, now, unfairly, life has dished them a cruel blow, which has forced their decision to close the still-strong business.
At 75, Finny is long past retiring age, but he says if he didn’t get sick he would’ve worked for ever.
“I never thought about retiring, I told the girls I was going to stay working ’til I was 120 so I could annoy the sh*t out of them for longer,” he said cheekily in earshot of his daughters.
After being plagued with heart issues in recent years, he discovered in June he’d also developed stomach cancer.
While all clear now, he’s become largely incapacitated, not allowed to lift or drive.
Finny says he doesn’t know what he will do with himself after he locks his store’s doors for the last time on December 14, but he might grow used to, and even enjoy, the idea of more time to hone his painting skills, nurture his veggie garden or search for gold with his metal detector.
And Shepparton shoppers will be left with their own golden memories of the Finny’s Manchester family.
Senior journalist