UPDATE ON WWTC FOLK

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST FOR HEALTH AND HAPPINESS IN 2008.

Here's some info on a few folks from our gang:

KING Sue and Gerd
"Grahame, I blog on every morning to check for news etc. Love to read new stuff. Please keep up the good work!!!!!!!I have had rather a busy year and have met up with Marion on more than a few occasions! We managed a weekend at the Sapphire Coast and went to the races there, went to Lightning Ridge in July together to help choose the 2007 Opal Queen, spent a glorious 4 days in October in Hobart at a conference together and will be meeting up again on NYE here in Canberra for a 'Bubbly, Bocce and Barbecue' party. I think we are trying to catch up on the 33 years we missed out on, not knowing where the other lived! Gerd joins in with us when he can and loves the fun we have.Our Christmas was really wonderful this year as Gerd and I are now Oma and Opa to granchild Heidi. Couldn't be happier.See you at the coast in March. Looking forward to catching up in person again love Sue" (Upton) King

ROBERTS Graham and Dale – Still married! Next year will be 40 years for them. Dale works for the gov’t and Gra works for a publishing company. Dale gets into the craft (knitting and needlepoint) while Gra is enjoying golf. He still gets to his race meetings. They have 2 daughters in England and 1 in Sydney. They’re planning a trip to NZ for a couple of weeks in Jan with Barry (62-63) & Beth Robertson and Joy (Barr) & Len Sheargold. Joy was 62-63. G & D Roberts are heading to Europe 19 April and return end of May.

SMARTS Jim and Jan – they have 3 daughters – 1 down Sth Cost, 1 at Airlie Beach and 1 about to head for Singapore. They have 4 grandkids including twins! J & J Smart are off on a cruise which will take in most of South America, then the West Indies/Cuba and finish in England. Over 3 months!!!

POLLARD Nev – last seen driving a taxi up near Ballina.

PORTER Ken – lives in Ballina and swims regularly. He’s currently wandering round ACT and South Coast catching up with a few people. I actually caught a few waves with him at Cudmirrah last week.

SAY Gerard – After four months out of action following my six cardiac bypasses and my collapsed lungs after the breathing could not keep up with the new turbo heart, I'm gradually returning to something like normal. I was looking forward to joining you on the South Coast in March.

However, I have discovered that our District Rotary Conference in Bathurst [March 6 ->9] clashes with the WWTC 63-64 south coast get-together. As I'm the next President of the Chatswood Club, I'm fully committed to Bathurst and will have to miss out on Cudmirrah.

Please keep me informed of your next venture.

Have a marvellous Christmas

O’BRIEN Graeme and Susanna – “Madhouse here with preparing for 24 people for Christmas lunch and finishing the painting of the outside of the house.” And that’s as well as preparing for their niece’s wedding 3 days before Christmas!

LUCAS Bruce and Laraine (Cookie) - Cookie is President of the Independent Schools Heads of Junior School for NSW. Enough said! Even though Bruce retired in Dec 04, he is currently doing management consultancy 3 dpw which he feels is fairly non-threatening. He organised the Woolooware High School European Band tour - 21 days through Austria, Germany, Switzerland with a touring party of 95. So they are busy but enjoying life and are proud of their kids and 5.8 grandkids.

GIDDY Marion - As I am too slack to send out Christmas cards this year, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a Joyous Christmas, filled with Good Things!!!I wish you the happiest of New Years, with the hope that we all get together again soon for some serious partying.

WRIGHT Graham & Janet - Stiff luck about all that rain.... the damn roses are growing like weeds, so the president of the NSW (or Aust?) Rose Society is gonna be super busy!!! Good onya Graham.

BERRARA / CUDMIRRAH - 21 starters at this stage. Roberts may not make it but Walkers a late entry. We'll have a ball.

Not too sure whether anyone has a look at this blog. If not, I'll save myself the effort. If you want it to keep going, add a comment below. OK? Take care out there, and try not to travel on the roads (unnecessarily.)

Grahame

FROM ADELAIDE

Di (Edwards) Groenewegen lives in Adelaide. She lives with her Mum, June Edwards. Her three boys live in Adelaide also. Early next year Fay and I hope to visit with Di over there as we head to WA.

It's nearly 40 years ago that Di was our bridesmaid! Fancy that! Fay chose a girl I had whizzed in 1963 as our bridesmaid. Fay made sure Di was dressed in red or pink (can't even remember the colour now.) Doesn't time fly?

Jan and Jim Smart celebrate 40 years of marriage on 23 December. Give Jan a ring on 0432 627 121 - congratulate the pair of them. We are currently holidaying with them, and also Di's ex roommate..... Dale! Yes, and her husband Graham Roberts.

2nd photo is of Jan and Jim, their 3 daughters and 2 of their 4 grandkids. Smarts live in Nowra.

Merry Christmas to you all.

ROS FROM NARRABRI

Question: What do the following ladies have in common?

Jan Ferguson, Ros Lyell, Joy Barr, Sandy Booth, Wendy Mitchie, Jenny Lambert, Dale Read, Janice Kerin, June Alden and Fay Bailey.

It's fairly obvious eh? Can you think of other ladies from WWTC who married a WWTC fella? If so, click on COMMENTS below and let me know. Ta.

The photo above of Fay, myself and Ros, was taken in Narrabri last week. We caught up briefly with Ros Lyell who married Bob Tobin.

Here's a bit of Ros' story:

Taught at Blaxcell St. Granville 65-68.
Married Bob ’69 and moved to Narrabri where we both taught at Narrabri Primary and Infants.
Later I did 2 terms at Narrabri West before resigning after having 2 children Geoff and Alison.
Bob moved to the Infants Dept with some other male teachers and that’s where Bob always said “he learnt to teach.” He became Assistant principal, Infants until medical retirement in 1998 then passed away in 1999.
I’ve been teaching Scripture at both schools for 30+ years and teaching beginner music lessons to private pupils for about 15 .
We were both very involved with our local Anglican church , Bob as parish councillor, secretary, lay preacher and leader.
I play the music for some church services, weddings and funerals etc. and am also involved with Narrabri Eisteddfod, Meals on Wheels, a weekly exercise group, parish secretary and helping in the office with my limited office skills.
In 2005 I took a bus tour from Darwin to Perth and celebrated my 60th at Cable Beach Resort.
Son Geoff is married and lives in Wellington, N.Z. and has 3 daughters, (8,4, and 1). He works in computer animation, including all 3 Lord Of the Rings\nmovies and King Kong. So I travel to N.Z. at least once a year, sometimes more.

Daughter Alison is a pharmacist, is married with 2 daughters (almost 4 and 2) and lives in Sydney.

I have no plans to move from Narrabri. It’s a great town, wonderful\npeople, real community and a great\nchurch family. You should see the view of the Kaputar Mts I have as I drive down my street.

There is plenty for me to do here.

Enjoy beautiful Narrabri, Ros. Thanks for sharing your story.

60th ANNIVERSARY

Caught up with heaps of people in Wagga at the 60th Anniverary Celebrations for WWTC. While our (63-64) era wasn't really well patronised (Bernie & Janice pictured above were there), Fay and I did catch up with a bunch of people from various years, some for the first time. I even found a bloke (Jim Banks) who'd taught at Pooncarie before my brother Bill went there fresh from college in 1962.

I don't know who these people are.... must've been on a nearby table I guess! Do you recognise either?

Was good catching up with Laurie Orchard (played the organ for us a couple of times over the weekend), John Cosier (craft fella) and Henry Gardiner (English.) Henry was an ex WWTC student who came to lecture there in 1964. We even heard the background to his supervision of Fay in her final prac and how he managed (against all odds) to grade her an A+ when she'd previously been a C!!! She's been twisting me round her little finger for nearly forty years so I have no doubt that she could easily manage Henry G. Thanks Henry for your efforts back then. Here's Fay with Henry.

We each received a medal commemorating the 60th Anniversary.

Thanks for the Baileys on Sat night Sue. Lovely.

Margaret and Alan Milne (Goulburn) and Sue King (Canberra) toast the best and fairest.

There was an excellent brunch on Sunday morning after a brief service. Once again, we ate well.

Looking forward to seeing some of you folks at Cudmirrah/Berrara on 15 March 2008 (The Ides of March weekend.) That's near Sussex Inlet.

Coming so far: Marion, Kings, Lamberts, Roberts, Van, Keasts, Smiths (Merv/Helen), O'Briens, Hughes, Fitzpatricks and hopefully Smarts. Maybe Lyn Ludwig and Tom McKibbin if they get back from San Fran. I have some apologies already like Wrights, Barb Luelf, Warfields, Elwin & Judy James. I think Judith Dark is a chance of coming too. Please let me know if you are coming so I can arrange accommodation. Thanks.

O'BRIENS of THE HUNTER

Susanna and Graeme, grandparents to Olivia, Sophie, Hamish and Elodie
Graeme and Suzanna met in ’65 and married in ’70. Kids born in ’73, ’77 and ’80.
They made a lifestyle choice early on in their marriage to live in the country in the beautiful Hunter Valley and started raising Hereford cattle.
8 years ago they bought a smaller property deciding to downsize their herd (they now have about 20 cows) as they aged (as Graeme & Suz aged, not the cows!). Their property is near Bulga, 23 km out of Singleton. It borders Wollemi National Park and also contains 2 Ha of muscat grapes that they sell to a local winery.
The house is a work in progress but visitors are more than welcome (as we found out recently). The place is taking shape nicely.
The property is run on biodynamic principles and they are now seeing the results of that approach.
As well as 3 kids, they also have those 4 grandkids that they dote on.
They plan on hosting a quiet (it won’t be quiet Graeme!) WWTC Hunter Valley weekend in September or November 2008 as they will be overseas in October. Details here later.
They are looking forward to catching up with folks at the Berrara/ Cudmirrah gathering 15/16 March 2008. Yes, they are booked in!

Other info that GOB didn't divulge - they have various community commitments and responsibilities AND he's a damn good cook!

Thanks for a great visit Graeme and Suz. Seeya in March 08.

COINCIDENCES?

Photo of Lynn Ludwig (top), and Tom McKibbin (with hat). They met up at the Bastille Day celebrations at Marion's last weekend. They got to chatting...

Submitted by Tom McKibbin:

On the weekend I was talking to Lynn Ludwig. We discovered some coincidences in our lives.

We travelled to the College together in the same compartment for entry in 1963.

We were in the same section but have not seen each other for 43 years.

We both taught Primary for five years.

We both then taught Social Sciences in the secondary school for the rest of our teaching days.

We were both head teachers but Lynn went on to be a deputy.

We both have a son in San Francisco.

I now find out that they (our sons) are living in the same street!
It is like we live parallel lives!

Editor: If any other ex-teachers have a son living in the same street we'll buy you a ticket to San Fran!

COLLAMBIENCE

Man, you had to be at Marion's to experience the collambience! Unreal! Sureal! Bloody magnificent!

Some highlights included: 36 people present, 11 of whom never even went to WWTC! (they just got involved at a later stage!); a beaut bonfire (see photo above - can you put names to the figures?); the appearance of Ethel and Mavis (from the Miscellaneous Employees Septic Sewerage Yunion) see photo #3; the meeting after about 40 years of Julianne and Janet (wives of Rob Hughes and Graham Wright) who went to Balmain TC together. As you can see we have solved the question, how many people can fit into a Winnebago? Thanks Merv and Helen.

And answer to previous blog... Barb (Powell) Luelf and her husband Peter from Rankin Springs. It was a pleasure to be her grad partner.

Please make an effort to add a comment below eg tell us what you thought of the gathering or why you weren't there. [I think if you click on the photo it might enlarge. You could need that with photo #1.]

Present: Doug, Lucy and David Walker, Russ & Lauren Warfield, Rob & Julianne Hughes, Keith & Wendy Lambert, Bob & Colleen Cureton, Merv & Helen Smith, Grahame & Fay Keast, Jock Grant, Graeme & Suzi O'Brien, Lynn Ludwig, Graham & Janet Wright, Dave Baker, Bill & Sandra Semple, Tom McKibbin, Van & Jennifer Davy, Marion Giddy, Sue & Gerd King, Judith Dark, Judy James, Dave & Lyn Giles, Bernie & Janice Fitzpatrick. [Let me know if I've spelt your name wrong.]

Special thanks to Marion and all who made the weekend such a memorable occasion.

Thanks to photographers Marion, Graeme, Doug etc. Got some more to send me? Ta. Maybe the banana shot will get posted here... later.