1972-1981
This thread another great ramble down memory lane. A few things that came to mind:
Great fun around 1974 when Dave Flood, on the way back from lunch at the Stables, climbed a tree between the Manor and the lake and fell out of it on to his head. He got total amnesia, couldn't even remember his name. It was so wierd we all thought he was faking it. He was berthed in the little corner at the far end of the ballroom and the rest of us in there were warned to watch he didn't climb out the window during the night and make sure he came back from the toilet if he got up. As he recovered (if he did?) he got the idea that my wee brother Alistair Guy had caused his accident by 'intending' it, since Alistair had been promoted from under Dave to over him, when Bernie Radburn left Treasury to join his wife in the GO ( for the luxury of rented accommodation in EG and every weekend off, plus a wage that made SO pay look sick).
I remember John Cox as a really mellow Cramming Officer who could find the easiest way through my HE&R about how it was the other person who should be corrected. Also as examiner he would keep calmly checking can grip, etc till he saw a F/N, so I really had to work at it to get a Red Card when the session had sucked.
Hearing a few mentions of Chris Lake, with Paul's accurate observation of her obvious bralessness, reminds me that when we were being ferried back and forward between SH and Bullards on the floor in the back of a windowless van
I believed she was flirting with me for acouple of weeks. Eventually when I had a Saturday evening off, for a change, I worked up the courage to make a move. After dinner I walked into the crowded TV lounge in Brooke House, went up to her with a smile and asked "would you like to go for a walk?" "Yes", she replied, "but not with you". Set me back a few years, that did!
I always got on great with Laina MacNamee. She got the best out of people without harshness, and insisted that living conditions were raised towards her standards rather than accept constant deterioration like most did. She actually got me sent out to ANZO as a Tour Rep in 1979, which turned out to be a major part in my ever-so-late growing up, and the pinnacle of my SO experience. The previous 3 or 4 ANZO Tours,as I recall, had all ended up with Out-2D on the part of the missionaires (John Bellmaine, John Taylor, John Harris, Trish Morgan, even Laina herself if I remember right). Since I was always struck speechless and usually blushed in the presence of any woman I fancied, no chance of me going off the rails in that department. My vices instead were ordering lager with my meals and playing Space Invaders for hours on end, using Mission expenses. I reasoned I wasn't getting any other 'personal enhancement' for 2 months. At the end I finally managed to put the Highest Ever score on one of the invaders machines in Fast Eddy's in Perth, watched by a crowd of admiring teenagers. I logged the score as 'AOSHUK'. I was on the tour with the afore-mentioned Sheila Massey-Hicks. Not much chance of Out-2D there, folks, even though I had to go through her room to get to the bathroom when we were sharing in a motel in the red-light district of St. Kilda, Melbourne right opposite a brothel and porn shop. I remember the first time a young lady asked me at the motel entrance if I was "looking for a good time" and I told her, honestly, I was already having a great time. On that tour Sheila was a quite different character than back at SH. We had lots of interesting conversation and she taught me a great deal about social skills, especially how to find and enjoy the best restaurants. I even remember one time at Stonelands, in the Senior Women's Dorm opposite the ballroom, discovering Sheila had stuck up, on the inside of her wardrobe doors, centre-fold pin-ups of naked men from 'Playgirl' magazine.
Stonelands was actually great fun till it was over-crowded and our pay and liberties were eroded away. It's hard to believe you're in an elite group when you're having to hitch-hike in jumble-sale clothes and eventually realise you're the laughing-stock of the neighbourhood. In the mid-70s, the drive-way at Stonelands had so many vehicle-wrecking pot-holes that taxi-drivers refused to go beyond the gate and we discovered the cost of relaying it would be more than the SO had paid for the whole property.
