Gosford High School Reunion

The class of 1956-1960 held a very successful reunion luncheon on November 6th to celebrate 50 years from the Leaving Certificate and 52 years from the Intermediate Certificate. Iggy’s Waterfont Restaurant was a very fitting venue, tastefully decorated and such a lovely position right on the water.

In all there were 56 in attendance on the day which was a pretty good effort for a luncheon! Some travelled from interstate  W.A John Rogers, VIC. Richard Hely, A.C.T. Hugh Veness, Mina Bannerman (Langford), John Green and QLD. Russ (Rusty) King, David Niland

It was particularly exciting to meet up with certain ex colleagues we hadn’t seen for at least 50 years! Sandra Barnes (Hunter) and husband Barry travelled all the way from Greig’s Flat near Pambula. Margaret Pontifex (Dennis) was another ex colleague we hadn’t seen since the Leaving Certificate. And Greg Needham was another one we hadn’t seen since 1958!

We were very pleased that Gail Gross ((Ian’s wife) was able to be present for the day. Ian was one of our “favourites” and his death in March this year was very sad and unexpected. Ian was always an important part of our reunions and it was fitting for Gail to join us. A photo board with numerous photos of Ian, over the years “memories of Ian” adorned the main wall. Much reminiscing took place throughout the day.

Many of our dear old teachers were “unearthed” and their foibles and defining characteristics saw the light of day once again. Richard managed to intertwine his presentation with literary quotes from eg. Shakespeare (and the likes) and bribed us with chocolates when a “correct” answer to his many questions was forthcoming!

Thank you Richard. You certainly provided lots of laughter and many wonderful memories.
(And it was a long way for you to come from Wonga Park VIC. to entertain us but well worth it!)
At this point, special acknowledgement was also made of the achievements of one of our colleagues Margaret Pontifex (Dennis). In a quote from Margaret  “I have dedicated my life to educating people about the importance of caring for the environment”. In recognition of her services to conservation and the environment she was mentioned in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List last year and awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (AOM)
A few “Fun Awards”were then the order of the day and special awards were given out:

BIGGEST LOSER – Bruce Manning (he lost 20 kg)

FIRST to PAY – Judy Mellis (Medlicott)

MYSTERY PAYMENT AWARD – Lynn Dornan (He belonged to Deposit 000000 !)

MOST POSITIVE ATTITUDE -  Noelene Hutchinson (Of course all the grumpy old men were eliminated!)

KEEPING ROS SANE AWARD – Tony Haslip (He wasn’t 100% successful in his mission but did send some pretty amusing emails to try to keep me sane + tips on how to extract $$$$ from people)

OVER THE HILL AWARD – Everyone qualified for this one but the person who had deteriorated the most and was the most rusty was Russ King.

To celebrate 50 years from the L.C. and 52 years from the I.C. our boy’s Captain John Rogers  and the girl’s Vice Captain Maxeen Langlois (Frewin) then cut a special reunion cake.

Let’s hope the 50/52 Year GHS Reunion has opened up lines of communication again so that ex colleagues will keep in touch.

Apologies were received from : Doug Allen, Shirley Di Paolo (Mills),  Cath Sullivan (Joyce), Roslyn Coleborne (Willings), Dorothy Bennett, Wendy Witten (Biggs),

Doug Daines, Diane Trowell ( Phelps), Barbara Spears and Wendy Ferguson (Robinson)  ……..   Wendy was recovering from a recent operation.

A great big thank you to Ros Mort and Ros Wheeler …..the 2 Roses and top organisers to boot.

To see photos from the day click here.  Also see Jerry Charskey Photographer’s images here.