Gosford High School Reunion

Earlier we reported on Ros Mort’s first Grandson Andrew pictured with Ros at Bobbin Head. Now Ros reports she is  the proud Grandma of Grandson No.2 Jonathan is now the apple of her eye. Jonathan is pictured above at the ripe old age of one.

NOTE The small black mark on Jonathan’s right cheek is a squashed pea not a mole!It was a “finger licking meal”

Just to let you know (and give you plenty of notice) the dates for the 90th Anniversary Celebrations for Gosford High School have been finally confirmed. It will be held on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st September 2019. At this stage no other information is known.

Thanks to Ian Carroll for his detective work and perseverance in uncovering the school’s plan.

The original official opening of the school was on Monday, 11 March 1929. I suspect the date in September was chosen as it was a suitable time of the year when there was a little bit of “breathing space” in a very busy yearly school calendar.

With this date now verified it will allow people from our year group to plan well ahead for 2019. It will also allow us to have an “informal” gathering at some stage over that 2 day period. (but not a formal reunion!)

Many will remember Elizabeth Fairey from GHS school days. She has made contact again and is looking forward to reconnecting with some of her old school friends.
Elizabeth said her mother passed away recently in her 99th year and at the time was still living at home in Gosford. Not a bad record. A combination of good genes, a healthy environment and an active lifestyle have all contributed no doubt. Elizabeth lives in a magical part of Sydney, right on the water at Manly. She enjoys the fresh air, magnificent scenery and wonderful walks and can almost touch the Manly ferry as it sails past.

Inside the 4,000 plus passenger mega ship

A highlight in December 2017 was a cruise on the Caribbean cruise ship Ovation of the Seas. There was no need to queue up at the airport. Just catch a ferry from Manly wharf to Circular Quay! Too easy! The cruise was a round trip from the Quay to New Zealand and return. See the photos of the magnificent ship itself and the luxurious interior decor.

SEARCH…..Elizabeth would like to find Lorraine Campbell from our year group. She had quite bright red hair from memory. I believe she did have a younger sister Margaret. Her last contact details listed her living at Albury N.S.W. Can anyone help? Does anyone have any further information.

Joe and Judy being interviewed by Channel 7

As part of the Sydney City’s team, Judy and Joe have taken on volunteering as Sydney Tourism Ambassadors. This involves meeting & greeting passengers from overseas cruise ships, providing lots of information and answering numerous questions. At times they can also be found found around the Circular Quay area as “Roaming Ambassadors “attired in bright red T shirts, black trousers and wearing big white hats!

Keep an eye out for Judy and Joe garbed in their glamorous, bright red attire and have a few difficult questions ready. (just to keep them on their toes)!

You can see the article from the Wentworth Courier by clicking HERE.

Ros, Ros, Maxeen, Pat and Anne on their almost annual pilgrimage to the Archibald Prize Exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Forget the main award and the Packer’s Prize they look like prize winners to me.

Gosford High has had a bit of a spruce up mainly at the front as you can see above. Possibly getting ready for the 90th year celebrations. The ever vigilant Ros Mort has pointed out that  the 1928 on the front of school was the year the foundation stone was laid but March 11 1929 was the official opening. She is not sure which date they will celebrate.

Roslyn Wheeler suggested our group might be able to have a bit of an informal get together on the day that is selected to celebrate  the 90th.

If you want to see the fairly familiar innards of the school today their web site has some nice 360 degree virtual tours which you can see HERE.

A beautiful Christmas photo of Bernie Goddard and his granddaughters.

Bernie not only still has hair on his head it is not all white like most of us. It must be the healthy sandgroper lifestyle he has been leading.

Bernie has seen the light and says that in March he is retiring to go travelling – and about time too!

What a fabulous time we all had with 21 rolling up on the day and 20 people sending their apologies.

Weather was perfect, hot but with a nice breeze blowing up later, perfect company and yes the pelicans kept an eye on what all these “old birds” were up to!

There was recall aplenty of school day antics and of our excellent teachers back then. As was pointed out people had less trouble remembering antics from 55 years ago than where they parked the car just this morning and like Tom Rush which you can see by clicking here.

After lunch we adjourned to the Bayview Hotel just down the road and enjoyed some alcoholic beverages.

Colin Tarbox was the prize winner for the longest trip to attend. He had an early start and plane and train trip from God’s own country Ocean Shores. Most others managed on the $2.50 fare and the pleasant train trip.

Thank you to everyone who made the effort to come along and make it a memorable occasion. See you in 5 years time at the 60th!

Quote from Woy Woy’s favourite son Spike Milligan “Woy Woy means deep water but which Woy means deep and which Woy means water.”

And an answer supplied from retentive memory by Ros Mort.

As all those learned students from Mrs Gralton’s English class should know: With the name Woy Woy , the first “Woy” = deep an adjective that describes the 2nd “Woy” = water, the noun! We were taught the adjective comes before the noun . Simple!

Some photos of the day are here. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.

Table rosettes artistically created by Ros Mort using skills gleaned from her time at GHS in Mrs Wigg’s art class

Tony thinking back to when he was lead singer in his band,( Beatle era). It must have been “A Hard Day’s Night”

Fisherman’s Wharf Woy Woy

The “Mini- Get Together” at Woy Woy is on Tuesday October 6th to celebrate 55+ years since our GHS days. Kick off is around 11am.

The weather predictions are good.

Earlier in the year Ros Mort and Ros Wheeler checked out the various venues at Woy Woy. Last week Ros Mort did a 2nd recheck and spoke to the person in charge at each possible venue and explained what we had in mind.

Information

Meeting time is 11am (or later) at Fishermans Wharf. Map is here.  Woy Woy station is only about a  5 minute walk from the wharf.

Fisherman’s Wharf  has 12 tables/48 chairs so plenty of seating all under cover. They assured Ros that there would be plenty of fish available. It is an ALCOHOL FREE area so no grog allowed. They sell cold drinks + also do have a coffee machine.

Parking: For those who drive there seems to be plenty of parking along the streets…2 hours. (locals said they never see any Parking Inspectors!)

Toilets: Are very close, next to the water.

Bayview Motel/Hotel/ Brassiere. Quite a large, attractive Bar/Lounge area (Brassiere) only 150 metres from the wharf. We might call via there for drinks. Who knows?

Gnostic Corner/ Gnostic Mana (Coffee shop)  50 metres from the wharf. Map is here. A very attractive coffee shop with 2 separate areas + outside on the footpath. (plenty of seating).

Woy Woy Leagues Club (82 Blackwall Road)  See map here.  (This is a little further to walk but dead flat) The club has a carpark. Like all licensed clubs you need ID to enter.

We can decide on the day exactly what we do but at least we have plenty of choices. Even if you can only call in for a short while, we would still love to see you.

The next possible REUNION wouldn’t be for 5 years….2020!!! and it may not even happen!

Folks don’t forget the Gosford High School 55 year Informal Reunion.

Ros Mort has organised and publicised the event in Spike Milligan’s favourite town. Don’t miss it.

Please meet on Tues October 6 at 11am at Fisherman’s Wharf Woy Woy.

Lunch, coffee then adjourn to Woy Woy Leagues Club.

Ros can be contacted on 02  9456 3717 though you don’t need to advise her in advance.

Story from Anne Judd (Holcombe).

Most students these days take a gap year after finishing their HSC — our era didn’t, so this year is our gap year, 54 years later! Our big European trip was in the planning from last year, when we found out that our daughter would be playing trombone with girls from St Catherine’s Waverley, where she teaches, in Westminter Abbey for the Anzac Day centenary. Neither Bruce or I had never been in the Abbey before, and thought it a gig which was pretty special and we should not miss.

That led to an extended trip which took in Ireland, Vienna to Istanbul through the old eastern block countries cruise for 16 nights, a quick trip to Gallipoli, a stay in the old quarters of Dubrovnic and Split, with a seven day Dalmatian island-hopping cruise in between, four days admiring the old sites of Rome, and a couple of days stop-over in Bangkok on the way over and back – two months away!

Seeing the girls play in Australia House and then again in the Abbey the next day was pretty special, though it was a blow that we weren’t allowed to take photos at either venue, and the whole trip was a wonderful experience.

About a month before we took off we spotted one of those “Our Deal” voucher offers that come up each day on the computer, and impulsively we took it up – 10 days travelling in Beijing and Shanghai and surrounds for a price too good to be true, 4 star accommodation and all meals and escorted to boot, all for under $2000 each! It was so much better than we thought it would be for the price, and we had a wonderful time.

Lunchtime : Maxeen, Ros W, Pat, Ros, Anne ( Anne looks as if she is off to Antarctica but in fact had very bad flu so was keeping warm!

Our “Caterer” Ros, contemplating how much water to put in our gin and tonic!

What a great day us GHS girls had on Wednesday August 27th viewing the Archibald Exhibition at the Art Gallery.

Colin’s attendance was supposed  to keep us in order but he failed badly.

Organising a day that suited everyone was in itself a “major work of art”. Had to check no one had gone to Europe, or on a cruise, babysitting, interstate, bushwalking in the wilderness, in hospital, off cycling, on a Probus trip, catering at the Gardens, swanning around in China, Singapore, Mexico, Bali etc. or sunbaking on Moreton Bay Is in Qld.

Photos by Ros Mort’s mobile phone.

One of the younger ones from our year group, Maxeen, reached another milestone in June this year. She still looks in pretty good shape with no grey hairs, still flashing that lovely smile (and her own teeth)  and just a few little wrinkles.

Maxeen celebrated on the day with her family including her 3 grandchildren….Callum, Pia and Mishka. (see collage to the right).

The following week, Maxeen and Colin travelled to Berowra Heights for further celebrations…. a birthday luncheon, a walk in the bush then a scrumptious (fat free but loaded with sugar) birthday cake!. Can you recognise the 3 old G.H.S. girls, all septuagenarians?

With a few folks confessing but not looking at three score and ten some celebrations are underway and coming up.

Anne Judd (Holcombe) was 70 in January and celebrated in part with a lunch at Darling Harbour. You can see the smiling faces in the photo.

Ros Mort had a 70th birthday lunch at “The Reel”  Wahroonga with ex staff from Brigidine College St Ives. The former Principal Sister Anita (in pale blue) is 82 years and appointed Ros to that school in 1987.  Ros’ photo on the right is of the lunch with Sister Anita and staff from Brigidine College St Ives  on November 14  2013.

I thought this might be of interest to some of our contemporaries. One is a photo of myself (Brian Raffan), my mother and brother David taken about 1953 passing the alley where the Gosford Times office was located, by a street photographer. When I was back in Gosford for the 50th ‘class of 1960′ GHS reunion and took a photograph of (believe or not) the same alley!

A couple of comments from Ian Carroll and Ros Wheeler who both clearly still have excellent memories.

The photos certainly do bring back memories. Thank you Brian.

I believe the shoe store was Young’s Shoe Shop. It subsequently re-located to premises further north on the western side of Mann Street (north of the old bus rank near Eather’s Fashions) and its former premises became F J Palmer’s Menswear, the Manager of which was Brian MacDonald’s father Athol. Apart from leading to some parking spaces, that lane also led to the printing offices of C&E Ironmonger. There was also another lane on the southern side of the shoe shop between the shoe shop and Burgin’s Fruit Shop, beyond which were Vescey’s Women’s Fashions and Vaughan’s Pharmacy. I could go on, but I won’t. It has, however been fun to think about it all again.

Kind regards,
Ian Carroll.

Thanks for forwarding Brian’s photos. Brings back memories and pleased he said where they were taken – can’t remember a shoe shop down that end of town but maybe others can. The only shoe shop I remember was Noel Harris next to Harveys, Jewellers on the southern side of Mann Street, diagonally opposite the Broadwater Hotel (previously The Royal Hotel). Some years later Mrs Wallwork opened a shop near Austin Johns, one of the town’s dentists and close my uncle’s pharmacy. Certainly remember the Gosford Times office down the lane near where the Rural Bank building was, sometimes had to collect or deliver something for my grandmother as very friendly with Mr and Mrs Staples. Perhaps others will know the shop(s).

Best wishes,
Ros Wheeler