To us kids, summer time meant “the pool”, the big pool, the tower, the boards, the reeds – and we knew every square inch as we explored, swam and played.
Without knowing it, we always had a guardian. To us littlies, he was the man who taught us to swim in the little pool, until we graduated by passing the Herald Learn to Swim Certificate.
I can still remember puffing and struggling as I dog-paddled my 25 yards in the big pool. In those many years, just how many hundreds of children did Hughie Graham teach to swim?
But it didn’t stop there – we then had Hughie joining us up in the Life Saving Club, where he had us drilling on the lawns and attending life-saving and resuscitation classes, until he finally managed to push us through the R.L.S.S. exams for our Bronze or Award of Merit.
The Swimming Club also held an annual Swimming Gymkhana – a big event – even to a “Miss Yallourn” contest - all organised with Hughie at the helm. Hughie saw other needs for us kids growing up in the late 1930s and 1940s and he formed the Yallourn Youth Club.
Ask any of us to reminisce on teenage memories and it will be all about the fun we had together at the weekly Youth Club socials, or on the bus trips we had to the snow, the beaches, Tarra Valley or Phillip Island.
Or the fun we had on our bike hikes up into the hills, or in the Youth Show we put on at the Theatre, or in our sporting teams. Always with Hughie chairing our Committee meetings, helping and advising all the way.
Individually, we all had Hughie there for a quiet talk and helping hand with our problems. Like all teenagers, we took it for granted and it is only in retrospect that we can see that unique and caring person – HUGHIE GRAHAM.
“Bye Hughie – and thanks”.