Ted Ebsworth YTS 1942 read the death notice of Charles Beanland in July 2001 and it brought back a lot of memories, as Charles was the Principal of Yallourn Tech School and his son, Graham, was in Ted's class. In 1939, Ted and family moved from the settlement called the South Camp to Newborough (Moe East). Riding our bikes to school was more fun than hard yakka. There were always chases through the bush tracks and animals to chase, especially the wild sheep. One hot summer morning, someone suggested we go for a skinny dip down the Latrobe River, which we often did. I can remember most of the kids being Arthur Pearce, Bill Collins (race caller), Alby and Ron Law, Baldy Cook, lan Moore, Alby Beck and others. Being a hot day, we decided it was a good day to wag school. By lunch time, we had enough and all decided to ride up to the town square for ice creams etc. Having to pass the Tech School, we thought we would be smart and walk our bikes on the far side of the railway line. Evidently, Wade - one of our teachers - was on the top floor of the Tech and spotted us. Next morning at assembly, did we cop it! We never wagged it again. Mrs Barton was one of our teachers in Form 1B (l think her husband was in the air force.) She was a great teacher. That year, three of us had broken arms from playing on the monkey bars all at the same time. It was great to meet up with old school friends at the 25th dinner - Keith Fletcher, had not seen him since I left school. The biggest shock was meeting Clyde McFarlane there, Marjory McFarlane's (Betts) husband. I have known Clyde here in Geelong for many years and neither of us ever spoke of Yallourn. There's quite a lot of people here from Yallourn. Roy Whelan lived opposite me for 20 years. Joe Cody and Alan Harten from Hernes Oak. The funniest thing happened to me some years ago. I was building the Marcus Oldham Farm College at Highton and a young apprentice electrician came up to me and said he told his mother my name last night and she said, really - I could be his father!! as they came from Morwell. I never slept that night, then next morning, he came up to me with a smile on his face and said mum was only joking (some joke!!).
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