This update is simply a collection of photos of some of us back then and now.
I'll start off with the most recent addition, Larry Lawrence, who popped up a few weeks ago out of the blue.
Apparently Larry just Googled "Arnold Elevators" and came across the original website that I'd created after the reunion and from the information therein, he was able to contact me.
(The power of the internet is at times quite amazing.)
Larry turns 60 this year, currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, married to a lovely lady by the name of Lauren and is planning on returning to Oz for a holiday next year and, in a couple of years, permanently.
Here is Larry with wife Lauren............
Stan Sek was a bit of an outdoors type of bloke.......huntin', shootin' and fishin'.
Here's Stan with what is probably a Golden Perch, but which he'd most likely try and tell us was a Barramundi! Photo taken somewhere near Coonabarabran, circa 1972.
Stan Sek and Bruce Kennewell, Sofala, 1969-ish.
Stan loaned me one of his rifles - a semi-automatic .22 device - a Ruger, I think it was.
Only problem was that it had a fault which allowed it to fire as a fully automatic - like a sub-machine gun - and it went through a full magazine (12 rounds) in a split second! Very exciting but hard to shoot anything!
In 1972 Arnold's sponsored an entry in the inaugural Rotaract Raft Race, held on the murky waters of the Hawkesbury River, the race commencing at Windsor and ending what seemed like hundreds of kilometres down-river but was actually about 10 k's.
In the above photo, that's Lenny Payne baring his body to the sun god.
He was probably cheering with delight at our retirement, seeing that there was bugger-all wind and rowing that craft was just not a viable alternative.
Arnold's supplied the empty Shell Tellus 27 and Shell Tellus 32 five-gallon drums, the timber, fixings and welding supplies, with the raft being built after-hours at 14-16 O'Connor St. Well, it was mostly after-hours.
Clive Smith kindly lent mast, boom, sails and rigging from one of his yachts and crew-members were made up of both Arnold's staff and members of the Blacktown Rotaract Club....those who weren't also Arnold's employees!
Sadly, the brilliant move to place most of our motive power in the reliance on wind failed miserably........there was damn-all and what there was came from the wrong direction! I think we retired well before the finishing line and were revived by young maidens dispensing amber liquid.
Clive Smith kindly lent mast, boom, sails and rigging from one of his yachts and crew-members were made up of both Arnold's staff and members of the Blacktown Rotaract Club....those who weren't also Arnold's employees!
Sadly, the brilliant move to place most of our motive power in the reliance on wind failed miserably........there was damn-all and what there was came from the wrong direction! I think we retired well before the finishing line and were revived by young maidens dispensing amber liquid.
In the above photo, Ian Davis wields an oar as he casts a concerned eye towards the stern (are we sinking already?!) and Bruce Kennewell, playing a masterly role as coxswain, rests his head against the leech of the sail as he prays for a strong breeze from astern.
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