Pranks, mischief and lots more

After school
When I finished at Telopea I went straight to Sydney and enrolled at the UNSW. I completed the course in Civil Engineering and Graduated in 1972. I became friendly with David Jeffery and David Howe from the class and whilst there I saw Brendon Jones, Elizabeth Maiden, Peter Cusbert, Tony Stewart, Bettina Arndt, Tom Stankovich and Ian McIntosh. During this time I also continued my friendship with Robert Willoughby from earlier days at Telopea and John Le Mesurier from my days at Griffith School.

I never really intended to go to Uni but I recall one morning in 1966 on the Telopea Park quadrangle when we were lined up in classes ready to go in for some exam or other. I knew exams were on but I didn’t know the subject and I asked my old mate Tony Bandle what the subject was. Adele Hoffman heard me and gave me a good ‘shock-horror’ expression and showed some disgust. It was a bit like Garry Cooper in ‘Sergeant York’ when he was struck by the lightning bolt and I made a little pact with myself that I’d better do some work. Considering that I just about dropped out of pre-school I was always satisfied that I achieved that degree and that while I was finishing High School and at Uni I held down some sort of part time job as well.

High School English
Even though I had this private work pact I still couldn’t handle English. There was this mean and nasty English teacher (she was friendly with the Science teacher Mr McElroy) who apart from bullying Peter Jablon, loved the book ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I tried to read that book but I’ve got to confess I never go past the first page. I confided in Peter Cusbert once while we were pumping petrol at the Down Town Servo and he suggested I just read the fly leaf — I don’t think the book had one but then I had a brainwave and I started Year 12 in Level 3 English. What a beaut class — it was only small, the great thing being about half the class were diplomatic kids — some of whom could barely speak English. I think Jenny Ingram and I were about the only ones born in Oz. I read Phantom comics while Mrs Thompson was trying to teach the O/S students some basic English. The main novel/story to study was ‘The Admirable Crichton’ and I’d often daydream about what I’d do on a deserted island while the diplomatic kids from New Guinea seemed to get homesick.

The nasty English teacher and her little book has haunted me for some time. I remember when I was dating Mandy in Sydney and one day we were having a deep and meaningful, she told me that her favourite book was...  ‘Pride and Prejudice’ @*$#. I got really worried — what was it with that damn book, where was the relevance, the meaning and the need? So years after that English teacher said to read it, I did. Suddenly I saw the timeless relevance and human feeling and I actually enjoyed it. Recently, my middle son was going through some of his school books and he pulled one out and was looking at the title. He said something like ‘Pride and Prejustice’ and I told him not to worry about that one and that he might read it much later on, but I did think that at Telopea I could at least read the cover.

Mandy
I continued seeing Mandy who was studying Fashion at East Sydney Tech College. She’d drag me off to a few wild parties spending most weekends together (with me sponging on her family for free meals). We also spent a lot of time meandering around the nooks and crannies of the Manly-Warringah and Pittwater area. It was a very memorable time and like most of us I got married in my mid twenties.

Lawyers!
I worked in a consulting engineering firm in the city and became a partner there in 1978. It was there though that I had my first experience with solicitors, barristers and the legal profession. I remember at Telopea Andrew Harris, Richard Whitelaw, Geoff Harders and others talking about a law course. To me law, order, due process and security were obvious and could be taken for granted. I wasn’t interested in the slightest. But after being sued three times (I nominate for the group record), I’ve come to understand much about the law and the legal profession and I think I could pass a 4th year law exam. Like all those in small business and engaged in enterprise I’ve come to greatly dislike solicitors and barristers. I knew that I was in trouble when I started to get Christmas Cards and function invitations from law firms. Solicitors would recognise me in the street and at a few functions I’d attend and I’ve disliked them and politicians long before it was fashionable.

Robert Willoughby
Around 1982, I left the City practice, did a few jobs from a home office at a place I’d built in Davidson near French’s Forest and became more involved in site works and construction. About this time I rekindled my friendship with Robert Willoughby who had married Judy Brown from Telopea’s 1968 class. Bob was an architect and Judy was a nurse at Mona Vale Hospital. I didn’t have much on so helped Bob with the building of his new dream house in Bayview on the northern beaches of Sydney.

Meal time is a pretty big event on a building site and Judy would pack Bob a great lunch of sandwiches, health bars, nuts, fruit, grapes, fruit juices and that sort of thing. Often Judy would come to the job to drop off Bob’s lunch and smoko wearing a flimsy summer dress and I’d watch her rub 15+ on Bob’s neck and shoulders and give him a few smooches. I’d drive home with a sunburnt neck and a clear check, having had soggy take-away chips and coke for lunch and think about how lucky Bob had landed himself a little bit of heaven. At home I would delicately mention to Mandy about the attributes of a packed lunch and that maybe she should go to a Tupperware party or two. However, as Bob’s job progressed and as any architect designed and controlled job does, cost blew out and the money ran low.

They ended up moving into the ‘dream house’ with fittings, appointments and comfort levels below a Housing Commission house in Rooty Hill. I watched as the marriage became strained, there was talk about Judy seeking solace in a relationship at the hospital. When I asked Bob about it he said wryly that hospitals have got too many beds and not wanting to pursue the point I didn’t ask any more questions and the divorce went ahead.

But after that I put the cut lunches on hold, happily ate the soggy chips and cheerfully put my own block out on my neck. It was then that it dawned on me that Mandy never really asked for anything or worried if money was short. It also occurred to me that we had never had any real disagreements and had never argued about money — although sometimes her teaching job brought in more money than my work. I decided that I was a lucky bloke after all.

Tony Bandle
I always remember with fondness my friendship with Tony Bandle. He maintained this outwardly macho, tough-guy image, and for example whilst he’d always refer to his mother as ‘the old cheese’ — I recall going to Tony’s place when she was pregnant with his brother and the tenderness and kindness he’d extend to her was very touching.

His elderly father (compared to most of our fathers) was often locked away in a room and engaged in something and Tony would say “the wrinkly old coot is writing a f-----g book”, and while this sounds unkind to the uninitiated I could see through the mock profanities that there was pride, respect and more.

Tony and I had a passion for things German and particularly the Wehrmacht and the German armaments giant, Krupp. We decided they were the greatest fighting force since the Romans and we dabbled in a bit of history on the mammoth conflicts in Russia during WWII. What was strange though was long after school I found I had some German heritage the irony being that in those days I had always suspected that Tony’s father was ex-Wehrmacht. On a trip to Germany with my brothers I went to the little village outside Wiesbaden, where my great-grandfather Johann Trappel had emigrated from— I also went to Berlin and found the large Government building down from the Brandenburg gate where the Wehrmacht directed its operations. As I walked around the building and tried to get its feel, I thought of Tony, our school yard discussions and antics and our daring plan to raid the War Memorial!

Adventures
The other thing I recall were the hikes, canoe and bicycle trips I undertook with the boys. Alan Towill and I rode to Batemans Bay and beyond on our push bikes when we were 14 or 15. We were down there for a week and didn’t even tell our parents. While we were having a great time my parents were slightly concerned but Alan’s parents were frantic.

I’ve been fortunate to have walked and fished in places like the Blue Mountains, the Warrumbungles, Cape York, Cobourg Peninsula, Mornington Island, the Kimberleys, Hartz Mountains, Sierra Nevadas, Rocky Mountains’ Yellowstone and Bavatia but I’ve never quite experienced the same things as with those hikes I did with Tony Bandle, Robert Willoughby, Lindsay Plumb, Colin Merz and others as we walked around the Brindabellas and Lake George when we were so carefree and untroubled.

On one trip we were camped beside the Goodradigbee River. We had been walking for three days and were miles from no where. That morning we noticed a hillbilly type man on the other side of the river who appeared to be stalking us and we were not sure how long we’d had his company. I don’t know what evil was in that blokes mind but it was no match for what was in Tony’s. Tony decided to assemble the rifle and load up the magazine. There was talk about gun battles, murder, bodies in the river and of course no one would know. With this open action this fellow made a hasty exit and Tony slung the rifle over his shoulder and walked ‘shotgun’ for the rest of the hike.

On another trip with Tony and Robert Willoughby we jumped off a moving train near Bungendore in true Huck Finn style and walked down to Lake George, went over the scarp to camp in a deserted gold mine. Apart from other things I helped myself to several sticks of Nobel gelignite and we carried on our merry way. I stored them under our house and there was probably enough there to send the house into orbit. I took the occasional stick out to my father’s farm and blasted them with a rifle shot. I tired of this after about a year or so and after some pestering I sold the remaining sticks to Craig Robertson for the princely sum of $2 — the goods being brought to school in my haversack and the deal being concluded in the quadrangle. When I went to Uni and learnt something about explosives and the danger involved, I look back on the whole thing and shudder a little.

Wendy Craik
I recollect the girls of my school days with fondness and humour and one in particular I always think about was my first girl friend Wendy Craik in 2nd Class at Griffith Infants. She was always very demure, placid and understanding and whilst being the teacher’s pet, I was the teacher’s problem. Wendy was generally top of the class but the teacher claimed my only attribute was that I was a neat writer (which I still am and has stood me in good stead as I do a lot of my own plan drawing, drafting and sketch work). Anyway, I had a likeness for pencils and for the coloured leads within the shaft. I started a bit of a collection and Wendy suggested we start a ‘Lead Club’. I remember it like yesterday, sitting on the oval with Wendy and in between looking for four leaf clovers for Mrs Hutchinson, we’d be busy doing book work for the ‘Lead Club’. I believe Wendy has now joined a more powerful club and I hope she married or partnered up.

Science class
Another recollection is in about 4th or 5th year Science classes with Mr Street. Janice Oddy, Louise Elsom and others would sit up the back and chatter, laugh and giggle whenever they could — particularly on Monday mornings when the weekend events were discussed and analysed. I don’t know what went on at the weekend but they were having more fun than most of us. One morning Mr Street asked if anyone know how from a few insects there came a lot or from one seed there were many seeds. Lyn Armstrong stood up and with flushed face and developing bust proudly said ‘reproduction!’ &mdash with that the laughter and giggling from Janice and friends reached a climax. Anyway, I always thought that whilst Lyn knew the theory the girls up the back were working more on the practical.

Also in Mr Streets class was the photosynthesis experiment where the class went outside onto the lawns and Mr Street covered a few branch ends with test tubes and sealed them off. The class would have a look the next day and see what was in the test tubes. Well that night Tony (or was it Lindsay Plumb?) and I made sure there was something in the test tubes — in fact we filled them up. I don’t want to say what good for nothing bodily fluid we put in there but Mr Street probably thought he had a scientific miracle on his hands.

Teachers
But what a great bunch of teachers we had there: Mr Backhouse with his soon to be fashionable wide ties, cuffed pants and double-breasted long lapel jackets and what delightful fellows Mr Burnett and Mr Price were. Mr Burnett taught things in economics I always remember including the definition of pure competition which to quote him was when ‘one player in a market could not individually effect supply and demand in that market’. The housing construction industry in which I work a lot is one market close to pure competition and what a good and efficient market it is, despite the repeated efforts of various government, union and lobby groups to alter it to their various advantages. Mr Burnett also talked about the drawbacks of a market monopoly and ‘organised markets’ and when I deal with government monopolies and companies like BHP (I was the design engineer for the new BHP facility at Hume) and see the abuse of their market position and legislative control I yearn for that pur competition that Mr Burnett often talked about.

Father's wisdom
I always remember my father in that school period because he was a complex character and I would have been lucky to have spoken more than a few hundred words with him when I was growing up. Most of the time I couldn’t understand what he was saying with phrases like: “He’s in more trouble than a pregnant nun”, “He left a few dog’s barking”, “As popular as Hitler at a Polish picnic” and “Only bad people go to church” and more little sayings of humorous depth and meaning than I have time to jot down. But I found out later what a great person he is and it was probably best summed up by an incident when he and I were at the Queanbeyan Races and a desperate punter acquaintance asked Arthus for a loan. Arthur gave him the money and I said to him that I doubted whether he’d get it back. Arthur said he didn’t care if he was repaid or not, it was his little bit of feel-good charity and whatever happened he’d always have more than the down on his luck punter. I’ve always liked that Irish logic and sense of fair play.

John Bates