Terry Kachel

After Ethelred drove me to the Mittagong station at 6am in the August of 66I bought a packet of B&H and continued smoking till my 3 kids made me stop in 84.By the 7/7/77 I was the husband of the beautiful Christine and dad to the georgeous Angela.By the 8/8/88 I was still the husband of the even more beautiful Christine and the delighted dad of Angela, Michael, Simon, Jenny, Nick and Rebecca.In between time I became a folkloric teacher in Bingara, Tamworth and Newcastle, and played rugby league in Tamworth and Newcastle at levels that gave me great personal satisfaction.Recently, between the weddings of Angela in January and Simon in April in the USA, I have suffered a heart attack. I seem to have recovered really well. I am now medically retired from teaching in the public school system. I gave great service to that system and ask why we need a private system.Since I have turned 55, I have also learned we need to acknowledge the following axioms :

1] you can never walk past a public toilet
2] you should never waste an erection
3] and you should never, never, never trust a fart.so my good freres, in Blessed Marcellin we pray etc etc

I have been extremely uplifted by this invite to the 40 year reunion - an event I have yearned for over the past two or three decades.

I will never forget the Mittagong years. I have toured briefly the grounds with my wife and a couple of my kids and enjoyed the glow of saying "I planted those pine trees on the back oval in 1965."But now when I look at the list of names on this roll, I feel a great wave of nostalgia sweep over me of an experience that was available to a rare, small percentage of the youth of the 60s.I'll try to recreate the deeds we lived through: the woodpile, the boiler, the meat room, the slaughter shed, the orchard, the dairy, epsom salts for Ethelred, Domdavid, the hacking cough of ......as confession unfolded, Bob McKay's choirs,, midnight walks down at the airstrip, the Geoff Kelly descant recorder lessons.. etc etc.. and when people ask why???Well they were years I'll never swap. they were just right for me. but Iwouldn't recommend them for others!

Can't wait to see you all Terry Kachel