'The boys are back in town!'

was the theme for a great weekend of fun & memories, many of which had been submerged for many years.The reason for this big walk down memory lane was the 39th Reunion of the 25RADAPP's known as Frogs. For those who don't know, Bill was a Radio Apprentice in the Airforce based at Laverton in 1971 & 1972. The reunion was the brainwave of two friends who had completed the course, did their 20 years and many years later met another 'fellow' in a bar. ( Yes, a real Fellow). This got the grey cells wondering where all the other guys were and so began a year long search to see who would jump out the woodwork. The boys and their helper's did a great job finding about 40 of the 62 original boys who joined up in 1971. People came from all over Australia for the weekend and the winner for the longest distance travelled came from Dubai. Bill & I travelled the shortest distance.

The big event took place at The Rydges Hotel in the city beginning on Friday evening and concluding with brunch on Sunday. With photograhic name tags the meet & greet on Friday night was a great success and as you can imagine there where lots of 'no way what happened to you'. The comment most said to Bill all weekend was how fit he now looked and had he been running marathons. Memory does play tricks but he does not remember being a chubby little thing. Perhaps he just hadn't grown then and the baby fat looked different on a shorter guy. Hairstyles, or should we say lack of, was also a constant source of amusement.

On Saturday all the guys boarded the bus and were taken on a trip back in time with a visit to the RAAF base in Laverton where they had all begun their journey together. They were given a tour of the base and spent some time recreating the original photo taken at the beginning of 2nd Year. The rest of the trip was spent in the Officers Mess. Code for BAR I believe. They all behaved and enjoyed the memories. Mind you some of them had to come home for a Nanna Nap before the big event on Saturday night. How things have changed!

Held in Bobby Dazzlers the main event was a great dinner and presentation put together by Trevor (the oracle), who seems never to forget anything, & Shane who checked all his details with Trevor. Loads of laughs and lots of memories were jogged as the many photo's were flashed up on the big screen. To see all of the men as 'kids' of between 15 & 18 years old was a source of much amusement to everyone including the WAGS.


What did the women do while all this was going on for the weekend? With our name badges reflecting the before & now photo's of the man we were with it was easy to meet people and we all enjoyed catching up. Some of us knew each other from many years ago and others met some lovely people for the first time. Saturday afternoon was free time and everyone made the most of a lovely afternoon in Melbourne. 2 of the girls from Perth decided that I could be their tour/shopping guide and we headed off to Docklands to 'do' Harbourtown & DFO. This was after a late night excursion to China Town, The Croft Institute and Fed Square the night before.

A very noisy Sunday Brunch finished the event and the weekend was deemed to be a huge success. We have all left looking forward to keeping in touch and maybe doing it all again in a few more years. Bill & I spent the afternoon with friends, Rick & Helen, who we had last seen many years ago in Perth and had a lovely time catching up over a lesuirely lunch at Blue Train Cafe at Southgate.

With the fun over it was time to come back to the present day and return to the usual Sunday night tasks like ironing the shirts for Bill to pack for his next trip away. Boring perhaps but with an early morning flight I wasn't getting up in the morning to do it.

until next time..........