How to deal with an outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth, even if Al Wheeler can't wait to
get stuck in!!
English Bay with Bob Pippett, Wilf and Babs Hebron. The hairy one with his head screwed
the wrong way, is "Boots" Beauchamp, the telephone engineer!
Jacqui Murdoch with Hugh McGarry & family, Mike "Rudolf" Taylor. (Can't quite place
the “cozzy” in the front.)
Pete Thompson, our resident Bean Counter, bragging again....
"Sod off Plews, we're NOT playing Monkey Magic today thank you!!"
"...So much to drink, so little time."
(A tad under two years in fact, Hugh..)
Almost an entry in the Guiness Book of Records - Somebody got married on Ascension!!
(Quite a lot went the other way! ) Tim "I'm-a-Schoolteacher" tied the knot accompanied
by, I believe, Mike Smith "Of-the Mess" as Quite-a-Good-Man.
Whilst the "Reverend" Jim Jones would much prefer to loaf on the beach.....
"GM's House?? Elevation - down 30 degrees should do it!)
Let us not forget why we went there - The Main Office - with 70's "state of the
art" communications - DC3, TOC and Phonic Motors by the bucketload! Pay particular
attention to the “ace” watchkeeper of the day - Al Wheeler wandering through the
fault register looking for something to write other than "POK ASC or FIC ASC"!!!
'cos Pete Doswell didn't think it was informative enough! On the other hand, if
the fault wasn't either, one quietly got the sandpaper out and cleaned the faceplate
of the J35s and never said a word.. (Technical note :- this was a common fix on
a Saturday night shift, right after a certain W/K had spent the evening doing routine
maintenance on J-units and managed to bring the place to its knees...OK Uncle Guy??)
More Main Office and "ye olde grey boxes" with the most critical area at the rear
- the tea table!! An Operator stands pensively by the "Telex Machine" (the what??)
down which came all the telegrams for the Island (It was deemed faster and more efficient!!).
Most telegrams were five-figure coded SGs to the General Manager from H.O. One technician
who shall remain nameless, (but he was called Alistair), took great delight in trying
to decipher them without much success. So to help him on his way, we made one up
- (Start with his name, add a few bits of text "in-clear" amongst the five-figure
groups, like "unsuitable", "definitely no further action required", "recommend transfer",
“defer annual salary increase” etc.) - and that was guaranteed to keep him suicidal
for the rest of the day....!!!
This strange contraption was a raft built by some Americans from the Base with a
view to "sail" a Bulldozer bought cheaply from the leftovers of the NASA site/road
building project, across to Recife. (presumably to make megabucks from the sale..).
They would have made a fortune had they been able to sell the story to National Geographic
Magazine. However, the whole idea was vetoed by the Island Administrator, who was
well known for veto-ing lots of things in his time. Ask Mike Smith, and Volcano Radio
about his car....and a few other "Entrepreneurs" trying to "export" large quantities
of old copper pipe and cable in very large oil drums.
Early failures during NASA's development of their "Moonbuggy"
(the "driver" wasn't too popular either!!)
"Any minute now and I'll have Ray eating out of my hand..!"
"Wish I could be a Caledonian Girl...."
"Well you’ll just have to wait another three months for the the next Charter Flight,
Bill!"
"Gone but not forgotten".
Whatever happens to the Old Exiles Club, Ken won't be far away.
