Unfortunately Tom Connolly my room-mate had also been hitting the grape last night, and arrived back at midnight and found he’d mislaid his room key. He was staggering up and down the corridor weeping and wailing “Wheresh Jock – wheresh dear ol’ Jock – the bum – I can’ get to m’ bed – wheresh Jock?” until they collared him and laid him to (uneasy) rest on a spare bed in Johnny Nobbs room where he flaked out and snored so hard he kept them all awake. At 3 am I tiptoed in to our room not to wake him and not registering the door was locked and was surprised to wake up this morning and there he wasn’t. Luckily I got to the office (just) this morning at nine and kept going by drinking tomato juice from a can all day, John Cox appeared about 10 like death warmed up, and I never saw any of the others. Good job it was a semi-holiday day!”
9 October 1957 ….then came “Exercise Counterpunch” (where we won, surprise, surprise) It was pretty claustrophobic in the Intelligence Cell, especially on the night shifts, drinking gallons of coffee to keep awake. The two US clerks earned our undying gratitude by slipping over to the US Mess and coming back with huge blueberry pies. There we were, 3 am – two USAF A1/cs, me, a French WAAF, Belgian Commandant and a US Major all tucking in to great slabs of pie and in walked the German General Spiedel and his entourage. Muffled “goddamns” “merdes” and “blasts” and bits of pie crust sprayed around or swallowed in solid lumps. What tickled my morbid sense of humour was the way all the German officers clicked heels and bowed slightly to everybody individually, like a collection of clockwork dolls, ignoring the blueberry pie trickling down our uniforms…
Thanks Jock for another amusing account of your escapades ~ however did find any time for real work. More letters to Mum will appear in future issues.
FIFTH ANNUAL REUNION
This year we saw many new faces at Leamington Spa for what proved to be a great weekend of reuniting with erstwhile colleagues to chat about the good old days. It was wonderful to see John Ross Aylward looking so well after his illness. He was in his element meeting many old friends he had not seen for over 40 years. Marjorie was on hand to ensure he did not overdo it. John was quite tired at 6 o’clock and left for home. For the first time a contingent of soldiers was in our midst and they integrated well with the boys in blue.
A special room was allocated to enable our items of memorabilia and photo collection to be displayed during the day
A total of 71 sat down to
dinner on Saturday evening after which we were entertained to an amusing talk
from David Heaney retired Chief Superintendent from Blackpool ~ his Northern
humour was much in evidence. The formalities closed with a raffle that raised
£269 for the Association’s funds. There were over 30 prizes on the table
donated by members some of whom were not present. The star prize of the cake
made by David Crook, pictured right, was won by yours truly. It will be kept
until Christmas to mature and some will be kept to offer a slice to members who
I expect to visit in the New Year. A word of thanks is due to Claudine Gibbons
for her sterling efforts in selling so many tickets.
At the afternoon meeting the Accounts that appear on page 11 in this Newsletter were approved.
It was also agreed that we meet again at the Courtyard on Saturday 18 October 2003 subject to our number not exceeding 80 which is the maximum the hotel can seat for dinner. This is also subject to guarantees on adequate staffing levels.
At the meeting there was enough support for a 6 day coach trip to Fontainebleau next year provided we can stay at the IBIS hotel in Fontainebleau.
The group photo is shown on Page 12.