Clifton SHS 50th Jubilee - Day 2

4/20/14

This was by far the most enjoyable Easter Sunday I have ever had in my life!

After sleeping like the dead as a result of the Saturday night party – my ears were still vibrating from the cacophony of raised voices, shared stories, laughter, love and excitement and I had a very scratchy throat from trying to converse against some very high decibel competition all night long – I awoke absolutely starving and wondering where in the tiny town I might get lucky enough to find some breakfast on this Sunday morning, which also happened to be Easter Sunday. (When there are really only 2 possibilities to begin with – and one of those closed because they were up catering for the Saturday night function until 3 AM this morning – you were hoping against hope). But lo and behold if I didn’t see a couple of people sipping coffee and enjoying a meal outside a few doors down from where I was staying on this absolutely gorgeous morning.

 Just caught this farmer coming down the street 

as I was trying to photograph the Clifton Club Hotel, 

where I spent the weekend.

The railway station is still there. 

Used to have a train come through every Thursday.

I happened to see Kevin, the hotel manager, on my way out, and when I told him I was thinking about walking to the high school for the day’s celebration (figuring it was about a mile away), he offered to drop me off since he would have a 2^nd person working the pub by 11 AM. (Once again I am reminded of the kindness & generosity of these folks – you never have to ask for help, they just jump right in). I thanked him for the offer & promised to take him up on it, then headed out the door to explore the area on foot for a couple of hours.

So I trekked on down to the Clifton Café, ordered a breakfast sandwich and cappuccino & went to sit at one of the small tables to await my breakfast. Shortly after I sat down, Ray Winkel (older brother of 2 of my students, whom I met and spoke to last night) came in for some breakfast as well. I asked him to join me if he liked, so we moved to a larger table and enjoyed our meals and coffee – continuing our conversation without competing noise – from the night before. Turns out that he and his older brother were staying in the hotel room next to mine, which was all the more hilarious due to the fact that the pub where we were staying only had 4 rooms. I told him I was going to walk around town for about an hour before Kevin was going to drop me off at the high school, so not only did he offer to walk around with me, he also insisted on driving me to the school since he was going there as well.

So off we went with Ray supplying the local history that I didn’t know as we walked. I remembered his dad was the ambulance driver (and was still living in the area at 84), and I think Ray and his family were in Toowoomba and his 2 sisters who I taught were in Dalby. I took some photos as we went – walking along the railway line that traveled between the 2 main streets. We laughed when we saw that there were now metal historic trail markers on the sidewalk, along with an actual map for the walking route (which probably took no time at all to walk). Ray wanted to show me the back room in Shanley’s Pub so we went in to a virtual shrine of clutter – a hoarder’s delight – of coffee mugs, teapots and tea cups. I don’t think there was a single space that was vacant. It was overwhelming!

We headed back to the Clifton Club Hotel to change for the Sunday open house and headed up the road shortly after 11 AM. As I said, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. I was told there had been almost 300 people who attended Saturday night’s celebration and about 400-500 for Sunday’s open house (at least that was approximately the count on the guest register, which I know some folks didn’t sign – myself included – because there was such a long line to enter that we were encouraged not to wait and just feel free to come on in).

I could not believe how much the school had changed (and this was not over a 40 year period but more like 20 years because I had returned for a visit in 1995 and there was very little change then from when I was there in 1975-77). The campus had more than doubled in size, there was an equestrian center, a covered basketball court/general outdoor assembly area, beautiful gardens and more grass/less concrete everywhere. Apparently the curriculum changed as well – focusing on agronomy, equine studies and agriculture that were more practical for the student population who lived and grew up on the surrounding farms. I thought it was a brilliant move that would help the families keep up with more current trends and technology for their farms.

New buildings, gardens and the equestrian curriculum.

It only took a few minutes to find so many people I knew from all that time long ago. There were so many hugs and tears and shared stories. My Aussie mom, Marie Logan, was there with her daughter Monica (who promised me Saturday night that she would make sure her mom would be there Sunday). This large family surprised me one year with Thanksgiving dinner – they had researched the traditional dishes and made sure they had everything they needed. It was probably the kindest, most generous gesture during the 2 years I lived in Clifton and one that none of us will ever forget. And now the Logans have Thanksgiving every year – now that one of their children married an American (and one is married to a Swedish spouse with 2 towheads, so they are quite international). Monica and Marie told me that the holiday dinner gets larger and even more elaborate every year as the family continues to grow and enjoy coming together.

Marie, Barb and Monica happily reunited!

More students gathered and we commandeered a long table under one of the tents. We took turns buying rounds of drinks and shared stories about those wonderful years. Our circle grew as more and more friends finally figured out where we were all hiding (the campus was doubled in size and we were encouraged to take self-guided tours, so people could have been in classrooms, out on the equestrian oval, at the food kiosks – just about anywhere. In fact, I was told several hours later that one of my male students was looking for me – I never did find him even though I was there the entire 6 hours)! It was either Kirsty Bell or Janine Mengel, two of the girls I taught, who made me laugh, when she said, “Barb, I loved you as a teacher. You were fun, you were so brown (remember most of these students were Irish – very pale and very easily sunburned by the strong Australian sun), and don’t take this personally, but I always thought you had great legs!” Now to understand how hilarious that last compliment was, you only need to take one look at my legs to know that is absolutely no longer true – I have 4 surgical knee scars that are still very visible – and varicose veins in my right leg. I was wearing a dress that was just below my knees, so after that comment was made I laughed, tugged up my dress and proclaimed that those good looking legs had accumulated quite a few scars since 40 years ago!

 Kevin celebrates the end of his duties as emcee of the events.

 Vaughan, Karen and Annmaree.

Last pub crawl: 

AnnMaree, Karen, Vaughan, Barb, Janine and Janine's daughter.

John Archibald, who was the art teacher when I was there, and still continues to work with the area schools in a different advisory/training capacity, joined us and we just continued sharing past and present. We were so caught up in catching up that we didn’t notice that the party was over and the workers were packing up. Eventually we had to give up our chairs and the last table, which we were using, and some of us headed down to the Clifton Arms Pub to continue our reminiscing. I bought a round and eventually our small group disbanded.

Just after everyone left, Amanda Beatson, thoroughly exhausted from all the activities that she worked so hard for over a year to organize, joined me at the bar. I bought her a couple of beers to thank her personally for all she did to help me register for the Jubilee and find a place to stay. We had a chance to relax and catch up. And, as a final tribute to my storied past with Clifton, she went on Facebook, found my posted photo of the Pub where we were now sitting at the bar, and toasted to the gender barrier that I broke 40 years ago – women seated at the bar, being served at the bar – just like our male counterparts!