CH 7 : BEACHBREAK BREAKFAST

The final official get-together of the reunion was breakfast at the Beachbreak Restaurant, Nahoon River Mouth, on the Saturday morning.

For those of you who weren't there and would like to picture the scene, it's a pleasant spot right alongside where the old Nahoon Beach cafe used to be and where the road now leads to the life-savers' shack on the east side of the majestic and odiferous 'Turdy' river.

We sat outside under the trees under leaden skies that were threatening to unleash a deluge at any moment . In fact it looked at one stage as if we would have to find another venue but the weather only improved enough for the time that we spent there which was from 9am-11.30am.

We had a shade-cloth cover over us and at times there were rumblings overhead which we took to be thunder but it was actually caused by frollicking monkeys.

Of the 40-odd who had been at the 'ice-breaker' function at Old Boys on the Thursday evening, about 2/3rds attended the Friday evening OSA spitbraai on the Friday evening and about the same number were at the breakfast which was a good turnout.

Once again, as at the La Petit Restaurant after the Club on the Thursday evening we were crammed into quite a small space which made for good cameraderie despite a lack of elbow-room when it came to eating.

Getting in the orders proved to be quite a performance with the choice between a "Joggers" a "Surfers" or a "Paddlers". As at the Club function, Kitty took charge and in the end "Joggers", "Surfers" and "Paddlers" were almost equally divided - very delicious too!

All-the-while, a healthy buzz of lively conversation was maintained at quite a volume with immediate neighbours and sometimes at a distance. Serious conversation was hardly the order of the day and laughter rang out all around.

Finally, came the time to bring down the curtain. Jock said the final thank yous : to the man who made it happen - Murph; to the Keyters for taking charge of things locally and, in particular, for doing such good job of taking care of the finances; to those who had come from afar - George Reid, Keith Yates (Australia) and Mike Aschmann (NZ); to Richard Bailey who left Selborne in Std 4 but still wanted to be with us and made the trip from Durban; to all the wives/girlfriends/significant others who had followed Dolly Parton's advice and 'stood by their man' through the weekend's frivolities; to Carol Pollock who had once again acted as our official photographer as she did in '95; to Clyde Broster who had been our Guest of Honour with such aplomb both in '95 and now again; and finally to everyone who had been able to make it to the reunion and for making it such a success.
We ended off with an emotional rendition of "For we are jolly good fellows" and then, at the spontaneous suggestion of Mike Aschmann who kicked us off with a loud "Skimilayo!", the school war cry with arms across each others shoulders as it was done in our day and is still done today.