A celebration of friendship
Still close friends 55 years on
IT’S said that good friends can catch up after having not seen each other for a long time yet remain as close as ever.
That’s certainly the case for Dirranbandi friends Barb Goodwin, Cheryl Roberts and Carmel Johnson.
Barb and Cheryl, who both live in Toowoomba, are in constant contact but they hadn’t seen their childhood friend Carmel for 55 years until the trio caught up recently for lunch.
“Cheryl has been my friend for 62 years,” Barb explained.
“Carmel is a bit younger than us but we were all best mates from school.
“We hadn’t seen her for 55 years then out of the blue she rang me up from Kingaroy.
“We couldn’t believe it. We got together for lunch we just picked up where we left off all those years ago. It was just like yesterday.”
The trio went to school together at Dirranbandi State School where they were also members of the basketball team.
Cheryl still has a photograph of that team (see photo) which includes (from left) Jenny Melon (deceased), Cheryl Roberts, Wendy Gneck (who was tragically killed in the infamous Whiskey Au Go Go fire in Brisbane), Barb Rose (now Goodwin), her rister Joan Rose (deceased), Maureen Ramage and Carmel Johnson.
Barb said the three friends laughed and reminisced over lunch.
“We talked about the school days at Dirranbandi,” she said.
“They were such fun days and there was never trouble, no discrimination, we were all like brothers and sisters.”
However, life at Dirranbandi State School was not always smooth sailing, as Carmel recalled at the lunch meeting.
One of the school prefects had once given Carmel 200 lines for having a ladder in her stocking.
“We had to wear our berets and stockings,” Barb recalled.
“But some people might not have had two pairs of stockings.
“Carmel said she never forgot that prefect,” Barb laughed.
Dirranbandi people living in Toowoomba hold a reunion every six months these days.
“We had our last get-together in February and had 110 people,” Barb said.
“It’s great to catch up with people you haven’t seen for yonks.”
The next Dirranbandi get-together in Toowoomba will be held at the Blue Mountain Hotel from 11am on Sunday, October 14.