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Post by beagle on Oct 14, 2009 10:17:18 GMT 12
As soon as I saw this I was reminded of ARS Happy Hours we had at Woodbourne with a certain W/O that enjoyed lighting up his chest for the boys.
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Post by xbaggy on Oct 14, 2009 19:09:49 GMT 12
Ah, those heady, carefree days of Happy Hours, Champagne Breakfasts, Christmas Draws, and Squadron / Corporals / SNCO's / Officers Balls. I was the Secretary of the ARS social club 1972 /73 and I think that the majority of my time was either spent organising, or trying to come up with ideas for the next Squadron function. Happy Hours were held on a Friday night, once a month. At first they were in the changing room next to the PTI centre, but once the Corporals club was renovated, were held in the Base Institute as plumbing for the beer was piped into the supper room. Food came in the back door from the Baggies Mess. Members paid a weekly sub and the Beer at the Happy Hour was free. Does anyone know what NOLTTPIC stands for. It was written at the bottom of all Social Club notices announcing Squadron functions. Thursday afternoons were always a treat, as the club President and Secretary, were given leave to visit Blenheim for a couple of hours, to pick up the payday meat raffles. The Butchers shop was next to the Crown Hotel, and the meat packs were never ready on time.
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Post by beagle on Oct 14, 2009 20:59:41 GMT 12
brilliant. Now ARS 1972. what sort of things went on there then, work wise. C130 and P3 groups ??
I did ARS 1983 - 1987 P3 groups, C130 Fuselage improvements, helped out re-doping a vampire, fibreglass spitfire manufacture, A4-G to K mods, the A4-K from it's roll over at Townsville was there. Wasp avionic upgrade, Original Orange Roughy Iroquois.
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Post by shorty on Oct 14, 2009 21:22:52 GMT 12
I was NCO i/c the American Skin Bay at 1 RD from 1976, did a lot of reskins on UH-1 tailplanes and tail booms then in 1978 I became NCO i/c ASF looking after all the visiting aicraft and then to AMF to be NCO i/c trade for A4 and P3. Spent far too much time inside P3 fuel tanks
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Post by beagle on Oct 15, 2009 8:47:03 GMT 12
so am i right in saying the 1RD has been looking after P3 group servicings all the time and C130's only since the 90's
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Post by shorty on Oct 15, 2009 13:56:14 GMT 12
No. P3s only from about mid 1980
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 15, 2009 15:18:08 GMT 12
When I was at Woodbourne in 1989 there was a P-3 getting a Group Servicing at SAFE Air, or that is who we were told were doing it. It was in the hangar closest to the airport terminal.
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Post by chewy on Oct 16, 2009 18:05:29 GMT 12
I seem to remember something about a P3 on jacks in ARS and the nose jack was on the corner of one of the concrete slabs. The concrete slab moved. I have a few good pictures of the annual bar contests at the 1RD when we cooked a whole pig in one of the heat treatment ovens. Same oven we made some glider canopies in.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 16, 2009 19:24:31 GMT 12
We used to have Tech Squadron Happy Hours every month at Wigram held in the Harvard Lounge (one of the few buildings still standing). When I first arrived there it was always the same, each section took it in turn to do the meal and serve behind the bar. But the meal was always just fish and chips or pizzas from local takeaways, no imagination. From memory we collected about $2 off each squadron member to go into the pool for the meal cost, and there was always some left over towards the Christmas do, which was also fish and chips.
Then when it came to the Safety and Surface Section one time to do the honours we decided to totally revamp it. I cannot recall which bright spark had the idea but he worked out with the same money we could buy full lamb roasts, potatoes and other vegies. We did all the food prep and got a friendly Mess Sgt to allow us to use their potato peeliong machine which was fun, and I cannot recall if the Mess cooked the roasts, but I think in fact we did it in the Harvard Lounge's kitchen. We did a full roast which was superb, real home cooked style, and it went down a real treat with everyone. S&S were absolute heroes over it, because we'd used our initiatives, done a bit of graft and produced a surprise meal for the squadron. And it was all within the same budget with a bit to spare because some of the guys had done some haggling and bulk buying.
From then on it was all on, every section was tryng to out-do the last with their imaginative Happy Hour dinner. I don't think anyone dared to buy mere fish and chips again. Sadly when the squadron disbanded and we were all shafted to Ohakea there was nothing there anything like the comradery of Wigram in Ohakea's MSS or MSW or whatever it was called.
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Post by beagle on Oct 16, 2009 20:15:12 GMT 12
we had something similar at MSS in Auckland. When it cam e to S&S turn, it was the biggest pot you could ever find and it was filled with pork bones and spuds and cabbage
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Post by phil on Oct 17, 2009 16:18:40 GMT 12
I find MSS OH to be a fairly soulless entity.
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Post by lesterpk on Oct 17, 2009 20:52:45 GMT 12
Agree with you there Phil. A group of us came down from Auckland for a visit, twas a Friday so the beers came out about 1530. Come 1630 all the local were gone and just us visitors left to finish the beer.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 17, 2009 21:50:03 GMT 12
Yes, after Wigram and even Auckland (which was pretty spread out) I found the Ohakea MSS just lacking totally in any culture and rapport. I saw it as being like drones, very few seemed happy in their work. I had a thoroughly miserable time at Ohakea, it was dull, boring, remote, cold, windy. Couldn't wait to get out and brought my notice forward by about 8 months to get the hell out of there.
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Post by phil on Oct 18, 2009 9:29:48 GMT 12
There is little after hours culture on base at all, but then that is not surprising as so many people own their own homes in Marton/Feilding/Palmy, so they just go home. MQs are pretty empty, and people don't live on for very long once they posted to base.
The amount of car pooling that goes on now probably adds to this. You can't really stay and hold up the rest of the car pool.
Even armament happy hours wind up pretty quickly after 1630!
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Post by beagle on Oct 19, 2009 17:21:58 GMT 12
at a happy hour many years ago, a guys girlfriend turned up to take him home............. in a local school uniform. it was her school uniform.......
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Post by chewy on Oct 19, 2009 18:53:29 GMT 12
Are you talking about me? It happened to me at Woodbourne once.
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Post by skyhawkdon on Oct 19, 2009 20:43:55 GMT 12
There is little after hours culture on base at all, but then that is not surprising as so many people own their own homes in Marton/Feilding/Palmy, so they just go home. MQs are pretty empty, and people don't live on for very long once they posted to base. The amount of car pooling that goes on now probably adds to this. You can't really stay and hold up the rest of the car pool. Even armament happy hours wind up pretty quickly after 1630! Doesn't sound like the Ohakea of old, especially the Gunny Happy Hours! So no more exploding cabbages? ;D Ohakea was a very close and tight knit community in the late 80s early 90s. A lot of good "clean" fun was had (and tolerated by management) and everyone looked after each other. I have a lot of very happy memories of the place and the great people who I worked (and played) with. The OH CPLs Club was legendary. I was gutted when it was forced to merge with the Baggies Club. After the Base Commander's House fiasco in 1993 the Base certainly changed, mainly due to "new management" being brought in who had never grown up at Ohakea.
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Post by shorty on Oct 19, 2009 21:50:33 GMT 12
In my time at Ohakea (late 60s early 70s) one of the highlights was the annual raft race from the Kakariki bridge to the Bulls bridge. Beer was served in plastic buckets! Bridge parties were fairly notorious too (until a span of the Bulls bridge fell down)
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Post by beagle on Oct 19, 2009 21:51:03 GMT 12
Are you talking about me? It happened to me at Woodbourne once. you wern't S&S
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Post by beagle on Oct 19, 2009 21:52:12 GMT 12
In my time at Ohakea (late 60s early 70s) one of the highlights was the annual raft race from the Kakariki bridge to the Bulls bridge. Beer was served in plastic buckets! Bridge parties were fairly notorious too (until a span of the Bulls bridge fell down) and of course was DB Alley in the 80's
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