Thanks provided by Alistair Urquhart at Rotary Melbourne 13 May, 2020
"In these difficult times. Together. Each of us. All of Us. As a Nation. From governments, we have all been advised to physically distance ourselves from other humans, perhaps not the immediate family, unless they have returned from a long-distance plane trip.
Walking out of a coffee shop in Ocean Grove, and carefully keeping my distance, a little girl looked at me and smiled and waved. I waved back, and then asked Granny ‘what music is this young lady going to learn to play’. ‘Her Mummy played the bagpipes, with the Geelong Ladies Pipe Band’. Stating I was from Geelong and also played the Bagpipes, Granny said that she was at school with my sister!! I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed my sister and handed the phone to Granny. Fifty years on. A small world.
Overlooking the Ocean Grove surf beach on Tuesday mid-afternoon , I thought like famous Melbourne sociologist Bernard Salt perhaps, as I wondered where a large a group of board-riders as I had ever before, came from.
Quick Q and A. An accountant from Geelong said the first. A share-broker from Collins Street, was the second reply. Offering my name , he replied that he also was Alistair and that his father had fought the War with my father!! And had then gone on to New Guinea. Where no doubt, he was chasing Japanese with our very own Rotary Club member David Frieze. A small world.
To our RSL guest speaker Robert Webster. Very Best Wishes.
Good Luck. Serendipity. Good Fortune. God Bless. Might this very difficult and complicated time bring us all together, with humor and respect and confidence."
