Some Things That Have Happened In My Lifetime

(In no particular order)

Thomas William Wynn (Born: 1935, Cooranbong) married Dorothy Jean Honeysett in Balmain, 1957 (eloping, and not telling Tom's parents for a number of weeks). Thomas was a policeman and Dot a telephonist working for the local phone company in Rylstone NSW. Tom went on to have police positions in Walcha Road, Woodburn, Cessnock, Windsor and Richmond. At the end of his career they retired to Lemon Tree Passage, living happily opposite a koala reserve situated beside a lovely wide creek and lagoon. For a little while Dad worked part-time at a local bowling club, but he now enjoys recreational fishing, and has a small boat to run about in.

I was born Thomas John Wynn in Rylstone, 1958. I lived in Rylstone for about one year until Dad transferred to Walcha Road, a small township near Walcha NSW. I was the first-born of four boys: Steven (Born: Rylstone), Geoffrey (Born: Walcha) and Rodney (Born: Coraki). My brothers have all had successful careers but for privacy reasons, I will not talk about them here.

While living in Walcha Road I attended my first school, enjoying it so much that I eventually looked towards the life of an educator as my career. Having achieved very good results in the Higher Schools Certificate, I was offered three college scholarships, but chose to accept a Teacher's Scholarship from the Newcastle Teachers College. I left home at the end of 1975, and attended the college from 1976 to 1978.

It was during my second year of studies (1977), at the age of 19, that I was married to Elizabeth Ann Johnson of Stockton, and our lives have been interwoven around college, school and our children ever since.

Before either of our children had turned 13 years of age we had travelled to America, Canada, Mexico, Fiji (twice) and Vanuatu (about 10 times), whilst also exploring the eastern side of Australia extensively. Liz and I finally got to Victoria in 2001 and Tasmania in 2002 just us by ourselves - our first ever holidays without the children.

Liz, the kids and I went on a cruise around the islands of the pacific in the early 1980's, almost losing Benjamin - when he nearly drowned on Mystery Island, and having Jennifer fall from her bunk in the middle of the night, cutting her eye severely. So bad was her injury, that as I carried her screaming through the corridors of the sleeping ship late at night, I almost passed out thinking that she was blinded for life. She wasn't, thank goodness.

However, that was nothing compared to when she was little - pulling a cup of hot water off a kitchen bench and scalding her face, right before her first birthday. It was hell for weeks with her in agony.

Our family has had a few pets, but none like our current - Sweetie the dog. She found Jenny at the shopping mall in Stockton and followed her home. After a number of weeks of looking we located her owners, but after we gave her back, Sweetie took to coming back to our house and waiting for someone to let her in. Long story short, she now lives inside and sleeps with either Jenny or Elizabeth. Sweetie is our "grand-dog" since we don't have any grandchildren yet.

Jenny got two guinea pigs (Toffee and Tabitha) in 2002 when she moved up north to Macksville to begin her career as a teacher. She was very lonely in her first year of appointment, and even though she had people she knew in town, she was still in need of companionship. She had to endure three house moves in her first 6 months, but eventually settled at Valla Beach, just north of Nambucca Heads.

Our son Ben has been a wonderful boy who achieved first-rate results in a Computing Science Degree from the University of Newcastle. He leads a quiet life, and has never been a bother. At present he is trying to obtain full-time employment, and constructed this excellent Internet site for me in his spare time.

Over the years we've made a number of good friends; Mike and Rose Maskey of Stockton, Ross and Rhonda Winning of Cessnock, Brian and Debbie Adamthwaite of Seahampton, Yvonne Murray of Stockton, Ross Deery and John Townsend of Scone, Brian and Di Tomlins of Anna Bay, Kim Richards of Cardiff, and George and Nerida Ingram of Tuncurry. Some we've known since 1979, others we met through work, but we try to keep in touch with them all as best we can.

We've also made a number of friends in foreign lands that we still send Christmas cards. Bert and Betty Littlewood of Dumfries Scotland were probably nearly 60 when we met in 1990, and we still correspond as of 2004...

I have had 3 major car accidents, surviving some terrible smashes. I was robbed in Newcastle's Hunter Street, my right leg run over by the theif's get-away car. Using the insurance compensation we purchased "Gloria", our long serving Nissan Nomad Van in 1986. She was traded-in to purchase "Sylvia", our silver sedan, in 2002.

I had 2 major accidents on my first motorbike, back in the days when I was going to college (ca.1977). The worst was when the backdoor flap of a coal truck dislodged from its hinges as I was about to overtake the truck whilst going up a hill near Lochinvar. The flap weighed about 800 kilograms, and caused me to slide along the highway into oncoming traffic... But as you can probably tell, I survived.

The tendons in my left knee tore while sitting on the floor of a music shop at Charlestown in about 1994, leaving me with months of difficulty learning to walk properly again. Until then I had been fairly fit and active, but had to cut back on sport and running because of constant pain, which I still have today. Back when I was in high school, and throughout the 1980's, I had used to jog quite a lot, but it was mostly on concrete or along asphalt roads, which is why my knees aren't so good now that I am older.

Since delving into my family history I have learned that numerous family members have had diabetes related deaths and other health worries... I wonder if I will have the same problems? I have never smoked cigarettes, like many of my contemporaries, and if I drink I do it sparingly. My favourite alcoholic drink is scotch and dry ginger ale.

I have very high cholesterol and should be taking medication, but every time I do, I have a reaction. When I had my wisdom teeth removed in 1992 I found that I have a terrible reaction to anaesthetics, and had to be constantly revived because I would stop breathing. Then, when the tendons in my knee tore, I had to have an arthroscopy, and almost didn't revive from the anaesthetic.

Besides being a teacher, I started my own mobile disco company back in the 1980's, mainly to pay for my ever expanding collection of records (and now CDs). While quite possibly into the millions by now, I'm not sure exactly how extensive my collection of recordings has become, as I had to stop keeping a computerised catalogue of them all when the database system I was using ran out of storage space. Of particular note in my collection are an extensive range of Marc Bolan and T-Rex recordings, and I have been collecting Beatles stuff for years (Even though they had disbanded prior to my becoming interested in music). My passion for music goes beyond just collecting it however, having been rearranging it since Dad gave me my first cassette tape recorder back when I was 10.

In 1986, helping out some teacher friends, by editing a song for them to use in the Hunter Region Dance Festival, snowballed into 10 years as Assistant Producer, ending only when I had to go off and teach in Scone in 1996.

Because of my disco business (now hobby) I've worked at weddings and functions in various Newcastle venues. The saddest and most poignant time I've had while running my business was at the end of 2000 when Fred Frame, a teaching colleague at Scone, died and his wife Anne asked me to arrange music for the funeral service using all of Fred's favourite songs. My wife recalls this service as "the most moving funeral she's ever attended" - my wife had never met Fred Frame.

The most peculiar disco I've ever had to run was in 1995 when an organization of homosexual men asked me to set up in a chicken coup while they sat outside under the stars and did a "drag show" dressed in undersized ladies clothing... All was going well until it rained and they had to move inside the fowl yard, leaving me squashed in a corner until 3 a.m.

Other hobbies I have include photography, stamp collecting, tapestry, family history research, crocheting, computers and surfing the Internet. I also love music trivia, and have many books and charts of old songs from when I was a child.