Ian Clayton
Hi All,
Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the reunion as it is the same day that my youngest daughter is getting married. (We decided we would let him off – it’s a pretty good reason!)
I will try and sum up the past 40 years in a few sentences for you.
I left Watson High in Year 10 as my parents relocated back to Sydney. I was not happy with this and stayed on in Canberra and got a job as an apprentice Structural Draughtsman. After doing this for about 2 ½ years I decided that this was not the career for me so I moved to Sydney.
I did a number of jobs, everything from washing cars to mail sorting to assembling printing machines and I played some 1st grade Aussie Rules with Balmain.
Then I met Carole (my wife to be). I quickly lost interest in the footy and settled down and got a job with Comalco Aluminium and studied Accountancy.
I was with Comalco for a bit over 10 years and during this period worked my way up to Asset Accountant. Also got married, purchased our house at Blacktown and had 2 of our 3 children.
Left Comalco and had a few other jobs but could never get excited about Accountancy. In 1983 the youngest of our 3 children was born.
In 1981 we were on holidays in Noosa and went on a river cruise and I decided that this is what I wanted to do and they just happened to have a small ferry for sale. So we bought that and transported it to Windsor on the Hawkesbury River (ignorance is bliss). After many problems we were able to get the ferry in NSW survey and started the cruises. There had not been any cruises on that part of the Hawkesbury River for about 40 years. We started pretty well and very quickly realised that it was too small and needed to borrow more money to get a larger boat, which we did. We sold the business and boat after 18 years during which we had some excellent times and some real lows. Putting up with everything from floods to vandalism to mechanical problems. The highs included all of the family working on board during New Years Eve celebrations on Sydney Harbour.
After selling the business I worked on Sydney Harbour driving charter boats for 3 years and then got a job with Shannons Insurance in the Auction division where I am still working today. I look after the accounting side in NSW Auctions.
My parents are no longer with us but fortunately the rest of the family have been blessed with good health (touch wood) and we are still in the same house that we purchased way back in 1972.
All the best with your reunion and I promise to be there for the next reunion.
Kind regards,
Ian
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