Editors:

July, 1964 Len Shearer

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Friday, June 5 was the date set for the June club social, and about 22 members were present. Among the group were two new members, Sheila’s brother Trevor, and Tony, who had been on two previous Sunday runs. After the main club business was discussed, Ken K. took over as auctioneer and the sale of all goods began. Among some of the bargains which were sold were two torches for 4/6 and 7/6 each; chrome-plated carrier 11/-; piles of books at 1/- a pile; Maico chains 6/6 the lot; perspex windscreen 25/-; camera 10/-; "lucky dip" 5/6; bottle of beer 5/-; portrait 3/-‘ and stacks of other items at perfectly ridiculous prices. Altogether we made £10/11/-; fourpence more than last year. Supper was served and most went home at 11.30pm.

The editor was very pleased to receive a letter from one of the many readers of "The Whispers", and feels that it is worth publishing for all the members to enjoy, so here it is:

To the Editor,

Whitehorse Whispers,

M.S.A.V.

Dear Sir,

We have been receiving your monthly copies of "Whitehorse Whispers" for about the last twelve months, and decided to write to you, praising the wonderful mag which you produce. There are about twenty of us in our group, and we all take it in turn to go over every word of the publication. We gather immense enjoyment from the descriptions of your club’s outings, the technical articles we find extremely interesting, and many of the jokes and gags circulate quite freely amongst us and raise a lot of laughs. We would like to have more copies sent to us if possible, and are willing to pay for them if need be. We would like to wish you every success with "The Whispers" and would like to offer some articles if they would be accepted. Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain,

Yours etc.,

Joseph Blow.

PS: Please excuse this letter being written in crayon, but we are not allowed to use anything sharp here.

Four scooters and three cars gathered at our city meeting spot for the trip to Yallourn on Sunday, June 14. Got away at 9.20am and made good time to Dandenong, arriving at about 10 o’clock. Then pushed straight through to Drouin, where we stopped for a thaw-out and coffee break. Got moving about an hour later and arrived at Yallourn at 1.30pm, after losing Lionel at Moe. Found the hotel and booked in without much trouble, then decided to go and see the "Open Cut" and Briquette Works. This proved to be quite an interesting excursion, and following this we went to Morwell to kill some time. Came back via a short-cut with Richard leading, and finished up in the middle of nowhere. Managed to find the right road again and arrived back at the hotel in time for tea. The evening was spent watching television for a short while, then we went walking through the town, and finally returned to the hotel to play cards until 11.30pm, when we finally went to bed.

Monday saw us all up bright and early. Following breakfast we checked out and headed towards Walhalla. Reached there at about 11.30am and spent a short time combing the old mine tunnels, walking through the "museum" and having lunch. Left at 2.30pm for home, with the sky darkening very quickly and the threat of rain coming down. It began at Drouin and lasted for quite a while. Stopped at Dandenong at 6pm , thawed out, and then pushed on again, arriving home at about seven. All round, it was a terrific weekend enjoyed by all those who attended, and I for one am in favour of having another like it in the future. Len

We welcomed prospective new member Phillip Davies (Vespa) at our city meeting spot on Sunday, June 28. Six scooters and two cars (including Lionel’s newly-purchased Holden and Len’s Maico — told ya, didn’t I!) Left at 9.15am and made good time to Bacchus Marsh, where we stopped for petrol and coffee. The wind was blowing a gale and making tough work of it for those on the two-wheelers. Len’s Maico made funny noises and gave great clouds of smoke when going through the Pentlands, but managed to reach Ballan OK. Here we met Doug Clarke, on his "new" Diana Sports — John Barker’s old bike. Proceeded to Sailor’s Falls, where we had lunch and went for a walk down to the attraction. Spent about half an hour there and then proceeded to Hepburn Springs, where we again stopped for food. A short game of football was next, with Ross, Darryl and Barbara taking some lovely "headers" in the mud, while someone else tried to knock a concrete seat over while taking a mark — ouch, it hurt. Trevor showed some wonderful marking ability, a future opponent for Peter perhaps? Left at 3.15pm and farewelled Doug at Daylesford. Then straight through to Bacchus Marsh for petrol and eats. The breeze had now become a more-or-less tail wind, and we were really moving. Dispersed at Braybrook at about 6.00pm with Phil, Darryl and Len taking a short cut through Maribyrnong. This proved rather disastrous, as they took a wrong turn, Len’s lights failed, ran into a maze of side streets and paddocks, stopped by the boys in blue, then a mad dash to Len’s for a spare battery, back again and finally home, just arriving with enough light to make a shadow with. All in all, a terrific day.

Alex McLean addressing the members at the June meeting: "….and as the picture night is to be arranged when we all meet in the city, you won’t have to get dressed for it…."

First there’s the struggle to push the big brute off its stand; wheeling it to the front gate you wonder why on earth you bought such a monster; struggle again and the thing is back on its stand; open the gate, wheel the brute out and heave it with all strength to stand it up again. Close the gate and mount the machine; petrol on, choke closed; now down with the ignition key; the motor turns over slowly and you wonder whether it will start. Your fears become unfounded as the motor bursts into life and a great cloud of blue smoke emits from the exhaust. Off the stand again and kick it into first gear; as the clutch is engaged the acceleration begins to make its impression on you. You keep at a leisurely pace until you are in the de-restricted area; then with complete abandonment, you change up into top gear; the miles fly behind you; a bad patch of road looms up — no trouble for this monster. Then another burst with the motor idling at a steady 50. The wind begins to freshen, but still the power keeps you maintaining your consistent pace. Suddenly you find yourself back amongst the traffic; the grins on the motorists’ faces at the lights, when they expect to leave you standing become nasty frowns when you turn the tails on them. And finally you arrive home; onto the stand, open the gate, push the brute off the stand and through the gate; drag it back up onto its stand again. Shut the gate and finally push the thing into the garage for a night’s rest. And you say to yourself, "Bless the wonderful people who make the Maico".

A cold and rainy night met us at Alexandra Avenue for our picture night. Eight members made the total. After a brief discussion we agreed to pile into the three cars and go to a drive-in. Finished up at Preston, where "Move Over Darling" was showing. Just an average show, and returned to the city for coffee etc. Dispersed at about 11.45pm, with wind and rain still making things unpleasant.

An announcer was asking one of the Beatles whether he liked the view of the Sydney Harbour, which could be seen quite clearly from his hotel room. This Beetle stated that there were bigger bridges in Britain, and the announcer declared something about the Sydney Coat-hanger being the largest single-span bridge in the world at its time of construction. The Beetle then replied: "Oh, well I suppose it must have been something marvellous in those days, when Captain Cook built it."

Mary has a little lamb,

She also has a bear.

I have often seem her lamb,

But I’ve never seen her bear.

An acquaintance and myself were recently discussing the film "Lawrence of Arabia", which we had seen several weeks ago. Another friend was standing about ten feet away, and apparently thought we were discussing "Cleopatra", and later approached me and started asking me about the show. The conversation became quite mixed, and sounded something like this:

HIM: The critics didn’t give it much of a wrap-up.

ME: Well, I enjoyed it immensely, regardless of what the critics said.

HIM: Is it the sort that you would take a girl to see?

ME: Well, not if she’s at all squeamish. Some of the fighting scenes were a bit blood-thirsty.

HIM: What I meant was, they say it’s a bit sexy?

ME: Oh, not really. There was only one dancing-girl sequence in the whole show.

HIM: Oh, I was led astray there. What was the acting like?

ME: Well, I thought he took his part particularly well, but the rest were just average.

HIME: Was the show as spectacular as, say, "Ben Hur"?

ME: They were two different types of spectacle actually. "Ben Hur" had a lot of huge armies, thousands of massed people and glittering armour and helmets. This film was mainly desert scenes and blistering sunshine.

He was becoming very disillusioned about Cleo by now, and I had realised we were both talking about different films, so I decided to play along with the gag as far as possible.

HIM: What impressed you most about the film?

ME: Well, two scenes especially stuck in my memory. The first was one in which they attached a troop train, blew it up and massacred the blokes on it.

HIM: I didn’t think they had trains in those days?

ME: Well, it was a pretty old and rickety affair, but it got them where they wanted to go.

HIM: I suppose so. And what was the other highlight of the show?

ME: In the first scene, the title hero falls off a motor bike.

HIM: WHAT WAS CLEOPATRA DOING RIDING A MOTOR CYCLE?

Alex McLean again, this time answering the doorbell: "Oh, it’s you, what a surprise. Come in and have a cup of tea before you go."