There were a lot of circumstances which together made our Youth Group days so rich. We had all spent a great part of our formative years living through the war. Austerity and rationing led to a make-do-and-mend attitude. Television was only just arriving so we were used to making our own entertainment. But perhaps the most important thing I reckon, was a tolerance of responsible youth by our elders... presumably fostered by the fact that during the war 18 year olds fought and died alongside 40 year olds. We did things in those days that would just not be acceptable now. Sensible grown-up things. Perhaps the example that comes to mind first is Gabby commissioning the Electricity Company to string up power lines and install electricity in the Stores (Club house). If memory serves me right he was probably about 17 at the time.

Another example was our travelling around the local villages with the Shows. -How did we get to these venues?- We hired a coach. I was 16 when I hired my first bus! I can't remember the exact circumstances but presumably Gabby would have allocated jobs for each of us and mine was to organise the coach and I just "went and did it", (and more interestingly the coach company accepted the booking).

Gabby introduced us younger ones to a world of committees; script conferences; business acumen (the waste paper and jam jar operation) Show production; stage management; scenery building; the list is endless, Oh yes and even Gilbert & Sullivan. 1 didn't know it was G.& S. music I was singing at the time (Gabby and Alan had put different words to it) so it was much later in life that I came across the 'proper' version.

This was also the era of National Service. Gabby was older by a few years than most of us so he went in first and returned on regular leaves with even more grandiose schemes- That's when I came across the job of "Store-keeper" for the first time.

The Wimborne Youth Group was unique in one important fact...there were no adult leaders. With Gabby and Alan's guiding hand at the helm, us youngsters ran the club ourselves. Can you imagine that situation being tolerated nowadays? Any group run by youths themselves these days is called a gang.