Fred Smith

Looking back thirty four years to when Brian wrote that account of the first six years I now realise how important that period, and the next five years, were in establishing the ethos and the direction which has led to the Merseyside Mountaineering Club to become what Brian forecast - one of the most important clubs on Merseyside. I would go further and suggest it now is the most important. Sadly Brian has not lived to see this, soon after he wrote the article he died. The Club lost a member who had contributed enormously to creating that ethos.

Brian only touched upon the unbelievable effort that went into Cae'r Fran. The current membership owes a huge "thank you" to those who invested so much time and labour in converting the house from a near slum to a habitable hut. Bear in mind we had only about 50 members at the time; yet we averaged about 22 on every work meet, and these happened at least once per month for two years. The labour was hard, really hard. Excavating drains to divert water which flowed across the kitchen floor when it rained was backbreaking.

Mixing and pouring concrete, plastering walls, making the roof watertight, plumbing, wiring, decorating, new window lintels (a nightmare task) -looking back it is quite incredible that apart from their time and labour they also shared the cost of transport and food so willingly, and gave up their climbing days so frequently. Those few who are still members will have no illusions about their contribution. Then a few years later we started again with the toilet block extension. Anyone going on a work meet now has it easy - a bit of cleaning and some decorating being the norm. I have always believed that the work meets are a vital part of the club's activities. There is no better way of integrating new members into the Club and giving them a sense of a stake-holding; hence the insistence upon attending a work meet during the graduate membership period Older members should also participate - if only for the fun of it.

Sadly, on looking through the membership list only three remain from the original founder members. Happily quite a few early members are still there and maybe we will see them at the special Forty Year Celebration Dinner.

During its forty years the M.M.C. has had its ups and downs. Some bitter words have been said at times but happily, the original atmosphere, friendly, welcoming, enthusiastic, persisted and is still dominant. It is very easy, as an organisation develops, to lose sight of the core objectives. We have not done so and hopefully we never will.

In his article Brian referred to our hopes to buy Cae'r Fran. The opportunity arose only four years ago but we failed to take advantage. Now we are looking to invest more time, money and effort into a major development project. I am sure that the current membership, when called upon, will respond in the way their predecessors did over thirty years ago. The club of tomorrow, will, as always, be built upon the efforts and foresight of yesteryear's members.