John William Goyen

We never had a chimney for Santa to come down & we didn’t have stockings for him to fill with presents. We had special Christmas pillowcases (much bigger and better than stockings!) that we would hang on our bedroom doors on Christmas Eve.
We’d leave a beer out for Santa along with a piece of Christmas cake (made months earlier by Grandma) in the hope that he’d leave our pillowcases full in return. Funnily enough, I don’t ever remember leaving anything out for the reindeer though!
Even after I had moved out, I would usually come and stay on Christmas Eve and in the years following Mum’s death, a new tradition started.
I’m quite the night owl so well after Dad went to bed, I’d get the Christmas pillowcases out, hang them on our bedroom doors & fill his with presents “from Santa”. Dad would wake up early so that while I was still sleeping, he would fill mine with presents “from Santa” also.
We would both adamantly deny filling the pillowcases, insisting that it really had been Santa! It was a silly little game but it amused us!

Hi Jack Goyen, sorry to hear you’ve hung up your woggle and beads, and are going on a special journey, so to let others know I’ve put out a sign “Gone Home”. I’ve arranged eleven stones with your one in the middle, the other 10 smaller stones remind me of the old 10 Scout laws that as youngsters I am sure, you and I done our best to live our lives to.

Do you remember our first meeting Jack, it was in 1992 at Ballarat, VIC. I walked into the NSW contingent HQ on site and immediately got a warm scouting reception from you and Bob MacD. From That moment I realised I would not be a lone scouter at Australian Jamboree. Jack, after our little chat you took me aside and pointed out all the important places on camp should I need them.  After AJ1992 came AJ1995; AJ1998; AJ2001 (home Catarat Park NSW) my last one being AJ2004.

At Ballarat you reached out and grasped me by my hand the ‘left-hand-shake’ that touched me. Scouters these days do not always use their left hand to greet fellow scouters.  Do you remember Jack Ballarat AJ’s scarf “Welcome Stranger farewell Friend” written on the scarf. It reminds me of our friendship.  It’s not every day that you have the chance (dare I say privilege) to meet a Jack Goyen. 

Sorry but I was tied up in 2007 Jack, with the World Centenary Jamboree in UK, 42,000 plus attended with over 8500 of us just on the support teams.  My pocket was empty and I cannot swim 12,000 miles! Still I met up with the Aussie contingent youngsters and their leaders, even got an Aussie World Jamboree shirt, sssh …… it was from a QLDer. 

Jack I was so looking forward to seeing you again in January 2013, we only met every three years and that was at the Australian Jamborees. I sent an email to let you know I was attending and got a reply from Judy, thanks Judy. It saddened me, I am going to miss you Jack and our little chats, or was it the glass! (and the chat with you and your NSW pals).

I’ll let you into a little secret Jack, I wanted to know what music was played for your day, so I had a little peep, two pieces immediately jumped out at me, The Scout Hymn and Together.

The Scout Hymn always has an effect on me whether I am singing it or just listening, the last verse …. ‘The best that I can be’, hits me. We always have the Scout Hymn on St. Georges day service.

‘Together when we’re all together’ Good old Ralph Reader. It always sums up what we and our Scouting world is all about, “togetherness”.  That would lead to a better world, we hope

                “Welcome stranger, but farewell my friend”, I will miss you Jack,

                Good night and God Bless

Tom Seal, Leader / Camp Warden, Royal Greenwich Scout District, Greater London South, Great Britain

My father was perfect and knew everything, but only on Mondays! At least that's what he always said.
As a young child, I was one of those that said "Why?" a lot and nothing's changed - I've always been that way. This has sometimes gotten me in trouble as people think I'm quesitoning them or their methods but mostly it's just that I'm curious or interested to learn things. At one stage, it earnt me the nickname "Quizzie".
Anyway, with a child such as I, Dad had to come up with a strategy for when he didn't know the answer to my questions. His solution was that everytime he didn't know the answer or maybe even was just sick of my endless questions, he'd say "Ask me again on Monday, I know everything on Mondays".
This usually worked well as by the time Monday would come around, I'd forgotten my previous questions anyway. It only failed one day out of 7 and as I grew up, this became a running joke between us. We went through this little ritual right up until he died.
Of course I thought, and still do, that he was perfect every day.