Hilary Peeters and Ella Johnston reunite annually after first meeting in Scotland. (Renee Pilcher)

IT SEEMS the urban myth about doctors and nurses getting up to mischief in their down time was quite true in Glasgow, Scotland, half a century ago.

Reunited in Gympie on Thursday night after first meeting in the hallway of the nurses' quarters of the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow 50 years ago, Ella Johnston and Hilary Peeters have a swag of stories to tell in their Scottish brogue.

The two students nurses were aged 18 and 17 back then, and were part of a 350-plus student nurse body that had to "live in" for the first two years of their three-year training.

Their stories of those years bounce off each other: the evil domestic called Alice who relished locking them out of the quarters if they were home later than 10.30pm; the vicious night sister who delighted in picking their work to pieces and the "long, long hours" and split shifts.

"But we were lucky really," they say.

"When we started nursing they started using disposable needles and syringes. Other hospitals were still boiling up their syringes and blunt needles.

"And we had lots of fun."

Like the night Hilary turned 21. The two were in their third year of training; Hilary had moved back in with her parents and Ella was sharing a flat in a tenement across the road from the hospital.

"We decided to throw a 21st for Hilary at the flat because her mum was sick," Ella said.

"The young doctors wanted to come, so they came over and tested their beepers. The beepers still worked at our flat, so the doctors were able to come over and party."

The flat consisted of two rooms and a kitchen. It managed to fit 100 people on the night of the party.

The police came twice - the second time to join the party.

At 4am the girls were struggling down the stairs with a pile of empty bottles and Ella dropped the lot. It was a memorable night.

The pair have stayed solid friends.

They came to live in Australia within three months of each other back in 1977 and went to work as nurses.

Indeed, Ella, a midwife, worked in Gympie nursing homes for 27 years, only retiring in 2010.

They have had their falling outs and not spoken at times, but 50 years down the track, Hilary flies from Perth to Gympie each year at Hogmanay (New Year) to catch up with her old nursing chum.

Thursday night marked five decades of friendship, and the duo celebrated with their husbands and other family at Gunabul Homestead.

Shelley Strachan

Source: gympietimes.com.au