Ivanhoe Primary School Memories 1950s and 1960s
Extracts from the Supplement to Slab Hut to Red Brick: the history of Ivanhoe Primary School (2004) compiled by Theresa Casteltevetere, Dianne Fox and Louise Ryan, including recollections of former students & staff.
This article continues from the articles "Ivanhoe Primary School Memories".
Contents |
[edit] Ian Wills: 1953-1959
Booklets relating to the Royal visit were given to all students a few days prior to when the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh travelled from the city to Heidelberg via Ivanhoe. I can remember our entire School gathering in front of the Heidelberg Town Hall in late February 1954 on what was quite a warm day. While many jostled to get a good view of the Royals, I managed to climb into the back of a council truck parked at the St.Elmo Road and Upper Heidelberg Road intersection. The truck was jammed packed with children of all ages that were very excited waving their flags when the big moment arrived. The Royal car actually stopped for a few seconds as photographers took photos, then it continued on its journey to the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.
Another special day occurred whilst I was a grade 3 student. All of our class displayed their work in the classroom for our parents to come and see. It was called Education Day.
During one of our Monday morning assemblies our teacher Mr Galvin spoke about a Russian Sputnik rocket that was launched a couple of days ago and told us to keep our eyes open for it as it would be passing over Melbourne around 9pm that night. He was spot on as the sky was clear and what looked like a moving star passed overhead and went out of view after a couple of minutes. This was an unmanned spacecraft launched in 1958 for the purpose of transmitting signals from outer space back to earth.
In 1955 we were given a notice to take home to our parents. I was a bit mystified at first as to what the notice related to, but when I found out the following day I almost freaked out. It was inoculation day. Many students including myself felt very unwell that day as we were to have Diphtheria and Tetanus injections. The sight of the needle and smell of metho was too much for some. Some passed out, some cried and some even laughed. I was always at the end of the queue and copped a blunt needle. One by one each person received a jab and immediately the needle was sterilised by being dipped in metho then put through the flame of a burning candle before the next person received it. A couple of years later we fronted up again at the Heidelberg Town Hall for a booster.
During my time at Ivanhoe State School we were given free milk in the mornings in small bottles which were about . of a pint. A roster system meant that all the boys would take turns to collect the crate from outside then carry it to the classroom. Sometimes we would have a race to see who could finish their drink first because then if you were lucky you could have another one. The cream on top of the milk was always delicious. The responsibility was left to the girls to have the empty crate returned to its rightful place.
Monday was always lunch order day from the Tuck Shop. My mother was always on duty to help out. Usually I had an egg and lettuce roll and a meringue. Sometimes there were leftovers that were offered to anyone that wanted extras. My mother Connie formed a friendship with over a dozen ladies from Ivanhoe State School days and met regularly with them each month for a period of over 45 years. Many came to celebrate Connie’s 80th birthday not long before she died in 1998. Some of the ladies names were Mrs Begg, Stebbins, Poulton, Fisher, White, Dear, Knorr, Jeanette, Jordan, Boxshall, Bishop, Canning, Rickard, Brown, Russell, Allen, Golder and Jennings. Several of these ladies were also involved with the 2nd Ivanhoe Boy Scouts Group as well as the St James Church of England in Ivanhoe.
Playtime was always fun particularly after lunch. We would play games like ‘Charlie across the oval’ which was a catch me and tig me on the back game mostly for boys. Another was ‘Hoppo Bumpo’ where you had to hop across the oval on one leg only. If you put two feet on the ground you were out. Changing legs was the difficult part. Once I was chased by 3 girls playing ‘Kiss Chasey’, they wrestled me to the ground and wouldn't let me get up. They were all big long kisses that I didn't forget. Later I was invited to each of their birthday parties. The girls were Margaret Fisher, Monica Chivers and Vicki Claphan.
In grade five I was selected to play in the School Football Team coached by Mr Beames. In that particular match we played Fairfield at Chelsworth Park in East Ivanhoe. I remember about 10 of us piled into Mr Beames old black Plymouth car and after two trips we were all at the ground fired up and ready to go. I managed to get some kicks which were mostly off the ground and I think I took a couple of marks. I was happy with my form and also the result as we won by about three goals. One particular team mate at the time was Robert Dean who showed amazing skills and went on to play for Ivanhoe Amateurs and 121 games for Collingwood and 66 games for South Melbourne. Ivanhoe State School was terrific for me as I had made many friends and the teachers were great and all very caring. Some surnames of teachers during my time were Western, Beames, Galvin, McLeod, Snowball, McDonald, Freeman, Williams, Wilkeson, Pantch, White, Culhane and Nankervis. Mr Dunstan was the head teacher.
I REMEMBER… ‘Mr Culhane gives me a pain’ (as in hit) ‘Mr Nankervis makes me nervous!’ (as in looks) Paul Brown ‘Old Ma macka Sat on a cracker The cracker went boom Macka went zoom’ Mal Poulton (1951-1957)
[edit] Betty King : A Parent At The School 1954-1968
Interviewed by Sue Webster.
Betty King, 78, and her late husband Jack sent their four children Elizabeth, John, Peter and Phillip to Ivanhoe Primary School in a period from 1954 to 1968.
Their children were part of the baby boom wave that followed the soldiers’ return from WW2.
‘There were no houses available right after the war but Mr Kinnon, who owned Ivanhoe Manor in Ford Street built houses in Green St and Mabel St.
‘Jack said: “We’ll buy the house and it will do for the time being”,’ Betty said. ‘I was still there 53 years later!’
Another early resident in that stretch of Green St was ‘Nana Brown’ who doled out lollies to all the kids who called in every day. The clutch of kids, all aged within a few years of each other, walked to the school together along Green St that was unmade in parts.
The adults would carry their good shoes and change into them at the start of the tarmac - leaving their old, muddy shoes at the side of the road for the return journey.
There was also an unmade track alongside Donaldsons Creek between Green St and Ailsa Grove. ‘It was hard with prams,’ said Betty. ‘And of course, we were all dressed up with hats and gloves to go to Mothers’ Club. We’d get dressed up.’
The Mothers’ Club met monthly in an upstairs room and also provided the weekly canteen service.
They provided what was known as an Oslo lunch, comprising sandwiches and fruit. Every Monday a group of 10 to 12 women gathered to make sandwiches. Initially they worked on trestle tables in the old shelter shed that backed onto Ailsa Grove. “Then we had a drive and raised money for the tuck shop to be built behind the main building.
Until the purchase of a pie warmer, the only fare offered was sandwiches – Vegemite, cheese, meat, egg and peanut butter.
Every Sunday one of the mothers had to beat the butter with milk to make it spread further – and easier
– the next day. ‘And we had to do it with one of those old hand-held rotary egg beaters,’ Betty said. ‘And we were only allowed to melt it a little to soften it.’ The white bread and rolls were delivered to the school but the other sandwich-makings were bought from grocers such as Seddons in Upper Heidelberg Rd.
The tomato sauce was bought from Mr Fletcher, a wholesale grocer in Waterdale Rd. ‘He’d sit you down in his shop and sell you the sauce – it was a real social visit,’ Betty said.
There was also fruit and meringues – in pink, white, yellow and blue. ‘We used to try to give the pink ones to the girls and the blue ones to the boys,’ said Betty. ‘Nance Simpson refused to give the pink ones to the boys. She made sure the girls got them!’
The menu was extended when the canteen opened on Thursdays and offered pies, doughnuts and icy- poles.
And there was school milk. Betty said she couldn’t see much reason for the school milk given out daily to the children. ‘There was no hunger. Everyone had jobs. None of us had a lot but no one went undernourished so there wasn’t much need for this milk.’
Her daughter was sickened by the milk and had to take a note from home excusing her from the milk. Her son John, however, has hollow legs. ‘He finished up his bottle and the left-overs. In fact, he became a milk monitor and helped the caretaker Mr Horton who lived in a house on the school grounds with his wife and family.’
John also helped some of the boys and Mr Horton cleaning up the yard, for a weekly reward of a packet of Life Savers.
Betty remembers that the teaching staff included more men. ‘And they were mostly in their late 30s and 40s,’ she added. ‘The young had gone to war and the ones who came back didn’t seem to go into teaching at that time. And of course, there was a gap of six years when there’d been little or no teacher training.’
‘But the teacher in the ‘bubs’ grade was a young lady teacher.’
Nevertheless, it appears the school was quite progressive in having remedial classes for some children in the third-floor rooms.
There were also school camps at Somers.
Discipline was strict, and punishment often corporal. ‘They had straps and would whack into the boys,’ said Betty. ‘I remember once, it was near the end of the year, seeing one teacher lining up some boys for the strap. As I walked past I said: “Oh, it’s Christmas.” But he said: “Yes, but you’ve still got to discipline them”’.
But some elements were more casual.
‘We didn’t have to enrol the children,’ said Betty. ‘You just went to school on the first day, give them your details and that was it.’
‘My husband, like many, was hopeless with details about the children and when it was time to start Peter at school he had to take him because I’d just had baby Phillip. I remember as he was about to walk out the door, he used the back of his cigarette packet to write down Peter’s full name and when he was born.’
Second-born John was very tall for his age. ‘He was in bubs and one day he came home and said: “I went up a grade today”. Jack said: “You couldn’t possibly”.
‘But John said: “The teacher asked us all to stand up and then he put me into grade one.’”
‘And I found out that he was telling the truth. The school was short of numbers in grade one and because he was tall, John – along with several others - were put into that grade!’
Uniforms were optional. Elizabeth wore a navy tunic from about grade three and the boys wore a grey jumper with a navy and pale blue striped band.
Some things, however, never change.
Betty recalled: ‘Phillip came home from his first day at school and said: “I’ve got a girlfriend. Her name is Vicki”’.
‘The next day he came home and said: “I haven’t got Vicki anymore. My friend John also wanted her so he and I had a race and he won Vicki”’.
‘But all through school days it was “Vicki-this” and “Vicki-that”. I never met the girl, although I met her father at Scouts, but I always thought Vicki was going to end up my daughter-in-law.’
‘In the end, Phillip did marry … he married Vicki’s sister!’
Anzac Day had great significance. ‘There was always a service at the school. It was very big because everyone was just getting over the war,’ Betty said. ‘We all made wreaths. We cut them out of cardboard which you’d cover with leaves and flowers – you’d scrounge them up out of other people’s gardens if you didn’t have any. And each child would head off to school wearing their father’s medals and carrying these home-made wreaths.’
Fete day was also a big day in the school calendar – although it was a far more low-key event. Betty said: ‘We did groceries and baked cakes and made jam. We might have made some aprons and dusters, but none of the arty-craft stuff they do these days.’
House sports were a regular fixture, as were visits to the newly opened pool in Waterdale Rd.
Prior to the pool opening, the children learned to swim in the Yarra – with tragic consequences.
‘When I was about eight – so it was about 70 years ago – I stayed with my aunty and cousins who lived in Donaldson St. Aunty Hilda had cut sandwiches which we were planning to take to the river while my cousin Georgie was finishing his swimming lesson.’
‘It was somewhere near the golf club and as we walked towards the river, some children came running past us saying two boys had drowned’.
‘I remember Aunty Hilda saying something about their poor parents’.
‘When we got to the river she said: “I can’t see Georgie”’.
‘A teacher came up to her and told her that Georgie had drowned. He’d got caught on a snag and an older boy had drowned trying to save him.’
Betty paused. ‘When we moved here I swore that my children would never swim in the river at Ivanhoe.’
‘It was years later that Peter told me that he’d been swimming in the river while learning to paddle a canoe with the Scouts!’
[edit] Graeme Peters: 1959-?
My first years at Ivanhoe Primary School were some of the best years of my life with many happy memories and friends made. Now, each day as I do as my mother did, I take my daughter to that same school almost 45 years later and the memories of those days are as vivid as if it were yesterday. Although the school has changed a lot over the years it still has that charm and character that it had back then. I still have my old class photos and can name almost everyone in them. We had teachers that seemed so strict yet fair and we at times idolised them and at times despised them but to be fair to them they were what I would consider the best of the times. These were the days where we walked to school without a thought of safety as that issue didn’t exist. We walked along flooded creeks and got wet and fell in , we crossed roads without pedestrian crossings and we walked to the local fish and chip shop in Upper Heidelberg Road for our lunches. We sat in open shelter sheds (long since gone) and ate our lunches. We played on the hot asphalt yard in the early years and then when we were in grade 3 we were allowed on to what seemed then to be the biggest oval in the world, to play with the big kids. There were no monkey bars, no play equipment at all. We made our own fun and games like carving roadways into the dirt for our toy cars under the still existing peppercorn tree on the south side of the oval. We played football and cricket on the oval and rounders was played where the portables are on the north side of the playground where there once stood enormous pine-trees. The toilet block was the main feature of the playground of those days and was situated in the middle of the playground in which many indescribable things went on. There were no roofs on the insides of the toilets and the protection of incoming missiles (and other things) for the girls on the other side of the wall didn’t exist. We drank milk from small glass bottles left in the sun in the morning, we bought our lunch at the tuck shop which was where the multipurpose room now stands, pies were 3d and an icy pole was 1d, that converts to 3 cents for a pie with sauce and 1 cent for an icy pole. We had a band (made up usually of grade six students) that played the national anthem in front of the flag pole on Monday mornings. The headmaster, Mr Singleton would make announcements to the school in much the same way as is done now, only from a hearth of an unused fireplace at the bottom of the stairs. Inside the main building has changed very little except for lighting, fans and air conditioning and old wooden desks with ink wells have been replaced, it still looks the same to me. In those days teachers where allowed to dish out punishment for such heinous crimes as chewing in class and general disobedience with leather straps or old three foot wooden rules, (yes I received my share) (thank you Mr Baggley and Mr Close). Our end of year school trip was by train to the Mordialloc beach and was always fun. We swam at the then outdoor Ivanhoe Pool and the teachers had total disregard for our comfort on cold days and I am sure they loved it. We had a bicycle shed with large hooks for hanging your bike on and the occasional bullied child was also hung on the hook. Like I said we made our own entertainment.
To all those children at the school now, I hope you too will look back on the years you spend at Ivanhoe Primary School with the same amount of happiness and pride that I so proudly do. Enjoy it while you can. The years ahead can be tough.
[edit] Rhonda Matties
The following are snippets of memory from my 6-7 years at Ivanhoe PS:
Remembrance day – some of the children would dress in nurses capes and caps, others would dress in various other uniforms;
The doors opening onto the play area would have monitors on duty at lunchtime to prevent entry back into the school except by those with some sort of emergency e.g. blood nose (I can remember a lot of those). Kids on duty as monitors would feel VERY important;
In Grade 5, girls would be rostered to do tea duty. The classroom was located next door to the staff kitchen on the second floor and three or so girls (never boys!) would leave class early in order to set up the staff tea room and make big pots of tea. This was a plum job and keenly sought. I remember needing to go to the toilet and feeling very daring when I used the staff toilet which was located off the kitchen area. I also remember having a drink of water from a tea cup and chipping my front tooth in the process!
People would also be rostered to ring the school bell and play the marching music. This meant entering the hallowed sanctum of the headmaster’s office which was very exciting;
Games played in the yard included elastics, dutch skippy (with two ropes), swap cards (my friend Sue had an enormous pack of pristine swap cards including the really sought after ones), tunnel ball, cross ball, skip ball, and hitting a tennis ball inside a stocking against the walls of the toilet block whilst singing a certain song that went something like ‘hello, hello hello sir, going to the show sir, no sir, why sir, because……………….’, other games with tennis balls against the brick wall.
Interschool sports were a very big deal and I was in a cross ball team. I was also in the ‘seconds’ netball team (goalie). The ‘seconds’ uniform was a light blue tunic, much nicer was the ‘firsts’ uniform of a navy pleated skirt and [?] shirt. Unfortunately, I didn’t make the grade for the ‘firsts’.
In Grade 4 we progressed from messy pen and ink to fountain pens when our writing came up to a certain standard. I got a rainbow coloured fountain pen (Osmoroid I think) which had a little gold number on it. I subsequently lost this at a sports day and was heartbroken.
Loved having tuck shop lunches. Hot meat pies and sauce, ‘favourites’ (which were pikelets) with creamed honey. Oslo lunches were available; I’m not quite sure what these were – perhaps salad sandwiches and other healthy food?
I remember a trip to the MacRobertson chocolate factory. We were allowed to eat a lot of lollies/chocolates and I remember feeling very unwell after that. The smell stayed with me for a long time. Other trips included to the woollen mills and the traffic school.
I know other people who have bad memories of the bottled milk we were given but I only remember nice cold milk which I very much enjoyed. There was a period when flavoured straws became available and we drank the milk through these straws, thus giving it a strawberry or chocolate flavour.
I had a Gerry Gee ventriloquist doll in Grade four and was allowed to have my photo taken with it for the class photo. Still have that photo tucked away somewhere.
Miss Cooper was my teacher in prep or Grade 1. She was lovely. I remember one of us would bury our head in her lap whilst she tapped out a song with a ruler on a chair and if we could guess the song we were allowed to go out to lunch early. I guessed ‘there was a crooked man’ correctly one day and went out to lunch but the down side of this was there was no one else out there to talk to!
[edit] Debbie Hardwick
I started with Ivanhoe State School (as it was called then) in 1960 as my birthday is the 25th July and in those days if your birthday was in the second half of the year they wouldn't let you start at the age of 4 & 1/2!
In Grade 1 we had an A & B group, I was in A group which they put up to Grade 2 half way through the year.........maybe that's where it all went wrong for me!?
I can't remember the Grade (I'm assuming Grade 6) I was given the honour of being the Bell Operator, which I thought was super as it got you out of class 5 minutes early 4 times a day - morning & afternoon tea, lunch and home time! Unfortunately my watch kept letting me down and I was constantly running late to ring the bell and I was eventually sacked from being Bell Operator!
Another funny story was, once again not sure which grade, possibly 4 or 5, my mother tells me the story that I refused to go to school and finally after 3 days my father got out of me the reason why....because one of the boys - Alan Cook kept chasing me around the school yard trying to kiss me. So this day my father takes me to school and asks me to point him out which I had great delight in doing, he called Alan over and picked him up by the ears and told him to leave me alone or else he would have to come back to the school and deal with him again!
About 12 years ago I was at the Fawkner Club on a Friday night which was one of the "in places to go" and saw this guy walk past me, I tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Well if it's not Alan Cook.’ He gave me a blank look and I said, ‘You don't know who I am do you?’ and he said no. I said it's Debbie Hardwick, before he could even say, ‘Hi, great to see you,’ his reply was, ‘I remember the day your father came down to the school and picked me up by the ears and told me to leave you alone!’ The poor guy's been carrying this around all his life! We chatted and laughed and I found out he still mixed with a few others from school and we organised a BBQ at his house and once again not one of them recognised me, I talked to them, dropped hints, we even started a conversation about ‘remember so and so’ and guess what - I didn't even get a mention, whether it was a good or bad mention! By about 3pm Alan and I couldn't stand it another minute and had to tell them who I was.
I Remember…
…when the boys used to rifle through the incinerator looking for lost lunch money – Yuk! Anon (no date given)
[edit] Dianne Nolan (nee Foley)
I remember my days at the school with great fondness. The atmosphere of the school was always one of fun and learning. There was lots of room for the kids to play in, and we were very competitive in sports.
The school's internal layout has changed quite a bit since then. There were a few cloakrooms at the school, which have now been incorporated into other features. The cloakrooms were used for our schoolbags and coats on rainy days - the school had been built when most people didn't own cars to drive their children to school so space was made for such things.
There was one [cloakroom] in front of the Library, which is now the Art Room, one attached to my Grade 4 Classroom, which is now the Main Office Area, and one opposite the Prep Rooms, which are still the Prep Rooms, but the cloak room is now used as a small classroom for extension learning and books.
The present Library was two Grade 3 rooms - there was a divider between the rooms like the ones underneath in the Prep Rooms.
The Teachers’ Staff Room was where Mr Pearce's Grade Five class is now. That's where we watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon in 1969, all the kids craning their necks at the doorway to see a flickering black and white picture.
The Principal's Office was where the current Staff Room is, and the room opposite was just a classroom.
Our Art Room was outside! And no one ever went up to the attic - we all thought it was probably haunted. Now it's the Music Room.
Externally things have changed a lot too. There were no portables, of course. The canteen was a little wooden building just as you walked out from the main building near where the Multi-Purpose room is now. There was a "shelter-shed" next to it where you could eat your lunch. There were two more shelter sheds built just as you walked down the stairs on the Lowe Street side. Behind these shelter sheds was an open asphalt area we used for netball, the court ran across from Ailsa Grove to Lowe Street side. We also used this area for rounders.
The physical barrier, which segmented this playing area, were the toilets which were built approximately in line with the end of the Main Fence on Lowe Street outside Mrs Burns' room. When you walked up from the oval on the Lowe Street side, there were taps on the fence and the shady brick wall of the toilets where you could get a drink.
Behind the toilets was another shelter shed and our Art-Room. In my early days, we had a very Bohemian art teacher, Mr Robb. He always wore corduroy trousers, a big bulky-knit jumper and drove a very strange looking car which I later discovered was a French vehicle - a Citroen. Very nonconformist looking man was Mr Robb, compared to the teachers with stove-pipe trousers, skinny ties, white shirt and a cardigan or sports jacket. He was later replaced by Miss Sanchez, a very pretty and buxom young lady teacher, who entranced the sixth grade boys.
Mr Nankervis was our Librarian, and was a very strict old teacher. His first session with the young students being introduced to his world was the proper pronunciation of the word ‘library’ - i.e., ‘Li-braree. Not Li-berry. We aren't Americans!’ The library was nicknamed ‘Nanny-goat’s Torture Chamber’ because we had to be on our best behaviour or incur his wrath.
I remember all my teachers from
Grade 1 Miss Coles Grade2 Miss Pearson Grade3 Mr Calleja Grade4 Mr Withers Grade5 Mr Eastoe Grade6 Mr Beckett
There were two Principals in my time, Mr Singleton and Mr Wade.
There were generally two grades at each level when I was there, and no composite classes.
Our inter-school sports competitions were against only the other state schools, never the Catholic ones. So we never competed against Mary Immaculate or Mother of God. In our area we played against Fairfield Primary, North Fairfield Primary, Alphington Primary, Bellfield Primary and our biggest rival, East Ivanhoe Primary. We loved to beat them, and they loved to beat us!
Our school also had sporting houses. Red, Gold, Green and Blue. From about 4th grade, we were allowed to compete in house-sports. I was fortunate enough to be Red House Girls’ Captain in 1970. Gold House Girls’ Captain that year was Christine Sullivan, now Pither. The houses competed for points and winners were declared at the end of the year. We didn't have a sports teacher though, just dedicated teachers. One was Mr Taylor who started at Ivanhoe Primary in my sixth grade year. He gave up his Saturdays to take the Girls’ Softball team to Fawkner Park in Prahran in a competition there. If we won, he bought us each an ice cream from Granny's Ice-Cream Parlour on Burke Road, Camberwell on the way home.
There are also a couple of notable ex-students of Ivanhoe Primary. One is the well-known radio personality, Bruce Mansfield, who was at the school in the 1950's. Another was Dean. Dean was in the first TV ad for ‘Mouse-Trap’, the board game. He was also the first ‘Milky-Bar Kid’ in the TV ads of the 60's. He was a couple of grades ahead of me, and can't remember his surname.
I still remember the excitement of the School Fair and marvel that the tradition has continued for so many years, and hope it will in years to come. It has become more sophisticated though, than what I can recall!!
Ivanhoe Primary means much to my family's history, and I am proud to say we have all thoroughly enjoyed our schooling here.
I Remember…
…when the netball team won the district game. Mr Rex Taylor was the coach. He had a scheduled sheet for training. The gaolers had to fill this sheet in: 100 goal shots in the morning, 100 goal shots in the afternoon, from all over the circle. Now for the rounders team we also had batting and catching training every lunchtime. The bowlers had to practice on the toilet wall which had a painted circle with a dot in the middle. Naturally we won.
Anon (1970)
[edit] Linda Notley: 1965-1970
It was whilst watching the television, and in particular the movie called The Dish, that both my mother and I recalled the day that man landed on the moon. I was at Ivanhoe Primary School and it was July 1969.
My mother thought she could recall that the school had hired a few televisions for the event for students who lived either far away, had no parent at home or didn't have a television. As we had one, a group of students, and I, went home and viewed this wondrous event on our television. The room was dark, we were seated on the floor in front of the television and we watched what was happening with excitement. I can still recall the wonder of realising that there were men on the moon. It was an exciting time also as we had been allowed off school to do this. The movie The Dish caught the magic of the moment wonderfully.
I can also recall a school camp down at Anglesea at the Scout Camp, where I acquired one very horrible cold and coughed all night. We had a teacher who gave me cough medicine. For some reason I slept very well after that, it turned out I had been accidentally overdosed. By torchlight we had read the label and we thought it said two tablespoons, when in fact it read two teaspoons. I was lucky my grandparents lived in Anglesea and had the opportunity to see them.
The school library, in my day, was at the top of the school in the wing behind the main building, on about the third level. If you had a lot of books you had to be careful going down the stairs so you didn't drop them. The shelves were dark brown wood, and I think I read everything in it, for I was a voracious reader.
There was a brick toilet block in the middle of the school grounds, with the drinking fountains on the outside. I remember hating going to it in the pouring rain, as it always appeared to be wetter inside than outside.
In my day milk was delivered to the school, but I cannot remember if it was a daily event or weekly. I can recall the taste of hot and curdled milk if it had been left outside until we drank it on a really hot day. In winter the cream froze, and we all thought that was really nice.
My years of school were 1965 to 1970. In my last year we had Mr Calleja, and he decided we needed a fish tank. I can still recall the excitement of all of us deciding how big the tank would be and what it would contain. It was a large tank, and each student was allowed to choose something for the tank. We discussed the fish species, plant species or toy things to go into the tank. I can remember we all seemed to waste some time watching what was going on in the tank instead of our lessons.
One of the things I recall is learning by rote a text that is ‘The cloud in the amphitheatre beheld with dismay a vast cloud rising from Vesuvius.’ Funnily enough, that is the only thing I can remember of it. It was one we had to learn by heart along with an Australian poem on a cattle dog, of which I don't have any recollection. I think I remembered the above one because it took so long to learn the word amphitheatre.
Schoolyard bullies did exist in my day. I can recall one particularly nasty one who had a real thing about kids littler than himself, and unbeknownst to me, he had decided to attack me on this particular occasion. I was on the school oval playing with my friends, when I noticed my shoe lace on one of my shoes was undone, so I did what was natural and bent over to fix it. What I didn't know, it was at that precise moment that the kid had decided to launch an attack on me. Instead of tackling me, he in fact sailed over my back and landed on his back. I can still recall all the gales of laughter, as all the kids thought it a real laugh. He was just so embarrassed at his lack of success that he ran off. It was because of that we realised he wasn't so tough after all. Funnily enough he never bothered me again.
