School days revisited

Most of my childhood memories are from my time living at Annerley and attending Yeronga State School. I cant be sure which are from the time before we went to Amiens from early 1942  and which are after our return in mid-1943 so I'll just mention them as they come to mind.

I mentioned slates in an early post. Recently I visited Jondaryan Woolshed complex near Toowoomba . This is an open-air Museum around the original woolshed and depicts many aspects of early rural life. Included among the buildings is a small one-room school. Although this related to times earlier than my schooldays there were some familiar features, including the slates and desks.

I remember sitting at desks such as these...with slots for the slates and ink wells for the older children. I also remember a blackboard on an easel . The chart on the wall brings back memories of chanting " a like an apple, a says..."
Each long desk had a long bench  as a seat.

At some stage we moved up to double desks such as this...

I'm not sure if the ones I used were exactly like this as I seem to remember having a hinged seat which lifted back as I stood...and woebetide anyone who let their seat fall down making a loud noise!

I cant remember ever sitting at a single desk . I may have done so in senior school though even there I think the desks were arranged in pairs i.e.side by side.

Again as mentioned earlier, school did not have an ablutions block, washroom or such as is normal today. I well remember using a trough like this near the outside toilet block and a similar though longer one under the school building.

It makes me feel quite "ancient" when I see things in a "museum" which I remember using! In another building at the complex is an early dental chair which most certainly is familiar  and brings to mind an occasion when I "missed" a dental appointment.

The dentist we attended was between the school and home and I was supposed to attend my appointment there one day on the way home from school. Somehow I "forgot" and went home in a different direction. Naturally Mum was not deceived and promptly rang and made another appointment to which she would personally take me. I had to have an extraction and the nurse came into the surgery and said "Your mother wants to know do you want her to come to be  with you." Little Miss said "No! I'm not a baby!"

This is the only occasion in my life I can remember having a parent with me at the dentist.

It was quite common for children to be independent as few families had cars to take children anywhere.

One school holiday, one of the other State schools held a holiday program and I asked if I could go. The answer was as long as I could get there and back on my own. I think I had to take two trams; I remember enjoying tennis lessons. I wish I could remember where my interest in tennis had come from, whether I had my own or a school racquet. There were other activities but I enjoyed the tennis most.

When I was having private lessons in prepartions for the dancing exams, I was allowed to leave school a few minutes early on the particular afternoon. I would walk to the tram and then take it into the city. I did not know the name of the street where I had to get off but knew it was just past the main Post Office and there were green railing outside the building at the tram stop. One afternoon I must have been daydreaming as I realised that nothing was looking familiar. I could do nothing but stay on the tram which I assumed would go to the terminus and then return. I would have had only enough money for my fare to town and back so I must have been a bit upset when the conductor came looking for fares on the return...or maybe he queried why I was still on the tram...I cant remember that part but I do remember some woman giving me sixpence for my fare. The fare was only a penny which the conductor then didn't take so I ended up with the sixpence. I managed to recognise my stop in the city and the amazing part was that I was still in time for my lesson!!! That is a secret which only Alan knows but has probably forgotten. He used to be sent to meet me at the tram stop as it would be starting to get dark by the time I arrived back. We spent the sixpence on hot chips at a shop near the tram stop and that's another secret we had to share!

I remember the day after it was announced that Australia was at war...though I had no concept of the full import . I heard Mum talking to Mrs Minogue between the two houses. Neither was a person to chat over the fence so I realised that something very important had happened. When Dad and a friend started digging our air-raid shelter where the vegetable garden used to be it was obvious that something worrying was happening.

In early 1942 we caught the train to go to live in Amiens...the next chapter in my life story.