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| Hilary(13yrs) & Lois (7yrs) , Clayfield ,1944 |
Unfortunately I have no photo of the house at Clayfield and only vague impressions of it. I remember that it was a large Queenslander type of house and think with high steps in the front and low at the back. I have no idea of the rooms and cant even remember where the family rooms were placed and what they were like. My only clear memory is of the tennis court. We spent a lot of our spare time on that .
I dont remember how many boarders we had though I think the couple who were with us at Annerley came with us and there may have been other American service couples. I remember one elderly lady because she gave me a small elephant. She had lived in India before the war.
I understand that this house no longer exists. It was opposite what is now the front entrance , but in our time was the back entrance, to Clayfield College ; images show what appears to be a block of units where our house was.
Rationing was in full force so I dont know how Mum managed that. We did receive some extra supplies from the servicemen.
I have only a few memories from Eagle Junction school. That was my final year of Primary school which was grade 7 and the Scholarship year. Passing the public Scholarship examination allowed one to continue to secondary (high) school. Leaving age was 14 and as many would have been 13 when the exam was held I'm not sure but think anyone not going on to secondary must have had to return to Grade 7 until their 14th birthday.
I actually remember sitting for this exam because of Geography!. As I have said this was not one of my favourite subjects and I had no skill at drawing the maps. That year was the first year that the exam paper did not require the student to draw a map! How lucky can one be!
Another memory of this school is that it was the first time I was in a class where the boys sat on one side of the room and the girls on the other.I dont know if this was just at this school or if it was the policy for Grade 7 everywhere. Previously we had been seated according to the results of tests with the higher scores at the back and lowest at the front of the classroom. I was usually in the middle somewhere! The main reason i remember this segregation of boys and girls is that for one morning each week ..or it may have been all day I'm not sure...I had to go over to the boys' side. I dont remember if I was the only girl but I do remember the boys seated behind me used to have "fun" poking me and generally making me uncomfortable. This school did do domestic science but as I had not completed the syllabus after the transfer to Yeronga school from Amiens I was not allowed to do it for Scholarship. I had to stay with the boys! This ultimately was to my advantage as we did not only extra Geography which allowed me to catch up but also extra arithmetic. We also did some basic science but as we seemed to cover things like pouring water into buckets with holes or trying to work out how long it took to fill a bath etc I was left with absolutely no interst whatever in pursuing science in seconday school.
We were encouraged to take part in various activities as part of the "war effort." One of these was writing to servicemen overseas. I remember writing to my Uncle Bill (Wain) who was in England with the RAAF and also to my cousin Keith (Flitcroft) who was also with the RAAF stationed in England.
A few of the girls in the class organised a little "library" by bringing in books from home and then paying a penny to borrow a book from the "library.' The collected money was given to the 'war effort." I had always received a book from Grandfather Tarbit at Christmas and birthdays and had a good collection including some of the Girls Own albums. I didn't ever get my books back. I suspect I was too shy to go and ask for them at the end of the year . The albums would now be collector's items and I wonder where they are.
We also knitted small items such as scarves and caps which were sent to servicemen overseas.
I was able to resume my ballet lessons and do the exam that year. Strangely I do not remember missing my friends from Annerley. I dont remember any of my classmates from this year at Eagle Junction school but must have been content there.
