Schoolyard memories slow to fade

Fifty years later, visions of school days in Moonah are strong, writes Ian Cole

CAT Stevens once asked us to “Remember the days of the old school yard”. All the recent back-to-school advertisements gave me cause to do what Cat Stevens asked me to do. I began to reflect on both primary and high school days.

I remember in Grade 4 at Moonah Primary School being housed in what was called a Mussett Hut, a creamcoloured metal building, as normal classrooms were in short supply. Why? Well, it was the 1950s and there were kids everywhere. The post-war baby boom was in full swing and a suburb like Moonah was growing fast. It was a semiindustrial area with opportunities for employment at the

Zinc Works and

Silk and Textiles. Moonah was serviced by sound public transport including three railway stations; Derwent Park, Sunderland St and Moonah, plus a tram line through its middle. But the biggest reason for the school’s population growth was the satellite suburb of Springfield which began to house many post-war European migrants. Into our classes came kids named Anke and Gudrun and Othmar. Many boys wore lederhosen which we got used to but we were never comfortable with the fact they wanted to kick a round ball not an Aussie-rules one.

From memory our Mussett Hut had a railway line next to it running to the zinc works and on the other side of the line was a noisy bottle factory. The airconditioning was opening the windows and doors while the heating in winter was done by closing them! I think we were jampacked but it showed to me that an expensive pristine environment is not a necessity for learning. The biggest reason I believe I can still spell and know my times-tables is due to Miss Stapleton’s weekly tests consisting of spelling, dictation, arithmetic and mental arithmetic.

The back-to-school advertisements also triggered high school memories. In fact, recently I had the opportunity to catch up with some high school classmates even though 50 years had passed. Discussion rapidly moved to reminiscences about school. Most of us had stories about each other and it was interesting how clear the memories were, how clear the characters were and how vivid the incidents and instances were. It led me to thinking how important to a person’s development is high school as people could remember all sorts of information about other students even though 50 years had passed. People could name the dux of the grade, who was always in trouble with the teachers, the footy stars, the popular students and who struggled with their lessons. On that last note, Ronald Reagan said that one advantage of being President was that his school marks became classified information! We reminisced that school days were good times somewhat believing in Cat Stevens’s song where he said “We had simplicity”. In actual fact we were probably as confused, tense, unsettled and under pressure as many high school kids today except they may well have the recent added burden of social media.

Catching up with old friends is great, but I’ll leave the last word on high school classes to American writer Kurt Vonnegut, author of the controversial novel Slaughter House Five. He said,

“True terror is waking up one morning and realising your high school class is running the country”.