From street cricket to haircuts and the ‘cuts’
The end of the summer holidays was not something to look forward to, writes Ian Cole
BACK to school! As primary school kids, we hated the advertisements on the radio and in the paper that loudly pronounced our holidays were at an end. Summer holidays were great. Cricket in the backyard, in the street and on the wireless, listening to the exploits of Richie Benaud, Neil Harvey and Norm O’Neill. There was bike riding in car-free streets and playing marbles on unsealed footpaths. Suddenly it ended – school.
Time then was filled in readiness for day one. A haircut for a start and as it was Sunday night – a bath! Then there was the smell of sharpened pencils and the need to cover books with brown paper. Day one was filled with anticipation.
A chance to be elected milk monitor and deliver milk in glass bottles to all the kids in the class. Hopefully the milk hadn’t been out in the sun too long while jealousy arose towards those fortunate kids who produced flavoured straws.
Goitre tablet (iodine pills) monitor was a good fallback if failing to make milk monitor as was blackboard monitor.
An assembly was the norm for day one where rules were laid out and rule number one was to produce a handkerchief from our pockets. It was a time before tissues and when we forgot our handkerchief, we would pull the white of the inside of our pocket out, to try to fool any inspection. Then into the classroom, where sitting next to a stranger was possible and who may not have had a bath the night before.
Times-tables were inevitably the focus, while the reminder of any breaking of school rules was reinforced by any unfortunate malcontent getting the ‘cuts’. They were a signal that holidays were over. Recess was simply a regimented toilet break, while dinnertime (not lunchtime) was a chance for a bite of a Kraft cheese sandwich (white bread of course) and a quick game of chasings.
After school, and if no homework, there was a chance to go to a neighbour’s house and play with their Dinky toys or their Meccano set. Back home, maybe a chance to listen on the wireless to ‘The Search for the Golden Boomerang’ or a bit later to ‘Yes What’ and try to catch Greenbottle’s latest excuse for being late. If lucky, we might be allowed to listen to ‘Life with Dexter’ before bed and thoughts of school tomorrow. Then when asked by parents what we did at school today, the usual informative reply was ‘nothing much!’ A school day was such a mixed bag with mixed memories. As Elliot says in the film ‘E.T.’ on being asked about school: ‘How do you explain school to a higher intelligence!’
Looking back at school days and realising the past really is a foreign country, Mark Twain did say: ‘I never let school interfere with my education!’