Remember when...

Paul Gabbedy (‘59) shares some memories from his years at CBC from 1952 to 1959. See if you can remember when...

Remember when we had 84 kids in Grade 4; three to a desk; no biros, just ink wells and pencils. The end of the year would come and we would polish our desk with Kiwi Nugget for the next year’s class.

Remember when before school we played ‘Kingey’ with a tennis ball on the bitumen, and marbles or ‘doogs’ in the sand beneath the big Moreton Bay tree. There wasn’t much brick paving or concrete around in those days. Remember choir practise, vaulting horse, parallel bars, pyramids and tumbling in the hall?

Remember Peter Clery’s mum and dad belting out the tunes on the piano and drums at the front of the stage?

Remember Tony Barber, Gerry Fielder and John Baguley singing Cool, Clear Water or Danny Boy in front of the curtains while the next act was being set up.

Who remembers the plays in Grades 4 and 5? The Wedding of Jack and Jill and Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen.

Remember the Tuck Shop, the polony rolls, Cottees drinks and cream buns, and that’s if you could afford to buy your lunch. If not, you might have swapped your jam sandwich for a salami one with the Italian boys – it wasn’t great sitting in 40 degree heat eating your sardine or banana sandwiches.

Gee, and wasn’t it great sitting down on a hot summer’s morning drinking our free hot milk?

Remember sports afternoons? Not much to choose from – there was cricket in the summer and footy in the winter, and if you didn’t play sport, you sat down and read a book. We didn’t have the vast array of sport that the kids have today.

If you wanted to learn tennis, you stayed after school with Arthur Marshall or Mr Edwards, or you practised on the bumper board in the top yard.

Remember the annual athletic sports day at Freo Park? The yellow, red, green and blue singlets marching around the oval to get points for your team. Your mother would hate it if she had to buy different coloured dyes for your sports singlets if you and your brothers were in opposing teams.

Remember the Tuck Shop, the polony rolls, Cottees drinks and cream buns, and that’s if you could afford to buy your lunch..

Remember our teachers: Brothers Denton, Robbo, Grant, Hodge and Kelly. They all had distinctive personalities.

We all remember Brother Grant for his sulphur trick in the Chemistry room, and I don’t think he ever found out who put the rotten crayfish under his desk.

Brother Denton deserved a medal for teaching at least 80 kids in Grades 4 and 5.

I am certain we all learnt so much from gentleman Brother Hodge.

We all remember Brother Jack Kelly with his ‘Chemistry without tears’, and Mrs Huston. Who could forget Mrs Huston’s reminisces of India, and all of us asking questions such as: ‘Was the Ganges a very big river? Did all Indians wear turbans?’ And the incredible notion, ‘Did you have servants, Mrs Huston?’

I wonder who amongst us still have these books: Australia Since 1606, Intermediate History or Bradford for Maths.

Who remembers the books we all had to read? The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Treasure Island, Aranda Boy, and who could forget Jock of the Bush Veldt. Remember learning to dance with the St Joseph girls. We all knew the Barn Dance, Pride of Erin, Boston Two Step, Valetta, Maxina and all sorts of waltzes.

Remember the fetes – Tim Gabbedy and ‘Wang’ Miller screaming out, “Buy the lucky last bat,” even if it wasn’t the last bat, and where the prize was a frozen chook. Or the tickets in the meat and vegie raffle where we all had to donate a can of something to add to the hamper.

Remember the footy matches against the Brothers after school, and this was the only time you could shirt-front a Brother who had given you the cuts and get away with it.

However, despite no air-conditioning, no heating, a few clips over the ears and occasionally the cuts, most of us had very enjoyable school days at CBC Fremantle.

CBC Fremantle class 1955.