School-days (continued)

The period is now towards the end of my first year of high-school - the start of summer, November 1958.
In the senior-college we were offered a choice of summer sports; cricket, rowing or tennis. As I hated cricket and loved boats I chose rowing, which I didn't do much of due to my small and light stature. So I was made a coxswain, starting off coxing fours and, in the final year in which I was active in the sport (1962), the college 2nd. eight.

This photo was taken - as mentioned above - in November 1958. I can remember the names of two of the crew - not bad after 50 years.

Here's a version that I colourised so as to display the school colours - blue and gold.

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Fast-forward 5 years and it is November 1963. I had been a member of the college pipe-band for three years and had attained the rank of Drum Sergeant - I played the side drum (or "snare" drum, as some know it).

The college band was the largest school pipe-band in the world at one time and a decade after I finished my schooling the band was invited to the renowned Edinburgh Military Tattoo, in Scotland. I was very envious.

Incidentally, the cost to be fully kitted out in my regalia (see below) was very high, somewhere in the region of (in today's prices) AUS$2,000.
Fortunately for the parents, the school supplied the entire uniform, which was returned at the end of one's membership of the band.

Every ANZAC Day we would lead a contingent in the annual march through the streets of Sydney and throughout the school year we would be invited to attend fairs, garden parties, fetes, openings, balls......the list was endless. It was a very, VERY successful way to meet girls!

The photo above is of those band members who were leaving the college at the end of the 1963 school year - as was I (photo below). (Note: We are sans headgear - it was a deliberately informal pose.)

This was a very emotional time, saying goodbye to good friends, most of whom we would never see again. Funnily enough, down the years and quite by chance I met up with two of the lads in this photo.
Life is funny.

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The final photo in this series is of the Macintyre House seniors.
There were six boarding houses and I was in "Mac", as it was known, from 1958 through 1963 - my last year. In our final year the senior boys had a few perks and were treated as young adults rather than boys.
The best year at college, definitely.
Several of us even chipped in to buy an old 1939 Pontiac so that we could get from Bellevue Hill to Bondi Beach. When we finished the year we just walked away from the old heap and left it parked in the street.

That's me in the centre (the smallest). Two very good mates are also in the pic and, do you know, I can remember the names of everyone shown.

That completes this visit into the past.

Nostalgia - BK's Schooldays.

Just a few days ago one of my internet-forum friends posted a photo of himself which was taken in 1961 for his high-school yearbook.
This led to a bit of discussion, including how here in Australia we have a tradition of end-of-year group photos rather than the "yearbook" so common in the USofA.
So I threatened to post these types of pix, taken when I was at boarding school in Sydney between 1956 and 1963. Fortunately my mother had kept these and had given them back to me after I became a parent myself and understood the sentimental (and family history) value of such things.
Tonight I scanned a few of what I consider to be the most memorable and present them for your amusement. They are in chronological order.
This first one was taken at the end of 1956 - late November, just before school broke up for the annual summer holidays which, back then, extended from end of November until the end of January.
I had just had my 11th. birthday (November), having joined the college at the start of the school year back in January of 1956, and would have been finishing my 5th. Year, or penultimate year in primary school.
(Like all the images in this blog, if you click on them you will be able to see a much larger version)
The photo is of all the boarders who were in the prep-school for that year. I am the small, dark-haired kid in the 4th. row, extreme right....in front of the column.
We were wearing our summer uniform of khaki shirt, shorts, leather sandals and the school tie....blue with gold/yellow diagonal stripes.
The adults comprised the various house-masters and the school matron and assistant matron.
The location was at Bellevue Hill, in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

This next one was also at prep-school, but in 1957. It is of the 4th.XV - Rugby, of course! I played fly-half some weeks and break-away other weeks.

I'm the one holding the ball. I would have been going on 12 here, as the photo was taken at the end of the football season - about September.
Uniform was yellow/gold jersey, dark-blue shorts and dark-blue socks with yellow/gold tops.
My mum - bless her - always considered this as my cutest photo from college!

I think this is enough to be going on with tonight - I don't want to scare you off!
I'll pop the others up over Easter.