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.