DOWN MEMORY LANE

Wow I have found a video of the boarding school at time I was there. Must have a been a promotion film by the Masons. Look 46 seconds into the video, almost certain that the small blond boy next to the dark tall boy are myself and my older brother. Fairly certain too that is me 3m.50 seconds, small blond boy looking at the camera, taken at the Annual School Sports Day probably a couple of years after we arrived, early to mid 60s at a guess.

Great vid Ritchie, it looks very staged though, bet it wasn't as good as it's made to look?
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Jessica did you see the cheeky 8/9 year old Craig Wilson.
It was staged, like I say a promotional film for the Mason cause.
 
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Wow I have found a video of the boarding school at time I was there. Must have a been a promotion film by the Masons. Look 46 seconds into the video, almost certain that the small blond boy next to the dark tall boy are myself and my older brother. Fairly certain too that is me 3m.50 seconds, small blond boy looking at the camera, taken at the Annual School Sports Day probably a couple of years after we arrived.

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Yes, I remember the video and you telling me/us about cow pats to be removed before you could start playing. And also that you were suffering from the tight ship run there. It must be quite ironic then for you to hear that the staff "understands the needs of the very young". On the other hand, you learnt how to swim and played tennis. Did you play?

This must be you then.

To his left?


Were you able to work out what caused the brakes to fail? Good nothing worse happened. You were showing great presence of mind. :thumbsu:I wish I could see myself as a young boy in a vid but we didn't have a home movie camera.
 
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On the other hand, you learnt how to swim and played tennis. Did you play?
Such luxuries as swimming and tennis were very rare, probably only for senior prefects. I recall there was a swim carnival one year with races. Never played tennis, never even saw a court.
 
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Wow I have found a video of the boarding school at time I was there. Must have a been a promotion film by the Masons. Look 46 seconds into the video, almost certain that the small blond boy next to the dark tall boy are myself and my older brother. Fairly certain too that is me 3m.50 seconds, small blond boy looking at the camera, taken at the Annual School Sports Day probably a couple of years after we arrived.


Yes, I remember the video and you telling me/us about cow pats to be removed before you could start playing. And also that you were suffering from the tight ship run there. It must be quite ironic then for you to hear that the staff "understands the needs of the very young". On the other hand, you learnt how to swim and played tennis. Did you play?

This must be you then.

To his left?


Were you able to work out what caused the brakes to fail? Good nothing worse happened. You were showing great presence of mind. :thumbsu:I wish I could see myself as a young boy in a vid but we didn't have a home movie camera.
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Brilliant Thomas. Felt surreal seeing me from all those years ago. I was going to post the static shot but it was too blurred so asked you all to look at the video instead.

Yes that is me the fair boy left of my brother. Plus the cheeky boy sneeking a look at the camera. I can still remember that day as I won a race for my school house, Endeavour it was called if memory serves.

Leaking brake fluid. The car was second hand and not in the best condition. All I could afford at the time.

I was terrified as I went thru the stop signs but managed to keep my head and wait till I reached the bottom where I had a far better chance of stopping the car using the hand brake and hopefully less damage to myself.
 
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What needs? Strict discipline, deprivation of freedom, lack of sports nurturing, feeding us inedible food, few treats such as toys, lollies etc etc.
I'm aware this is a bold statement but judging from your body language, you don't give the impression of being depressed but rather of being at one with yourself and even enjoying yourself most likely because your brother was there giving you support and a sense of security and stability. Correct? I know it was a special day and it was what those in charge wanted to see. Is this your brother who we've been worrying about? How is he?
 
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Great vid Ritchie, it looks very staged though, bet it wasn't as good as it's made to look?
Jessica did you see the cheeky 8/9 year old Craig Wilson.
It was staged, like I say a promotional film for the Mason cause.
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Yeah I saw you with your brother, so cute!
🤗

How long were you there?
 
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This must be you then.

To his left?


Were you able to work out what caused the brakes to fail? Good nothing worse happened. You were showing great presence of mind. :thumbsu:I wish I could see myself as a young boy in a vid but we didn't have a home movie camera.
[/QUOTE]
Brilliant Thomas. Felt surreal seeing me from all those years ago. I was going to post the static shot but it was too blurred so asked you all to look at the video instead.

Yes that is me the fair boy left of my brother. Plus the cheeky boy sneeking a look at the camera. I can still remember that day as I won a race for my school house, Endeavour it was called if memory serves.

Leaking brake fluid. The car was second hand and not in the best condition. All I could afford at the time.

I was terrified as I went thru the stop signs but managed to keep my head and wait till I reached the bottom where I had a far better chance of stopping the car using the hand brake and hopefully less damage to myself.
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Good job you had your big brother with you, would've been so lonely and sad without him. I remember starting a new school and my two older siblings were in the juniors so had a different playground to me as I was in the infants, they had each other and I had no one, I could see them together from my playground.
 
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I'm aware this is a bold statement but judging from your body language, you don't give the impression of being depressed but rather of being at one with yourself and even enjoying yourself most likely because your brother was there giving you support and a sense of security and stability. Correct? I know it was a special day and it was what those in charge wanted to see. Is this your brother who we've been worrying about? How is he?
Yes that was the reason until the following year when my brother went up to senior school and I was then on my own. The only time I saw my brother for four long years was at family visits until I too joined the senior school. He left the school two years later, that is when the bullying started as he had been a senior prefect and dished out a lot of punishment, and so bizarrely as I was his brother I took the blame.

Oops! We ran into some problems.
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What the! Am unable to submit this post will find out why.
 
Such luxuries as swimming and tennis were very rare, probably only for senior prefects. I recall there was a swim carnival one year with races. Never played tennis, never even saw a court.
I remember going swimming with my school, I must've been about 8, I slipped under the water and almost drowned as I sniffed up and inhaled the water. I got myself out of danger somehow and then saw our instructor reaching out to me with the long hooped pole, it was a bit late for that! I never went swimming again with the school after that, my siblings taught me how to swim in our local leisure centre 🏊
 
Yes, I remember the video and you telling me/us about cow pats to be removed before you could start playing. And also that you were suffering from the tight ship run there. It must be quite ironic then for you to hear that the staff "understands the needs of the very young". On the other hand, you learnt how to swim and played tennis. Did you play?

This must be you then.

To his left?


Were you able to work out what caused the brakes to fail? Good nothing worse happened. You were showing great presence of mind. :thumbsu:I wish I could see myself as a young boy in a vid but we didn't have a home movie camera.
Brilliant Thomas. Felt surreal seeing me from all those years ago. I was going to post the static shot but it was too blurred so asked you all to look at the video instead.

Yes that is me the fair boy left of my brother. Plus the cheeky boy sneeking a look at the camera. I can still remember that day as I won a race for my school house, Endeavour it was called if memory serves.

Leaking brake fluid. The car was second hand and not in the best condition. All I could afford at the time.

I was terrified as I went thru the stop signs but managed to keep my head and wait till I reached the bottom where I had a far better chance of stopping the car using the hand brake and hopefully less damage to myself.
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I've had a car that was a bit dodgy too, the brakes were fine but the exhaust fell off 😱 you should've heard the noise of the engine minus an exhaust! 😆
 
I have a memory of living in a cold house as a child, we used to have a coal fire in the living room but no heating in the bedrooms. We had a dining room and a tiny kitchen. It must've been Bonfire night one evening as I remember being scared of the sparkler fireworks that my dad had bought for us. Can't remember where the house was but probably been demolished by now.
 
Heat especially at night growing up in Australia before most people had proper air conditioning was a shocker, kids these days don't realise how good they have it.
 
I have a memory of living in a cold house as a child
Constanly cold in winter at boarding school as I dont recall either the dining hall, main hall or dormitories being heated. Used to look forward to evening showers to warm my bones.
 
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My main memory from early primary school was the heat and the constant "warmp, warmp, warmp" sound from the slow moving fans. Did get to go home if it hit 40c though. They later put in these wall evaps that weren't much better than useless and too loud for the teachers to use anyway. Started high school in 1994 and maybe half the rooms had ducted evap which at least made it bearable.

Both had gas heating which wasn't too bad.

Proper air conditioning only started to get common in homes around late 90s?
 
Thinking about my school days, I began to realise quite soon that it didn't leave any lasting impression on me. So it must have been a schizophrenic phase in my life. I was more concerned with what was going on in my tennis club and with my personal problems rather than with school affairs. This became particularly obvious at the class reunions I attended. I was surprised at what my class mates still remembered from those days down to quoting what teachers had told them or had said in class. I couldn't contribute anything. I'd evidently been living in a parallel reality.

Talking about conditions at school, I was aware that my school was an exception at the time as it had been newly built in 1955 just six years before I attended it as a six-y.o. Classrooms were centrally heated. We didn't feel cold. In that respect I was lucky because later I had to go to another school for the last one and a half year which had also been newly built.

While researching a bit, it struck me that there doesn't seem to be a photo of exactly the type of school desk we used to sit at in the early years. Wouldn't have thought that those were kind of unique since everything was sort of standardised at the time and furniture rolling off just one or two plants.

That's what the school looks like today.

 
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