School Days
In 1923 I started school. At first I rode between the two McMullen girls, Dorrie and Eileen, but it wasn’t long before I had persuaded Daddy to buy me a pony of my own. Monty was a faithful and reliable pony for many years.
Edith wanted to go to school too and when she was four she was accepted there, but in the winter she got bronchitis and did so every winter until she was 11, when she was determined to have a swim every morning. She did too, though sometimes she had to break the ice on the pond to get in – but she never got bronchitis again. Our school had only two rooms - one for juniors and one for seniors. When I started, there were a number of big boys in the senior class and we little ones were rather afraid of them, but really they never did us any harm and probably didn‘t even notice us.
One day one of the little girls was crying, and when asked why she told the teacher that Bert had kissed all the other girls except her. Yes, she married him many years later. Our school had some lovely big oak trees that gave very welcome shade in the hot summer days. One year the committee made us a tennis court and it was enjoyed for tennis in the summer and basketball in the winter. I played both, but sport was never my strong suit. Our teacher thought we needed a hot drink at lunchtime in the winter, and for many years the water was boiled in a billy on the stove in the infant room and we enjoyed a lovely cup of cocoa each. Actually this was continued at Tech where I went for my secondary schooling too, though there we had lemon syrup in the summer as well. Our cocoa was paid for with the proceeds of the school concert held each year for that purpose. A most popular item each year was the Maori haka, performed by the senior Maori boys, and the poi dances by the girls.
On the road to school there was a pond and often, on the way home (never on the way to school) we would stop and catch frogs or make our ponies splash in the water. Consternation reigned one day when one of the ponies decided to have a swim itself. Also on the way was a huge eleagnus hedge and in autumn it had berries that we found very tasty and often stood on Monty’s back to reach them. Another little berry we found and liked grew close to the ground on the clay banks on the roadside. We never did know its name, and probably they got overgrown in the end with grass and gorse.
It was always sad when our Maori friends succumbed to tuberculosis, which seemed to be prevalent among them at that time. The headmaster’s daughter caught it and she was kept in a tent in the school grounds, fenced round so we children couldn’t go near her. The year I started Tech there were 10 girls wanting to go on to secondary school – some to Tech, some to High School, and one to Diocesan - and they had bought a bus to convey us there.
Unfortunately it was rather ramshackle and as neither it nor he was very reliable we were often very late home, so Mr. Vincent bought a big car and that was a little better. The next year there were not so many to go and our parents took it in turns, a week at a time, to take us. They took us as far as the subway, and we walked across the railway bridge – quite a walk, but a pleasant one most days.
Going to Tech meant wearing a uniform - gym frock, and white blouse and panama hat in summer; and blazer and cloth hat in winter, plus long woollen stockings and leather shoes all the year. The first year belts were supposed to be hip high but some of the girls dared to wear them tight and at the waist, until it became the norm. Each morning we had assembly, and a scripture reading and hymn led by the principal, Womp Fraser, a much loved and respected Head. We had no grounds for sport so in the summer we marched through the town to the municipal baths for our swimming and in the winter to Seddon Park for basketball or rugby. We had a very varied curriculum – cooking, sewing, millinery and handcraft, as well as ordinary subjects and I enjoyed them all, usually coming top or second in most subjects so the teachers were rather upset when, at the end of the second year I told them I was not coming back. What stood out most in my mind about my days there was the walk to the corner in the winter and the chilblains that made it so difficult – and oh the despair when getting off the bus and seeing the family car disappearing around the top corner.
Years later, when my children started school, they did not go to Gordonton but by now a reliable bus took them to Fairfield, but they still had to walk to that corner. That year, calf or pet days were introduced and even at Fairfield there were those from farms that had pet calves. Freddy and Melville had spent time with their calves, and Dad took them to the school for the day, but others had put more time into training them to lead and be obedient. At Ohauiti there was no school, but they still had a pet day each year at the hall and a very enjoyable day it was, with floral competitions as well for the children. Most of the district turned up to encourage the children and socialise with their neighbours.